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Linguistic Items

Linguistic Items. Linguistic Items: — vocabulary ( “ lexical items, or “ lexemes) — sound -pattern ( “ sound ” ) — larger syntactic patterns ( “ constructions)

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Linguistic Items

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  1. Linguistic Items • Linguistic Items: —vocabulary (“lexical items, or “lexemes) —sound-pattern (“sound”) —larger syntactic patterns (“constructions) Different linguistic items in ‘the same language’ can have quite different social distribution (in terms of speakers and circumstances).

  2. Varieties of language • The flexibility of the term “variety”: • 1. French, German, and Italian in Swiss or Chinese, Malaysian, Tamil, and English in Singapore • 2. Ebonics (African) in the USA; Cockney (cockney rhyming slang London slang dictionary) in Britain; Geordie (Newcastle English (Geordie)) in Britain

  3. Speech Community • A speech community is a group of people who speak a common dialect. However, the linguists know that there is really no such thing as a pure dialect spoken by a particular ethnic group or by people from just one perfectly definable region. • Example: your handout(Untitled Document)

  4. Language: ‘Language’ and ‘dialect’ • The delimitation of language and dialect: • 1. Size: • 2. Prestige: • 3. Mutual intelligibility: • In terms of the second criterion (prestige), only a ‘standard language’ can be called a ‘language’. • (the right and wrong views in your handoutUntitled Document)

  5. The family tree model • The family tree model clarifies the historical relations among the varieties concerned, and in particular that it gives a clear idea of the relative chronology of the historical changes by which the varieties concerned have diverged.Lynch, Indo-European Language Family Tree

  6. The family tree model • The disadvantage of the family tree model: • 1. Showing only vertical descendant (subclassification) but not horizontal influence (cross-classification) • 2. only represents a gross simplification of the relations between varieties

  7. The family tree model • Disadvantage • 3.

  8. Regional dialects and Isoglosses • Regional dialects: • 1. Taiwan: I-Lang—滷蛋 • 2. German dialect variety: http://lingvo.info/lf/germana.php?/lingvo=en • Isogloss: a boundary line between places or regions that differs a particular linguistic item. • Example: Map 2.1 (Isoglosses intersect with each other.)

  9. Isogloss and the wave theory • The analogy between isogloss intersection and the wave (ripple)

  10. Isoglosses and the wave theory • The weakness of the analogy: • Not like the ripples, the waves of linguistic influence may freeze and stop expanding • Another analogy: different species of plants sown in a field, each spreading outwards by dispersing its seeds over a particular area (see Another analogy.doc)

  11. Ways of classifying dialects • Geography: • 1. pail v.s. bucket • 2. farm [fa:m] v.s. farm [fa:rm] • 3. Talk [t lk] v.s. talk [talk] Sociolinguistics Resources: Dialect Map ("talk") • 4. bought [b t] v.s. bought [bat] Sociolinguistics Resources: Dialect Map ("bought")

  12. Ways of classifying dialects • Ethnicity: • May be geography related (e.g., Pennsylvania Dutch) or not (African American Vernacular English, AAVE or Ebonics)

  13. Ways of classifying dialects • Social class: • Example: • 1. Received Pronunciation (RP) in Britain Received Pronunciation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia • 2. The Boston Brahmin dialect in the USA: Boston Brahmin • 3. R-lessness in New York City Ways of classifying dialects

  14. Ways of classifying dialects • Gender: • Japanese; • Age: • Youth sub-cultural group youth.doc

  15. Grammatical aspects of language variation • Phonetic Variation: • In the New York City dialects: dental 〔t〕 • In standard dialects of American English: alveolar〔t〕

  16. Grammatical aspects of language variation • Phonological Variation: • In some African American dialects, the Cr and Cl (C stands for consonant) are prohibited in unstressed syllables. • So “professor” is “professor” • “credentials” is “cedentials” • “香”in Mandarin and Taiwanese

  17. Grammatical aspects of language variation • Morphological variation • In northern England and Southern Wales: • I likes him. • We walks all the time.

  18. Grammatical aspects of language variation • Semantic variation: • “knocked up” in English English and American English • English Usage in the UK and USA

  19. Grammatical aspects of language variation • Syntactic variation: • In many Southern dialects in the USA: “done” as an auxiliary: • She done already told you. • Double modals: I might could do it.

  20. WEBSITE • Canadian English: Canadian

  21. Assignment 2 • Choose two varieties of a languages (for example: 國語 in Taiwan and 普通話 in China; 國語 and 台語 in Taiwan; ,,,) and try to analyze what factor (or factors) can explain for this variation. Then give examples in the aspects of phonetic, phonology, syntax, morphology, and semantics to illustrate the variations between these two varieties.

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