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
grammar
 Use/function oriented – more on verbal
communication
 Language also consist of vocabulary
(lexicon/words), meaningful units
(morphemes), sound segements
(phonetic critics), conversation of
sounds (phonology), convention and
combination and uses of meaningful
units (morphology), conventions on how
to combine words to form a larger
structural units such as clauses and
sentences (syntax), conventions and
interpretations of meanings (semantics),
conventions on uses of uses of
connected uuterances in context
(discourse and pragmatics)
The origins of language
1. The bow-wow theory – the idea that
speech arose from people initiating
sounds
2. Pooh – pooh theory – the idea that
comes fro automatic response
3. Ding dong theory – The idea that
reflects some mystical resonance or
harmony connected to the things in the
world
4. Yeheyo theory – the idea that speech
with the rythimic chants
5. Tata theory – the idea that speech
comes from the use of tongue and mouth
gestures
6. Lala theory/sing song theory – the idea
that speech emerged from the sounds
Functions of Language
1. Informational
2. Expressive
3. Directive
4. Aesthetic
5. Phatic
Why we should stuy language?
CULTURE
 What a person must in order to function
in a particular society (Wardaugh, 2002)
 The whole that includes knowledge,
beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, and
any other capabilities and habits
acquired by a member of a society
(Tyler 1871)
 Perspective - (world views) includes
values, norms, beliefs, assumptions,
culture, cultural meaning held by the
society
 Practices – patterns of social interactions
(rties of passage, the use of
forms/discourse, the social pecking
order, and use of space).
 Products – Tangible and intagible
cultural forms
SOCIETY
 a community with its own language,
social context, and social factors as well
as one/more languages or culture
(SOHN)
 language itself is ambigous; it is people
who misinterprets things that cause
problem
 the cultural grouping/array of human
that has its own language and its own
sets of art, music, ideology, values,
norms, beliefs, social norms of conducts,
technologies, and etc. (Saul and Furbe,
1998)
Language and culture
- language may observed as tightly and
closely correlated with culture. They are
considered inseparable
- language is the priamry vehicle of
communication
- language reflects both personality of the
individual and culture of history;
shaping both personality and culture
 - language makes possible growth and
transmission of culture, the community
of the society and the effective
functioning and control of social group
Language and Society
- language influences society and culture
- people and society influence language
- There is interaction as language
influences society and people and vice
versa
- There is no influence of either so
languages is just a tool used by people
and there is no social effects
LESSON 2: SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Idiolect
 Variety of language unique to an
individual
 Change through contact with other
idiolects and change throughout their
lifetime as well as from generation to
generation
 Affected by numerous variables
Ecolect – dialect used or specific to a household
Dialect – means speech or dialektos
(dialegesthai)
 a vaiety of a language that signals where
a person comes from
 regional or social variety of a language
distinguish by pronounciation, grammar,
or vocabulary.
 often used to characterized a way of
speaking thaat differs from the standard
variety of langugae
 geographically, socially, and politically
determined
Regional Dialects – bound by geography, not
wide spread type of dialectal diffentation
Social dialects
 more to social class or other shared
social features
 variety of speech associated with a
particular social class or occupational
group within a society
 used to communicate in the language
with a greater society
Sociolect – the way we speal that is individual to
a social group
Kinds of sociolect:
1. Acrolect – higher than others/more
prestigious than others
2. Basilect – lower than others/less
prestigous than others
3. Vulgars – used by less educated person
4. Slang – non standard words that are
used by a certain group of people
5. Colloquial – used in a daily
conversation or used in speaking
Pidgin and Creole
 Pidgin – Language with no native
speakers. It is no one’s first language but
it is a contact language
 One language is dominant than others
 Creole – natural language, develops
from simpifying and mixing different
languages.
Example: chavacano (filipino/spanish)
 Pidgin transitioned into full-fledge
language, and highly simplified when
compared to its parent language
Lingua Franca – used habitually ny people
whose mother tongues are different in order to
facilitate communication between them
Standard Variety – a general form of language
or linguistics expression commonly used
language variety as a over form of any
overlapping sub categories of language
including dialect, jargon, register, and idiolect
Register – a variety of language used
for a particular purpose in a particular
communicative situation
Jargon – refers to the specialized
language of professional or occupuational group
Code switching
 abiliy to communicate our thoughts,
emotions and opinions to other is a truly
remarkable skill
 done in a particular purpose
 speakers alternates between two or more
languages
Types of code switching:
 Inter-sentenial - beginning or end of
the sentence
 Intra-sentenial - middle of the
sentence, no interruptions, hesitations,
or pauses.
 Extra sentenial/tag switching - intra
sentenial with interruptions
Reasons of CS:
1. To fulfill a need
2. To express solidarity
3. To exlude others
Code mixing – mixing of mostly words but also
phrases, clauses, or even sentences of two
languages or varities and done more out of
linguistic requirement
Types of code mixing:
 Intra lexcial mixing (insetion)
 Involving a change of pronounciation
(alternation)
 Intra sentenial (congruent lexicalization)
Reasons of CM:
1. Interjectiom
2. Expressing group identity
3. Repetition for clarification
Diglossia
 State of being bliligual
 Situation where community use a
variety of language for different
situation
 Use of two language
Kinds of Diglossia
1. High Variety – Formally learned,
speakers learns how to read and
write and it’s unchanging
2. Low Variety – Casual, not formally
learned, spoken language, and
flexible
Bilingualism – phenomenon of speaking and
understanding of two or more languages
Types of Bilingualism
1. Early bilingual – child
 Simultaneous – learning the 2
languages at the same time
 Sequential/successive – learning the
second language after being profecient
within the first language. It also refers to
a child who has already acquired a first
language and then learns a second
language early in childhood
2. Late bilingual – 6 years to up
 Balance – proficiency level is
balance and mastered both
languages
 Equalinguals – proficiency like
native speakers
 Dominant – the child is more
proficient in one language than the
other
 Passive – can understand second
language but cannot speak it
LESSON 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
THE FIRST STEPS OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION IN CHILDHOOD
➢ Children are not taught to speak their native
language
➢ They do not go to language labs.
➢ They are not given pattern drills to memorize
***
➢ the first step is for the infant to find some
way to learn the phonological system.
***
➢ High-amplitude sucking
➢ 1-month old: able to distinguish two synthetic
consonant-vowel syllables different only in the
consonants /p/ and /b/
➢ Infants already have the ability to distinguish
closely similar sounds
THE FIRST STEPS OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION IN CHILDHOOD:
➢ 3-day old infants can identify their mother’s
voice from other female voices
➢ Newborn infants prefer to listen to their
mother tongue compared to other languages
STAGES THAT CHARACTERIZE
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
➢ Reflexive (basic biological): noises such as
crying, burping, and coughing; produced during
the first 8-10 weeks; supplemented by cooing
and laughing in the next dozen of weeks
➢ Vocal play: consists of the production of
fairly wide range of sounds that resemble
consonants and vowels; noticeable by the age of
six months
➢ Babbling: the second half of the infant’s first
year; sounds made during this period are less
varied and tend to approximate those of the
language to be acquired; somehow instinctive
because even those who do not hear go through
babbling
➢ Babbling: regardless of the language to be
acquired, children learn the vowel sounds /a, i,
u/ and the consonants articulated with the help of
the lips and teeth /p, b, m, t, d/; though, the order
of learning the sounds is not universal
➢ intonational contours (such as those
characteristic of questions): begin to appear at
the end of the first year
➢ One-word stage: at about the same time as
intonational contours
➢Multi-word stage: about at the age of two
***
➢ By age of 5, children all over the world can
ask questions, make negative comments,
produce complex sentences, carry on an
intelligent conversation on topics that they are
able to comprehend.
➢Children are able to gain command of the
many sounds, forms, rules so well
***
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
1. Behaviorist Psychology Theory
2. Innatist Theory
3. Sociocultural Theory
BEHAVIORIST PSYCHOLOGY THEORY
➢ Popular in the mid-twentieth century
➢ Best known proponent is B.F. Skinner
➢based on the stimulus-response-reward
formula
➢ the human environment (parents, older peers,
and others) provides language stimuli to which
the child responds, largely by repetition of what
he or she is hearing
➢ If the response is commendable, he or she is
rewarded (by praise or some other way)
INNATIST THEORY
➢ argues that there are some aspects of
language that which must already be present at
childbirth
➢ received great support from Noam Chomsky
“children are born with the capacity for language
development”
➢ If children only imitate, how do we account
their production of gooses, taked?
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
➢ 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
encodes and decodes speech, and whether the
controls of such aspects of language such as
speech, sounds, grammar are neuroanatomically
distinct or joint
➢ The human brain is not just the largest but the
most complexly organized.
➢ cerebrum, the largest part, situated at the top
of the brain consisting of two lobes– the left and
right cerebral hemispheres
 Left hemisphere - Associative
thought, calculation, analytical
processing, the right visual field,
temporal relations and other
functions
 Right hemisphere - Tactile
recognition of material qualities,
visuospatial skills, non-linguistic
auditory stimuli including music, the
left visual field, some use of
language in social context, and other
functions
LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
➢ For right-handed individuals, the left
hemisphere controls language, speech, writing,
and reading
➢ For more than half of left-handed people, the
left hemisphere is in control or involved
➢ In other left-handed individuals, the right
hemisphere is in control
***
LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
➢Broca’s Aphasia – caused by a lesion in the
Broca’s area; characterized the omission of
function words, past tense and plural endings,
faulty word order, distortion of sounds
➢Wernicke’s Aphasia – impaired ability to
understand written and spoken language,
inappropriate substitution of words leading to
nonsensical utterances
➢Anomic Aphasia - difficulty in naming
objects