Tag Archives: linguistics

Ways Language Change Spreads

All languages change if there is any doubt just pick up a book that is over 100 years old and regardless of the language it will at a minimum sound slightly different from current language use or radically different.

In this post, we will look at three common ways in which language change is spread. These three ways are from…

  • From one group to another
  • From one style to another
  • Lexical diffusion

Changes from Group to Group

This view of language change is that changes in a language move from one group. A group can be any sort of social or work circle. Examples can include family, colleagues, church affiliation, etc.

The change of language in a group is often facilitated by “gatekeepers.” Gatekeepers are people who are members of different groups. Most people are members of many different groups at the same time.

What happens is that a person picks up language in one group and shares this style of communication in another.  An example would be a child learning slang at school and using it at home. Naturally, language change moves at different speeds in different groups depending on the acceptability of the change.

Changes from Style to Style

A style is a way of communicating. It simple terms a person’s style can be formal and informal with varying shades of grey in-between. These two extremes can also be viewed as prestigious vs not prestigious.

Normally, formal/prestigious styles of language move down into informal styles of language. For example, a movie star or some other celebrity speaks a certain way and thus style is transferred downward among those who are not so famous.

There are times where informal and un-prestigious language change spreads upward. Normally, this is much slower than change moving downward. In addition, it also involves words and styles that are so old that what really happened was the young people who used these words become part of the “establishment” in their middle age and continued to use the style. For example, the word “cool” used to be slang but is commonly used among some of the most elite leaders of the world now. Therefore, it wasn’t the language that changed as much as the people who used it with the passing of one generation to another.

Lexical Diffusion

Lexical diffusion is the change of how a word is pronounced. This is often an exceedingly slow process and can take centuries. The English language is full of words that have strange pronunciations when considering the spelling. This is due to English being thoroughly influenced by other languages such as French and Latin.

Conclusion

These three theories are just some of the ways langauge change can spread. In addition, it may not be practical to thinnk of them each happening independently from the others. Rather, these three theories can often be seen as working at the same time to slowly change a language over time.

Koines

There are many different ways that languages or a language can interact with each other. One way is how different dialects of a language interact. A koine is a dialect that is a blend of other dialects that have had direct contact with each other.

In this post, we will discuss the follow

  • Koine vs pidgins and creoles
  • Development of koines

Koine vs Pidgins and Creoles

Koine is a lesser known term to the general public in comparison to pidgin and creole. The word “koine” comes from the same Greek word that means “common.” In other words, koine is what two or more dialects have in common. For those familiar with biblical languages you would n=know that the term “Koine” Greek is the language of the New Testament, which means the New Testament was written in common Greek.

As mentioned in the introduction a koine is the interaction of two or more dialects to create new common dialect. In contrast, a pidgin is the interaction of two languages to make a new third language. A pidgin can eventually mature into a Creole which is a pidgin that is spoken as the native language of people. There seems to be no term for a koine that is spoken natively.

Developing a Koine

The process of developing a Koine is known as koineization. There are both linguistic and social factors that contribute to the development of a koine. For linguistic factors, they include leveling and simplification and for the social factor, it involves accommodation, prestige.

Levelling is the elimination from the koine distinct sounds from the colliding dialects. An example of this is the loss of the post-vocalic [r] in parts of England.

Simplification is the process of the simplest characteristics of the dialects being included in the new koine. The dialect with the fewer rules and exceptions almost always emerges as having more influence on the koine.

The social factor of accommodations means that people will copy something they believe is prestigious or “cool.” If a certain dialect is considered unacceptable it will not lead to a koine because of people’s dislike of it. As such accommodation and prestige are interrelated concepts.

Conclusion

Koine and koineization are two words that help to explain where dialects come from. As such, for those who have an interest in linguistics, these are terms to be familiar with

Conversational Analysis: Request and Response

Within conversational analysis (CA) it is common to analysis peoples request as well as people’s response to a request in the context of a conversation. In this post, we will look at the categories that these requests and responses commonly fall into.

Request

Requests are a specific type of question in conversational analysis. Request almost always involve some sort of action. Either the person asking the request wants to do something or the speaker wants the listener to do something. As such there are only two categories in which request can be classified and they are…

  • Action request
  • Permission request

Action Request

An action request is made when the speaker wants the listener to do something.

A: Can you turn off the light?

Permission Request

A permission request is made when the speaker wants to perform an action and is seeking approval from the listener.

A: You mind if I turn off the light?

Response to Request

The response to a request can be positive or negative. However, when a response is negative it is often indirect.  As such, there are three categories in which a response to a request can be placed.

  • Accept
  • Reject
  • Evade

Accept

Accepting is to grant permission either for the speaker to do something or that the listener will perform the request.

A: Could you turn the light off?
B: No problem

Reject

Rejecting means that a person states directly that they cannot do something

A: Can you turn the light off?
B: No, I can’t

Evading

Evading is the art of saying “no” indirectly to a request. This is done through giving a reason why something cannot be done rather than directly responding

A: Can you turn the light off?
B: I’m busy with the baby

In the example above, person B never says no. Rather, they provide an excuse for not completing the task.

Conclusion

We all have used these various ways of requesting and responding to request. The benefit of CA is being able to breakdown these conversational pairs and understand what is happening beyond the surface level.

Conversational Analysis: Questions & Responses

Conversational analysis (CA) is the study of social interactions in everyday life. In this post, we will look at how questions and responses are categorized in CA.

Questions

In CA, there are generally three types of questions and they are as follows…

  • Identification question
  • Polarity question
  • Confirmation question

Identification Question

Identification questions are questions that employees one of the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why). The response can be opened or closed-ended. An example is below

Where are the keys?

Polarity Question

A polarity question is a question the calls for a yes/no response.

Can you come to work tomorrow?

Confirmation Question

Similiar to the polarity question, a confirmation question is a question that is seeking to gather support for something the speaker already said.

Didn’t Sam go to the store already?

This question is seeking an affirmative yes.

Responses

There are also several ways in which people respond to a question. Below is a list of common ways.

  • Comply
  • Supply
  • Imply
  • Evade
  • Disclaim

Comply

Complying means give a clear direct answer to a question. Below is an example

A: What time is it?
B: 6:30pm

Supply

Supplying is the act of giving a partial response, that is often irrelevant and fails to answer the question.

A: Is this your dog?
B: Well…I do feed it once in awhile

In the example above, person A asks a clear question. However, person B states what they do for the dog (feed it) rather than indicate if the dog belongs to them. Feeding the dog is irrelevant to ownership.

Imply

Implying is providing information indirectly to answer a question.

A: What time do you want to leave?
B: Not too late

The response from person B does not indicate any sort of specific time to leave. This leaves it up to person A to determine what is meant by “too late.”

Disclaim

Disclaiming is the person stating they do not n]know the answer.

A: Where are the keys?
B: I don’t know

Evade

Evading is the act of answering with really answering the question

A: Where is the car
B: David needed to go shopping

In the example above, person B never states where the car is. Rather, they share what someone is doing with the car. By doing this, the speaker never shares where the car is.

Conclusions

The interaction of a question and response can be interesting if it is examined more closely from a sociolinguistic perspective. The categories provided here can support the deeper analysis of conversation.

Conversational Analysis

Conversational analysis is a tool used by sociolinguist to examine dialog between two or more people. The analysis can include such aspects as social factors, social dimensions, and other characteristics.

One unique tool in conversational analysis identifying adjacency pairs. Adjacency pairs are two-part utterances in which the second speaker is replying to something the first speaker said. In this post, we will look at the following examples of adjacency pairs.

  • Request-agreement
  • Question-Answer
  • Assessment-Agreement
  • Greeting-Greeting
  • Compliment-Acceptance
  • Conversational Concluder
  • Complaint-Apology
  • Blame-Denial
  • Threat-Counterthreat
  • Warning-Acknowledgement
  • Offer-Acceptance

Request-Agreement

Request involves asking someone to do something and agreement indicates that the person will do it. Below is an example

A: Could you open the window?
B: No problem

Question-Answer

One person request information from another. THis is different from request agreement because there is no need to agree. Below is an example

A: Where are you from?
B: I am from Laos

Assessment-Agreement

Assessment seeks an opinion from someone and agreement is a positive position on the subject. The example is below

A: Do you like the food?
B: Yeah, it taste great!

Greeting-Greeting

Two people say hello to one another.

A: Hello
B: Hello

Compliment-Acceptance

One person commends something about the other who shows appreciation for the comment.

A: I really like your shoes
B: Thank you

Conversational Concluder

This is a comment that singles the end of a conversation.

A: Goodbye
B: See you later

Complaint-Apology

One person indicates they are not happy with something and the other person express regret over this.

A: The food is too spicy
B: We’re so sorry

Blame-Denial

One person accuses another who tries to defend himself.

A: You lost the phone?
B: No I didn’t!

Threat-Counterthreat

Two people mutually resist each other.

A: Sit down or I will call your parents!
B: Make me

Warning-Acknowledgement

One person issues a threat or danger and the other indicates they understand

A: Look both ways before crossing the street
B: No problem

Offer-Acceptance

One person gives something and the other person shows appreciation

A: Here’s the money
B: Thank you so much

Conclusion

These kinds of conversational pairs appear whenever people talk. For the average person, this is not important. However, when trying to look at the context of a conversation tot understanding what is affecting the way people are speaking understanding and identifying adjacency pairs can be useful.

Terms Related to Language

This post will examine different uses of the word language. There are several different ways that this word can be defined. We will look at the following terms for language.

  • Vernacular
  • Standard
  • National
  • Official
  • Lingua Franca

Vernacular Language

The term vernacular language can mean many different things. It can mean a language that is not standardized or a language that is not the standard language of a nation. Generally, a vernacular language is a language that lacks official status in a country.

Standard Language

A standard language is a language that has been codified. By this, it is meant that the language has dictionaries and other grammatical sources that describe and even prescribe the use of the language.

Most languages have experienced codification. However, codification is just one part of being a standard language. A language must also be perceived of as prestigious and serve a high function.

By prestigious it is meant that the language has influence in a community. For example, Japanese is a prestigious language in Japan. By high function, it is meant that the language is used in official settings such as government, business, etc., which Japanese is used for.

National Language

A national language is a language used for political and cultural reasons to unite a people. Many countries that have a huge number of languages and ethnic groups will select one language as a way to forge an identity. For example, in the Philippines, the national language is Tagalog even though hundreds of other languages are spoken.

In Myanmar, Burmese is the national language even though dozens of other languages are spoken. The selection of the language is political motivate with the dominant group imposing their language on others.

Official Language

An official language is the language of government business. Many former colonized nations will still use an official language that comes from the people who colonized them. This is especially true in African countries such as Ivory Coast and Chad which use French as their official language despite having other indigenous languages available.

Lingua Franca

A lingua franca is a language that serves as a vehicle of communication between two language groups whose mother tongues are different. For example, English is often the de facto lingua franca of people who do not speak the same language.

Multiple Categories

A language can fit into more than one of the definitions above. For example, English is a vernacular language in many countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. However, English is not considered a vernacular language in the United States.

To make things more confusing. English is the language of the United States but it is neither the National or Official Language as this has never been legislated. Yet English is a standard language as it has been codified and meets the other criteria for standardization.

Currently, English is viewed by many as an international Lingua Franca with a strong influence on the world today.

Lastly, a language can be in more than one category. Thai is the official, national, and standard language of Thailand.

Conclusion

Language is a term that is used that can also have many meanings. In this post, we looked at how there are different ways to see this word.

Code -Switching & Lexical Borrowing

Code-switching involves a speaker changing languages as they talk. This post will explore some of the reasons behind why people code-switch. In addition, we will look at lexical borrowing and its use in communication

Code-Switching

Code-switching is most commonly caused by social factors and social dimensions of pragmatics. By social factors, it is meant the who, what, where, when and why of communication. Social dimensions involve distance, status, formality, emotions, referential traits.

For example, two people from the same ethnicity may briefly switch to their language to say hello to each other before returning to English. The “what” is two people meeting each other and the use of the mother-tongue indicates high intimacy with each other.

The topic of discussion can also lead to code-switching. For example, I have commonly seen students with the same mother-tongue switch to using English when discussion academic subjects. This may be because their academic studies use the English language as a medium of instruction.

Switching can also take place for emotional reasons. For example, a person may switch languages to communicate anger such as a mother switching to the mother-tongue to scold their child.

There is a special type of code-switching called metaphorical switching. This type of switching happens when the speaker switches languages for symbolic reasons. For example, when I person agrees about something they use their mother tongue. However, when they disagree about something they may switch to English. This switching back and forth is to indicate their opinion on a matter without having to express it too directly.

Lexical Borrowing

Lexical borrowing is 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 langauges do not have a word for computer or internet. Therefore, these words are borrowed when speaking.

Perceptions

Often, people have no idea that the are code-switching or even borrowing. However, those who are conscious of it usually have a negative attitude towards it. The criticism of code-switching often involves complaints of how it destroys both languages. However, it takes a unique mastery of both languages to effectively code-switch or borrowing lexically.

Conclusion

Code-switching and lexical borrowing are characteristics of communication. For those who want to prescribe language, it may be frustrating to watch two languages being mixed together. However, from a descriptive perspective, this is a natural result of language interaction.

Social Dimensions of Language

In sociolinguistics, social dimensions are the characteristics of the context that affect how language is used. Generally, there are four dimensions to the social context that are measured are analyzed through the use of five scales. The four dimension and five scales are as follows.

  • Social distance
  • Status
  • Formality
  • Functional (which includes a referential and affective function)

This post will explore each of these four social dimensions of language.

Social Distance

Social distance is an indicator of how well we know someone that we are talking to.  Many languages have different pronouns and even declensions in their verbs based on how well they know someone.

For example, in English, a person might say “what’s up?” to a friend. However, when speaking to a stranger, regardless of the strangers status, a person may say something such as “How are you?”. The only reason for the change in language use is the lack of intimacy with the stranger as compared to the friend.

Status

Status is related to social ranking. The way we speak to peers is different than how we speak to superiors. Friends are called by their first name while a boss, in some cultures, is always referred to by Mr/Mrs or sir/madam.

The rules for status can be confusing. Frequently we will refer to our parents as mom or dad but never Mr/Mrs. Even though Mr/Mrs is a sign of respect it violates the intimacy of the relationship between a parent and child. As such, often parents would be upset if their children called them Mr/Mrs.

Formality

Formality can be seen as the presence or absences of colloquial/slang in a person’s communication. In a highly formal setting, such as a speech, the language will often lack the more earthy style of speaking. Contractions may disappear, idioms may be reduced, etc. However, when spending time with friends at home a more laid-back manner of speaking will emerge

However, when spending time with friends at home a more laid-back manner of speaking will emerge. One’s accent becomes more promeneint, slang terms are permissiable, etc.

Function (Referential & Affective)

Referential is a measure of the amount of information being shared in a discourse. The use of facts, statistics, directions, etc. Affective relates to the emotional content of communication and indicates how someone feels about the topic.

Often referential and affective functions interrelated such as in the following example.

James is a 45 year-old professor of research who has written several books but is still a complete idiot!

This example above shares a lot of information as it shares the person’s name, job, and accomplishments. However, the emotions of the speaker are highly negative towards James as they call James a “complete idiot.”

Conclusion 

The social dimensions of language are useful to know in order to understand what is affecting how people communicate. The concepts behind the four dimensions impact how we talk without most us knowing why or how. This can be frustrating but also empowering as people will understand why they adjust to various contexts of language use.

Common Speech Functions

Functions of speech are different ways of communicating. The differences among the speech functions have to do with the intention of the communication. Different intention or goal leads to the use of a different function of speech. There are many different functions if speech but we will look at the six that are listed below.

  • Referential
  • Directive
  • Expressive
  • Phatic
  • Poetic
  • Metalinguistic

Referential

Referential speech provides information. For example, a person might share the time with someone (“It’s five o’clock” ). Referential speech can often provide information to a question (“what time is it?”).

Directive

Directives or commands that try to get someone to do something. Examples include “turn left” or “sit down”. The context of a directive is one in which something needs or should be done. As such, one person tries to make one or more other persons do something. Even children say directives towards their parents (“give me the ball”).

Expressive

Expressive speech shares a person’s feelings. An example would be “I feel happy today!”. Expressive communication can at times provide clear evidence of how someone is doing.

Phatic

Phatic speech is closely related to expressive speech. However, the main difference is that phatic speech is focused on the well-being of others while expressive speech focuses on the feelings of the person speaking.

An example of phatic speech is saying “how are you?”. This is clearly a question but it is focusing on how the person is doing. Another phrase might be “I hope you get well soon.” Again the focus on is on the welfare of someone else.

Poetic

Poetic speech is speech that is highly aesthetic. Songs and poetry are examples of language that is poetic in nature. An example would be the famous nursery rhyme “Roses are red, violets are blue…..). Poetic speech often has a powerful emotional effect as well.

Metalinguistic 

Metalinguistic speech is communication about language. For example, this entire blog post would be considered by many to be metalinguistic because I a talking about language and not really using language as described in the other functions of speech.

Exceptions

There are many more categories than the ones presented. In addition, the categories presented are not mutually exclusive. Many phrases can be correctly classified into many different categories. For example, if someone says “I love you” you could argue that it’s expressive, poetic, and or even phatic. What is missing is the context in which such a statement is made.

Conclusion

The ways in which we communicated have been briefly explained here. Understanding how people communicate will help others to better understand those around us and improve our style of communicating.

Accommodation Theory in Language Communication

Often when people communicate, they will make a subconscious or even a conscious decision to adjust their speech so that it is more alike or less alike. This is known as accommodation.

In this post, we will look at the following concepts related to accommodation

  • Speech convergence
  • Speech divergence

Speech Convergence

Speech convergence is when people speech starts to sound similar to each other. Often, this is a sign that the speakers are being polite to each other, like each other, and or when one speaker has the interest to please another.

Speech convergence is not only for social reasons. Another reason that a person will modify their speech is for the sake of removing technical jargon when dealing with people who are not familiar with it. For example, when a mechanic speaks to a doctor about what is wrong with their car or when a medical doctor speaks to a patient about the patient’s health. The modification happens so that the other person can understand.

Speech convergence can be overdone in terms of the perceptions of the hearers. For example, if a foreigner sounds too much like a native it can raise suspicion. Furthermore, over convergence can be perceived as insulting and or making fun of others.  As such, some difference is probably wise.

Speech Divergence

Speech divergence happens when people deliberately choose not to mirror each other speaking styles. The message that is sent when doing this is that the people communicating do not want to accommodate, seem polite, or perhaps that they do not like the people they are communicating with.

Examples of this often involve minority groups who desire to maintain their own cultural identity. Such a group will use their language judiciously, especially around the local dominant culture, as a sign of independence.

Accent divergence is also possible. For example, two people from the same country but different socioeconomic standings may deliberately choose to maintain their specific style of communication to indicate the differences between them.

Conclusion

Convergence and divergence in communication can send many different messages to people. It is difficult to determine how people will respond to how a people convergence or divergences from their speaking style. However, the main motivations for accommodation appear to be how such behavior benefits the communicator.

Theories on Language Change in Groups

As people interact with each other, it naturally leads to changes in how communication takes place. Fortunately, there are several views that attempt to explain in a systematic way how language changes. In general, there are at least 3 viewpoints on how language changes. These viewpoints are

  • Group to group
  • Style to style
  • Word to word

In this post, we will look at each of these viewpoints on language change.

Group to Group

The group to group hypothesis sees language change like a wave in a lake. The changes originate from one or more groups and slowly spreads to other groups.  This happens because different groups interact with each other. Furthermore, many people are members of more than one group and bring the language they use in one group to another.

Style to Style

The style to style hypothesis suggests that language changes as there are shifts between language styles. For example, from a formal way of speaking to a colloquial way of speaking and vice versa.

A change in the language that is seen as prestigious is usually from a higher more affluent section of society. Of course, the opposite is also true and un-prestigious language change comes from the least fortunate.

The style of a speaker also changes over time. The younger the person is the more they use vernacular and slang in general.

Word to Word 

There are times in which individual words will change within a language and this change will spread to other languages. This is known as lexical diffusion.

Such a change can take decades and even century to take place. It is also common when two languages interact through mutually changing each other pronunciation. Such as the role of French in England for several centuries.

Conclusion

It is not so much that any of the examples discussed here are exclusively responsible for change. Rather, all of these examples play varying roles in influencing changes in a language.

Social Networks and Language Habits

In this post, we will look at how relationships that people have can play a role in how they communicate with those around them. Understanding this can help people to comprehend differences in communication style.

In sociolinguistics, social networks can refer to the pattern of informal relationships that people have and experience on a consistent basis. There are two dimensions that can be used to describe a person’s social network. These two terms are density and plexity.

Density

The density of a social network refers to how well people in your network know each other. In other words, density is how well your friends know each other. We all have friends, we have friends who know each other, and we have friends who do not know each other.

If many of your friends know each other then the density is high. If your friends do not know each other the density is low. An example of a high-density network would be the typical family. Everybody knows each other. An example of a low-density network would be employees at a large company. In such a situation it would not be hard to find a friend of a friend that you do not know.

Plexity

Plexity is a  measure of the various types of interactions that you are involved in with other people. Plexity can be uniplex, which involves one type of interaction with a person or multiplex, which involves many types of interactions with a person.

An example of a uniplex interaction may be a worker with their boss. They only interact at work. A multiplex interaction would again be with members of one’s family. When dealing with family interactions could include school, work, recreation, shopping, etc. In all these examples it is the same people interacting in a multitude of settings.

Language Use in Social Networks

A person’s speech almost always reflects the network that they belong too. If the group is homogeneous we will almost always speak the way everyone else does assuming we want to be a part of the group. For example, a group of local construction workers will more than likely use similar language patterns due to the homogeneous nature of the group while a group of ESL bankers would not as they come from many different countries.

When a person belongs to more than one social network they will almost always unconsciously change the way they communicate based on the context. For example, anybody who has moved away from home communicates differently where they live than when they communicate with family and friends back home. This is true even when moving from one place to another in the same province or state in your country.

Conclusion

The language that people employ is affected by the dynamics of the social network. We naturally will adjust our communication to accommodate who we are talking too.

Sociolinguistic Insights into Female Communication

In general, women tend to prefer to use the most standard or prestige form of a language regardless of cultural background or geography. Linguists have proposed several potential reasons for this. This post will share some of the most common ideas on why women often used the standard form of their language.

Social Status

There is a belief among many linguists that women use the most prestigious forms of their language because they are more status-conscious than men. By using the standard version of their language a woman is able to claim a higher status.

The implication of this is that women have a lower status in society and try to elevate themselves through their use of language. However, this conclusion has been refuted as women who work outside the home use more of the standard form of their language than women who work in their home.

If the social status hypothesis was correct women who work at home, and thus have the lowest status, should use more of the standard form then women who work. Currently, this is not the case.

Women as Protector of Society’s Values

The women as protector of values view see social pressure as a constraint on how women communicate. Simply, women use more standard forms of their language than men because women are expected to behave better. It is thrust upon women to serve as an example for their community and especially for their children.

This answer is considered correct but depends highly on context. For example, this idea falls a part most frequently when women communicate with their children. The informal and intimate setting often leads to most women using the vernacular aspects of their language.

Women as Subordinate Group

A third suggestion is that women, who are often a subordinate group, use the more standard version of their language to show deference to those over them. In other words, women use the most polite forms of their language to avoid offending men.

However, this suggestion also fails because it equates politeness with the standard form of a language. People can be polite using vernacular and they can be rude using the most prestigious form of their language possible.

Vernacular as Masculine

A final common hypothesis on women’s use of standard forms is the perception that the use of the vernacular is masculine and tough. Women choose the standard form as a way of demonstrating behaviors traditionally associated with gender in their culture. Men, on the other hand, use vernacular forms to show traits that are traditionally associated with male behaviors.

The problem with this belief is the informal settings. As mentioned previously, women and men use more vernacular forms of their language in informal settings. As such, it seems that context is one of the strongest factors in how language is used and not necessarily gender.

The Birth of the Audiolingual Method

In this post, we will examine the background to the Audiolingual method. Audiolingualism is considered by many to be the first American approach to ESL.

Background

During the Great Depression, an influential study called the “Coleman Report” recommended that foreign language should be taught through the use of a reading approach. This led to many teachers teaching language using a combination of Direct Method and Oral Approach.

A major change came with the start of WWII, the US now needed people who were fluent in the languages of the enemy and those conquered by them. For many of these exotic languages, there was no textbook available. This led the army to a creative solution called the informant method.

The informant method was simple. A native speaker of the target language teamed with a student and a linguist and they would spend time together. The native speaker would say phrases and vocabulary for the student to learn through imitation. The linguist would provide structure for what the student was learning.

The informant method required students to study 10 hours a day six days a week for 12-18 weeks. By the end of such an intense experience, excellent languages skills were developed.

After WWII, there was a shift among many linguists towards a structural function of language combined with behavioral approaches to learning. There was also a focus on aural training with support in developing pronunciation skills. Later did the student learn about speaking, reading, and writing. This way of teaching language became know as the Aural-Oral Approach.

Enter Audiolingualism

Audiolingualism came out of the background of the intense language experience of the informant method and the structural/behavioral emphasis of the Aural-Oral Approach. This method, with its focus on “drill, drill, drill”, was used in ESL teaching at universities throughout America at one point and is stilled used in many parts of the world today.

Audiolingualism was touted as taking language teaching from art to science. It was considered systematic and efficient in providing results. For teachers, it meant often being the center of instruction and speaking to allow the students to imitate and to correct them when they were wrong. For students, it meant parroting what was said without always knowing what it means.

For its time, there is no question as to the influence of audiolingualism. It was based on prior study and was one of the first major contribution of American linguists to ESL teaching. In a future post, we will examine in detail the audiolingual method.

National and Official Language

Many countries in the world have a national and an official language. The origins of these two distinctions are wrap in politics, history, and culture.

A national language is a language with a political, cultural, and social unit connected with it. An official language is a language used by the government of a country. However, both of these terms are used for politic means in many countries.

A national language is often used to unite the people. Examples of this include Japanese in Japan, French in France, and even English in Great Britain. Each country has a complex history behind its selection of a national language.

The process of developing a national language involves four steps which are…

  • Selection
  • Codification
  • Elaboration
  • Acceptance

Selection

Selecting a language to serve as the national language is a political process. Picking the wrong language could rip a nation a part. Different countries have approached this in different ways. Indonesia selected a Malay pidgin as its national language to unite its country. The Philippines choose Tagalog or Filipino as their national language, which was met with great resistance.

Codification

Codification involves standardizing the language. This involves the development of grammar rules and dictionaries. American English was heavily influenced by Noah Webster and his work in developing dictionaries. Webster specifically wanted to develop an American dialect of English in order to unify the new country.

Elaboration 

Elaboration is the process of extending the language into new domains such as academics,  medicine, or some other field. Many languages, pidgins, and or creoles, do not have ways of communicating highly abstract terms. In order to serve as an official language, terms need to be developed to handle any form of communication.

Acceptance

After developing a language in order for it to become the national language, steps must be taken to convince the people to use it. This is often done through a combination of propaganda and follows the leader. When government officials use the language locals often begin to follow.

Conclusion

The use of a language by a nation has a complex process that involves several steps. Every country has some story behind the development of its language. This rarely does not happen by chance.

Pidgins and Creoles

Pidgin and Creole are two common terms used in linguistics to describe a language. This post will define and explain some of the characteristics of these two linguistic terms

Pidgin

A pidgin is a language that does not have any native speakers. In other words, it is a younger language that is developed as a means of communicating between two groups who do not speak the same language.

Pidgins are frequently developed for business and trading. Buying and selling and other transactions are reasons for the development of a pidgin. Pidgins are not used as a form of group identification but rather for practical communication.

A pidgin is also the combination of two different languages. The language that provides the majority of the vocabulary is called the superstrate and the minority language is called the substrate.

Pidgins are highly simplified in their grammar and syntax. For example, pidgins are often missing affixes, inflections, and a smaller vocabulary compared to other languages.

A pidgin usually sounds ridiculous to a speaker of either of the two languages it is derived from. As such, they are often difficult to learn for a speaker of either the superstrate or substrate language to learn as they do not follow the normal rules of grammar as found in the superstrate or substrate language.

There are many pidgins in the world today. Many came as a result of slavery in the western hemisphere. Slaves came from different parts of Africa and often could not communicate without developing a pidgin.

In Asia, most countries have or had some form of pidgin English such as Thailand “Tinglish”, Japan has “Japanese Bamboo English.” Over time, many pidgins mature into what we call creoles.

Creole 

A creole is a pidgin that now has native speakers. Children grow speaking a creole as their first language. There are also other differences between a pidgin and creole.

Since it is the first language of a group, creoles are used in many more areas of life and have a much richer structure. Furthermore, a creole has a much more standardized grammar rules.

People’s attitudes towards a creole are often different as well. Since it is the first language of many people, there is a sense of pride over using the language. A creole can also be used to identify members of a group. This was not possible with a pidgin as pidgins serve as a way of communicating between two groups while creoles are for communicating both between groups and within a group.

Examples of creoles include “Manglish” (Malaysian English), “Singlish” (Singaporean English) and “Taglish” (Tagalog English).

Conclusion

Pidgins and creoles serve the purpose of communicating among people groups who have different languages. With time a pidgin may become a creole if native speakers of a pidgin develop.

Diglossia

Diglossia literally means “two tongues.” This definition gives the impression that diglossia and bilingualism are the same thing. However, diglossia is a distinct form of bilingualism in that the use of the two languages are determined by the function.

A diglossia consists of a high and low language. The high language is used for specific purposes such as business transactions, ceremonies, and religious rites. The low language is used for everyday conversation. You would never hear a person use the low language for normal conversation.

The context in which the high and low languages are used are called domains. There are many different domains such as family, work, school, church, etc. Each of these domains calls for either the high or low language. For example, the high language may be used when speaking of politics while the low language may be used for speaking about sports.

There are several examples of diglossia in the world. In America, African Americans often have their own distinct form of English which functions as a low language. Regular or standard English would be the high language in this situation. At home, African American English is spoken and in public, a switch to standard English is often made.

There is often an interaction between diglossia and bilingualism in language. In general, there are four ways in which diglossia and bilingualism can interact in a community.

  1. The community has diglossia and bilingualism
  2. The community has diglossia but not bilingualism
  3. The community has bilingualism but diglossia
  4. The community does not have diglossia or bilingualism

Below are examples of each

Diglossia and Bilingualism 

An example of this is an African American community where the people can speak standard English (high language), African American English (low language) while also being fluent in another language like Spanish (second language).

Diglossia but not Bilingualism

Same as above, the African American community knows standard English as well as African American English but the community does not speak Spanish or any other language.

Bilingualism but no Diglossia

The African American community speaks standard English and also speaks another language, such as Spanish, but does not use African American English.

Neither Diglossia or Bilingualism

The African American community only speaks standard English and does not speak African American English or any other language such as Spanish.

Conclusion

Communities vary in their perception of their high and low languages. Some look down on the low language while using it while others are proud of the low language while feeling forced to learn the high. The points are that with diglossia, the use of a second language is connected to a particular social setting.

Speech, Language, and Communication

There are three terms that people commonly use interchangeably when describing how people interact verbally with each other. The terms are speech, language, and communication. Although these terms are similar they are not synonyms for each other. This post will explain the difference between these three terms.

Speech

Speech is specifically a verbal means of communicating. This distinguishes it from non-verbal forms of communicating such as written communication or body language. Speech involves the vocalizing of specific sounds called phonemes. Every language has specific phonemes that make of sounds for that language. For example, Spanish involves the rolling of the “r” often.

Speech is not limited to phonemes. Other aspects of speech include the voice quality, intonation, and rate. Voice quality is the phonetic characteristics of a person’s voice. Our example of the r sound in Spanish relates to voice quality. Intonation is related to the pitch of the voice. Sometimes a language uses different pitches depending on the context. For example, if a question is asked in English the pitch rises at the end. Lastly, the rate is how fast the people talk in the language.

Language

Language code for conveying concepts through the use of symbols. For example, almost all languages have some sort of word for “dog.” In English, the word for this animal is “dog.” In Spanish, the word is “perro.” In French, the word for dog is “chien.” Regardless of the language, when people hear one of these words for dog in their language they connect this word with the concept of a four-legged creature that often barks. The term “dog” is a symbol for an animal. This is thinking in a highly abstract way.

Languages can be expressed verbally through speech and also through writing. In order for each side to understand the other, they must know each other’s language in order to convey and share ideas. An obvious reason that people from different countries do not understand each other is because they speak different languages.

Communication

Communication is a process of exchanging ideas and needs. This process involves encoding, transmitting, and decoding. Encoding is the process of taking a concept identifying a word that is associated with it. If a person has in their mind a barking animal they may think of the word “dog.” Transmitting is sharing the concept through the use language. This is when the person says “dog” verbally.

Decoding is this process in reverse and is done by the receiver. The receiver hears the word “dog” and he translates this into a barking animal in his mind. All of this happens in a split second every day in many peoples lives.

Communication can happen in many was beyond verbal. As mention earlier, people can communicate ideas in writing or through the use of body language. Even art can communicate information through the use of music, painting, or more.

Conclusion

Speech, language, and communication are distinct aspects of understanding how people convey information. Understanding these differences can help people to know how they are trying to share information.