2. 1. Children learn their L1 swiftly,
efficiently, and largely w/o instruction
Prewiring?
Children are not ‘taught’ to talk
Discover underlying rules
Not imitation, but hypothesizing
By school age, have already learned
majority of NL governing rules
3. 2. Language operates by rules
Arbitrary - sounds, grammar
Agreement among speakers to use
features/patterns consistently
Variations are still governed by rules, and
are mutually intelligible
4. 3. All languages have 3 major
components
Phonology
Lexicon
2 definitions of grammar
5. 4. Everyone speaks a dialect
Dialect - variety of a particular language
which has a set of distinguishing lexical,
phonological, and grammatical rules
How do dialects occur?
No dialect is inherently superior
6. 5. Speakers of all languages
employ a range of styles and a set
of sub-dialects or jargons
Ability to adjust language forms to social
context - part of native understanding
Sociolinguistic rules
Learned late
Jargons
Martin Joos - 5 basic styles
Halliday - 7 main functions
7. 6. Language change is normal
Sounds/grammar change more slowly than
lexical changes
Causes
– Simplification
– Regularization
– New ideas/inventions
– Unknown/spontaneous
8. 7. Languages are intimately
related to the societies and
individuals who use them
L is shaped by its speakers and their needs
Conversely, speakers are shaped by their
language
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
9. 8. Value judgments about
different languages or dialects
are matters of taste
Every language is a ‘fully formed, logical,
rule-governed variant of human speech’
Prestige for the standard is the result of
prestige for its speakers/ prejudices of the
dominate speech community
No intrinsic shortcomings of nonstandard
forms
10. 9. Writing is derivative of speech
Talking for half a million years, writing less than
5,000 years
Only 5% of languages have indigenous writing
systems
Shifts in formality occur in writing, changes in
speech habits are reflected in writing
Beliefs about writing are bound to literary
tradition
11. JOURNAL TOPIC ONE:
Did you bring any misconceptions/
generalizations/ prejudices about language
into this class? Is there anything new you
have learned in regards to language?
One page, double-spaced, typed response
for Wednesday, September 1st