Language and Society

Instructor: Ma’am Joana Cabauatan

Topics
1. Language vs. Dialect
2. The Speech Community
3. Linguistic Borrowing and Language Contact
Reporter:
Marjorette Dulnuan Hamhamon
1. Language vs. Dialect
What is a Language?
Language is an abstract system of symbols and meanings
governed by grammatical rules. There are two main aspects of
language: spoken (oral) language and written language. Orality is the
primary aspect of a language since the function of writing and reading
follows speaking and listening. Language is a system of
communication used by the people of a country or community.
Two Categories:
 Spoken language

 Written language

 
Spoken Language-
A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds, as
opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a
language produced with the vocal tract, as opposed to a sign language,
which is produced with the hands and face. In spoken language, much
of the meaning is determined by the context. That contrasts with
written language in which more of the meaning is provided directly by
the text. In spoken language, the truth of a proposition is determined
by common-sense reference to experience, but in written language, a
greater emphasis is placed on logical and coherent argument. Similarly,
the spoken language tends to convey subjective information, including
the relationship between the speaker and the audience, whereas written
language tends to convey objective information.
 
Written Language
Written language is the written form of communication which
includes both reading and writing. Although written language may at
first be considered to simply be oral language in its written form, the
two are quite different in that oral language rules are innate whereas
written language is acquired through explicit education.
Written language, whether reading or writing, requires basic
language abilities. These include phonological processing
(understanding that words are made of discrete sounds, then
associating letters with these sounds, i.e., decoding), vocabulary, and
syntax (grammar).
 
What is a Dialect?
Dialect is a version of a language spoken in a particular
geographical area or by a particular group of people. This could also be
explained as a social or regional variety of a language distinguished by
grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary; this is especially a way of
speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language.
Two Categories:
Standard dialect is a dialect that is approved and supported by
institutions.
Non-standard dialects are those that are not supported by institutions. 
Dialects differ systematically from other dialects.
Everybody speaks a dialect.
2. The Speech Community

What is Speech Community?

Speech community comes to share a specific set of norms for language use
through living and interacting together, and speech communities may therefore
emerge among all groups that interact frequently and share certain norms and
ideologies. Such groups can be villages, countries, political or professional
communities, communities with shared interests, hobbies, or lifestyles, or even
just groups of friends. Speech communities may share both particular sets of
vocabulary and grammatical conventions, as well as speech styles and genres,
and also norms for how and when to speak in particular ways.
Characteristics:

a. A group of speakers, whether located in one area or scattered, who

recognize the same language or dialect of a language as a standard.

b. The definition of a speech community is a group of people who speak

the same language and share the same words and grammar rules.
c. All the people speaking a particular language or dialect, whether in a
single geographical area or dispersed throughout various regions.
d. A group of people sharing a language, or a particular way of using that
language.
3. Linguistic Borrowing and Language Contact  
Lexical Borrowing/ Loan/Loanwords
Lexical borrowing typically is the adoption of individual words or even
large sets of vocabulary items from another language or dialect. It can also
include roots and affixes, sounds, collocations, and grammatical processes. It
used when a person takes a word from one language to replace an unknown
word in a different language. Code-switching happens at the sentence level
whereas lexical borrowing happens at the individual word level.
Borrowing does not always happen because of a poor memory. Another
reason for lexical borrowing is that some words do not translate into another
language. This forces the speaker to borrow. For example, many languages do
not have a word for computer or internet. Therefore, these words are borrowed
when speaking.
Examples:
COOKIE (DUTCH)
The English language derived the word ‘cookie’ from the Dutch term ‘Koekie’, defined as
akin to cake, to describe this loved sweet snack.
KARAOKE (JAPANESE)
The Japanese term stands for ‘an empty orchestra’ and is the act of amateur singing with
recorded music, commonly performed in clubs or bars.
LEMON (ARABIC)
The Arabic word from which ‘lemon’ originates is called ‘Laimun’, defined simply as a
yellow citrus fruit.
KETCHUP (CHINESE)
Originating from its Chinese equal ‘Ke-stiap’, the word referred to as a concoction of
pickled fish and spices in 1692.
MASSAGE (PORTUGUESE)
The word massage went through a few different meanings across its timeline, it first
started as “massa” which means dough, and then changed into amassar which means to
knead, then in French to masser which means to knead or to treat with massage.
Two basic kinds:
a. Direct transfer where the effect is immediate, frequently with
alteration in the structure of the recipient language.

b. Delayed effect contact. The effect here is not immediate. There is no

structural upheaval in the recipient language but a gradual penetration
due to prolonged exposure to another language by large bilingual
sections of a community. Characteristic for such a scenario is low-level
influence in a general sense: ‘speech habits’ migrate from one language
to another. These may lead later to structural if not indeed typological
change.
The structural Barrowing
1. Phonological Barrowing
-when a language adopts a new sounds or phonological rules from a
language which it is in contact.
2. Morphological Barrowing
-the adoption of the morphological features by one language under the
influence of the other language.
3. Syntax Barrowing
-ordering requirements of surface elements in one language may be
barrowed into another language, replacing the native word order.
References:
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ContactAndChange.htm
https://pediaa.com/difference-between-language-and-dialect/
Thank you for listening!