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Nine Ideas about Language

1. Children learn their native language swiftly, efficiently, and largely without instruction. Brain is prewired for language, according to some linguists.Children will learn the language they hear around them.Silly mistakes (I *goed to the store) are not mistakes; they are hypothesis testing, which is how children learn language..

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Nine Ideas about Language

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    1. Nine Ideas about Language By Harvey Daniels Daniels, Harvey. Nine Ideas about Language. Famous Last Words: The American Language Crisis Reconsidered. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983. Rpt. Language: Readings in Language and Culture. 6th Edn. Eds. Virginia P. Clark, Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1998.Daniels, Harvey. Nine Ideas about Language. Famous Last Words: The American Language Crisis Reconsidered. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983. Rpt. Language: Readings in Language and Culture. 6th Edn. Eds. Virginia P. Clark, Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1998.

    3. 2. Language operates by rules Apart from onomatopoetic words, the assignment of meanings to certain combinations of sounds is arbitrary. In English, we use only about 40 phonemes (basic units of sound) of the hundreds available. Syntax and grammar are also arbitrary Since language is so arbitrary, there is no such thing as a natural language.

    4. 3. Three major components to all languages: Sound system (phonology) Vocabulary System of Grammar: 2 types System of rules we use to arrange words into meaningful English sentences. Whole system of rules which makes up a language. Everything you know about a language.

    5. 4. Everyone speaks a dialect. Boston: Hahvahd Squah; bubblers Canada: aboot Texas: yawl Dialects come from isolation and separationnot always geographical. Travel and mass media keep our dialects close.

    6. 5. Speakers of all languages employ a range of styles and a set of sub-dialects or jargons. Our speech patterns vary greatly during the course of a day. Learning the rules of when to speak formally, informally, or in between is an important part of language acquisition. Its a late stage of acquisition. Since children learn by experimenting, they have to experience social situations before learning the social rules of language.

    7. Five Levels of Formality posited by Martin Joos Intimate Casual Consultative Formal Frozen

    8. Whats the most common use of language?

    9. 6. Language change is normal. Lexical: we need new words with new technology and social developments. Phonological: slower and harder to notice, but we had a major vowel shift just several hundred years ago. Grammar: also slow to change, and teachers bemoan the change. Still, can anyone tell me the difference between shall and will?

    10. 7. Languages are intimately related to the societies and individuals who use them. People who live in Alaska have many different words for different types of snow. Does language determine thought?

    11. 8. Value judgments about different languages or dialects are a matter of taste. Prejudice against certain dialects is prejudice against the people who use them. It is social discrimination.

    12. 9. Writing is derivative of speech. People have been speaking for at least half a million years; writing came around about 5,000 years ago. Only 5% of the worlds languages have developed indigenous writing systems. Writing rules can change just as oral rules do. What is wrong with a split infinitive?

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