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An invitation to (socio)linguistics

An invitation to (socio)linguistics. Richard Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, UCL. Plan. 1.Language learning and facts about language 2. An example: Naming in English 3. Naming in other languages 4. Sociolinguistics 5. Linguistics 6. Conclusion.

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An invitation to (socio)linguistics

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  1. An invitation to (socio)linguistics Richard Hudson, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, UCL

  2. Plan 1.Language learning and facts about language 2. An example: Naming in English 3. Naming in other languages 4. Sociolinguistics 5. Linguistics 6. Conclusion

  3. Language learning and facts about language • Students: want facts about English. • Teachers: know facts about English (and how to teach them) • Researchers: discover facts about English. • This research is called Linguistics. • For example,

  4. Naming in English Who am I? • Professor Hudson • Richard Anthony Hudson • Dr R A Hudson • Richard Hudson • Hudson • Hudson, Richard • Dick • Dad

  5. The grammar of English names Three word-classes: • Title (Mr, Prof, …) • Given name (John, Mary, …) • Family name (Hudson, Smith, …) Normal order: Given Title Family John Mr Smith

  6. Possible combinations: • T G F Professor Richard Hudson • T F Professor Hudson • G F Richard/Dick Hudson • G Richard/Dick • T Doctor ok for some titles • F Hudson NB: old-fashioned! • Not:T F Professor Dick ungrammatical!!

  7. The sociolinguistics of English names • Classification: Sex (Mr/Mrs; John/Mary) • The Solidarity hierarchy • The Power hierarchy

  8. Solidarity relations to a: Stranger Acquaintance Friend/relative

  9. Power relations to a: Superior Equal Subordinate

  10. To a close equal: a young friend

  11. To a close equal: an old friend

  12. To an even closer equal

  13. To a close subordinate: a child

  14. Even more subordinate: a pet

  15. To equal acquaintances

  16. To a superior stranger

  17. What name do you use? • To superior stranger: TF (Mr Smith) • To subordinate relative: G (John) • To superior relative: T (Dad) • To equal acquaintance: G • To superior acquaintance: ?

  18. Inequality reigns • salesman is subordinate to customer • dentist is superior to patient • teacher is superior to student • What if student = customer???

  19. Does naming matter? • To the hearer: Yes. • To the speaker: Yes. • A wrong choice can offend or hurt. • Decisions are difficult. • The better you speak English, the more a wrong choice will offend.

  20. Naming in other languages Differences exist in • grammar • sociolinguistics

  21. Different grammar • word classes: • no family names: Arabic • combinations: • T + G is ok: Japanese • order: • F - G, not G - F: Chinese

  22. Different sociolinguistics • sex not shown in titles: Japanese • G to superior relative: some English • Husband gives a new G some places

  23. What is sociolinguistics? Sociolinguistics is the study of language(s) in relation to society.

  24. Another area of sociolinguistics: greetings For example: Hi! • Who uses it? • When do they use it? • Why do they use it?

  25. Sociolinguistics:Dialect grammar For example: He may can come. • Who uses it? • How is the grammar different from standard English?

  26. Sociolinguistics: Register grammar For example: With whom do you work? • Who uses this construction? • When do they use it? • How does it fit into the whole grammar?

  27. Some undergraduate projectsin sociolinguistics • Do I pronounce words differently when I speak to different people? • Differences in the use of names between English and Italian newspapers. • Vocabulary differences between magazines for women and for men. • The dialect of my home village. • The playground language of children in my primary school.

  28. What is linguistics? • Linguistics is the study of language(s). Some branches of linguistics: • Sociolinguistics • Phonetics • Grammar • Semantics • Pragmatics, etc.

  29. “languages” = … • big languages: Spanish, Chinese, ... • small languages: Welsh, Beja, … • very small (and dying) languages: • Gaelic, … • maybe 90% of the world’s 6,000 languages?

  30. Phonetics How we pronounce words. The International Phonetic Alphabet • [fntiks] • [phi] = peel

  31. Grammar: morphology How we build words al nature + al Noun + un natural + un Adjective + unnatural ly ly + Adjective + unnaturally Adverb

  32. Grammar: syntax How we combine words Read! books Verb Noun Read books! big Verb Noun Adj. Read Verb books! big Noun Adj.

  33. SemanticsWhat words mean Words have many different kinds of meaning. • Bicycle • Ride • Cyclist • Know • The • And

  34. PragmaticsHow we choose words. For example, how would you describe me? • A linguist • An academic • A cyclist • A husband • A man • A person

  35. PsycholinguisticsHow we process words mentally • How do we plan what we say? • Why do we sometimes make mistakes? • For example, Dr Spooner (an Oxford academic in the 19th Century) gave his name to ‘spoonerisms’.

  36. Even natives make mistakes. Young man, you have … Next word: ? Planned: wasted term tasted Similar: worm Result: tasted the whole worm.

  37. Historical linguisticsHow language changes. • How has English changed since Shakespeare? Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? • Why has English changed? • How is English changing now?

  38. Conclusion • All this language research is important for language teachers and learners (and others). • But it's also interesting and an excellent subject to study at university.

  39. This slide-show can be downloaded from: www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/invitation.htm

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