Michele Robb EDUC 31218 July 23, 2013 Babel Questions 7-11 7.

Pidgins are languages are born of necessity. McWhorter describes Pidgins as the simplistic form of language, mixing of the languages, in order to achieve basic wants and needs. He gives examples of Russians going to Norway during the 1800s. Each group had no need to become fluent in the others language. However, there was a need to communicate for the purposes of trade. A mixing of the languages developed, with a simpler structure than either language, thus created the Pidgin language they used. This allowed both traders to work together as they needed. Tone, from McWhorters description, could be looked at as the opposite of Pidgin. Tone is created after a language has grown, changed and morphed to the point of losing some of its structural components, so that the speaker must listen for a tone to glean the meaning of the word. Where pidgin is born of necessity, McWhorter writes that tone emerge in a language as an accident of sound erosion rather than out of any communicative imperative (195). He states that tones are used when the sounds of a word have become so eroded that listening for the meaning is the only thing left for the listener. Creole would be the middle of the two. Creole is a language that started as pidgin, simple and necessary, and grows into a language of choice, not need. As generations change the pidgin language, it takes on rules, structure and embellishments. Later generations, like McWhorter discusses early in the book, make the pidgin the default language. If pidgin language is seen as a bridge between two languages, one could look at creole as filling in between the two to become the norm. 8. McWhorter explains that our languages have grown to have unnecessary fluff. As it continues to expand, grow and bloom (keeping with his tree analogy), language begins to take on

rules and semantic changes that begin to morph the entire structure. Analyzing why this happens seems to be difficult. As McWhorter explains, the features usually evolved simply as the result of the natural overzealousness of language change (191). These changes, called evidential markers, allow a language to be more precise and expressive. Communication is still possible without evidential markers. As McWhorter believes, language is needlessly complex (181). Without the evidential markers, communication is simpler to understand but also requires that the listener glean meaning through other means than just the language itself, such as context. 9. Languages that rely heavily on tonal structure require the speaker to be more careful on accent and the listener to focus closer on the sounds of the words, not just the words themselves. Intonation is stressed carefully to help the listener understand the meaning of the word. An example is the word ma in Mandarin. Word m m m m Syllable stress High level tone Rising tone Falling then rising tone Falling tone Meaning Mother Hemp Horse Scold

This example shows how important tone can be. While saying ma seems simple, for a nonnative speaker, it would be very difficult to ensure correct meaning without mastering the intonations of the language. 10. McWhorter spends much of chapter five discussing how language develops. In its ever changing way, language starts off simple, and then complicates itself after a multitude of generations have contributed to it. This discussion carries into the use of tone. While there are many languages that are dependent on tone, McWhorter argues that they began more simply (as

the original language) and morphed into needing the tones. He explains that as the speakers began to shave off or add to the original words, the new sounds became the norm or default. As generations continue, what was once a particular word now only carries the sound which has morphed into tones rather than individual sounds. This causes the language user to listen for tones as clarification rather than being told specifically what is being talked about or gleaning meaning through the context of the sentence. Understanding this is helpful as we guide English learners in processing how to understand information through context. 11. McWhorter discusses the use of Sign Language in chapter 5. He describes sign language as real languages just like spoken ones, with grammar, complexity and nuance(214). He goes on to describe how those that learn sign language as a second language tend to have an accent from native users. McWhorter describes that sign language is more like a creole language as it is relatively new and is structures similarly. As its own language, he gives credence to sign language having the full capabilities of expressing all human thoughts (214). This also agrees with his definition of language versus pidgin in that it is used for full communication, not just something born of necessity.