NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Reported by: Susanna Rose A. LabastillaMA Speech Communication

What is Language?

Language is a speech. Speech is language. The written record but a secondary representation of the language. – Charles Fries

Language is a system of signals conforming to the rules which constitutes its grammar. It is a set of culturally transmitted behavior patterns shared by a group of individuals. – Joseph Greenberg

What is Language?

Language is a code: a set of elements forms composed of sounds, letters, their combinations…into words, sentences, etc…used for communication between individuals who share the same rules. – Roger Bell

Language is a system which relates meaning to substance. It is a mental phenomenon that is innate. All children in the world over acquire a mother language. – Noam Chomsky

What is Language?

When we use language we are not just saying something. We are doing something as well, like promising, asking information, etc. – Searle and Austin

Language has two elements. One is cognitive, active which comprises the linguistic features of the language. The other is emotive or effective. - Oller

What is Language?

Meaning does not reside in the words per se but in the context of the situation. – Malinowski

For communication to take place, the sender and receiver of the message should have shared presuppositions. - Widdowson

Function of Language

Do you recall what Searle and Austin said about the nature of language?

They said----when we say something we are also doing something as we say it.What They Say What They are Doing

A. You did this.B. Of course not!

AccusingDenying

A. Who did it then?B. Why don’t you try

asking Ben?

Asking informationMaking suggestion

A. I’ll do that.B. I’m sorry I was quick

to blame you.

Accepting suggestionApologizing

Shifting Theories of LanguageTheory A Theory B

First a bright person comes up with an idea and expound on it. This is his thesis. Others see the wisdom of his assertion or thesis and so they follow him and a school of thought is born.But then another brilliant person reacts to what the first person said and a takes the opposite stand . That becomes the antithesis. He too, will have followers of his own.A third one comes and sees the wisdom of both school of thought. She tries to put the two together and so comes up with the synthesis.But the swing to the other end continues, followed by another reaction, resulting to a continuous swinging from one end to the other. But with its swing and counter movement, something new is added.

First, some perceptive mind observes what happens and comes up with an idea or paradigm. That results in the emergence of paradigm.Other agree with the idea and even try to refine it. So then paradigm enter the mature science period and many schools subscribing to that paradigm develop.Then someone find a follow or anomaly in the paradigm at first , there are attempts to reconcile the anomaly. But soon nothing can be done to correct and so a new paradigm is born.The new paradigm goes through the same process of maturing until an anomaly is again discovered and the cycle continues. But with each cycle and new paradigm, something is added.

Shifting Theories of Language

Theory AThesis

Antithesis

synthesis

Shifting Theories of Language

Theory BEmergency of Paradigm

Refinement and

Maturity of Paradigm

Discovery of Anomaly in

the Paradigm

Attempts to reconcile

the anomaly

Shift to the new

paradigm

In the beginning…. Latin based grammar Latin was classical language Aged of Classical Humanism 1900s language were studied independently as a

system Sounds as the smallest unit Sounds – words – utterance – sentences –

paragraph or discourse Language is a structure, a system, where the lower

units combined to form the next higher units. The structural approach of language prevailed up

to 1960s

In the beginning….

Discourse Paradigm

Grammar of Sentences

Meaningful Units-Words and Affixes

Significant Sounds

1960s Anomaly….

In the 1960s, an anomaly was found in the theory of language.

The anomaly was that, sometimes you use the same form but come up with different meanings.

The function of utterance counts; this is its illocutionary force.

The expected response is the perlocutionary force

Three Forces

In such an instance were all three forces – lucotionary, illocutinary, and perlocutionary – are considered, language is viewed not just as a system made up of forms but as a means of communication.

Communicative Competence

Communicative Competence

Linguistic Competen

ce

SociolinguisticsCompeten

ce

Discoursal Competenc

e

Strategic Competenc

e

What really is language? Language sets human being apart from other animals. Getting to speak a language is innate among human

beings. This means that every person is programmed to acquire

hi/her native language provided he/she is exposed to it. The ability to speak language is specific to our species Even without formal training, a child by the time he/she

reaches five years old, has internalized the grammar of his/her native tongue.

Every native speaker therefore, becomes competence in his/her own language.

Those who become competent in two languages are said to be bilingual while those who attain competence in more than two languages are called polyglots.

Linguistic

Linguistics is defined by William G. Moulton as “ the branch of learning which studies the language of any and all human societies: how such a language is constructed; how it varies through space and changes through time; how it is related to other languages; how it is used by its speakers.”

Moulton points out that fundamental to all branches of linguistics are some basic questions namely:

What is language? How does it work? What happens when a speaker says

something and a hearer understands him/her?

Two Main Branches of Linguistics Theoretical linguistics is concerned with the

nature of language and its components. Grammarians study the significant units of a

language and their patterns of arrangement. They try to arrive at the rules of correct usage of the language they are investigating and they put down their findings into writing.

Applied linguistics has to do with language use, how it is learned and acquired, and how it may be taught.

Those concerned with what enables one to acquire a language and with methods of teaching a language are applied linguists.

Linguistics

Theoretical

Linguistics

Synchronic Studies

Diachronic Studies

Descriptive

linguistics

Historical linguistic

s

Comparative

linguistics

Discourse

SyntaxMorpholog

yPhonolog

y

Bound Morphem

es

Free Morpheme

sAcoustic Phonetics

Articulatory

Phonetics

Structural

Grammar

Semantic GrammarPedagogi

cal Grammar

Genre Analysis

Text Analysis

What is Applied Linguistics? Field of study that identifies,

investigates, and offers solution to language related problems.

It can be applied to all aspects of language use. It deals with mother, foreign, second language acquisition.

It describes the language, and teaches how it is used.

What is Applied Linguistics?

Linguistics

Applied Linguistics

Education

Applied Linguistics Application

Clinical Linguistics – analysis and treatment of language disorders

Language Acquisition – language 1 and language 2

Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages – developing foreign language teaching methods

Educational Linguistics – the use of the mother tongue in school

Applied Linguistics Application

Lexicography – theory and practice in organizing dictionaries; methods and techniques for creating dictionaries

Computational Linguistics – the use of computers in language analysis and use

Machine Translation – computerized translation

ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

Applied Linguistics Application

Language Assessment – to measure students learning of languages, to determine what a student knows and/ or can do and how well instruction is proceeding.

Forensic Linguistics – the application of linguistic knowledge, methods and insights to the context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, experts, court, evidence, law, jurislinguistique.

Applied Linguistics Application Data Mining – the process of processing large

volumes of data usually stored in a database and searching for patterns and relationship within that data. It is automatic extraction and processing of data.

Language pedagogy – theory of developing teaching methods

Psycholinguistics – the study of the psychological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce speech, relationship between language and human behavior.

Applied Linguistics Application Internet Linguistics – it studies new

language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the Internet and Short Message Service (SMS)

Sociolinguistics – study of the link between language and society

Neurolinguistics – describes the aplication of linguistic theories to the classification and analysis of acquired disorders of language or speech in patients with brain damage

Applied Linguistics Application Language Interpretation – facilitating

of oral or sign language communication between user of different languages

Corpus linguistics – the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) or “real world” text; it is approach to deriving a set of abstract rules b y which a natural language is governed or else relates to another language

Applied Linguistics Application Text Analysis – written discourse Language Culture, and Pragmatics –

cultural aspects in language teaching in intercultural communication

Language Control/ Dialectology – study of linguistic dialect, variations in language and is based primarily on geographic distribution; divergence of two local dialect from a common ancestor and synchronic variation

APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Education – teaching, learning,

acquisition, assessment

Linguistics – The study of the

nature, structure, and variation of

language, including

phonetics, phonology,

morphology and the study of

human speech, language form,

language meaning and language in

context

Anthropology – the scientific study of the origin and

behavior of man, including the

physical, social, and cultural

development of societies and

cultures

Psychology – the science of mind and behavior, and the application of such

knowledge of various spheres of

human activity, such as education,

health, occupational and employment

services

Sociology – the scientific study of

human social behavior and study of the

society

Important Contribution of Linguistics to the Classroom Teacher

I still believe that the most important contribution that linguistics can make to the classroom teacher is in reshaping his view of language and of language learning. These are matters of attitude and concept rather than one of grammatical analysis as compared with another or of a series of judgments about the acceptability of any number of specific forms and expressions. Linguistically sound materials can be expected to produce satisfactory results only when they are used by linguistically knowledgeable and sophisticated teachers. Such sophistication rests upon an understanding of certain principles.

- Albert M. Marckwardt

Language Teachers should…

Focus on change and development of :

* her views on language* her ideas about language

learning* her attitudes* her concepts

Remember….

It might be pointed out that no matter how good the findings of linguistics are, if they are not picked up and put to use by the teacher, then they are to no avail. They will, in effect, never reach the students who are the end users.

It might be pointed out that knowledge is in a continuous state of flux. What might be true today may be modified some years hence.

As such, it is not so much the findings that count but rather the openness of the teacher to new developments and her willingness to give them a try.

Remember….

Any materials of linguistics will produce good results if it is in the hand of knowledgeable teacher.

Aware of the principles underlying the material, perceptive teacher will know what to do with it and how it if need be so it may be used to advantage.

Remember….

The language teacher, therefore, are a very important cog in the machine of language teaching and language learning.

In the words of a movie scriptwriter, the song

(in this case theoretical linguistics) is important, but in the long run it is “ the singer and not the song” ( here referring to the language teacher) who puts life to it.

Thank you for listening. …….