Download [W7 T10] Sociolinguistics – Team Corgi

TEAM CORGI
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
YAN JUN | JOEY | XINNI | KINTAN
QUESTION 1A
Reflexives
Singular
Plural
First person
Second person
Third person
Myself
Yourself
?
Ourselves
Yourselves
?
QUESTION 1A
Observation:
Put self with the possessive pronouns (my,
your)
Change the form to plural if required
Reflexives
Singular
Plural
First person
Myself
Ourselves
Second person
Yourself
Yourselves
QUESTION 1B
Object Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
Me
Us
My
Our
2nd person
You
You
Your
Your
3rd person
Him/Her/It
Them
His/Her/Its
Their
Himself
Themselves
Hisself
Theirselves
Herself
Herself
Itself
Itsself
QUESTION 1C
Actual third-person pronouns in Standard English
Standard English
- herself
- himself
- itself
- themselves
Descriptive Rule
- herself
- hisself
- itsself
- theirselves
QUESTION 1C
In Standard English, for the
the third-person pronouns,
the object pronouns are
placed in front of
self/selves instead.
QUESTION 1D
Cockney Dialect: uses
herself, hisself, itsself and
theirselves
QUESTION 1D
Prescriptive approach to language will say:
Do not ever use reflexives like
"hisself"or "itsself" because they
don't exist in Standard English.
Using them will not make any
sense!
QUESTION 1D
Descriptive approach to language will say:
Indeed, the reflexive forms in (B) do not
exist in Standard English. However, they
are valid as they are spoken and
recognised by the speakers of the
Cockney dialect. Also, we cannot say
they are baseless as they are derived
from the descriptive rule observed for the
first & second- person reflexive.
QUESTION 1D
Cockney Dialect is more
"systematic" as the
reflexives in this dialect
are all formed
according to the
descriptive rule.
QUESTION 2
• Recap
• Pidgin: Heavily simplified
language created after some
contact situation
• Creole: native language of a
community that was once a
pidgin.
QUESTION 2
• Tok pisin
• one of the three national languages
of Papua New Guinea
• developed in the early 1800's as a
result of increased travel and
economic activity between the
Melanesians and Europeans
• Pidgin or creole??
“We’re OLGETA in this TOGETA”
“We’re
all in this together!”
I AM ONE HANDET YIA OLD
Actually I’m around 2000 years old but ok
= How many Christmas’ have you got?
= How old are you?
QUESTION 3
WHICH LANGUAGE TO ADOPT?
Context: post-colonial situation
MAJOR ISSUES WHEN CHOOSING
THE LANGUAGE
• Each language has its own merits
and disadvantages.
• The context is that of a postcolonial
society
 Still a young country; possibly no
clear vision and mission.
 Struggle against the lingering
imperial presence.
DONDON AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE
• Why?
- Postcolonial societies intend to the dissociate with
colonial past.
- Dondon serves to distinguish the country; a means
to assert its newfound national identity.
- Spoken by the majority of the society, dissemination
of the language is faster and easier.
- Post-emancipation situation often creates a power
vacuum  lack of order --> a trans-ethnic language
facilitates the unification of the diff. races
ADDRESSING THE LIMITED INVENTORY
OF VOCABULARY FOR ‘MODERNIZATION
AND EDUCATION’
• Possibly hinders the rate of development,
since there are limited words to describe
(and inspire) progress.
• However words are constantly created
and recycled, according to the needs of
the society.
 Dondon’s vocabulary bank could
potentially expand.
WHY NOT ABABA?
• Limited in extent as it is only spoken among
traders
 the rate of dissemination would be slower.
• Trade language  trade jargons.
 The vocabulary repertoire is very limited.
Establishing this as a national language
necessitates the addition/creation of many
new words, even more than Dondon.
WHY NOT ENGLISH?
• Unknown to 80% of the population  the majority
of the population may feel alienated; more
difficult to disseminate.
• Admittedly, being the most popular language in
the world, it may facilitate international trade/
strengthen international ties.
Adopting English does not guarantee progress
 As a young nation, international relations may
not be their main priority. (may be more
concerned with unifying the various ethnics)
Could be adopted as second language after
Dondon has been successfully adopted by most
inhabitants.
WHY NOT FRENCH?
• Spoken by the 20% of the population  rate
of adoption would be relatively slower
compared to Dondon.
• As it is spoken by the ruling elite, the
implementation of English as a national
language may lead people to think that the
country favours the elite.
• Locals may perceive that colonial influences
are still deeply-entrenched within the
society.
QUESTION 4
- What is linguistics?
-The scientific study of human language.
- Why do we care about it?
- Human language is what make us uniquely
human.
- Language is how we communicate.
- It provides insights on how words are pronounced
and formed; how sentences are constructed; and
how our communication is able to make sense.
QUESTION 4
- Natural language
- Variation and change in languages
- The ability of us humans to acquire
language is an innate instinct.
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT WHMOVEMENTS? (SYNTAX)
• Wh-movements allows us to form
interrogative questions.
• Gives us information that we want.
• Enables us to phrase questions
better.
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT MINIMAL
PAIRS? (PHONOLOGY)
• Minimal pairs are words with only one
difference in phonology
• Linguistics is about communicating with
another person.
• While talking to someone else, we can
emphasize on the difference in phonetics to
get the message across accurately.
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT CHOMSKY?
• Chomsky introduced the idea of a
universal grammar
• Explains why children are able to
acquire their native language in a
short period of time
• Develop into other branches
of generative grammar
IMPORTANCE OF SINGLISH
(SOCIOLINGUISTICS)
• Lingua franca between different ethnic groups and
dialect groups
• Important in Linguistics because it evolved from a
mixture of borrowed words from other languages to
form its own grammatical rules.
• In different situations, Singaporeans can switch from
Standard English and Singlish (sociolinguistics)
• A solidarity symbol in Singapore
IMPORTANCE OF MAXIMS OF
CONVERSATION (PRAGMATICS)
• Effective conversation between people
• Context of the conversation contributes to
the meaning of the speech.
• Abiding by the four maxims would make the
context clearer and lessen
misunderstandings
WE’RE DONE. THANK YOU!
Interesting read: A linguist explains the grammar of doge.
http://the-toast.net/2014/02/06/linguist-explains-grammar-doge-wow/