LESSON 1: INTERCONNECTEDNESS

BETWEEN LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND

SOCIETY
Language

 System of communication
 Codes of symbols who uses
interpretations aee agreed upon its
readers
 Uses and interpreations are agreed
among users and change through time
Two views of language

 Rule or form – focus on structure of

Why we should stuy language?
grammar
 Use/function oriented – more on verbal
communication
CULTURE
 Language also consist of vocabulary  What a person must in order to function
(lexicon/words), meaningful units in a particular society (Wardaugh, 2002)
(morphemes), sound segements  The whole that includes knowledge,
(phonetic critics), conversation of beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, and
sounds (phonology), convention and any other capabilities and habits
combination and uses of meaningful acquired by a member of a society
units (morphology), conventions on how (Tyler 1871)
to combine words to form a larger  Perspective - (world views) includes
structural units such as clauses and values, norms, beliefs, assumptions,
sentences (syntax), conventions and culture, cultural meaning held by the
interpretations of meanings (semantics), society
conventions on uses of uses of
 Practices – patterns of social interactions
connected uuterances in context (rties of passage, the use of
(discourse and pragmatics) forms/discourse, the social pecking
order, and use of space).
The origins of language  Products – Tangible and intagible
cultural forms
1. The bow-wow theory – the idea that
speech arose from people initiating SOCIETY
sounds
 a community with its own language,
2. Pooh – pooh theory – the idea that
social context, and social factors as well
comes fro automatic response
as one/more languages or culture
3. Ding dong theory – The idea that
(SOHN)
reflects some mystical resonance or
 language itself is ambigous; it is people
harmony connected to the things in the
who misinterprets things that cause
world
problem
4. Yeheyo theory – the idea that speech
with the rythimic chants  the cultural grouping/array of human
5. Tata theory – the idea that speech that has its own language and its own
comes from the use of tongue and mouth sets of art, music, ideology, values,
gestures norms, beliefs, social norms of conducts,
6. Lala theory/sing song theory – the idea technologies, and etc. (Saul and Furbe,
that speech emerged from the sounds 1998)

Functions of Language Language and culture

1. Informational - language may observed as tightly and

2. Expressive closely correlated with culture. They are
3. Directive considered inseparable
4. Aesthetic - language is the priamry vehicle of
5. Phatic communication
- language reflects both personality of the
individual and culture of history;
shaping both personality and culture
 - language makes possible growth and 4. Slang – non standard words that are
transmission of culture, the community used by a certain group of people
of the society and the effective 5. Colloquial – used in a daily
functioning and control of social group conversation or used in speaking
Language and Society Pidgin and Creole
- language influences society and culture  Pidgin – Language with no native
- people and society influence language speakers. It is no one’s first language but
- There is interaction as language it is a contact language
influences society and people and vice  One language is dominant than others
versa
- There is no influence of either so  Creole – natural language, develops
languages is just a tool used by people from simpifying and mixing different
and there is no social effects languages.
Example: chavacano (filipino/spanish)
LESSON 2: SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Idiolect  Pidgin transitioned into full-fledge
language, and highly simplified when
 Variety of language unique to an
compared to its parent language
individual
 Change through contact with other
idiolects and change throughout their Lingua Franca – used habitually ny people
lifetime as well as from generation to whose mother tongues are different in order to
generation facilitate communication between them
 Affected by numerous variables
Standard Variety – a general form of language
Ecolect – dialect used or specific to a household or linguistics expression commonly used
language variety as a over form of any
Dialect – means speech or dialektos
overlapping sub categories of language
(dialegesthai)
including dialect, jargon, register, and idiolect
 a vaiety of a language that signals where Register – a variety of language used
a person comes from
for a particular purpose in a particular
 regional or social variety of a language communicative situation
distinguish by pronounciation, grammar,
or vocabulary. Jargon – refers to the specialized
 often used to characterized a way of language of professional or occupuational group
speaking thaat differs from the standard
Code switching
variety of langugae
 geographically, socially, and politically  abiliy to communicate our thoughts,
determined emotions and opinions to other is a truly
remarkable skill
Regional Dialects – bound by geography, not
 done in a particular purpose
wide spread type of dialectal diffentation
 speakers alternates between two or more
Social dialects languages

 more to social class or other shared

social features
Types of code switching:
 variety of speech associated with a
particular social class or occupational  Inter-sentenial - beginning or end of
group within a society the sentence
 used to communicate in the language  Intra-sentenial - middle of the
with a greater society sentence, no interruptions, hesitations,
or pauses.
Sociolect – the way we speal that is individual to
a social group  Extra sentenial/tag switching - intra
sentenial with interruptions
Kinds of sociolect:
Reasons of CS:
1. Acrolect – higher than others/more
1. To fulfill a need
prestigious than others
2. To express solidarity
2. Basilect – lower than others/less
3. To exlude others
prestigous than others
3. Vulgars – used by less educated person
Code mixing – mixing of mostly words but also THE FIRST STEPS OF LANGUAGE
phrases, clauses, or even sentences of two ACQUISITION IN CHILDHOOD
languages or varities and done more out of
linguistic requirement ➢ Children are not taught to speak their native
language

➢ They do not go to language labs.

Types of code mixing:
➢ They are not given pattern drills to memorize
 Intra lexcial mixing (insetion)
 Involving a change of pronounciation ***
(alternation)
➢ the first step is for the infant to find some
 Intra sentenial (congruent lexicalization)
way to learn the phonological system.
Reasons of CM:
***
1. Interjectiom
2. Expressing group identity ➢ High-amplitude sucking
3. Repetition for clarification
➢ 1-month old: able to distinguish two synthetic
Diglossia consonant-vowel syllables different only in the
consonants /p/ and /b/
 State of being bliligual
 Situation where community use a ➢ Infants already have the ability to distinguish
variety of language for different closely similar sounds
situation
THE FIRST STEPS OF LANGUAGE
 Use of two language
ACQUISITION IN CHILDHOOD:
Kinds of Diglossia
➢ 3-day old infants can identify their mother’s
1. High Variety – Formally learned, voice from other female voices
speakers learns how to read and
write and it’s unchanging ➢ Newborn infants prefer to listen to their
2. Low Variety – Casual, not formally mother tongue compared to other languages
learned, spoken language, and
flexible
STAGES THAT CHARACTERIZE
Bilingualism – phenomenon of speaking and
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
understanding of two or more languages
➢ Reflexive (basic biological): noises such as
Types of Bilingualism
crying, burping, and coughing; produced during
1. Early bilingual – child the first 8-10 weeks; supplemented by cooing
and laughing in the next dozen of weeks
 Simultaneous – learning the 2
languages at the same time ➢ Vocal play: consists of the production of
 Sequential/successive – learning the fairly wide range of sounds that resemble
second language after being profecient consonants and vowels; noticeable by the age of
within the first language. It also refers to six months
a child who has already acquired a first ➢ Babbling: the second half of the infant’s first
language and then learns a second year; sounds made during this period are less
language early in childhood varied and tend to approximate those of the
language to be acquired; somehow instinctive
2. Late bilingual – 6 years to up because even those who do not hear go through
 Balance – proficiency level is babbling
balance and mastered both
languages ➢ Babbling: regardless of the language to be
 Equalinguals – proficiency like acquired, children learn the vowel sounds /a, i,
native speakers u/ and the consonants articulated with the help of
 Dominant – the child is more the lips and teeth /p, b, m, t, d/; though, the order
proficient in one language than the of learning the sounds is not universal
other
➢ intonational contours (such as those
 Passive – can understand second
language but cannot speak it characteristic of questions): begin to appear at
the end of the first year

LESSON 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ➢ One-word stage: at about the same time as

intonational contours
➢Multi-word stage: about at the age of two encodes and decodes speech, and whether the
controls of such aspects of language such as
*** speech, sounds, grammar are neuroanatomically
distinct or joint
➢ By age of 5, children all over the world can
ask questions, make negative comments, ➢ The human brain is not just the largest but the
produce complex sentences, carry on an most complexly organized.
intelligent conversation on topics that they are
able to comprehend. ➢ cerebrum, the largest part, situated at the top
of the brain consisting of two lobes– the left and
➢Children are able to gain command of the right cerebral hemispheres
many sounds, forms, rules so well
 Left hemisphere - Associative
*** thought, calculation, analytical
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE processing, the right visual field,
ACQUISITION temporal relations and other
functions
1. Behaviorist Psychology Theory  Right hemisphere - Tactile
2. Innatist Theory recognition of material qualities,
visuospatial skills, non-linguistic
3. Sociocultural Theory auditory stimuli including music, the
left visual field, some use of
BEHAVIORIST PSYCHOLOGY THEORY
language in social context, and other
➢ Popular in the mid-twentieth century functions
LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
➢ Best known proponent is B.F. Skinner
➢ For right-handed individuals, the left
➢based on the stimulus-response-reward
hemisphere controls language, speech, writing,
formula
and reading
➢ the human environment (parents, older peers,
➢ For more than half of left-handed people, the
and others) provides language stimuli to which
left hemisphere is in control or involved
the child responds, largely by repetition of what
he or she is hearing ➢ In other left-handed individuals, the right
hemisphere is in control
➢ If the response is commendable, he or she is
rewarded (by praise or some other way) ***
INNATIST THEORY LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
➢ argues that there are some aspects of ➢Broca’s Aphasia – caused by a lesion in the
language that which must already be present at Broca’s area; characterized the omission of
childbirth function words, past tense and plural endings,
faulty word order, distortion of sounds
➢ received great support from Noam Chomsky
➢Wernicke’s Aphasia – impaired ability to
“children are born with the capacity for language
understand written and spoken language,
development”
inappropriate substitution of words leading to
➢ If children only imitate, how do we account nonsensical utterances
their production of gooses, taked?
➢Anomic Aphasia - difficulty in naming
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY objects

➢ the process of learning a language is deeply

affected by becoming a competent member of
the society and the process of becoming a
competent member of a society is realized to a
large extent through language
LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN

➢Neurolinguistics - branch of linguistics

concerned with the role the brain plays in
language and speech processing
- explores questions on which part of the brain
control language and speech, how the brain