Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
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/