1. change in negation rule I love thee not.
2. change in comparative degree more gladder more lower most royallest most shamefullest 3. change of word order (4) lexical change
1. addition of new words a. coinage/invention nylon, Coke, granola, walkman, Kodak, Xerox b. clipping (the abbreviation of longer words or phrases)
? math, doc, Prof., bike, min, max, photo, lab, exam, ad, asst ? phone, plane, van, bus, copter ? flu, fridge, tec
c. acronym (words derived from the initials of several words) DJ, GM, WB CIA, PLO, PLA, EEC, IPR, MBA, NBA, WHO OPEC, APEC, DINK, GATT, SARS, Aids, UNESCO HKUST: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong University of Stress and Tension 中国, 美国,人大, 常委, 华农, 菲佣
现在的选举往往倾向 “无知少女”。 她是个现代“白骨精”。
d. blending (words formed by combing parts of others words) modem, transistor, brunch, boatel, digicom, anacom, refujew, Chinglish e. back-formation editor edit inept ept calmative calm television televise begger beg baby-sitter baby-sit f. function shift/class shift g. compounding h. borrowing
? cancer, tumor, i.e., e.g., etc. ? Judo, tatami, sashimi, sushi
? litchi, kowtow, tai chi, kung-fu, chow mien, wok, longan, tea, tofu, dim sum 2. loss of words
(5) semantic change
1. broadening of meaning bird: young bird any kind of bird 2. narrowing of meaning
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girl: young person of either sex young woman knight: youth a medieval gentleman-soldier cattle: domestic animals animals of the species Bos taurus starve: die die of hunger 3. meaning shif
silly: happy naive foolish nice: ignorant good lust: pleasure sexual craving
Swede: a person who always makes mistakes Arab: a person who always does as he likes Scotchman: a mean man
(6) some recent trends
1. moving towards greater informality
? Passengers are required not to communicate with the driver while the vehicle is in motion. ? Please do not speak to the driver while he is driving. 2. the influence of American English
3. the influence of science and technology spaceship, internet, hacker, e-mail, clone
Chapter 8 Language and Society
sociolinguistics社会语言学 --- the study of the relation between language and society (1) relatedness between language and society
? Language can be used to fulfill social functions.
? Language can indicate one‘s geographical background. ? Language can indicate one‘s social status.
speech community言语社区 --- a group of people who have the opportunity to interact with each other and who share not just a single language with its related varieties but also attitudes toward linguistic norms speech variety --- any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers (2) varieties of language
1) varieties of language related to the user 1. regional dialect a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region e.g. regional varieties of Chinese: Shanghai dialect, Sichuan dialect, Cantonese e.g. regional varieties of English: Br. E: British E., Irish E., New Zealand E., Australian E., South African E. Am. E: American E., Canadian E. (local dialect for people living in Liverpool) e.g. but /but/ Are you going to work /we/ next Monday /mundi/? 2. sociolect the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class ? Black English in America:
? Received Pronunciation (RP) in British English: a non-localized particular way of pronouncing standard English, an indicator of a public school education and thus a high social status on the part of the speaker (in Liverpool, when saying goodbye to each other)
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See you. (used by ordinary people)
/t∫au/. (used by people from lower class)
a. Language and gender:
*features for woman language:
1. Women use more ―fancy‖ color terms such as mauve (pale purple) and beige (pale brown). 2. Women use less powerful curse words. 3. Women use more tag questions.
4. Women prefer using hedge (e.g. sort of, I guess) and intensifiers (e.g. so, very, really, absolutely). 5. Women‘s linguistic behavior is more indirect and, hence, more polite than men‘s. *language and sexual discrimination: male (unmarked) female (marked) prince princess actor actress steward stewardess hero heroine poet poetess heir heiress host hostess count countess
*more examples for sexual discrimination in language: chairman chairperson spokesman spokesperson policeman police (public safety officer) congressman salesman milkman postman postal worker fireman fire-fighter freshman freshperson man-made synthetic b. language and age c. jargon: doctor‘s language lawyer‘s language computational language
(Part of a conversation between a judge and a sailor)
The judge: You mean you came into this court as a witness and don‘t know what plaintiff means? The sailor: You mean you came into the court and don‘t know where abaft the binnacle is? 3. idiolect a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender and age variations.
4. ethnic dialect a variety of language that is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation e.g. Black English
e.g. Zhuang, Zang, Yao, Miao, Li dialects in Chinese
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5. standard dialect
? a superimposed, socially prestigious dialect of a language, the language employed by the government and the
judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions
? It is not related to any particular group of language users, any member of a speech community can possibly
use it regardless of his social and geographical backgrounds, his gender and age. e.g. London dialect --- standard dialect of English Mandarin --- standard dialect of Chinese
? It was originally the local dialect of an area which is considered the nation‘s political and commercial center. 2) varieties of language related to the use 1. Halliday‘s register theory
? register语域 --- the type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation ? three variables that determine the register: field of discourse tenor of discourse mode of discourse 2. scales of formality
intimate casual consultative formal frozen (3) Pidgin and Creole
? A pidgin洋泾浜语 is a special language variety that mixes languages and it is used by people who speak
different languages for restricted purposes such as trading.
? When a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community, and is acquired by the children of
that speech community as their native language, it is said to have become a creole克里奥尔语. ? code-switching ? code-mixing 好touching啊!好nice,好cute 搭lift,去shopping,唱K,吃M 她是我们的Miss,阿sir 我们到canteen去吃饭。 我take四个课程。 你是哪个group的? Hi,你好!this morning我们对你的case进行了discuss,我们发现,这件事情不make sense。所以我们不得不遗憾地告诉你：与这件事相关的所有project都将被cancel掉。（《广州日报》 2004/02/20） (4) bilingualism and diglossia
? In some speech communities, two languages are used side by side with each having a different role to play;
and language switching occurs when the situation changes. This constitutes the situation of bilingualism. ? The term diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic situation similar to bilingualism. But instead of two different
languages, in a diglossic situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play. *bilingualism/multilingualism: Canada: English, French
Singapore: Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil Switzerland: German, French, Italian, Romansh Belgium: Flemish, French India: Indian, English Rwanda: Rwanda, French Somali: English, Italian
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*diglossia: high variety low variety High variety Low variety wenyan vernacular Mandarin local dialect
Chapter 9 Language and Culture What is culture?
? (in a broad sense) it means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects,
institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community.
? (in a narrow sense) it may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be mostly found in
folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc. two types of culture
? material culture is concrete, substantial and observable (e.g. food culture);
? spiritual culture is abstract, ambiguous, and hidden (e.g. ideologies; beliefs; values) the relationship between language and culture ? Language is a part of culture.
? Language is the primary means for cultural transmission. ? Some linguistic differences are due to cultural differences.
? Various cultures will have different responses to the same word.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Our language helps mould our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express our unique ways of understanding the world.
linguistic determinism/relativity
? Language may determine our thinking patterns. (linguistic determinism)
? Similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is, the more diverse their
conceptualization of the world will be. (linguistic relativity) two versions of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
? the strong version: The language patterns determine people‘s thinking and behavior. ? the weak version: The language patterns influence people‘s thinking and behavior. linguistic evidence of cultural differences 1. greetings and terms of address 2. gratitude and compliments 3. color words: white red green blue brown black yellow Stage: I II III IV V 4. privacy and taboos
purple pink orange gray VI
Cultural overlap and cultural diffusion
? Cultural overlap owes to some similarities between cultures.
? Cultural diffusion refers to the phenomenon that through communication, some elements of culture A enter
culture B and become part of culture B.
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