Linguistic subfields

Question 1

Explain Sociolinguistics.

Answer 1

• language variation (=need time to develop): regional (low/high German); social; age-related; gender-related; ethnic aspects (US –>African-American-English)

–> notes: pictures

English world wide:
- spoken around the world (first or second language) –> cause: British Empire
- African American English:
° deletion of /r/ + /l/ = guard
° interdental fricative (“th”) = dis
° double negation = I don’t know nothing
° be deletion = He nice; They mine
° Habitual be = John be happy
° omission of genitive -s = Peter car

Question 2

Explain Historical linguistics

Answer 2

• Old English: over 1500 years!! (450-1066) –> German tribes settled; spoke Low German; English developed through this; Celts = natives (Celtic language)
• Middle English: 1066-1500 –> 1066 = Battle of Hastings (France concurred England + kept their French language); bilingual country; Norman Conquest; French had major influence on English –> dramatic change
• Modern English: 1700-present
• -> spread of English around the world starts (colonialization)

Question 3

Why is the Battle of Hastings important?

Answer 3

• 1066

- France concurred England + kept their French language

Question 4

Germanic language

Answer 4

Germanic = classify parts of the language —> English + German part of it

• distinguish between West, North, and East Germanic
• West Germanic: English, Frisian, German, Yiddish; Dutch, Afrikaans
• North Germanic: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic
• East Germanic: Gothic, Vandal, Burgundian
• Indo-European Languages –> larger family of language today
• Indo-Europeane-Language: Romance, Germanic, Baltic, Celtic, Indic,…
• Non-Indo-European-language: Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish

Question 5

Explain cognitive linguistics

Answer 5

• animal communication different than human communication (many aspects)
• first discovery: end of 19th century –Y traditional cortical language areas that are inferred from the results of a stroke –> brain like a storage place
• question which part of the brain is active –> not really clear what it means (interpretation)
• metaphor use: use it as an object –> the conduit metaphor (f.ex. “Time is money”); frozen metaphors on daily basis (become natural –> don’t notice them); try to express the –> imagine them in pictures; communication = sending/transfer something

Question 6

explain language acquisition

Answer 6

• first language acquisition: early speech comprehension (first: in the womb through a melody); early words: doggy, milk, that, there,..

Difference between L1 and L2:
= way of learning (growing up bilingual); L2: language that u learn from a certain point in life
–> keep an accent; most L2 speakers don’t acquire native competence; critical period –> have to reach it + if not –> won’t become native like

Why?:

• cognitive differences (e.g. metalinguistic awareness)
• interference (e.g. errors of transfer from native language)
• amount of input
• non-linguistic factors (e.g. motivation)