BEGG 172
LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Programme: BAG/2021/2022
Course Code: BEGG 172
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BEGG 172 Free Solved
Assignment
Section A
Short
answer questions based on Blocks 1 and 2 (Answer each question in 300 words)
1. Discuss
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Do you agree with this theory? Give reasons for your
answer. (5)
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the linguistic theory that the
semantic structure of a language shapes or limits the ways in which a speaker
forms conceptions of the world. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 It
came about in 1929. The theory is named after the American anthropological
linguist Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and his student Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941).
It is also known as the theory of linguistic relativity, linguistic relativism,
linguistic determinism, Whorfian hypothesis, and Whorfianism
History of the Theory
The idea that a person's native language determines how he
or she thinks was popular among behaviorists of the 1930s and on until
cognitive psychology theories came about, beginning in the 1950s and increasing
in influence in the 1960s. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022
(Behaviorism taught that behavior is a result of external conditioning and
doesn't take feelings, emotions, and thoughts into account as affecting
behavior. Cognitive psychology studies mental processes such as creative
thinking, problem-solving, and attention.)
Author Lera Boroditsky gave some background on ideas about
the connections between languages and thought: "The question of whether
languages shape the way we think goes back centuries; Charlemagne proclaimed
that 'to have a second language is to have a second soul.' But the idea went
out of favor with scientists when Noam Chomsky's theories of language gained
popularity in the 1960s and '70s. Dr. Chomsky proposed that there is a
universal grammar for all human languages—essentially, that languages don't really
differ from one another in significant ways...." ("Lost in
Translation." "The Wall Street Journal," July 30, 2010) The
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was taught in courses through the early 1970s and had
become widely accepted as truth, but then it fell out of favor. By the 1990s,
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was left for dead, author Steven Pinker wrote. IGNOU
BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 "The cognitive revolution in
psychology, which made the study of pure thought possible, and a number of
studies showing meager effects of language on concepts, appeared to kill the
concept in the 1990s... But recently it has been resurrected, and
'neo-Whorfianism' is now an active research topic in psycholinguistics."
("The Stuff of Thought. "Viking, 2007).
2. Define
onomatopoeia. Give examples to explain the concept. (5)
Onomatopoeia (also onomatopeia in American English) is the
process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests
the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia.
Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as oink, meow (or miaow), roar,
and chirp. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 Onomatopoeia can differ
between languages: it conforms to some extent to the broader linguistic system;
hence the sound of a clock may be expressed as tick tock in English, tic tac in
Spanish and Italian (shown in the picture), dī dā in Mandarin, kachi kachi in
Japanese, or tik-tik in Hindi.
Although in English the term onomatopoeia means 'the
imitation of a sound', the compound Greek word onomatopoeia (ὀνοματοποιία)
means 'making or creating names'. The word ὴχομιμητικό (ēchomimētico) derives
from ὴχώ, meaning 'echo' or 'sound', and μιμητικό, meaning 'mimetic' or
'imitating'. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 Thus, words that
imitate sounds can be said to be onomatopoeic or onomatopoetic and echomimetic.
In the case of a frog croaking, the spelling may vary because different frog
species around the world make different sounds: Ancient Greek brekekekex koax
koax (only in Aristophanes' comic play The Frogs) probably for marsh frogs;
English ribbit for species of frog found in North America; English verb croak
for the common frog.
3. What is
a signifier? Give examples from your mother tongue to support your explanation.
(5)
In semiotics, signified and signifier (French: signifié and signifiant)
stand for the two main components of a sign, where signified pertains to the
"plane of content", while signifier is the "plane of
expression". The idea was first proposed in the work of Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the two founders of semiotics. IGNOU BEGG 172
Free Solved Assignment 2022 The concept of signs has been around for a long
time, having been studied by many classic philosophers such as Plato,
Aristotle, Augustine, William of Ockham, and Francis Bacon, among others. The
term semiotics derives from the Greek root seme, as in semeiotikos (an
'interpreter of signs'). : 4 It was not until the early part of the 20th
century, however, that Saussure and American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce
brought the term into more common use.
While both Saussure and Peirce contributed greatly to the
concept of signs, it is important to note that each differed in their approach
to the study. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 It was Saussure who
created the terms signifier and signified in order to break down what a sign
was. He diverged from the previous studies on language as he focused on the
present in relation to the act of communication, rather than the history and
development of words and language over time.
Mother tongue meaning
Mother tongue can often be referred to as your first
language or native language. It is the language that you most commonly speak.
However, mother tongue is always referencing the language that the child has
used from birth and in important and impacting times in the child’s life. For
example, there are instances where a child is brought up until school age using
a particular language at home spoken by their mother, father or other family
members, but due to living in another country begins to adopt the language
spoken in their interactions in groups or school. But if the child comes back
home continually to another language, this is impact can be lessened.
4. What are
some of the Saussurean principles? Briefly explain them. (5)
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), was a Swiss Linguist who
laid the great foundation of the field of Linguistics in 20tth century. The
book Cours de Linguistiques Générale, written by his disciples published
posthumously in 1916, is a compilation of his lectures given at University of
Geneva around 1901 or 1906. It has become an essential text in the literary
canon of linguistics as the book documents his research, ideas, and analysis of
the nature of language that gives us a great insight into the basics of
structural linguistics. IGNOU BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 For anyone
new to the linguistics, it becomes necessarily important to be thoroughly
familiar with the major dichotomies or concepts that Saussure came up with in
his Cours de Linguistiques Generale (1916). Through these principles or
concepts, we can trace back the origins of the Structural Linguistics
Synchrony &
Diachrony
Saussure analysed the nature of language through the two
different and opposed perspectives: one he called synchronic and the other
diachronic. Where synchrony studies the language existing in a particular point
of time, diachronic studies the language concerning its historic development.
For example, you study the Old English in England, you are using a synchronic
approach where you are limiting your study to a particular period of time. IGNOU
BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 But if you are researching on the
evolution of English language and its use from Middle English to Modern
English, it would be called a diachronic study or historical linguistics.
5. Why is
word stress significant in English? Give examples to support your answer. (5)
Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages,
Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis.
Other languages, English for example, use word stress and pro-NOUNCE DIF-ferent
SYL-la-bles with more or less im-POR-tance. Word stress is not an optional
extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the
language! Fluent English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and
accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a
word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the
stress. Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. The
primary stress can change the meaning of words with the same spelling. IGNOU
BEGG 172 Free Solved Assignment 2022 For example, ADDress means a place, but
aDDRESS means to speak formally to a group. PROduce means food gown to be sold,
but proDUCE means to make something
But don’t worry, it’s easy to check a word’s primary stress
in a dictionary. You will see a /ˈ / symbol before it in the phonemes. For
example, if you look up the word pronunciation, its phonemes /prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃn/
tell us the primary stress in on /eɪ/. So, we pronounce the whole word as
pronunciAtion with the stress on the ‘a.’ Luckily, there are patterns that can
help us guess word stress without having to check a dictionary. Here are a few
below.
6. How can
we use multilingualism as a resource? (5)
Multilingualism is a word much sinned against than sinning.
Its meaning, usage and pedagogical relevance is highly context embedded,
multilingualism classroom in India cannot and should not be equated with a
multilingual classroom of the USA or Canada. In a typical multilingual
classroom in the USA, there is no common first language among the learners of
English, the learners are from vastly different countries and cultures and they
make different mistakes in structure and pronunciation depending on their
specific foreign language origin. Besides all these factors, the target
language English is all pervasive in the school and the learners have no choice
but to communicate in English with their classmates as they cannot chat or
express their ideas in their home languages. But in an Indian multilingual
classroom, majority of the children have a first language in common, their
first languages have a lot of similarities with the first languages of their
classmates and they have a bond of a common cultural heritage which makes
linguistic assimilation an unconscious process among the children speaking
numerous Indian languages. Unlike the immigrant children of the USA attending a
multilingual class, Indian children learning English in a multilingual class
can chat and communicate with their friends in languages other than English.
Another important difference between the environ of the USA multilingual class
room and the Indian multilingual class room is the quality and the expertise of
the English teachers. The teachers of English in the USA are not only fluent in
English, they are certified to be English teachers. In India, unfortunately, a
teacher teaching English at the primary level is often neither fluent in
English nor is she sufficiently trained to teach English or any other language.
As the onus of using the multilingual pedagogy rests with the teachers, the
ill-equipped Indian English teacher does not venture to use a multilingual
pedagogy.
Section B
Short
answer questions based on Blocks 3 and 4 (Answer each question in 300 words)
1. Citing
examples, explain how can we compare words? What are the different
relationships that exist between words? (5)
Imagine you are participating in a discussion about ideas.
It's not small talk. It's a discussion about how you feel about something
important, like your beliefs, politics, who you feel is better for a job, and
so on. Using the right phrases and grammar structures can help you express your
ideas well. Knowing how to compare and contrast is a particularly useful tool
to get your point across in an interesting way
Words and Short Phrases Used to Compare
The following words or short phrases compare two items or
ideas:
· like
·
likewise
· same
as
· as
well as
·
also, too
·
likewise
Time, like money, is a limited resource. You can't buy
everything you want, likewise, you don't have enough time to do everything you
want to do. Our time is the same as our money: it's limited. Also, time is a
resource when work needs to be done.
In some ways words are like families. Just as there are
different relationships among members of the same family, there are different
relationships among words. Picture your own family. You probably have relatives
who like to do the same things you do. But they may look nothing like you. You
may have relatives who are from another city. They might have unusual accents
and all "sound alike." There are probably still others who are
rebels. They always want the opposite of what everyone else in the family
wants.
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There are similar relationships between words. Words that
mean the same thing but look different are called synonyms. Their meanings are
very similar (e.g., pretty/cute). An antonym is a word that has the opposite
meaning of another word (e.g., pretty/ugly). A homonym is a word that sounds
like another word but has a different meaning (e.g., there/their).
2. Define
morpheme. What are the different types of morphemes? (5)
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful lexical item in a
language. A morpheme is not a word. The difference between a morpheme and a
word is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word on this
definition always stands alone. The field of linguistic study dedicated to
morphemes is called morphology. In English, when a morpheme can stand alone, it
is considered a root because it has a meaning of its own (such as the morpheme
cat). When it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an affix
because it has a grammatical function (such as the -s in cats to indicate
plurality
Types Of Morphemes
The morphemes are of
two types. They are:
· Free
Morphemes
·
Bound Morphemes
1. Free Morphemes
A morpheme that has individual meaning and can be formed
independently is called a free morpheme. For example; free, get, human, song,
love, happy, sad, may, much, but, and, or, some, above, when, etc.
All of the words have individual meanings and are free
morphemes. Free morphemes can be categorized into two sub-types. They are:
Lexical Morphemes The lexical morphemes are those morphemes
that are large in number and independently meaningful. The lexical morphemes
include nouns, adjectives, and verbs. These free morphemes are called lexical
morphemes—for example, dog, good, honest, boy, girl, woman, excellent, etc.
Grammatical Or Functional Morphemes The grammatical or
functional morphemes are those morphemes that consist of functional words in a
language, such as prepositions, conjunctions determiners, and pronouns. For
example; and, but, or, above, on, into, after, that, the, etc.
A morpheme that doesn’t have any independent meaning and can
be formed with the help of free morphemes is called a bound morpheme. For
example; less, ness, pre, un, en, ceive, ment. Bound morphemes can be
categorized into two sub-classes. They are:
Affixes Affixes are those bound morphemes that naturally
attached different types of words and used to change the meaning or function of
those words. For example, -ment in payment, enjoyment, entertainment en- in
enlighten, enhance, enlarge, ‘s in Joseph’s, Lora’s -ing reading, sleeping,
singing etc.
3. What is
derivational morphology? Give two examples of derivation from your mother
tongue. (5)
Derivational morphology is a type of word formation that
creates new lexemes, either by changing syntactic category or by adding
substantial new meaning (or both) to a free or bound base. Derivation may be
contrasted with inflection on the one hand or with compounding on the other.
The distinctions between derivation and inflection and between derivation and
compounding, however, are not always clear-cut. New words may be derived by a
variety of formal means including affixation, reduplication, internal
modification of various sorts, subtraction, and conversion. Affixation is best
attested cross-linguistically, especially prefixation and suffixation.
Reduplication is also widely found, with various internal changes like ablaut
and root and pattern derivation less common. Derived words may fit into a
number of semantic categories. For nouns, event and result, personal and
participant, collective and abstract noun are frequent. For verbs, causative
and applicative categories are well-attested, as are relational and qualitative
derivations for adjectives. Languages frequently also have ways of deriving
negatives, relational words, and evaluatives. Most languages have derivation of
some sort, although there are languages that rely more heavily on compounding
than on derivation to build their lexical
Examples and
Observations
"Derivational morphology studies the principles
governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific
grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. In the formation of drinkable
from drink, or disinfect from infect, for example, we see the formation of new
words, each with its own grammatical properties.
Derivation vs.
Inflection
Morphology may be divided into derivation—rules that form a
new word out of old words, like duckfeathers and unkissable—and
inflection—rules that modify a word to fit its role in a sentence, what
language teachers call conjugation and declension."
"The distinction between inflectional morphology and
derivational morphology is an ancient one. Fundamentally, it is a matter of the
means used to create new lexemes (derivational affixes among other processes)
and those used to mark the role of the lexeme in a particular sentence
(accidence, inflectional morphology)...
"It seems that although we probably can maintain a
distinction between inflectional and derivational morphology relatively well in
English—albeit with certain problematical cases which do not invalidate the
fundamental notion—the distinction is not helpful to us in understanding any
other aspects of the morphology of English. The classification might be useful
in terms of typology, but does not throw much light on the behavior of English
morphological processes."
4. Define
noun phrase and discuss its structure giving examples. (5)
A noun phrase is a group of words, usually a noun in
addition to a modifier—such as an adjective, adverb, or article—that functions
just as a noun would. Grammatically, a noun phrase can be the subject, object,
subject complement, or object complement in the sentence in which it appears.
Examples of Noun Phrases
In normal writing, nouns nearly always feature in noun
phrases. It is rare to find a noun functioning by itself (i.e., without any modifiers)
in a sentence. Man proposes, but God disposes. (German canon Thomas à Kempis)
(This example features two nouns without any modifiers. That's rare. In other
words, there are no noun phrases in this example.) In real life, it is far more
common for nouns to feature in noun phrases, i..e, to be accompanied by
modifiers. Here is a list of noun phrases. In this list, every noun phrase
consists of a head noun (highlighted) and at least one modifier. People: the
soldier, my cousin, dopey Alan, the lawyer with the big nose Animals: that
aardvark, one rat, a shark, funny Mickey Places: the house in the corner, inner
London, dirty factory, no shelter Things: this table, our London Bridge, the
sharp chisel, that nitrogen, last month, an inch, her cooking Ideas: utter
confusion, some kindness, your faith, the Theory of Relativity, a joy So, a
noun with any sort of modifier (even it's just "a" or
"the") is a noun phrase.
5. What are
prefixes and suffixes? Separate the prefixes and suffixes in the following
words: (5)
Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to
the beginning or end of another word. They are not words in their own right and
cannot stand on their own in a sentence: if they are printed on their own they
have a hyphen before or after them. Word creation with prefixes and suffixes
Some prefixes and suffixes are part of our living language, in that people
regularly use them to create new words for modern products, concepts, or
situations.
· Antiestablishmentarianism
An anti-establishment view or
belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political,
and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern
sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political
and social agenda. Antiestablishmentarianism (or antiestablishmentarianism) is
an expression for such a political philosophy
· Prenatal
Pregnancy is a time of anticipation, excitement,
preparation, and, for many new parents, uncertainty. The nine months of
pregnancy will give you time to have your questions answered, calm your fears,
and prepare yourself for the realities of parenthood. This section contains
some guidelines to help you with the most important of these preparations
· Institutionalisation
In sociology, institutionalisation (or institutionalization)
is the process of embedding some conception (for example a belief, norm, social
role, particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social
system, or society as a whole. The term may also be used to refer to committing
a particular individual or group to an institution, such as a mental or welfare
institution. The term may also be used in a political sense to apply to the
creation or organization of governmental institutions or particular bodies
responsible for overseeing or implementing policy, for example in welfare or
development. During the period of the industrial revolution in Europe many
countries went through a period of "institutionalization", which saw
a large expansion and development of the role of government within society.
· Organisational
As noted above, almost by definition, management takes place
within the framework of an organisation. This could be a private firm, a
government department or an NGO. Some organisations endure over time, whilst
others are set up in order to perform a specific task and are dissolved once
the task has been carried out. There is no agreed definition of an organisation
- different writers emphasise different aspects. Most definitions embrace the
idea that organisations are:
·
groups of people
·
acting together
· in
pursuit of common goals or objectives
The notion of groups of people acting together encompasses
various forms of selfhelp and collective action. However, it is not restricted
to this; rather, the emphasis is on achieving things that one individual could
not achieve alone. The 'group' could be organised hierarchically if this is the
most effective way to achieve the set goal.
6.
Differentiate compound and complex sentences. How are they created ? (5) -3-
Main Difference: The difference between Compound and Complex
Sentences is that Compound sentence is a sentence that has multiple independent
clauses, but no dependent clause. Complex sentence is a sentence that has one
independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
A complex sentence is made up of an independent clause and
one or more dependent clauses connected to it. A dependent clause is a clause
that does not express a complete thought. Examples of dependent clauses: while
he waited for the drink although they share some similar properties In complex
sentences, the clauses are connected by subordinating conjunctions. Some common
subordinating conjunctions include when, until, because, while, if, although,
after, as, before, whenever, since, and whereas. An independent clause is
joined with one or more dependent clause by a subordinating conjunction to form
a complex sentence.
Complex sentence:
He realized that the bus was late while he was waiting at the bus station. You
can construct a complex sentence by including the dependent clause first,
followed by the independent clause. When I told him that I was resigning from
the job, he was shocked. You can also write the independent clause first,
followed by the dependent clause, as given below. He was shocked when I told
him that I was resigning from the job. Note that a comma should be used at the
end of the dependent clause if you are writing the dependent clause first.
However, if you are including the independent clause first, a comma should not
be used. You can observe this difference in the two examples above. I realized
that there were many mistakes in the accounts after he resigned from the job.
When I gave my mother her present, she hugged me tight. I didn’t visit her as
she doesn’t like visitors.
Compound Sentence:
Complex sentence is a sentence that contains multiple independent clause, but
no dependent clause.
Complex Sentence: Compound
sentence is a sentence that contains one independent clause and one or more
dependent clause. Characteristics of Compound and Complex Sentences Independent
clause
Compound Sentence:
A compound sentence contains more than one independent clause.
Complex Sentence: A
complex sentence contains only one independent clause
Section C
Long answer
questions based on Blocks 1 to 4 (Answer each question in 500 words)
1. How is
human language different from animal communication? (10)
If someone asked you what separates humans from other
animals, one of the first things that would probably come to mind is language.
Language is so fundamental to human life that it's hard to imagine what life
would be like without it. In fact, the original term for language referred to
it as part of the body—language is derived from the Latin word lingua, meaning
tongue. Barnett highlights the inseparability of language from man when he
says, “Verbal communication is a condition of the existence of human society.”
But at the same time, other animals also communicate: Your cat may let you know
when its hungry, ants use pheromones and sound to indicate social status and
distress, bees dance to tell one another where to find honey, and chimpanzees
can learn sign language. The primary difference is known as duality of
patterning, or structure. Each human language has a fixed number of sound units
called "phonemes." These phonemes are combined to make morphemes, the
smallest unit of sound that contains meaning. Thus, language has got two levels
of patterning that are not present in other animals' communication.
Creativity
Yet another distinctive feature is creativity. Human beings
use their linguistic resources to produce new expressions and sentences. They
arrange and rearrange phonemes, morphemes, words, and phrases in a way that can
express an infinite number of ideas. This is also called the open-endedness of
language. Animal communication is a closed system. It cannot produce new signals
to communicate novel events or experiences. Human beings can talk of real or
imaginary situations, places, or objects far removed from their present
surroundings and time. Other animals, on the other hand, communicate in
reaction to a stimulus in the immediate environment, such as food or danger.
Because of this, human language is considered context-free, whereas animal
communication is mostly context bound.
Interchangeability
Human language is interchangeable between sexes. But certain
communications in animal world are performed only by one gender. For example,
bee dancing is only performed by worker bees, which are female.
Cultural Transmission
Another important difference is that human language is
culturally transmitted. Human beings brought up in different cultures acquire
different languages. Man can also learn other languages via the influence of
other cultures. Animals lack this capacity. Their communication ability is
transmitted biologically, so they are unable to learn other languages.
Arbitrariness
Human language is a symbolic system. The signs, or words, in
language have no inherent connection to what they signify, or mean (that's why
one object can have so many names in different languages). These signs can also
be written with the symbols, or alphabet, of that language. Both verbal and
written language can be passed down to future generations. Animal communication
is not symbolic, which means ideas cannot be preserved for the future
2. The
mentalists questioned the principles of structuralism in mid 20th century.
Discuss how this shift occurred in the study of language. Do you find any
similarities between Chomsky’s ideas and that of Saussure? (10)
The 20th century
Structuralism
The term structuralism was used as a slogan and rallying cry
by a number of different schools of linguistics, and it is necessary to realize
that it has somewhat different implications according to the context in which
it is employed. It is convenient first to draw a broad distinction between
European and American structuralism and then to treat them separately.
Structural
linguistics in Europe
Structural linguistics in Europe is generally said to have
begun in 1916 with the posthumous publication of the Cours de Linguistique
Générale (Course in General Linguistics) of Ferdinand de Saussure. analysing
the use of language shift in multilingual classroom discourse. The term
language shift refers to the use of multiple languages in all types of
interactions, including teaching and learning. The analysis was developed in
the context of an action research project in Indonesian schools. It includes
three components: a framework for mapping teaching approaches in multilingual
classrooms; an analysis of pedagogic interactions, showing the structures of
language shift within and between speaker roles; and an analysis of the
pedagogic functions of language shift, as lessons and teacher/learner interactions
unfold. The theoretical foundation for the analysis is the model of language as
text-in-context developed in systemic functional linguistics. Linguistic
pertains to both language and communication. Douglas Robinson (2003, p. 26)
emphasized “Linguistics is the study of language: even etymologically this is
an obvious fact. In the twentieth century, however, the term came to signify a
single fairly narrow approach to language and to exclude everything else of
interest that might theoretically be included within it. Ferdinand de Saussure
and Noam Chomsky were linguists. Emile Benveniste was a linguist; Jacques
Derrida was not.” The quote clearly shows that some quarters have devoted much
of their time and effort to study how the language of one community evolved.
The linguists have focused much of their time to understanding language growth.
Ferdinand de Saussure. Ferdinand de Saussure emphasized that both language and
speech are both composed of a system of signs (Saussaure, 2011, p. 17). The
language and speech both precipitated from the social environment. Ferdinand de
Saussure also insisted that language was not an innate act. Ferdinand de
Saussure theorized that the person’s language and speech are learned while the
person is interacting with other persons and influences. Language learning is
biological in nature (Andenson & Lightfoot, 2002, p. 3). For example, the
Japanese person learned to speak the Japanese language while growing up in a
Japanese community.
3. What are
the different kinds of language variations? Explain by giving examples. (10)
The term linguistic variation (or simply variation) refers
to regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular
language is used. Variation between languages, dialects, and speakers is known
as interspeaker variation. Variation within the language of a single speaker is
called intraspeaker variation. Since the rise of sociolinguistics in the 1960s,
interest in linguistic variation (also called linguistic variability) has
developed rapidly. R.L. Trask notes that "variation, far from being
peripheral and inconsequential, is a vital part of ordinary linguistic
behavior" (Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics, 2007). The formal
study of variation is known as variationist (socio)linguistics. All aspects of
language (including phonemes, morphemes, syntactic structures, and meanings)
are subject to variation.
"Linguistic variation is central to the study of
language use. In fact it is impossible to study the language forms used in
natural texts without being confronted with the issue of linguistic
variability. Variability is inherent in human language: a single speaker will
use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers
of a language will express the same meanings using different forms. Most of
this variation is highly systematic: speakers of a language make choices in
pronunciation, morphology, word choice, and grammar depending on a number of
non-linguistic factors. These factors include the speaker's purpose in
communication, the relationship between speaker and hearer, the production
circumstances, and various demographic affiliations that a speaker can
have." (Randi Reppen et al., Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic
Variation. John Benjamins, 2002) Linguistic Variation and Sociolinguistic
Variation "There are two types of language variation: linguistic and
sociolinguistic. With linguistic variation, the alternation between elements is
categorically constrained by the linguistic context in which they occur. With
sociolinguistic variation, speakers can choose between elements in the same
linguistic context and, hence the alternation is probabilistic. Furthermore,
the probability of one form being chosen over another is also affected in a
probabilistic way by a range of extralinguistic factors [e.g. the degree of
(in)formality of the topic under discussion, the social status of the speaker
and of the interlocutor, the setting in which communication takes place,
etc.]" (Raymond Mougeon et al., The Sociolinguistic Competence of
Immersion Students. Multilingual Matters, 2010).
4. The verb
phrase is an important part of inflectional morphology. Discuss inflection
through the verb phrase.
Inflectional morphology is the study of processes, including
affixation and vowel change, that distinguish word forms in certain grammatical
categories. Inflectional morphology differs from derivational morphology or
word-formation in that inflection deals with changes made to existing words and
derivation deals with the creation of new words.
Both inflection and derivation involve attaching affixes to
words, but inflection changes a word's form, maintaining the same word, and
derivation changes a word's category, creating a new word (Aikhenvald 2007).
Though the inflectional system of Modern English is limited and distinctions
between inflection and derivation are not always clear, studying these
processes is helpful in understanding the language more deeply.
Inflectional and Derivational
Categories
Inflectional morphology consists of at least five
categories, provided in the following excerpt from Language Typology and
Syntactic Description: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon. As the text will
explain, derivational morphology cannot be so easily categorized because
derivation isn't as predictable as inflection. "The prototypical
inflectional categories include number, tense, person, case, gender, and
others, all of which usually produce different forms of the same word rather
than different words. Thus leaf and leaves, or write and writes, or run and ran
are not given separate headwords in dictionaries. Derivational categories, in
contrast, do form separate words, so that leaflet, writer, and rerun will
figure as separate words in dictionaries. In addition, inflectional categories
do not, in general, alter the basic meaning expressed by a word; they merely
add specifications to a word or emphasize certain aspects of its meaning.
Leaves, for instance, has the same basic meaning as leaf, but adds to this the
specification of multiple exemplars of leaves. Derived words, by contrast,
generally denote different concepts from their base: leaflet refers to
different things from leaf, and the noun writer calls up a somewhat different
concept from the verb to write. That said, finding a watertight
cross-linguistic definition of 'inflectional' which will let us classify every
morphological category as either inflectional or derivational is not easy
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