pst cho ling

7/28/2019 Pst Cho Ling

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May 04, 2013


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Outline

What is psycholinguistics?

Essential concerns of psycholinguistics

Basic concepts in psycholinguistic study


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Psycholinguistics= psycho + linguistics

Psycholinguistics is about how people uselanguage. Itis principally an integration of thefields of psychology and linguistics.


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Learning Vs AcquisitionAcquisition : The result of language acquisition is

subconscious. We are generally not consciously awareof the rules of the languages we have acquired.Instead, we have a feel for the correctness.

Learning is conscious knowledge of a second language,knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being

able to talk about them.


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Theories of Learning Learning:

A relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledgedue to experience.


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B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)


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Theories: Behavioural Primary Focus

Observable behaviour

Stimulus-responseconnections

Assumptions Learning is a result of

environmental forces

Major Theorists

Thorndike

Pavlov

Watson

B.F.Skinner

Principles

Time/place pairings

Biological basis ofbehaviour


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Behaviourist views of L1 acquisition Believed that language learned through imitation and habit

formation

BUT

What we say is unique so children are unlikely to remember exactlywhat they have heard

Children are creative in their language use: say things they willnever have heard before

Children overgeneralize rules, e.g. In English add ed ending to past

tense of irregular verbs Evidence that children also from an early stage accommodate to

their speakers

Children hear vast quantities of language too much to remembereverything

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Modern behaviorism: B. F. Skinner:The same premise: learning was the result of

environmental rather than genetic factors.

His contribution: 1) extended the possible application ofprinciples of conditioning by introducingthe notion of operants, the range of

behaviours that organisms performed orwere capable of performing.2) emphasized the importance of

reinforcement.


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Learning and Habit formation The baby is hungry________________ stimulus

The baby cries_____________________ Response

The mother picks and comforts_______ P. Reinforcement The mother gets angry______________ N. Reinforcement

The same process happens again_______ Repetition

Baby cries for food___________________ New behaviour


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Behaviourist learning theory The dominant psychological theory of the 1950s and 1960s

was behaviourist learning theory.

According to this theory, language learning is like any other

kind of learning in that it involves habit formation. Habitsare formed when learners respond to stimuli in theenvironment and subsequently have their responsesreinforced so that they are remembered.

Thus, a habit is a stimulus-response connection.


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All behaviour, including the kind of complexbehaviour found in language acquisition, couldbe explained in terms of habits.

Learning took place when learners had theopportunity to practise making the correctresponse to a given stimulus. Learners imitatedmodels of correct language (i.e. stimuli) andreceived positive reinforcement if they werecorrect and negative reinforcement if they wereincorrect.


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Mentalist approach All humans are hard-wired to learn to speak: definingfactor for humanity. If this is so, how to we classify those persons born without

the power of acquiring spoken language?

Children cannot simply learn from what they hear as this isoften fragmentary, ungrammatical and imprecise. YET Parents do accommodate their speech when taking to infants:

speak more slowly, more clearly and often in completesentences

Children have huge amounts of practice Parents do direct infants attention to aspects of language Infants early own can discover the limits of their

communicative competence, which may lead to further L1acquisition

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L.A is a result of experience L.A is a result ofcondition.

L.A is a stimulus response process L.A is innate, inborn

process L. is conditioned behaviour. L. is a species specific

behaviour.

Children learn L by imitation/analogy. Chldrn. L. by

application L Lngg is mechanical L.L. is generative/creative

Role of imitation,repetition Role of exposure

L.A. is Nurture L.A. is result of nature


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Theories: Social Cognition

Primary Focus Modelling Vicarious Learning Attitudes Goals

Assumptions Learning is a result of influences ofsocial environment on thinking.

Subcategories Observational (Social) Self-efficacy Goal-setting Self-regulation

Major Theorists

Bandura Vygotsky

Sears

Principles

Reciprocaldeterminism

Individualresponsibility


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Theories: Humanistic

Primary Focus Affect/Values Self-Concept/Self-Esteem Needs

Assumptions Learning is a result of

affect/emotion and goal-orientation

Subcategories Affect Motivation/Needs Self-concept Self-esteem

Major Theorists

Rogers

Maslow

Principles Individual uniqueness

Self-determination

Dreams and goals are

vital for success


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Theories: Cognitive

Primary Focus Mental behaviour Knowledge Intelligence Critical Thinking

Assumptions Learning is a result of mental

operations/ processing

Subcategories Information Processing

Hierarchical Developmental Critical Thinking

Major Theorists

Bloom

Piaget

Principles

Memory is limited

Changes incomplexity

Changes over time

Good thinkingrequires standards


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ConnectionismModels based on function of the

human brain

Process of adjusting the strength ofconnections to produce a desiredoutput

No innate mechanism Names: Rumelhart & McClelland (1986); Larsen-Freeman (1991)


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Other factors to consider

Many second language educatorsbelieve that individual learnercharacteristics play an important rolein language learning.What are some individual

characteristics among students that

would account for differences in theirlanguage learning?


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Individual Differences

What aresome learner

factors thatresult inindividual

differences?

Age

Aptitude

AttitudeMotivation

Personality

Cognitive style

Learning strategies


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Individual differences

People sense things differently (physicalenvironment, sensory modalities)

Learners differ in their social preferences

Learners differ in the way they process

information (perception, speed, )

How does one accommodate

these differences in the L2

classroom?


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Introduction Sixth sick sheiks sixth sheeps sick.

Whether the weather is cold, or whether the weather is

hot, well be together whatever the weather, whether welike it or not.


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Two classic models

of language acquisition

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)Every function in the childs

cultural development appears

twice: first, on the social level,

and later, on the individual level;

first, between people..., and

then inside the child. This applies

equally to voluntary attention,

to logical memory, and to the

formation of concepts. All the

higher functions originate as

actual relations between humanindividuals.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)We recall how, starting with purely

practical and quasi-physiological

groups, the child begins by

elaborating subjective groups, then

arrives at objective groups, and only

then becomes capable ofrepresentative groups.


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Four theories of L2 Acquisition Stephen Krashen's Five Hypotheses

The natural order hypothesis

The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis

The Monitor Hypothesis

The Input Hypothesis

The Affective Filter Hypothesis
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/LA_Krashen.pdfhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/LA_Krashen.pdf


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Interlanguage Larry Selinker

The learner does not learn the targetlanguage structure, they learn anintermediate structure

As the learner becomes more capable inthe target language their interlanguagemodel drifts closer to the target languagestructure

Fossilization occurs when the learnerceases to be interested in the nativisationof their interlanguage


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The reduced L1 model S. Pitt Corder

The learner starts with a simplified modelof their L1, and uses that to build their L2.

As they become more capable in the targetlanguage the learner elaborates theirmodel of the target language

Fossilization occurs when the learner feelsthey have a sufficient model of the targetlanguage


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Second Language Acquisition

Contrastive Analysis

growing out of work by Fries (1945) and Weinreich

(1953) most work on Second Language Acquisition

in the 40's and 50's shared the assumptions ofContrastive Analysis (Lado 1957)


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Contrastive Analysis based on transfer

from Native Language (NL) to Target Language (TL)

or First Language (L1) to Second Language(L2) shared structures facilitate acquisition

distinct structures cause problems

positive transfer when L1 and L2 share structures

e.g. Det Adj N structure in NP in English

and German

the mean dog - der bse Hund


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negative transferwhen L1 and L2 have

different structures

e.g. NP Adv VP in Urdu versusAdv NP VP in English

Hum rozana ghar jaatey hain

Tomorrow we go home

so research in Second Language Acquisition

tended to revolve around comparison of languagepairs


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Language Acquisition was seen as developing a setof habits to be practiced in accordance with

Behaviorist Theory

but researchers found errors not predictable bylanguage differences, and the psycholinguistic

process of language acquisition can't be described

solely in terms of linguistic products


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Approximative Systems and Interlanguage

In the 1960's, linguists rejected Behaviorism andbecame interested in mentalistic theories

evidence was mounting for a third system betweenL1 and L2

Nemser (1971) recognized anApproximative System

for the learner with features of both L1 and L2


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Selinker (1972) introduced the term Interlanguage

for this individual language system

Interlanguages are highly variable, due to:

limited cognitive attention, given so much to learn

and remember simultaneously Learners lack of knowledge of rules

simultaneous pull from L1 and L2

they represent transitional stages of development


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but L2 tends tofossilize at some stage, due to:

1. Negative transfer from L1

e.g. putting temporal Adv before locative Adv

*They went last week to Berlin.

2. Overgeneralization of L2 rulese.g. extending progressive pattern to stative verbs

*I'm knowing him a long time


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Error Analysis

concern with interlanguage and errors it contains and

their relation gave rise to research in Error Analysis

1. Researchers first look for idiosyncrasies in

learner's production


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Error Analysis ends up as a method of describing

data, but not a psycholinguistic theory of language

acquisition

Error Analysis loses sight of the whole picture of

developing competence in L2 by focusing on errors;

we could instead equate knowledge of L2 with fluencyand understandability rather than lack of errors

or we could instead focus on what learners do right

and test to see if they do it right intuitively

I I N l O d f


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Innateness, Input, Natural Order of

Acquisition in L2

The Innateness Debate from Child Language Research

carries over to research in Second Language Acquisition

Does the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) work forL2 as for L1?

If the LAD is at work, there should be a Natural Order of

Acquisition in L2

as in L1

.

Could L2 learners simply reset the parameters from L1?


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Dulay & Burt (1973) posit natural order of

acquisition in L2 parallel to what Brown (1973)

found for L1

at least learners with the same L1 background go

through the same stages in acquiring L2

1. plural -s on nouns: the books

2. progressive -ing on verbs: they driving

3. forms of main verb be: this is London,she was there


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4. forms of auxiliarybe: she's driving5. articles a and the: a cat, the dog

6. irregular past tenses: went, ate, came

7. 3rd person sing pres -s: she waits

8. possessive -s: Sally's truck


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Krashen's Input Hypothesis and

the Monitor Model

Language Acquisitionversus Language Learning

subconscious acquisition like children's L1

acquisition

not affected by correction

not based on formally learned rules


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Input Hypothesis

We acquire i + 1, the next rule along the natural order,

by understanding messages containing i + 1.

(a necessary but not sufficient condition for acquisition)

i = current level in phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis


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Bilingualism

individual bilingualism versus societal bilingualism

Compare: bilingualism versus diglossia (Ferguson)balanced versus unbalanced

bilingualism


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dominant, usually first, native language

versus

weaker, second or foreign language

(second or foreign language for special purpose)


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First Language Acquisition

Natural acquisition with no special learning necessary

critical periodresulting from a combination of factors:

development of connections between nerve cells

myelination of nerve cells


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lateralization of brain functions

dominance of left hemisphere

corresponding development of motor skills

general cognitive stages of development(Piaget)


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Developmental sketch

Age Language General(months)

9 babbling crawling

10 first words standing,

recurrent, maintained


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Age Language General

(months)

11 5-10 recurrent words first steps,

fulfills requests like: recognizes

bring me the blue ball pictures in

show me the big red dog books

12 5 distinct vowels starts walking

5 distinct consonants

A L G l


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(months)

13 recognizable words running,

daddy nein ball climbing furniture

allgone

14 imitations: horse, train simple puzzles,

reduplications: turns book pages

choochoo,byebye, tiktikclock


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(months)

16 recognizes own name points to himself:

20+ words Where's Nicky?

18 vocabulary explosion climbs stairs

2-word units: without rail


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(months)

20 3-word units: hangs on monkey

baba ghar (aya) bars, points to

also: eyes, nose, mouth

haben Nicky cookie


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(months)

22 verb + particle: dramatic

lock up / play,

4-word units: stuffedChacha Bazar Gaey hain animals,

Inni gute Nacht sagen dolls


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Age (months): 24

Language General

verb endings: Inni spuckt bisschen kicks soccer ball,

statement: Nicky auch essen plays hide-n-seek,

question: Nicky auch essen, ja? draws details:command: Nickyauch essen ears, tails, wheels

word-formation: cutterknife

ausklebentear apart

umwrts


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(months)

32 first real narrative: builds Legos,

It was a wooden lamby draws people

and it was on the floor and housein a barn with chimney

and they took it home and windows

and they washed it

and it wasn't ugly


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Age (months): 36

Phonetics

voiced th: initial okay in the this etc

medialvin other

voiceless th: initial s in sing final fin both

vocalizes final l and r

mispronunciations: amimals, cimamon, pasketti

h l


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Morphology

double plurals: mens, feets, mices

double preterites (Past): sawed, stooded regularized Past: goed, sitted

reverse word-formations: popcorner, mowgrasser

Syntax

negation: I see it not, That doll sits not right

questions: What it did? What the lady said?

counting: 1 2 3 4 5 6 20 14 fiveteen 16


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Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

as standard measure of first languagedevelopment as opposed to age

Natural order of acquisition:


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Natural order of acquisition:

"Why mama and papa?

Jakobson's order for phoneme acquisition

in babbling, children produce all kinds ofsounds and sound combinations; many

children produce imitations after babbling

but around age 2, children narrow their soundrepertory and begin to produce sounds of

their language in fixed order


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order reflects an attempt to create the clearest

possible set of distinctions at any given point, within

the given physiological limits

this order of acquisition also reveals parallelbetween different languages

most salient distinction is between Vowels (V) and

Consonants (C)

Vowels are characteristically open and resonant:


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Vowels are characteristically open and resonant:

the prototypical V is a

Consonants are characteristically closed andobstruent:

stops are prototypical Cs

the prototypical stop is p

the prototypical syllable is CV: maximizing the C-V

distinction, a child's first syllable should be pa

given children's tendency to reduplication,

a child's first real word should be papa


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after the Cs p and m , the child usually acquires t ,then the third voiceless stop k and so on:

p m t k

child moves on to ever larger patterns with

increasing numbers of distinctive features


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Order of acquisition for syntax

at first, kids produce: one-word utterances with holistic meaning

two-word utterances with no fixed word order

three-word utterances without inflections prepositions or other markers

then they begin to acquire syntax


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Brown's (1973) order of acquisition for syntax:

1. present progressive girl playing

2. prepositions ball in water

3. plural toys, dishes

4. irregular past tense went, told5. possessive Ann's toys

6. articles a dog, the dog

7. regular past tense jumped, hugged, wanted


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8. regular 3rd person she goes, talks, watches

9. irregular 3rd person she does, has

10. auxiliary be: I am, you are, she is

11. contracted auxiliary I'm, you're, she's

order of acquisition as reflecting general learning

strategies and stages of development (Piaget) or

as evidence of innate language acquisition device

(Chomsky)

Innateness Debate


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Innateness Debate

Chomsky (1986: 150) writes:

What we "know innately" are the principles of thevarious subsystems [phonology, syntax, thematic

structure etc.] of S0 [the initial state of the child's mind]

and the manner of their interaction, and theparameters associated with these principles. What

we learn are the values of the parameters and the

elements of theperiphery (along with the lexicon towhich similar considerations apply).


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That is:

We "know innately" as part ofUniversal Grammar (UG)

that sentences will have noun phrases and verb

phrases in some order, but we have to learn the order.

Chomsky argues children must know innately what

they can not learn by observation.

Poverty of Stimulus Argument (POS):


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y f gSome patterns in language are unlearnable frompositive evidence alone (due to the hierarchical

nature of languages)

You are happy. Are you happy?

possible rules:1) the first auxiliary verb in the sentence moves

to the front2) the main auxiliary verb in the sentence moves

to the front


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but compare:

The girl who is on the bus is happy.*Is the girl who __ on the bus is happy?

Is the girl who is on the bus __ happy?

Children don't see sentences like this enough to

decide which rule works but nobody ever chooses

the wrong rule


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Grammaticality judgments:

Who do you think Mary knows?

Who do you think that Mary knows?

Who do you think knows Mary?

*Who do you think that knows Mary?

Note translations!


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Consider the acquisition of vocabulary:

Websters dictionary: 500,000 words

Average educated persons vocabulary: 40,000 words

(+ another 40,000 proper names, idioms, sayings)

thus: monolingual speakers acquire about 4,000 words

per year or about 10 words every day to age 20

Slobin's Operating Principles &


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Slobin s Operating Principles &

Universals of Acquisition

Whether parts of language acquisition are innate ornot, developing kids seem to follow specific strategies

and their acquisition processes reveal universals

Operating PrinciplesA. Identify word units.

B. Forms of words may be systematically modified.

C. Pay attention to the ends of words.

D. There are elements which encode relationsbetween words.


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Universal 1: postposed forms learned before preposed

forms

articles before nouns less salient than noun

suffixes

Two languages in one brain


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A. Coordinate: L1 and L2 acquired

in separate contexts each system is complete in itself

person functions as monolingual inboth communities

g g

Types of bilinguals

Weinreich (1953) distinguished three kinds ofbilingualism

B Compound: L1 and L2 acquired in same context


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B. Compound: L1 and L2 acquired in same context

the two systems are merged

person doesn't function as monolingual ineither community

person may experience interference from

L1 to L2 and from L2 to L1

C Subordinate: L acquired based on L


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C. Subordinate: L2 acquired based on L1 only one system

person functions as monolingual only in L1

person experiences interference only from

L1 to L2

Notice that Weinreichs typology works

only at the lexical level, but bilinguals

may experience interference at all levels

from phonetics up to semantics.

As Paradis (1979, 1985) shows, bilinguals come in


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many types

Bilinguals may differ with regard to: manner of acquisition (formal, informal) mode of acquisition (oral, written) method of acquisition

(deductive, inductive, analytic, global) age of acquisition (during or after critical period) stage of acquisition degree of proficiency

frequency and modes of use


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frequency and modes of use language-specific features of L1 & L2 sharing features and rules at various levels

on every linguistic level, structures might beshared or separate

e.g. if L1 speaker produces L2 perfectly, except forphonetics, i.e. has lots of interference from L1 to L2at the level of phonetics, we could model the

situation as follows:


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Language comprehension

means understanding what we hear and read

comprehension as active search for coherence and

sense based on expectations arising from context,

not a passive item-by-item recording and analysis of

words in a linear sequence.

meaning and real-world expectations play a more


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g p p y

important role than grammar

top-down versus bottom-up processing

Until the age of four, kids interpret a-d the same way;

even adults require longer to respond to c, d:

a. The cat chased the mouse.

b. The mouse was chased by the cat.

c. The mouse chased the cat.d. The cat was chased by the mouse.


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Comprehension of words

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP):

separate, simultaneous and parallel processes workto identify words

by pronunciation: to recognize homophones


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leadN and ledV pst

by spelling: to recognize homographswindN and windV

by grammar: to recognize smell as noun or verbwhile hear can only function as verb

by semantics: synonyms like little and small

antonyms like little and bighyponyms like car versusvehicle etc


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Bathtub Effect:

recall is best for beginnings and ends of words, like

the head and feet of a person which are visiblethough the middle remains submerged in the tub

C h i f


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Comprehension of sentences

Chomsky proposed Generative TransformationalGrammar (TG) as a model ofCompetence,

suggesting that psycholinguists should figure out how

Performance could be related to his model

Psycholinguists began to test for transformational

complexity

Sentences involving more transformations like

PASSIVE NEGATION QUESTION FORMATION t


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PASSIVE, NEGATION, QUESTION FORMATIONetc

should be harder to comprehend than sentences

involving fewer transformations

processing time should increase for sentences a-e:

a. Judy called the boy.

b. Judy didn't call the boy.

c. The boy was called by Judy.

d. The boy was not called by Judy.e. Wasn't the boy called by Judy?

They found that negatives were harder to process


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They found that negatives were harder to process

than either passives or questions, even though

negation seemed like a simpler transformation

Subjects seemed to have difficulty processing

negatives generally.

Consider the difficulty of:

It's not true that Wednesday never comes

after a day that isn't Tuesday.

Subjects also processed passives more easily than


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Subjects also processed passives more easily than

actives, if the passives made more sense, e.g.

The struggling swimmer rescued the lifeguard.

The struggling swimmer was rescuedby the lifeguard.

Apparently, semantics was more important than

derivational complexity as predicted by TG analysis

Garden Pathingis most obvious when we have to


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backtrack after an unexpected switch, as in sentence

a; the addition ofthis in sentence b, or

a comma, as in sentence c, eliminates the problem

a. Since Jay always jogs a mile

seems like a short distance to him.

b. Since Jay always jogs a mile

this seems like a short distance to him.

c. Since Jay always jogs,

a mile seems like a short distance to him.


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Tests revealed other syntactic processing differences.

Right-branchingconstructions are easy to process:

This is the cat that chased the rat that stole

the cheese that lay in the cupboard.

Here each construction is closed before the next

is added.

But left-branching constructions are difficult.


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The rat the cat chased stole the cheese.

Left-branching requires that the listener keep the first

construction open (in short-term memory) while

processing the second. Adding a third makes

processing impossible because of the demands it

places on short-term memory.

The cheese the rat the cat chased stole layin the cupboard.

Comprehension of metaphor


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p p

metaphors consist of three parts:

tenor, vehicle, ground

tenor vehicle

billboards are warts on the landscape

ground (tertium comparationis) =

'ugly protrusions on some surface'

C h di t


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Comprehending sentences

Given-New Contract(Clark & Clark 1977):

Listeners expect information in a regular pattern.

Coherent texts generally exhibit a characteristic

information flow:

begin each utterance with given information

then move on to new information

e.g. The ballerina captivated a musician during


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g p g

her performance.

The one who the ballerina captivated was the

trombonist.

(with the ballerina as given and the rest of the first

sentence as new)

In the second sentence, all the information is given,

except the fact that the musician was a trombonist.

Hearing the first sentence reduces processing time forthe second.


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Theory of Instructed Language Learning

Rod Ellis

L2 utterances are Consciously planned orUnplanned

Pragmatic learning is more important tothe learner than semantic learning

Teaching should attend to form as well as

meaning

The lobes of the cerebral hemispheres


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p

Planning, decision

making speech Sensory

Auditory Vision

Th C b l C t


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The Cerebral Cortex

Aphasia impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere

damage either to Brocas area (impairing speaking) or toWernickes area (impairing understanding) see clips

Brocas Area an area of the left frontal lobe that directs the musclemovements involved in speech

Wernickes Area an area of the left temporal lobe involved in language

comprehension and expression


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Language Areas

Broca Expression

WernickeComprehensionandreception

Aphasias

LEFT HEMISPHERE

Paul Broca [1800s]


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[ ]

Suggested localization


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Brain Lateralization


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Hemispheric Specialization

LEFT

Symbolic thinking

(Language)

Detail

Literal meaning

RIGHT

Spatial perception

Overall picture

Context,metaphor

Contra-lateral division of


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labor

Right hemisphere controlsleft side of body and visualfield

Left hemisphere controlsright side of body and visualfield


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Split Brain Patients Epileptic (abnormal excessive or synchronous

neuronal activity in the brain) patients had corpuscallosum cut to reduce seizures in the brain

Lives largely unaffected, seizures reducedAffected abilities related to naming objects in the left

visual field


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Brain Plasticity


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Brain Plasticity The ability of the brain to reorganize

neural pathways based on new experiences

Persistent functional changes in the brainrepresent new knowledge

Age dependent component

Brain injuries


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EEG measures patterns of brain


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EEG measures patterns of brain

activity.


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MEG Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a technique for

mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fieldsproduced by electrical currents occurring naturally in

the brain.


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L2 acquisition

and language in

mind & brain

Brain activity in Spanish-Englishbilinguals reading words in native Spanish

& second language, English.

MEG responses to first language words,

second language words, and picturesduring lexico-semantic processing (~400ms after a word is shown). Regions witharrows indicate areas where responses to

pictures and L2 words are similar, butdiffer from the responses to L1 words.


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Nativist Noam Chomsky,proposed that children areborn with a language acquisition device (LAD), aninnate ability to understand the principles of language.

Once exposed to language, the LAD allows children tolearn the language at a remarkable pace.


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Linguist Eric Lenneberg suggests that like many otherhuman behaviors, the ability to acquire language issubject to what are known as critical periods. A critical

period is a limited span of time during which anorganism is sensitive to external stimuli and capable ofacquiring certain skills.



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Psycholinguistics deals withthe mental processes aperson uses in producing and understandinglanguage.

language comprehension (how we perceive and understand speechand written language)

language production (how we construct an utterance from idea tocompleted sentence)

language acquisition (how human beings learn language).

E ti l ti f h li i ti


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Essential questions of psycholinguistics

At its heart, psycholinguistic work consists of two questions.

What knowledge of language is needed for us to uselanguage?

What processes are involved in the use of language?


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The knowledge questionBasic assumption in linguistics:

A persons linguistic abilities are based on the knowledge

that they have.

The teachers eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentlesmile.


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The knowledge question

In a sense, we must know a language to use it, but weare not always fully aware of this knowledge.

Tacit knowledge: (not spoken) the knowledge of how to

perform various acts

Explicit knowledge: (fully and clearly expressed) theknowledge of the processes or mechanisms used in these acts(e.g. e-mailing, speech)

Although everyone knows and uses a specific language,few people understand what they know (Miller, 1991) .


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The knowledge question linguistic knowledge: about the meaning of words

encyclopedic knowledge: about the way the world is

spinster: (often derogative) woman who remains singleafter the usual age for marrying

friend: a person whom one knows, likes and trusts

They are cleaning women.


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Example

S

NP VP

They V NP

are cleaning women


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Example s

NP VP

are

They V NP

NADJ.

womencleaning


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Four broad areas of language knowledge:

Phonology: how to pronounce words

Syntax: how to construct grammatical sentences

Semantics: meanings of sentences and words. Pragmatics: how to communicate properly

It is not ordinarily productive to ask people explicitly what theyknow about these aspects of language. We infer linguisticknowledge from observable behavior.


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The process questionWhat cognitive processes are involved in the ordinaryuse of language?

ordinary use of language: e.g. understanding a lecture, reading a

book, writing a letter, and holding a conversation, etc.

cognitive processes: processes like perception, memory andthinking.

Although we do few things as often or as easily as speakingand listening, we will find that considerable cognitiveprocessing is going on during those activities.


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garden path sentence

The complex houses married and single students and their families.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Would you hit a woman with a baby? No I'd hit her with a brick.

The old man the boat.

The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Multan.

Fat people eat accumulates.


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garden path sentenceGarden path sentence: human beings process language

one word at a time. (from the saying "to be led down the garden path" meaning"to be misled)

garden path sentences: the subjective impression is oneof following a garden path to a predictable destinationuntil it is obvious that you were mistaken in your originalinterpretation and thus forced to backtrack and

reinterpret the sentence.

The point is that in the course of comprehending languagewe are making decisions---we are doing mental work.



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Serial and Parallel processing

Top-down and bottom-up processes

Automatic and controlled processes

Modularity



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If a group of processes takes place one at a time, it is calledserial processing. If one or more of the processes take placesimultaneously, it is calledparallel processing.

Serial processing (sequential processing): two or morepieces of information are processed in sequence

Parallel processing: two or more processing operations arecarried out at the same time or in parallel.

Example of serial and parallel processing


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p p p g

Starting point: the idea that the speaker wishes to convey

Ending point: the actual articulation of the idea

A serial model: divide the process into stages: developing the phrase

structure of the sentence, retrieving the lexical items, inserting lexicalitems into the structure, determining the correct pronunciation ofthese lexical items. The serial model would assume that these stagesoccur one at a time, with none overlapping.

A parallel model: all these processes could take place at the same time.We could be phonetically specifying one word while we search for thenext word, or both of these processes could take place as we flesh outthe syntactic structure.



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In the first instance,we interpret themiddle letter as an h inone word but as an a

in the other despitethe fact that the letteris physically identicalin the two cases.

Why?


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It seems reasonable to say that we are using the context to helpdecide the identity of the obscured letter.

However, that context is a word, and we normally think of first

identifying the letters and then identifying a word. How can we use theword to help identify the letter?

The answer lies in parallel processing. Assume that we are identifyingthe individual letters and, at the same time, actively trying to fit

the letters into various possible words. Some of the identical lettersenable us to recognize the word as a familiar word, and then we identifythe obscured letter from our knowledge of the spelling of the word.Thus,we are processing at the letter and the word levels simultaneously.



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Top down and bottom up processes

Language processing (e.g. listening) occurs on a set of levels.

At the lowest, the phonological level, identify the phonemes andsyllables.

At a higher level, the lexical level, use the identification of phonemesand syllables to retrieve the lexical entries of the words from yoursemantic memory.

At the next level, the syntactic level, organize the words intoconstituents and forming a phrase structure for the sentence.

Finally, at the highest level, the discourse level, link the meaning of agiven sentence with preceding ones and organizing sentences intohigher-order units.


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Examples of top-down processes


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Examples of top down processes

Please call me if you want a lift, its very convenient for me as Ipass your home every day.

You simply pass the button, and the lift will take you to yourfloor.

They have moved 30 tons of food to the flooded village in asingle lift.

The fog lifted and the sun came out.

The Japanese government rejected Washingtons demands to liftits beef embargo.



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Top down and bottom up processes

Bottom-up processing:that which proceeds from the lowest level tothe highest level of processing in such a way that all of the lower levelsof processing operate without influence from the highest level.

A top-down processing model, in contrast, states that information atthe higher levels may influence processing at the lower levels.

Speaking more intuitively, we may say that a top-down model ofprocessing is one in which ones expectations play a significant role.


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We have a fixed processing capacity for handling information. Whenthe task is complex, one part of the task may draw substantial resourcesfrom this limited pool of resources, thereby leaving insufficientresources for other parts and resulting in overall impaired performance.

Tasks that draw substantially from this limited pool of resources arecalled controlled tasks, and the processes involved in these tasks arereferred to as controlled processes.

Tasks that do not require substantial resources are called automatictasks; processes that do not require extensive capacityare referred to asautomatic processes.



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Perhaps one of the best examples that illustrates how both processeswork is the human act of driving a car.

Almost everything you do on the way [to your destination] will be

automatic: breathing, blinking, shifting in your seat, daydreaming,keeping enough distance between you and the car in front of you, evenscowling and cursing slower drivers." Meanwhile, you may beconsciously thinking about something other than driving, or perhapsannoying other drivers by chatting with a friend on the cellphone.


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Consider:

What factors might influence the extent of

automatic processing? Can a person improve his or

her level of automaticity?

Modularity


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y Modularity is a term taken from computer technologyfor a concept of

subsystems with specific tasks, which due to the fact that theyfunction independently, can to a large extent be isolated.

For Chomsky, grammatical regularities are not based on generalcognitive principles, but on principles that are specific for language.

This grammatical knowledge is independent of other kinds ofknowledge. It is conceptualized as a module next to other modulessuch as visual perception.

In psycholinguistics, modularity refers to

particular systems in information processing.

Modularity


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Modularityhas two meanings: first, it refers to the degree to whichlanguage processing is independent of general cognitive processessuch as memory and reasoning.

The modularity position: the language processing system is a

unique set of cognitive abilities that cannot be reduced to generalprinciples of cognition.

The alternative position stresses the interconnections betweenlanguage and cognitive processes by emphasizing the role ofconcepts such as working memory, automatic processing, and

parallel processing in language comprehension, production andacquisition.

It also refers to the degree to which an aspect of language isindependent of other aspects of language.


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A brief summary Brain Anatomy

First Language acquisition

Second Language Acquisition


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A brief summarywe have covered

definition and scope of psycholinguistics

two core questions of psycholinguistics

basic concepts in language processing

serial and parallel processing, top-down and bottom-up processing,and automatic and controlled processes as well as modularity.

We have a number of ways of processing linguistic information. That is,language processing is not just determined by linguistic structure but

jointly by that structure and by processing considerations that areindependent of language.


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An exploration into the relationship

between language and culture.

Fundamental Question


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a.What is the relationship between language and culture?

b.Humans are the only animal to have culture.

c.Humans are the only animal to have language.

d. How do the two connect?

e. What is language? what members of a particular society

speak (Wardhaugh 1).


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Different Meanings of Languagea.I know I don't speak English correctly.

b.Most French-Canadians prefer to speak French, even though they can

speak English too.

c. The treaty wasn't ready to sign until both sides had a chance to look over

the language.

d. A polyglot is someone who knows many languages. A linguist is someone

who can analyze language structure.

e. English is the most widely-spoken language in the world.

f.American thought and language.g.I need to work on my language skills.

h. When Fred speaks to Sam, sometimes he uses English and sometimes Arabic.


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Three Views of Language

o Language as Grammar:

o Language as communication:

o Language as thing:

Language as Grammar


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Language as Grammar

The object of a science of linguistics (Saussure).

oam oms y(1928-)


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Syntactic Structures

Review of Skinner: Verbal Behavior

(1959)

Universal Grammar

difference between surface structure and

deep structure in language

Grammar


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Grammar

Three sub-systems

Representational

Phonology (sounds), graphic, gestural

Lexical morphology; words and morphemes

(Syn)tactic = syntax

L i ti


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Language as communication Language as Text.

The Interaction of People

The Interpretation of Texts

What do you communicate? Ideas? Emotions? Intentions? How do you communicate?

Messages:

The interpretation of messages The construction of messages


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Language as thing Language as an element in social constructs.

Language planning, code switching, dialect debates.


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Note: to distinguish between and language and


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communication,look at the following questions:

1. Is language as Dawkins suggests part of the DNA of

homosapiens?2. Is there a creative component (the horrible honeybee

story)

C t P f


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Competence v. PerformanceLangue v parole

Structure v event

Structural v communicative

universal v dialect

pproac es o anguage an cu ure


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Wardhaugh, quite sensibly, argues that sociolinguistics is

both macrolinguistic and microlinguistic: Microlinguistic-- language emphasis

Macrolinguistics social emphasis

Whorf, Politeness; French Structuralism (Lvi-Strauss).

Communicative approaches: p. 14Language and power (Fairclough), Social construction ofreality (Berger and Luckmann); Language and SymbolicPower (Bourdieu); Pragramatics (Austin)

Use Approaches:Language Planning, Multilingualism

LINGUISTICS AND


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SOCIOLINGUISTICS Linguistics is the study of language includes

psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, morphology,syntax, semantics etc

Sociolinguistics is the study ofvariation of language inuse we use different words or grammatical formsdepending on context

V i ti


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VariationVariation is determined by social class, gender, place,

age, situation etc.

Would you use the same words, syntax and phonology

(or even the same language) to ask for a loan from aYB, friend, father, mother, bank, total stranger?

Sociolinguistics and Language

T hi


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Teaching Implications and questions for language teaching

Teachers are supposed to teach to teachcommunicative competence.

Therefore should they try to teach language as it isactually used? If so, as used by whom?

ti d


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continued Teachers need to consider the language/dialect/accent

used by their students Malay dialects(?), Javanese,Manglish, Singlish, Black English, Chinese dialects(?)

May be different from teachers variety and fromstandard language


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LANGUAGE, DIALECT, ACCENT, CODE, VARIETY

Imagine you move to a village or housing estate 5 milesfrom you home do people speak differently?

50 miles?

200 miles To Indonesia

To Rapanui (eye=mata,fish=ika, bird =manu)

ti d


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continuedWhen do you stop understanding people?

When do people stop understanding you?

How long to learn the local ?

ti d


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continuedWhen does an accent become a dialect?

When does a dialect become a language?

A linguist would say if pronunciation is the only

difference, it is a dialect, if words and grammar aredifferent, but still still intelligible, it is a dialect.

contin ed


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continued

What would a sociolinguist say?

Depends on social attitudes and politics

a language is a dialect with an army and a navy(maybe a parliament, a newspaper and a TV channel isenough)

continued


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continued But does this describe social reality?

For a linguist, if two people understand one anotherthey are speaking the same language

Serbs, Croats, Bosnians understand each other butinsist they speak different languages (since 1991)

.

Continued


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Continued Indians speaking Hindi understand Pakistanis

speaking Urdu but claim they speak a differentlanguage

Speakers of Hokkien dialect cannot understandCantonese or Mandarin speakers, but do not claim tospeak a separate language

continued


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continuedWhy did Scots and Ulster Scots suddenly become

languages in the 1990s?

Before then, they were only dialects but now are

languages recognised by the Scottish and NorthernIreland parliaments

Is this English?


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Is this English?

Hear all see all say nowt

Eat all sup all pay nowt

And if tha ever does owt for nowt, allus do itfor thisen

Answer


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Answer Nearly everybody would say yes. Yorkshire dialect

(distinctive lexis and some grammar, distinctivepronunciation)

Is Arabic a language?


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Is Arabic a language?Arabic, Algerian Saharan Spoken

Arabic, Algerian SpokenArabic, Babalia Creole

Arabic, Baharna SpokenArabic, Chadian SpokenArabic, Cypriot SpokenArabic, Dhofari SpokenArabic, Eastern Egyptian

continued
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aaohttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arqhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bbzhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=abvhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=shuhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=acyhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=adfhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=avlhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=avlhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=adfhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=acyhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=shuhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=abvhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bbzhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arqhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aao


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continued National language. 246,000,000 second-language

speakers of all Arabic varieties (1999 WA). Not afirst language. Used for education, officialpurposes, written materials, and formal speeches.Classical Arabic is used for religion and ceremonialpurposes, having archaic vocabulary. ModernStandard Arabic is a modernized variety ofClassical Arabic. In most Arab countries only the

well educated have adequate proficiency inStandard Arabic, while over 100,500,000 do not.

Answer


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AnswerArabs generally insist there is only one language.

Sociolinguists would have to agree with them butwould also analyse the relationship between the

different varieties.

Is English a language?


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Is English a language? Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, West Country, East Anglia,

Birmingham (Brummy, Brummie), South Wales,Edinburgh, Belfast, Cornwall, Cumberland, CentralCumberland, Devonshire, East Devonshire, Dorset,

Durham, Bolton Lancashire, North Lancashire,Radcliffe Lancashire, Northumberland, Norfolk,Newcastle Northumberland, TynesideNorthumberland, Lowland Scottish, Somerset, Sussex,

Westmorland, North Wiltshire, Craven Yorkshire,North Yorkshire, Sheffield Yorkshire, West Yorkshire.Lexical similarity 60% with German, 27% with French,24% with Russian.


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Is Malay a language?


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Is Malay a language? Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Malayu, Malayu, Melaju,

Melayu, Standard MalayDialects Trengganu,Kelantan, Kedah, Perak (Southern Malay), SarawakMalay, Bazaar Malay (Low Malay, Pasar Malay, Pasir

Malay, Trade Malay). 'Bazaar Malay' is used to refer tomany regional nonstandard dialects. Over 80%cognate with Indonesian.

Is Indonesian a language?


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Is Indonesian a language? Bahasa Indonesia ClassificationAustronesian,

Malayo-Polynesian, Malayic, Malayan, Local MalayLanguage use Official language. Over 140,000,000

second-language speakers. Language developmentRoman and Arabic scripts. Grammar. CommentsReported to be modeled on Riau Malay ofnortheast Sumatra. Has regional variants. Over

80% cognate with Standard Malay.

Questions
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=indhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=indhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=indhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=indhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=indhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=ind


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Questions Is Malay one Language? How many dialects?

Is English?

Chinese?

Arabic?

Summary


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Summary For a linguist the rules for deciding whether a variety is

a language or dialect are simple. Can peopleunderstand each other?

In sociolinguistics it is difficult to decide history,attitudes and politica have to be considered also.

Speech Communities


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Speech CommunitiesA group of people with the same rules about the use

and correctness of language

May not coincide with language or dialect

E.g. Malaysian Chinese, Arabs, Ireland

continued


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continued Semi-speakers of dying languages Celtic languages in

Britain

Linked to communicative competence may not bethe same as linguistic competence

Sociolinguistic Methods


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Sociolinguistic Methods

Questionnaires

Interview

Observation

Participant-Observation

Experiments

Analysis of Texts

Archive research

Sociolinguistic questions


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Sociolinguistic questions How and why do languages change (and die)?

How do people decide which variety to use?

Are men and women different?

To what extent can governments control the use oflanguage?

Does language vary with social class?

continued


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continued To summarise sociolinguists study how linguistics

features vary

When variation is extensive enough and found acrossdomains, sociolinguistics talk about varieties and

codes Sometimes these are the same as languages and

dialects (as described by linguists)

continued


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continued But sometimes not sociolinguists also consider social

attitudes and status.


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1. Social structure may influence ordetermine linguistic structure and/or

behaviour2. Linguistic structure/behaviour

influences or determines socialstructure (Whorfian hypothesis)

3 Language and society


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3. Language and society

affect each other

4. No relationship at all

between language and

culture

Desperate Definitions:


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Sociolinguistics is an attempt to

find correlations betweenlinguistic structure and social

structure


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Sociolinguistswhatever it is, is about asking

important questions concerning

the relationship of language to

society (Wardhaugh 11)

This is not reassuring


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This is not reassuring Even our textbook seems unable to give us a

straightforward, agreed upon definition ofsociolinguistics.

Lets try the discussion questions on page 12 ofWardhaugh. Get into groups of 4 or 5 and take 15minutes to go over questions 1 and 2.


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Methodological principles

Wardhaugh p. 18

1. Cumulative2. Uniformation

3. Convergence

4. Subordinate shift

5. Style shifting

6. Attention

7. Vernacular

8. Formality

Sociolinguistics

(summary)


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(summary)

What is sociolinguistics?It studies why people speak differently according

to:- Whom they are talking to?

- What they are talking about?

- In what kind of context they are talking?

More specifically


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More specifically

1. Social motivation for language variation:

- socio-economic status

- gender

- ethnicity- region

etc.

2. Language contact

- Pidgin language

- Creole language

Basic concepts you should know:


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Basic concepts you should know:

Dialect vs. language:

Mutual intelligibility:

Situation in which speakers of different language varieties are able to

understand and communicate with the other.- Chinese dialect, a special case

Dialect continuum:

Situation in which a large number of contiguous dialects exist, each

mutually intelligible with the next, but with the dialects at either endof the continuum not being mutually intelligible.

Several points to be noticed:


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Several points to be noticed:Overt prestige vs. covert prestige- Overt prestige:

Type of prestige attached to a particular variety by thecommunity that defines how people should speak in order togain status in the wider community

- Covert prestigeType of prestige that exists among members of nonstandard-

speaking communities that defines how people should speakin order to be considered members of those particularcommunities.

e.g. the young boy in American TonguesAfrican American speech community

Pidgin vs. Creole language

Pid i l


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Pidgin language:Language developed by speakers of distinct languagewho come into contact with one another and share nocommon language among them.

- originates to overcome communication barriers

- typically spring up in trading centers- made of mixtures of elements from all of the

languages in contact

- most of the vocabulary derived from socially or

economically dominant language

Creole language


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Creole language:

a language that develops from contact between speakers ofdifferent languages and serves as the primary means of

communication for a particular group of speakers- typical in plantation setting

- some of them are stabilized pidgin

- different from pidgin, Creole language serves as the

first language for speakers

Diglossia


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195

Diglossia Holmes: The use of two varieties in a society,

distinguished by function High and Low varieties; Typical functions of the H variety:

Literature, education, law, governmentadministration, news broadcasts; H variety used on formal/official occasions e.g.

delivering a speech; holding a meeting. The Hvariety is usually learnt in school.

L variety used for everyday, more informalpurposes. L variety is usually an L1 and learntat home.

Attitudes to H and L varieties


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196

Attitudes to H and L varieties H variety has high prestige;

Why doesnt a society use only the H variety?

Overt prestige Covert (hidden) prestige

The Case of Singapore


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197

e Case o S gapo e Holmes Table 2.4 (p.32)

H (Mandarin, Singapore English formal variety)

L (Cantonese, Hokkien, Singapore English informal

variety)


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198

Watch the video on Singapore and compare itslinguistic situation with that of Hong Kong (level ofindividual and societal bilingualism)

Diglossia without bilingualism


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199

g g Luke & Richards (1982):A society where two or more languages are

commonly used but in which: i) individual linguistic repertoires are largely

confined to one of the languages ii) a single language is used for intra-group

communication iii) bilingualism is restricted to certain areas of

public life iv) the bilingual population is smallv) the two speech communities rarely mix

Case studies

r Lessness in New York City:


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r-Lessness in New York City:

lack of [r] in words as four, card etc. in New York dialect

- misconception: there is a total lack of [r] in those words for speakersof the dialect.

- Labov: speakers vary their use of [r] according to their social status.

high status: the use of [r]

low status: the lack of [r]

hypothesis: salespeople tend to reflect the prestige of their customers.

Salespeople from the highest prestige store would exhibit

the highest incidence of [r] in their speech, while thosefrom the lowest prestige store would exhibit the lowest

incidence of [r]

Sociolinguistics

Study the relationship between language and society.l i i h k diff l i diff i l


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1. explaining why we speak differently in different socialcontexts

2. identifying the social functions of language and theways it is used to convey social meaning.

An attempt to find correlations between social structure andlinguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur(Gumpers, 1971: 223)

Language and society intertwined impossible to

understand one without the other.

The language used by the participants is influenced by anumber of social factors.

Sociolinguistics vs. the Sociology of

language


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a guage

Sociolinguistics

investigating the relationships between languageand society with the goal of a better understandingof the structure of language and of how languagesfunction in communication

Sociology of language

to discover how social structure can be better

understood through the study of language, e.g.how certain linguistic features serve tocharacterize particular social arrangement

Sociolinguistics vs. the Sociology of

language


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g g

Hudson, 1980: 4-5

a. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relationto society,

b. Sociology of language: the study of society inrelation to language

Similarity:

a. Both require systematic study of language.

The relationship between language andsociety (wardaugh, : 10)


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1. Social structure linguistic structure and/or behaviora. age-grading phenomenonyoung children speak differently from olderchildren and in turn, children speak differently

from mature adults.b. studies the varieties of language that speakers

use reflect such matters; their regional, social, orethnic origin and possible sex.

c. other studies

particular ways of speaking,choices of words, and rules for conversing aredetermined by social requirement

The relationship between language

and society (wardaugh, : 10)


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y

2. Linguistic structure and/or behavior may eitherinfluence or determine social structure (behindWhorfian hypothesis)

3. The influence is bi-directional; language and societymay influence each other.

4. There is no relationship at all.


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Example I


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pTom : Hi mum.

Mum : Hi. Youre late.

Tom : Yeah, that bastard Soot bucket kept us in again.

Mum : Nanas here.Tom : Oh sorry. Where is she?

Analysis I


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y Language serves a range of functions; to ask for and

give people information, to express indignation andannoyance, as well as admiration and express feelings.

Example II


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pTom : Good afternoon, sir.

Principle : What are you doing here at thistime?

Tom : Mr. Sutton kept us in, sir.

For the analysis, see Holmes, 1995: 2-3

Example III


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Every afternoon my friend packs her bag andleaves her Cardiff office at about 5 oclock. As sheleaves, her business partner says goodbyeMargaret, (she replies goodbye Mike) her secretary

says goodbye Ms Walker, (she replies goodbye Jill)and the caretaker says Bye Mrs. Walker (to whichshe responds goodbye Andy). As she arrives homeshe is greeted by Hi mum from her son, Jamie,

hello dear, have a good day?, from her mother, andsimplyyoure late again! from her husband.

Example III


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Later in the evening the president of the local flowerclub calls to ask if she would like to join. Goodevening, is that Mrs. Billington? she asks. No, its MsWalker, but my husbands name is David Billington,she answers. What can I do for you? Finally a friendcalls Boradar Meg, hows thing?

Example IV


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Sam : You seen our enrys new ouse yet? Its in altonyou know.

Jim : I have indeed. I could hardly miss it Sam. Your

Henry now owns the biggest house in Halton.It illustrated a range of social influences on languagechoice.

Social dimensions


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A Social distance scale concerned with participantrelationship

A status scale concerned with participant relationship

A formality scale relating to the setting or type ofinteraction

Two functional scales relating to the purposes or topicof interaction

The solidarity social distance

scale


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Intimate Distant

High solidarity Low solidarity

The scale is useful in emphasizing that how well weknow someone is a relevant factor in linguistic choice.

e.g. meg vs. Mrs. Belington

The status scale


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Superior high status

Subordinate low status

e.g.1. The use of sir, Mrs., to the lecturer by the students2. The [h]-dropping reflect someones lower social group

The formality scale


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Formal High formality

Informal Low Formality

1. Useful in assessing the influence of social setting ortype of interaction on language choice.

2. Often degrees of formality are largely determined by

solidarity and status relationship. But not always.

The referential and affective

function scales


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Referential

High low

Information informationContent content

affective

Low high

Affective affective

Content content

The referential and affective

function scales


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1. The more referentially oriented an interaction is, theless it tends to express the feelings of the speaker.


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Chaika ( 1988, 10)the context determines meaning,

1. the social status of speakers

2. the speech event and social conventionsgoverning it;

3. the social-cultural and physical environment

4. previous discourse between the speakers or

known to them5. the intent of the speaker.

Conclusion


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Our word choices depend on who we are talking to. Language choices convey information about the social

relationships between people as well as about the topicof discussion.

Linguistic variation occurs at other levels of linguisticanalysis: sounds, word-structure, grammar as well asvocabulary.

pst cho ling

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