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Language

Language. Introduction. about 5,000-6,000 different languages spoken in the world today English is far the most world wide in its distribution 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand and speak English to some degree.

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Language

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  1. Language

  2. Introduction • about 5,000-6,000 different languages spoken in the world today • English is far the most world wide in its distribution • 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand and speak English to some degree Countries in Which English Is an Officialor de facto Official Language (red areas)

  3. Video: Last Speaker of "Extinct" Language Found (3:50) • about 1/2 of the world's languages are no longer spoken by children • 900 native languages spoken by the 5-10 million people of New Guinea • that’s roughly 1/6 of all languages being spoken by far less than 1% of the world's people

  4. What is Language? • unique in being a symbolic communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited • symbols are sounds or things which have meaning given to them by the users • they are abstractions • they are infinitely flexible when combined • Birth of a Language (4:57) Do the following words sound or looklike the animal shown here: dog, canis,chien,hund,perro?

  5. Language vs. Speech • speech is a broad term simply referring to patterned verbal behavior • alanguage is a set of rules for generating speech • a dialect is a variant of a language • regional dialect • associated with a geographically “isolated” speech community • Boston, Texas, Wisconsin…. • social dialect • spoken by a speech community that is merely socially isolated • mostly based on class, ethnicity, gender, age • Black English (or Ebonics) • nushu – females in China used to maintain support networks in their male dominated society

  6. Analysis of Language • linguists divide the study of spoken language into two categories • phonology is the study of sounds • phoneme • smallest unit of sound that can be altered to change the meaning of a word • do not have meaning by themselves • in English the words gin, kin, pin, sin, tin, and win all have different meaning • they can change the meaning of words

  7. grammar is how the sounds are used to make sense • morphology • concerned with how the sounds are combined in order to have meaning (words) • syntax • standardized set of rules that determine how words should be combined to make sense (sentences) • for example-- you, are, and there can be combined in three different ways • There you are.          You are there.         Are you there?

  8. Learning Language • language is arguably the most important component of culture because most of culture is transmitted through language • young children have the genetic propensity to learn language • Becoming Multilingual • is easier in early childhood than later • linguistic interference • learning a second language can be affected by the patterns of the first language

  9. Hidden Aspects of Communication • communication is far more than speech and writing • paralanguage • other communication methods • messages that can be observed through face to face contact makes it more difficult to lie or to hide emotions • has been suggested that as much as 70% of what we communicate when talking directly with others is through paralanguage

  10. Forms of paralanguage • kinesics • gestures, expressions, and postures • tone and character of voice • a voice that is high, low, quick, slow, rising, falling, whispering, whining, yelling, or sighing can convey… • proxemics • the distance our bodies are physically apart Japanese avoiding eye contact in a crowd

  11. cultural use of space • cultural use of time • when people appear for an appointment varies with the custom, social situation, and their relative status

  12. communicating with clothes/body decorations • communicate status, intentions, and other messages • could even be paint, tattoos, decorative scaring and branding, perfumes, and even body deformation

  13. Summary • human communication process is more complex than it initially seems • much of our messages in face to face contact are transmitted through paralanguage • these auxiliary communication techniques are highly culture bound • communication with people from other societies or ethnic groups is fraught with the danger of misunderstanding if their culture and paralanguage is unknown to you or ignored

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