Deborah Tannen

Status vs Support
Men seek to achieve upper hand and to have dominance, so they see the world as a place where people gain status and keep it. Whereas women talk to gain confirmation and support, so they see the world as a "network of connections seeking support and consensus"

Independance vs Intimacy 
Men are independent in order to maintain their status so would not check things with their wives first. Compared to women who like to feel intimate and cared for meaning they would always check things with their husbands

Advice vs Understanding 
Women want symapthy whereas men only think about the solutions to the problems

Information vs Feelings
Men only want to know information e.g. when and where to meet, on the other hand women want to have a general chat as well as finding out the information

Orders vs Proposals
Women are more indirect to suggest things by using interrogatives, compared to men who use direct imperatives as orders

Conflict vs Compromise 
Women will try and avoid conflict by accepting a compromise and then moan after, whereas men will voice disagreement straight away and are not afraid of conflict

Is it wrong for a person to change their accent?

Is it wrong for a person to change their accent?

I agree with aspects of both points, I believe that convergence of accents is essential for different situations, you would not go to a job interview with an accent you use around your friends, you would try and sound more sophisticated. Also I believe living in a different country you will unconsciously pick up their accent especially if you are trying to learn their language. However I don't believe that any accent show lower class or that people should be judged on how they say something rather than what they say. 

 

Revision points for Language change

CAXTON’S PRINTING PRESS 1476

Upper case and lower case characters came from the position they were on the board before they were took out to print. Printing press inspired the pursuit of globalization and helped make our language a global language. “Because he couldn’t hope to print in all of the different dialect from geographical locations, he was the driving force of standardization” – Stephen Fry.

DAVID CRYSTAL ‘LINGUISTIC ECONOMY’

Older newspapers had more language with more complicated syntax and low frequency lexis, whereas language now is to get the point across so the maximum number of people can understand it. A key example of this is twitter and its 160 character limit, which will bring in more abbreviations than before or on Facebook, where there isn’t a limit.

LATINATE LEXIS

Religious, medical and language related to law all are mostly Latinate lexis. This is explained by the high level of power that was associated with them and the high level of education that they received.

ANGLO-SAXON LEXIS

Anglo-Saxon lexis has a lot of monosyllabic lexis, and this is often associated with the lack of education they had. However the Anglo-Saxon community communicated mainly for things they needed therefore all that were needed was simple language. Today the majority of our high frequency lexis is Anglo-Saxon and the majority of low frequency lexis is Latinate.

PRESCRIPTIVISM

Believes that language should be ‘pure’ and therefore would be against language change. It rejects non-standard language such as slang and local dialect.

DESCRIPTIVISM

Describes the nature of language change without judgement. Language change is seen as part of the progress of language and that language is worthy of study and recognition wherever it is used. “Language must either evolve or wither away” – Sarah Churchwell, The Guardian.

Notes taken from the college moodle system on CLA

Over-extension

Children over-extend word meanings. This means that they will extend the meaning of one category of item more broadly than it should be. An example of this might be calling all round fruits ‘apples' when they are perhaps oranges, kiwis or cherries.

Under-extension

Children under-extend word meanings. This means that they will not accept that there are more examples of a category of item than the particular one that is familiar to them. So, for example, ‘dog' is used for the family pet but does not apply to any other dog, thus narrowing the word's meaning.

Noun plurals

It is generally accepted that children acquire language through an in-built ability to recognise the patterns that exist. However, these patterns are not always straightforward and there are exceptions, so children inevitably make mistakes.

Verb tenses

Young children's speech will reflect some application of regular patterns, for example, adding ‘ed' to form past tenses. However, as yet, irregularities will not form part of their understanding, so birds ‘singed' and children ‘runned' are completely understandable, if not completely accurate sentences.

Imitation & reinforcement theory (Skinner, 1957)

Skinner was a proponent of the theory that children acquire language by imitating the way others speak. When the child is successful at producing words it is praised. This approval motivates the child to repeat the action thus learning words.

This theory has now been largely discredited. The task of acquiring language is such a vast one – children acquire tens of thousands of words and complex rules of grammar and syntax within a very short space of time.

Further flaws in this theory are revealed if we consider the mistakes children make in their grammar usage. They clearly do not imitate statements such as “I cleaning my tooths”. This is not a sentence formation which would have been praised by an adult.

Innateness theory (Chomsky, 1965)

Noam Chomsky argued against Skinner's theory. He reasoned that children have an innate ability to acquire language through what he called a ‘language acquisition device' (LAD).

Chomsky claimed that all languages have a different surface structure - French and English sound different from each other through their differing intonations and stresses. However, he felt that all languages share the same deep grammar structure, or linguistic universals - subject–verb-object. His theory suggests we are pre-programmed with this deep structure. Chomsky's theory explains how children can understand sentences they've never heard before.

Critics such as Bard and Sachs (1977) argue that children don't learn to speak automatically. They need to communicate and interact with others – innateness alone is not enough.

Cognition theory (Piaget, 1966)

The cognition theory links stages in language acquisition with stages of cognitive development. Piaget observes that children initially view themselves as the centre of the universe believing that objects exist only in relation to themselves. At around 18 months children begin to realise that objects have an existence that is nothing to do with them. A big growth in vocabulary occurs at this time and proponents of the cognition theory suggest that these events are linked - children are compelled to find names for things they now know exist. Piaget's theory shows a relationship between language and thought – though the theory only seems to stand up for the first 18 months of a child's life. Studies show that some children whose mental development is retarded can speak fluently. Here it seems that word order, meaning and grammar have not been subject to the child's general cognitive development.

Lenneberg 1967

What is the cut off age?

As well as theories on how children acquire language, there are theories about when. Eric Lenneberg's (1967) theory suggests that there is a critical period in a child's life during which they are able to acquire language. What is the duration of this period? What evidence is there for and against it?

Lenneberg's theory claims that language acquisition is linked to maturation. He proposes that the human brain is designed to acquire language at a certain time.

Lenneberg suggested that there is a cut-off age of around 12 or 13 years and that once this period has passed language learning slowed down or in effect was no longer possible.

The Science

The brain begins to grow at around 18 months old. It has acquired grammar and phonology by about four years of age and it is widely accepted that an ability to acquire language probably extends this learning period up to the middle of the second decade.

After this point, it is said that there is a decline in the neural plasticity of this area of the brain, severely impairing language acquisition ability.

Genie’s story

The brain begins to grow at around 18 months old. It has acquired grammar and phonology by about four years of age and it is widely accepted that an ability to acquire language probably extends this learning period up to the middle of the second decade.

After this point, it is said that there is a decline in the neural plasticity of this area of the brain, severely impairing language acquisition ability.

Victor’s story

Victor, often referred to as a feral child was discovered at 12 years of age. Initially, he was mute and again despite extensive treatment and a loving carer he never learned to speak properly.

Criticisms 

There are criticisms of Lenneberg's theory:

Some ask the question: Were Genie and Victor intellectually damaged from birth and incapable of learning how to speak?

Others ask: Were the speech therapists and specialists' methods inadequate in helping Genie and Victor? Would they have fared better in the care of others?

Has his theory been adapted?

It has been widely accepted that there is some truth in Lenneberg's theory. The immense language learning ability, which accompanies us through our early years, does seem to be shut down by some kind of genetic programming around the time of puberty.

Genie and Victor's cases would have also supported a theory by another well-known psychologist - Vygotsky.

Vygotsky (1978), argued that a child is only able to acquire language when he is interacting with people in his environment and, in particular, in co-operation with his peers. Obviously, neither Genie nor Victor had the opportunity to do this.

Katherine Nelson (1973)

Katherine identified four categories for the first words that a child speaks:

• Naming (60% of first words were nouns from this group)
• Actions (verbs formed the second largest group and were used with actions or location words like 'up' and 'down'
• Describing
• Personal (made up about 8% of the sample)
  

Modifiers came third
This shown that first words were often proper or concrete nouns

 Summary

The first 3 stages

• Crying: a child's only form of communication in the early weeks of life.
• Cooing: through which a child gains control of their vocal cords.
• Babbling: where reduplicated monosyllables (mama dada) often sound like a child is calling a parent.

Further stages

• One-word stage: first words usually reflect a child's environment and they are often holophrastic in meaning.
• Two-word stage: demonstrates a child's first sentences and contains a primitive grammar.
• Telegraphic stage: sees utterances made up of words that tell us the main message but leave small unimportant bits out.

The linguistic genius of babies

In this video Patricia Kuhl explains the amazing evidence she has and how it helps explain how babies are always learning language, and the effect of the language it is spoken in on the babies. 
This shows evidence of support for Lenneberg and his critical period. 

Steven Pinker on how children learn language

History of English language

• English is close to Nordic languages such as Dutch
• High frequency lexis is common in Anglo-Saxon
• Swearing is common in Anglo-Saxon
• Low frequency lexis is common in Latin
• Women are more likely to use low frequency lexis with other women to seem more posh
• Anglo-Saxon has a lot of monosyllabic language
• Impossible to write a modern English sentence with using old language
• Dr Bruce Mitchell believes that word order has became more important today
• Main difference between old and modern texts is structural (suffixs)
• As a byproduct of work we have culture, as a byproduct of culture we have new words
• Religious lexis is latinate
• Some plurals are from Latin
• Adding 's' to plurals is Anglo-Saxon
• Our language has been simplified for non-English speakers 

Basic points on CLA theorists

Skinner

• Nurture
• Children learn language from imitation 

Support for Skinner: 

• Babies hear and then will eventually develop to speak the native language 
• Care givers language changes to help the child learn to speak
• Reinforcement 
• Imitation and observation of others 

Criticism for Skinner: 

• Production of language that could not have been heard or taught

Chomsky

• Nature
• 'Biologically pre-programmed to acquire language'

Support for Chomsky:

• Language is universal 
• Brain areas related to language (FOXP2)
• Deaf babies babble, but later
• Feral children acquire some language, even though it may not be normal language
• Language is essential for survival 

Lenneberg

• The critical stage for language acquisition, and once this has passed it is difficult to acquire some if any language 

Deb Roy

•  Recorded his sons acquisition of language, and came to the conclusion that care givers converge their language

A small glossary of specific language change terms

• Acronym: A lexical choice made up from the initial letters of a phrase, being pronounced as a word e.g. RADAR
• Initialism: A lexical choice made up from initial letters, each being pronounced e.g. CD
• Clipping: A new word produced by shortening an existing one e.g. edit (from editor)
• Affixation: Addition of bound morphemes to an existing word
• Prefixes: Addition of a bound morpheme to the beginning of a root word e.g. mega/uber
• Suffixes: Addition of a bound morphemes to the end of a root word e.g. ising
• Conversion: word changes its word class without adding suffix e.g Google (noun to a verb)
• Compound: Combining of separate words to create a new word, sometimes using a hyphen to link them e.g. man-flu 
• Back formation: Removal of an imagined affix from an existing word e.g. editor to edit
• Blend: Two words fusing to make a new one e.g. smog
• Borrowing: A word from a foreign language becomes part of English e.g. karaoke from Japanese
• Derivation: A word is formed from the initial letters of other words e.g. SCUBA
• Abbreviation: A word is shortened e.g. bike, flu, gym
• Root creating: Words are made up entirely, often for phonological effect e.g. blurb
• Eponym: A new word is created from a persons name e.g. plimsoll from Samuel Plimsoll
• Amelioration: words gain positive connotations e.g. sophisticated used to mean artificial
• Pejoration: words develop negative connotations e.g. mistress

Deb Roy: The birth of a word

The birth of a word

A brief overview of the work that Deb Roy done with his son, and the conclusions that he managed to draw from this investigation. 

Collecting almost a quarter of a million hours of multi track audio and video, and then allowing the MIT university to analyse the data, finding different patterns into how children learn to talk. 

QUOTE TO REMEMBER

• "caregivers speech would systematically dip to a minimum making language as simple as possible and then slowly ascend back up in complexity." 

Girl with autism communicates for the first time

Link to ABC news extract
Overview: A girl with autism that has never been able to communicate before proves that despite her physical impairment she has been able to read and write at a high standard, all she needed was a computer.

Influences on language change

• Media - Printing press ( Caxton 1476), television and internet has forced standardization to occur in order for the wider audience to be reached. The media has also invented new words to describe contemporary situatuons such as the initialism "WAG".
• Technology - Scientific advances in 18th and 19th century brought with them lots of new lexical terms, these were influenced by Latin and Greek lexis such as "biology".
• Food
• Travel - People were able to move to live and to travel and with them they took language which was absorbed into the local community, which can eventually spread. Travel has added more 'borrowed' words into society to accommodate for new cultural experiences such as "curry".
• Politics
• Culture
• War and miltary - The Norman conquest and the Germanic tribes who invaded over 1000 years ago had a huge impact on the language that we use today. Without the presence of war we wouldn't need lexis to describe certain events like the euphemism "friendly fire" and "collateral damage".
• Slavery
• Global events
• Law and crime
• BBC
• Trade and industry - New lexis has had to be created for the new inventions that have been created. The trade between countries is the reason that certain words are the same or similar in different countries as it was easier to do business, this further helped standardization.
• Social and cultural changes - Different views have been formed with different cultural changes which has influenced new lexical choices. However there is a need to be politically correct and this has influenced language change as certain words can no longer be used such as the replacement of "Eskimo" with "Inuits".

AQA useful links

Specification

Past papers and mark schemes

Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington

Points to remember from this: Karl Pilkington and his use of synonyms to describe objects. The way that Karl begins to simplify his language when just talking to Ricky, this is an example of converging to the language he thinks that they will need to use.

Learn English Episode 1