Alicia Flores
ELL 101. 0971
The articles From English to Chinglish and How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand, both talk about how globalization is affecting the English language now and for the future. Both articles make references to the English being spoken in China and India. They say that in China 3000 million read and write English but do not have the adequate practice in speaking the language. As a result many words are mispronounced creating what is called Chinglish; the Hindi language also has a form of English referred as Hinglish.
In the article From English to Chinglish, the author writes that Beijing prepared for the 2008 Olympics great emphasis was placed in the correction of public signs written in English. Not only where the public signs and restaurant menus being checked carefully but also taxi drivers were expected to pass an English exam in order to obtain their license. All these measures were carefully taken as to not be ridiculed by westerners. An example of the incorrect translations in English was the signs for “handicap bathrooms” which read “deformed man laboratory,” an awful and very insulting translation.
One of the things that stuck me the most when reading the articles was the practice of using English by some countries as an ethnical neutral choice to use whenever dealing with people of their own countries but trying to avoid specific dialects to prevent that dialect of becoming the official language for their country. An example provided in the article was India, the official language is Hindi but only a few speak it while others speak in their own dialect. Therefore, when dealing with others among they prefer to use English to avoid problems among different cultures.
Both articles also talk about the eminent danger that globalization will have on English and how it will lead to the death of the English language. This makes me very sad and worried because I feel the English language to be a part of who I am. The article claims that as more and more countries adapt the English language to their own eventually a new language in English will develop. Just as it happened years ago with the Lingua Franca and Latin, English will suffer the same death fate.
The articles make very important points in the effects that globalization is playing on the English language as many of us might have not been aware of before. Before reading them I didn’t have an idea of how globalization was affecting our language. It never crossed my mind how the expansion of the English language instead of securing its continuity was instead shaping its path for the opposite. It’s nice to know that new languages are developing as the years go by but it’s a pity that other languages die along the way for new ones.
Chapter 4,6 and 7 Study Questions
Chapter 4,6 and 7 Study Questions
Chapter 17
Study Questions:
1.A cognate
are words with similar meaning and pronunciation. For example: Zia and Zio
(Italian) compared to Tia and Tio (Spanish).
2.English and Swedish
French
and Portuguese
Czech
and Ukrainian
Kurdish
and Pashto
Urdu and Bengali
Welsh and Breton
3.Based on the
following data the most likely proto-forms are found in language 1 and 3.
4.Old English:
Ox, Pig, Calf and Dear
French: Beef,
Bacon, Venison and Veal
5.(a)
METATHESIS (b)PROTHESIS (c) EPENTHESIS (d) SOUND LOSS (e)EPENTHESIS
(f) METATHESIS
6.The
technical term used to describe the meaning change between steorfan and starve
is narrowing.
Chapter 18 Study Questions:
1.I think that
the opening quotation is using bidialectalism.
2.An accent is
the details in the pronunciation in language that identify where the speaker is
from. Dialects are the details of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of a
language.
3.One
disadvantage of using NORMS in dialect surveys is that because of older
individual being chosen for the survey, the description of the dialect he/she
is providing results to be much older than the current period of investigation.
4.The isogloss
is a line that separates areas that have significant differences in their
speech in a linguistic atlas.
5.The first two
stages of language planning are selection of the official language and it is
followed by codifications.
6.A pidgin is a language developed for
practical purposes such as trading. Once a pidgin language further develops into the first language
used by the social community which happens among the growing children of a pidgin-using community,
the language becomes creole. One difference between a pidgin and creole is that
a creole language will have many more speakers of the language than a pidgin
and are less restricted in its use.
Chapter
19 Study Question:
1. I would define a “speech community” as a group of people that share
the same dialect. For example, I’m from Mexico but the language used depending
on what part you are from and the socio-economic status of that person plays a
major role in the language that the person uses even though it is Spanish.
2. Idiolect is a more personal way of how an individual uses language, it
only deals with that person’s language, while sociolect is the way in which
different socio-economic classes use language. The sociolect focuses on
different economic classes rather than on just one person.
3. Labov wanted to see the difference in the pronunciation of the /r/
sound because it is a consonant placed after a vowel and before another
consonant. He found that the higher status of the department store, the more
/r/ sound was pronounced.
4. It was found that the pronunciation of the –ing ending was pronounced
as /n/ rather than /ŋ/ in the working-class speech. This difference in sound
makes the –ing ending a social marker identifying the social class of a person
just through their speech.
5. A “register” are the adhering ways to use
language that is appropriate depending on the situation or place. I’m a
psychology major and there are different terms/words used when explaining
topics in psychology, we commonly refer to a person as an entity when speaking
among peers.
6. In the AAVE
the use of “b” in He don’t be smoking now,
refers to what is happening currently.
Chapter 20 Study Questions
1.The common definition of culture in study of language is “socially
acquired language.” It refers to all the ideas and assumptions that we learn as
members of a social group or community.
2.Kinship terms are lexicalized categories of words used when referring
to people in the same family, example: sister, mother, father.
3.Linguistic determinism is the concept that speech/language determines
one’s thinking. When we hear words we automatically think of a specific
object/subject that is associated with the word(s) being used.
4.Classifiers are grammatical markers in language that indicate the class
of noun used, separates nouns into human, object and non-human.
5.
6.
The sentence “I think that golf on television is kind of boring, don’t you?” is
more likely to have been said by a woman because of the tag questions it
includes (don’t and you) that are added to the end of the
statement. It was found that men speak in a stronger way, more like making
assertive statements.
Study Quest. Ch. 4, 6, 7, 12 and 13
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18MiLiBWc4w_tovxIVOpicbHpmUMh2Wo25CMEGyudQcw/edit?pli=1
Study Quest. Ch. 4, 6, 7, 12 and 13
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18MiLiBWc4w_tovxIVOpicbHpmUMh2Wo25CMEGyudQcw/edit?pli=1
