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What is language?

What is language?. Language is something people DO! It’s a practice and a form of human action , not just a set of rules or a neutral way of communicating thoughts. Language changes Language change ≠ language corruption or degradation Language varies

cynthiaperkins
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What is language?

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  1. What is language? • Language is something people DO! • It’s a practice and a form of human action, not just a set of rules or a neutral way of communicating thoughts. • Language changes • Language change ≠ language corruption or degradation • Language varies • Language variation ≠ language corruption or degradation • Language isn’t just language. It’s also about our bodies, our clothes, and other symbols and material resources

  2. From http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitudes/

  3. What is language? • Language is something people DO! • It’s a practice and a form of human action, not just a set of rules or a neutral way of communicating thoughts. • Language use is ideological • Language changes • Language change ≠ language corruption or degradation • Language varies • Language variation ≠ language corruption or degradation • Language isn’t just language. It’s also about our bodies, our clothes, and other symbols and material resources

  4. Language “degradation” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjKMNyZ2oTc

  5. Ideology • A set of cultural beliefs that puts the interests of some social groups over the interests of other groups

  6. Key & Peele • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzprLDmdRlc

  7. June Jordan “translation” • Example from Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”: “Up in the club, we just broke up / I’m doing my own thing. / You decided to dip, but now you wanna trip / Cause another brother noticed me.” • Translation: “We have just terminated our romantic relationship. I am dancing away my sorrows in the nightclub. Although it was you who ended said romantic relationship, you are now upset that I have caught another man’s eye.”

  8. “Standard” language • Standard = the variety of a particular language that has power and high status in a society. • It is the language of social institutions, like education, business, religion, and politics. • Nonstandard = varieties of a language that may be stigmatized, because of stereotypes about the people who speak them. • Not considered the language of social power, but equal in linguistic terms!

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