unit 3: culture

Question 1

explain ‘what’s in a name?’

Answer 1

This quote comes from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Shakespeare’s most famous play. Juliet says it, because she believes that everything would have been different if he hadn’t been a Montague or if she hadn’t been a Capulet. She wants him to get rid of his name so they can be together.

Question 2

what does Juliet use as an example in her quote?

Answer 2

She uses the example of a rose, and shows us that the name itself isn’t important. Whether a rose is called a rose does not affect the colour or the smell.

Question 3

who is Helen Keller?

Answer 3

a blind and deaf woman who got a bacherlor’s degree thanks to her teacher Anne Mansfield. she was the first blind and deaf woman to do this.

Question 4

why was Anne Mansfield so important for Keller?

Answer 4

She couldn’t do anything before she met her teacher, Anne Mansfield. She didn’t know anything had a name. When Mansfield taught her this, her life changed.
Keller describes her life as 2 lives: the one before Mansfield, and the one after: the contrast is huge.

Question 5

how did Keller live before Mansfield?

Answer 5

Before she learnt names, she lived and learned by feeling. She had to guess and trust certain expectations and habits. She compares her situation to being on a ship in a dense fog without a compass and not knowing where the harbour is. She felt desperate.

Question 6

what was Keller’s problem in learning?

Answer 6

At first, Keller didn’t understand the complexity of language. She didn’t understand why an old and a new doll were both called a doll. Only when she felt pouring water on her hands, she could understand what the word water meant: words gave her a perspective.

Question 7

explain the text about disappearing languages.

Answer 7

20 languages in Britain (Polari, Cornish, Gaelic, etc.) are in danger of disappearing. They were spoken in the 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st century. Some of them are still spoken today, but are endangered or at risk.

Question 8

why are these languages disappearing?

Answer 8

Some of the languages were only used by a limited number of people:
- Polari was used as a secret code (gay people) and only a few words are still used.
- In general there are a few speakers and little support or enthusiasm for learning them.

Question 9

explain the stages of a language dying with an example for each stage.

Answer 9

• Stage 1: Vulnerable languages (Welsh)
• Stage 2: definitely endangered (Scottish Gaelic)
• Stage 3: severely endangered (Guernsey French)
• Stage 4: critically endangered (Cornish)
• Stage 5: extinct (Polari)

Question 10

what is thangmi? why is it dying?

Answer 10

Thangmi is spoken in a remote village in Nepal: less than 20 000 people speak it and it hadn’t been written down. It is not taught in schools.

Question 11

who is mark turin?

Answer 11

Mark Turin is an academic linguist and wanted to write a grammar of the Thangmi language, but realised that that wouldn’t work, so instead, he put together a Nepali-Thangmi-English dictionary: this is now used in schools to help teach the children.

Question 12

what does the world oral literature project do?

Answer 12

The World Oral Literature Project are trying to document languages and cultural traditions, bringing people together who work on endangered languages and cultures. They’re trying to document endangered languages in the best way and train the local researchers.

Question 13

explain the history of modern english.

Answer 13

• The Isle of Britain was inhabited by the Celts, but around 400, they were under Roman rule: they protected them against the Germanic tribes.
• After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Isle of Britain was invaded by Germanic Tribes, during the 6th and 7th century. Old English (Anglo-Saxon language) was spoken for several centuries.
• During the 8th century, Viking invasions happened: the island was divided in 2 halves: Saxons (OE) and Danes (Old Norse. Eventually, old Norse mixed with OE.
• In 1066 there was the Norman conquest: the French speaking aristocracy and the Latin clergymen vs the Old English speaking peasants.

Question 14

explain modern english

Answer 14

Modern English was influenced by many languages. Our history lives in the words we speak and hear.

Question 15

why do languages die so easily?

Answer 15

Languages develop over thousands of years, but they can be lost in a generation.
Every 2 weeks, a unique language dies. Approximately 3000 languages are at risk of dying undocumented.

Question 16

who is Deb Roy?

Answer 16

a scientist who did an experiment to find out how children pronounce their first words, how they learn language and hoped to find patterns: he also hoped to understand the influence of the social environment on the language acquisition

Question 17

how did Deb Roy perform his experiment?

Answer 17

he placed cameras all over his house to record his wife, his child and him, to research this.

Question 18

which 2 elements help children speak their first word?

Answer 18

• contextual support by caregivers
• visual context

Question 19

what role do caregivers play in language acquisition?

Answer 19

Caregivers talk to a child in a simpler way, and slowly ascend in complexity as the child grows older. This way, the caretakers are subconsciously restructuring their language to meet the child. This is very important, because if a child does not have this in their life, they will never be able to fully understand language.
- By talking in a simple manner to children, you are creating scaffolding: a foundation for children to build their perception of language upon.

Question 20

what is a wordscape?

Answer 20

landscape of a word in its physical environment: researches would try to indicate where a specific word was uttered, and where certain words are often uttered -> we can now predict the order of language acquisition.

Question 21

why is English considered the dominant language?

Answer 21

there’s more Hindi, Spanish and Mandarin speakers, but it’s everyone’s second language, and it’s the language used across cultures.

Question 22

explain the connection between globalisation and English.

Answer 22

Globalisation has helped English spread as the dominant language, starting due to the British and American empires and continuing with the Internet. Globalisation has become easier now that most people are able to understand the same language.

Question 23

WHY is English dominant (4 ex)

Answer 23

• About 25% of the world’s population can communicate to some degree in English
• It’s the common language for most endeavours
• 80% of the world’s electronically stored info is in English
• At telephone call centres around the world, the language used is English
• Pop music causes English to be spread all over the world
• English has invaded the workplace
• English is spoken by 3 times as many non-native speakers as native speakers
• The teaching of English has become a multibillion-dollar industry
• Nearly 1/3rd of the world’s population will soon be studying English
• 400 000 people speak English as a 1st language, 500 000 as a fluent 2nd language and 750 000 000 as a foreign language

Question 24

what is Singlish?

Answer 24

English dialect in Singapore

Question 25

what are Englishes?

Answer 25

as English spreads across the world, it fragments into a family of dialects: Englishes (Spanglish, Taglish, etc)

Question 26

what is globish?

Answer 26

World Standard English: a simplified international form of English: arises more often as non-native speakers are the majority of the English speakers. They now own English, instead of the Brits and the Americans.

Question 27

are we 100% certain that English will stay this dominant forever?

Answer 27

no: we are optimistic right now, just like people in the 15th century were about Latin. Other factors may influence English’s position: nuclear war, climate change, etc.

Question 28

Queen’s english

Answer 28

it’s evolved: less posh and plummy now.

Question 29

what facts do we know about shakespeare?

Answer 29

• He was the most performed playwright of all time
• He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets (poems) and many narrative poems
• He is the ultimate expression of humanity in the English language
• He was the son of a glovemaker and with just a grammar school education, he went to London, where he became an actor and a playwright
• He died aged 52 and he was survived by his illiterate wife and daughters.

Question 30

why do we doubt shakespeare’s identity?

Answer 30

• Not a single manuscript has ever been found written in his own hand
• The name on the manuscripts was in a different handwriting

Question 31

daisy goodwin’s opinion (Shakespeare)

Answer 31

Shakespeare isn’t who we assume he is: we only know 6 facts which is weird because he’s so embedded in the English consciousness.
- He’s so famous because every age reinvents him in their own image
- She believes that Shakespeare wasn’t the actual writer of the plays.

Question 32

dominic dromgoole’s opinion (shakespeare)

Answer 32

he says there are more facts as well as there is written evidence that he actually put his name on some manuscripts.
- He’s so famous because of the rhythm, verse and content: it gives us an insight and understanding long before we have the emotional or intelligent experience.
- He believes Shakespeare was the actual writer.

Question 33

give shakespeare’s timeline

Answer 33

• 1564: birth
• married to Anne Hathaway
• birth of Susanna
• birth of Hamnet and Judith
• first poems
• first plays
• death of Hamnet
• described as the greatest writer in comedy and tragedy
• more successful: moved to upmarket Silver Street, where he wrote some of his great tragedies
• 1616: death
• First Folio

Question 34

traits of theatre in Shakespeare’s time

Answer 34

• Part of everyday life: they had much bigger audiences than books did.
• Mass entertainment: food was sold inside the theatre
• All layers of society went: the richer, the higher up
• Female roles were played by young men

Question 35

traits of elizabethan theatre

Answer 35

• Mass entertainment and attracted people of all layers of society
• Organised in playhouses
• Popular but criticised

Question 36

opening of the globe

Answer 36

in 1599 when he’d already written some successful stories. Shakespeare and his friends were shareholders and laid the foundations for modern theatre.
- ‘The Globe’ refers to the world: All the world’s a stage

Question 37

why were actors and playwrights under pressure?

Answer 37

• meeting deadlines
• beating competition
• didnt get paid

Question 38

enemies of the theatre

Answer 38

• Plague: theatre’s had to close because of the plague often
• Church: considered theatre as disreputable
• Politics, parliament and politicians: considered theatre dangerous as it could influence people easily.