Final Exam

Question 1

*Register

Answer 1

All languages have many different registers.
“a linguistic repertoire that is associated,
culture internally, with particular social
practices and with persons who engage
in such practices.”
In other words, how people in a given
culture think that certain kinds of people
should talk in the course of certain kinds
of events.

Question 2

*National Standard Language

Answer 2

one register of one language is considered
the superposed, or “top and center”, register, meaning that it stands above all
registers, and is the one against which others are judged

Question 3

*language ideologies

Answer 3

Language ideologies are conceptions of what language is and what language
does, often connecting language to matters of political, economic, moral, or
religious concern.

Question 4

*prescriptivism

Answer 4

Standard languages are maintained and spread through institutions like schools
and through the publication of dictionaries and grammars, which prescribe certain
forms as correct and other forms as variants.

Question 5

*code switching

Answer 5

speakers shift from one language to
another within the course of an interaction
-Because a term or an object is associated with the other language
- To signal a change in identity
- To signal a change in the relationship among speakers
- To temporarily adopt the voice of another speaker, either because you are
quoting that speaker or because you are trying to speak from their perspective.
- Many more reasons [something to discuss in your discussion sections
Ex. A person speaks English and Spanish in the same sentence

Question 6

*register switching

Answer 6

moments of moving from less formal to more formal speech
- moments of moving from using a register associated with one’s racial or ethnic
community to using a register associated with the dominant culture
- a more general emphasis on the demands made on non-white English speakers
to be ‘fluent’ in dominant Standard English (especially when no similar demand
for understanding or fluency is made for white English speakers)
Ex. In context of social interaction when speaking with a boss more formal when speaking with a friend more casual

Question 7

*Mock Spanish

Answer 7

a speech register
that links together
-a set of Spanish words or
morphemes (the –o or –ito
endings) spoken with a strong
English accent
with
-demeaning and racist ideas of
Spanish speakers as lazy, low
quality, drunk, or just a funny
punchline.

Question 8

*White Public Space

Answer 8

• a morally significant set of contexts that are the most important sites of the practices of
  a racializing hegemony,
• in which whites are invisibly normal [“everyone makes mistakes”],
• and in which racialized populations are visibly marginal
• and the objects of monitoring ranging from
• individual judgment [“why don’t ‘those people’ teach their children proper English?”]
• to Official English legislation [“we can’t allow people not to learn English”]”

Question 9

*Public intention vs public meaning

Answer 9

Public intention: what the speaker intends to say when using a specific linguistic sign. meaning comes from our head and what we intend to say when we use those words.

Ex:Biden may not have meant to be racist. Individual speakers might not mean to
be insulting. But the meaningfulness of calling a Black adult man or woman
“articulate” exceeds any individual utterance.

Public meaning:
Meaning is not intentions that come from our head they are the public meaning
-With any linguistic sign, there is a history of usage that contributes to meaning
regardless of interior speaker intentions.
-history shapes meaning of linguistic signs even if speaker doesn’t realize it

Example to distinguish both: When my daughter was 2 years old and said “shit” very loudly in public, it was still
a curse word, it still held (embarrassing) meaning regardless of her intention or
lack of intention

Question 10

*“women’s speech” as (discussed in 1970s and 1980s studies)

Answer 10

sound qualities:
Vocal fry
Higher pitch
Up-speak (rising pitch at end of declarative sentences, not just questions)

Discourse markers:
Tag questions (isn’t is? Don’t you think? at the end of utterances)
Filler terms (um, uh, like, I guess)
Softeners (sort of, kind of)
Intensifiers (very, really)
Generally “cooperative” interactional style

Lexicon:
Elaborate vocabulary related to fashion/decoration (color terms, textures, etc.)
Elaborate vocabulary related to emotions
Restricted vocabulary related to machines, sports, etc.

Topics:
Gossip
Other women
Children
Relationships
Appearances
Emotions

Question 11

*linguistic performance of gender (as described in more recent work

Answer 11

There are tendencies (women tend to use certain forms more often), but no
absolute divisions
This is because gender identities are performed, both in “real life” and in fantasy
contexts like phone sex lines (or today, in other “modem sex” formats!)
In some contexts, men can perform masculinity using stereotypically “female”
features.
In some contexts, women can perform “powerless” femininity in service of
economic empowerment and autonomy.

Question 12

*British indirect rule

Answer 12

The British let local rulers stay as rulers over their own groups (sort of), but
demanded that those rulers levy taxes on their people, punish them for offences
against colonial law, etc.
This required that the British know the boundaries of the groups, know something
about their traditional forms of governance.

Question 13

*Macauleys minute on colonial education

Answer 13

create a class of people who were “Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, opinions, and intellect.” He believed that the best way to achieve this was to teach English literature, science, and philosophy.
He believed that Indian languages and literature were of no practical use and had no intellectual value
need for a system of education that produced clerks, lawyers, and administrators who could efficiently serve the British colonial government.
spread of English education in India would have a civilizing effect on Indian society. He believed that English education would help to eradicate superstitions and irrational beliefs among the Indian population.
Macauley argues that English is the perfect language for colonial education and it’s superior to every other language in the world

Question 14

*‘decolonizing the mind’

Answer 14

The idea of ridding oneself (given one has ancestry from a colonized nation) from belief systems spread by colonists.
Stop speaking English

Question 15

*Forbidden Experiment

Answer 15

Such “forbidden experiments” were forbidden
because they involved depriving children of
language in order to try to find out what they would
do in order to invent a language to communicate.

Question 16

*Pidgin Languages

Answer 16

a language that is usually no one’s first language – a contact
language.

Question 17

*Creole languages

Answer 17

language variety that emerges rapidly out of
contexts of cultural disruption. One language that speakers have
limited access to is the basis for this variety (e.g., English, French).
For most languages that are called creoles, they are spoken as
first languages and are used across a wide variety of contexts

Question 18

*settler colonialism v. extractive colonialism

Answer 18

Colonies in which the European colonizers
became the largest population, pushing out
Indigenous people, are called settler
colonies because colonizers went there to
permanently settle (for example, the US,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa

Colonies in which the European colonizers
were in the minority are sometimes called
extractive colonies because colonizers were
there just to extract natural resources, labor,
or land

Question 19

*Hollywood Indian English

Answer 19

A stereotype register found in older depictions of Native Americans in TV shows and cinema
◦ From another time
◦ Different and bad (tropes of “savagery”)
◦ Different and good (tropes of “the noble savage”)
◦ Simple – childlike/immature
◦ Simple – connected only to ”nature” and unconnected to
modernit

Question 20

*Tropes of endangered languages: universal ownership, hyperbolic
valorization, enumeration

Answer 20

Universal ownership: idea that endangered languages belong to everyone

Hyperbolic Valorization: “endangered languages are priceless treasures”

enumeration: creating a sense of crisis by the compilation of and recitation of alarming statistics

Question 21

Media ideologies

Answer 21

What people believe about how media affects the messages they send,
receive, or overhear/witness.
Different people can have quite different ideologies about the ways that
media affect messages

Question 22

Media switching

Answer 22

People make meta-communicative statements about the channel of
communication that they are using as much as they do about other
elements of speech events (E.g., “you can’t say that in a text!”)

Question 23

Participant roles: author, animator, principal

Answer 23

author: The participant who has chosen the words being used

animator: the participant who is producing the utterance

Principal: the participant whose views, sentiments, or positions are being expressed

Question 24

Linguistic globalization

Answer 24

he dominance of certain ‘global’ languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin
Chinese, Arabic; or
the “super-diversity” of major metropolitan centers in which speakers of hundreds
of different languages live side by side

or

he corporate
management and exploitation of
employees’ linguistic resources under
global capitalism

ex: the call
center, where speech is managed
and packaged as a commodity

Question 25

Neoliberalism & linguistic neoliberalism

Answer 25

Characterized by changes in government:
◦ Reduction of social safety net
◦ Privatization of government services
Characterized by changes in the kinds of jobs people have:
◦ Growth of gig economy
◦ Careers made up of a string of jobs (rather than lifetime employment at one job)
Characterized by changes in the ways people think of themselves:
◦ A person has a brand, instead of (or in addition to) an identity
◦ People think of their lives as businesses, with themselves as CEOs of “Me, Inc.”
Language
a skill that you learn and continuously
improve on, adding different languages and registers over time.

Question 26

UK controversies about changing lg pedagogy: how were people connecting grammatical rules and societal rules (Cameron)?

Answer 26

Cameron argued that there is a connection between grammatical rules and societal rules, suggesting that changes in grammar usage can reflect changes in societal norms. She criticized prescriptive approaches to language teaching that prioritize adherence to traditional grammar rules over effective communication, arguing that such approaches can perpetuate inequality.

For example, the use of gender-neutral language reflects a shift towards greater gender equality in society.

Question 27

Inner sphere v outer sphere speech: how did the Spanish/English bilinguals of Urciuoli’s book speak in these two spheres? What was different? What
was the same (Urciuoli)?

Answer 27

In the inner sphere, speakers used a hybrid language that mixed elements of Spanish and English, while in the outer sphere, they spoke standard English.

Similar in that they adapted their language use to fit the social norms and expectations of their respective audiences, whether it be their own social group or the mainstream society. linguistic identities were not entirely separate from each other and that there was some degree of overlap between the two spheres.

Question 28

How is Mock Spanish different from the kind of “mixed language” used by speakers in the “inner sphere” in Urciuoli’s study (Alim & Smitherman
lecture/Urciuoli)?

Answer 28

In Urciuoli’s study, speakers in the inner sphere used a hybrid language that mixed elements of Spanish and English,(Mixed Language) while Mock Spanish is a lack of knowledge of Spanish, a lack of engagement with any community norms or habits of nearby speakers (except maybe a norm that says Spanish is not worth paying attention to), and may come from derision about the need to follow Spanish rules.

Question 29

Do people need to intend to be racist in calling an adult, Black, English speaker “articulate” in order for their comments to be racist (Alim &
Smitherman)?

Answer 29

According to Alim and Smitherman, calling an adult Black English speaker “articulate” can be racist even if the speaker did not intend to be racist. This is because the term “articulate” can be seen as implying that the speaker is an exception to the stereotype that Black people are not intelligent or articulate. People may not “intend” to be racist but the comment is historically racist

Question 30

What is wrong with the theories that say women speak “cooperatively” or without power, while men speak antagonistically and with power? How
does Kira Hall’s discussion of phone-sex workers demonstrate a different
point (Hall)?

Answer 30

do not capture the complexity of language use. These theories assume that gender determines the way people speak, when in fact language use is influenced by a range of social, cultural, and individual factors.

(Hall) shows that women can use language to exert power and control in certain contexts. Phone-sex workers use linguistic strategies, such as whispering and using erotic language, to establish a sense of intimacy with their clients and gain control over the interaction. These linguistic strategies are not necessarily cooperative or submissive, but rather are used strategically to achieve specific goals.

Question 31

What kind of colonial subject did Macauley advocate for in his ‘Macauley’s Minute’ speech? Why was this necessary for the system of British indirect rule (Thiong’o/Adichie lecture)?

Question 32

How is the system of punishment that Ngugi wa Thiong’o describes related
Macauley’s idea of colonial subjectivity (Thiong’o/Adichie lecture)?

Answer 32

describes how the system of punishment used in colonial Kenya aimed to erase indigenous languages and cultures and replace them with European ones, creating a colonial subject who was alienated from their own identity and language. This was related to Macauley’s idea of colonial subjectivity in that it aimed to create a class of colonial subjects who were loyal to the colonial administration and its values :
◦ The languages of the colonies were disorganized/disordered.
◦ They didn’t have “literature” or, if they did, it was worthless.
◦ The speakers of these languages were unintelligent..

Question 33

What does Thiong’o decide to do to decolonize his mind? What does he
criticize his fellow African authors for (Thiong’o/Adichie lecture)?

Answer 33

Stop speaking English.
rejecting the English language and embracing his native language and culture. He criticizes his fellow African authors for continuing to write in European languages and perpetuating colonial attitudes and values. Thiong’o argues that decolonization requires a complete rejection of colonialism and a return to indigenous languages and cultures.

Question 34

How does Chimamanda Adichie differ from Thiong’o in her ideas about
language and (post)colonial literature (Thiong’o/Adichie lecture)?

Answer 34

Adichie differs from Thiong’o in her belief that writing in English can be a way of subverting colonialism and reclaiming agency for postcolonial subjects. it is impossible to ignore the fact of global English or the history of British
colonialism.
Adichie sees language as a tool that can be used to communicate complex ideas and experiences, regardless of its colonial origins. She also emphasizes the importance of telling stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of African experiences.
◦ She argues that post-colonial authors do not have to give up on colonial languages,
but can instead claim them as their own.
◦ “I own English.”
◦ To be a post-colonial writer is to contend with that legacy, rather than deny it

Question 35

Under what conditions did most pidgin and creole languages develop,
and what distinguishes a pidgin from a creole (Gilmore 1 and 2 lectures)?

Answer 35

Most pidgin and creole languages developed under conditions of contact between two or more languages with very different linguistic structures. This typically occurred in colonial contexts, where there was a need for communication between groups of people who spoke different languages.
A pidgin is a simplified language that emerges as a means of communication between people who do not share a common language, while a creole is a pidgin that has become the first language of a community and developed into a more complex and stable language. Pidgins and creoles often contain elements of multiple languages and reflect the cultural and social history of the communities that use them.

Creole:
Someone’s first language
More grammatically complex and deepen over time
Systematic
Native speakers
Not all Creole are Pidgin

Pidgin:
inventive in the words they are using
In the context of children
Verbal speech can make up nonsense words
Combinatiton of inventenment
Element of innovation

Question 36

Are creole languages “exceptional”? How have they been seen as problems for historical linguistics, and how have more recent authors argued against this (Gilmore 2 lecture)?

Answer 36

Creole languages have been seen as “exceptional” due to their unique development and linguistic features. Pidgins and creoles are largely products of colonial interventions, and have always been something of an outlier in linguistics because they did not seem to be products of “natural” linguistic change. They are products of complex social contexts in which speakers of many languages come together and have equal but limited access to a different language

Question 37

What were the colonial politics regarding choice of language in Kenya that Colin and Sadiki had to navigate (Gilmore)?

Answer 37

During the colonial period in Kenya, the British colonial administration promoted English as the official language and discouraged the use of indigenous languages. This policy aimed to facilitate communication and control over the diverse ethnic groups in Kenya by using a language that was not tied to any particular group.

However, this policy also had the effect of marginalizing and suppressing indigenous languages, leading to a loss of cultural identity and heritage. As a result, many Kenyans, including Colin and Sadiki, found themselves caught between their desire to maintain their cultural identity and the need to communicate with the wider world in English

Question 38

Was the invented Kisisi language a pidgin (Gilmore)?

Answer 38

Yes, It wasn’t just a case of language mixing, where speakers create a register that
uses elements of two (usually more separate) languages, or code-switching,
where speakers use different registers to create different pragmatic effects.
Here, the boys rapidly developed new grammatical norms, creating a form of
speech unintelligible to speakers of either Swahili or English

Question 39

What are some of the ways that Indigenous people are represented as belonging to the past in settler colonies (Meek, Hill lecture)?

Answer 39

History books that only talk about Indigenous people in early chapters
◦ Memorials that point to events related to Indigenous people from 100s of years ago
◦ Popular media representations that only show Indigenous people in historical contexts

Question 40

What are some of the features of Hollywood Indian English? (Be able to
discuss 2) (Meek)

Answer 40

Long pauses, tenseless sentences, pronoun deletion, determiner deletion, use of object pronouns in subject position, no contraction, special vocabulary

Ex: I Speak, I steal

Question 41

How do the tropes used to discuss endangered languages repeat settler colonial discourses about Indigenous communities belonging to the past
(Hill lecture)?

Answer 41

The same tropes continue today in the ways that
Indigenous languages are depicted as “dying”,
“disappearing”, “becoming extinct.”

Question 42

How do Indigenous scholars and community members frame their own
interests in Indigenous languages (Hill lecture)?

Answer 42

by Universal ownership, hyperbolic valorization, and enumeration

Question 43

What are some similarities between how people responded to older new
media (like telegraphs) and current new media (like social media
platforms) (Gershon lecture)?

Answer 43

Communication at a
distance” scared people
because it enabled
communication outside of
local control”

Concerns about privacy, anxiety about implications on social interactions, intimacy , changes in social change

Question 44

On what basis do people evaluate media as distancing/immediate or
formal/informal (Gershon)?

Answer 44

depends upon what other media exist in someone’s “media ecology.
Media are not inherently immediate or mediating. The sense of immediacy of one format is conditioned by the media it is put in contrast with.

Question 45

How do linguistic nationalism and linguistic neoliberalism differ (Cameron
lecture)?

Answer 45

nationalism, your language is an integral part of your
“authentic” self and national identity.
With linguistic neo-liberalism, language is a skill that you learn and continuously
improve on, adding different languages and registers over time.

Question 46

How do call center training guides enact forms of linguistic neoliberalism
(Cameron)?

Answer 46

all center training guides also promote a language style that is aligned with consumerist values. For example, they encourage call center employees to use “up-selling” and “cross-selling” techniques to increase sales and revenue. This reflects the neoliberal emphasis on market competition and the primacy of the consumer. “CEO” etc