The Science of Language

Study guide for week 10:

The goals for this week are to: 1) acquire a vocabulary for describing how language varies from speaker to speaker, and from community to community; 2) explore the ways in which gender affects language behavior; 3) investigate the ways in which age, socioeconomic status, and culture affect language behavior; 4) describe the regional variation present in the U.S. today.

Readings:

Language Files: 10.1-10.9
Pinker: chapter 12

Exercises from the text:

Language Files: File 10.8, ex. 1-5; 10.10 (all).

Additional exercises:

1.    Each of the following words is formed using the rules of some play language.  Examine the words and state the rule that underlies the formation of each set.
a.    egelegephagant, higippogopogotagamugus
b.    nutsbuts, raibaisinsbins, icebicecreambeam
c.    bed and brutter, trimb a clee, chamb lop, sli skope

2.    Consider the following forms (remember, “*” means “unacceptable” and “√” means “acceptable”):

a.    √fan-fuckin-tastik
b.    *fantas-fuckin-tik

c.    *ab-frigin-solutely!
d.    √abso-frigin-lutely!
e.    *absolute-frigin-ly

f.    *u-bloody-niversity
g.    √uni-bloody-versity
h.    *univer-bloody-sity
i.    *universi-bloody-ty

What principle is guiding the insertion of the expletive into the word?  Hint: think about the syllables and the stress in the word.  Now consider the following word.  Where would one be able to insert an expletive into this word?  (It is a place name in the US, and is pronounced “ApalachaCOla”).

j.    a-fuckin-palachacola        *    √
k.    apa-fuckin-lachacola         *    √
l.    apala-fuckin-chacola         *    √
m.    apalacha-fuckin-cola         *    √
n.    apalachaco-fuckin-la         *    √

3.    Choose a particular field of endeavor, (farming, computers, music) and describe the unique features of its sublanguage.

4.    Often, word choice reflects unexamined attitudes about appropriate gender roles, so that terms frequently or normatively associated with one gender are modified when used with the other gender.  Examples include “male nurse” instead of “nurse,” “lady doctor” instead of “doctor,” “family man” but not “family woman,” “career man” but not “career woman.”  In other cases, the feminine suffix may trivialize the woman’s work/career as in “authoress” or “poetess.”  Collect five examples of such sex-role typing.  If you were writing guidelines for nonsexist use of language, what sorts of substitutions or suggestions would you offer to deal with such words?  Can you think of any changes to the pronoun system of English that would make it more gender neutral?

Essential concepts:

 
dialect
idiolect
accent
mutually intelligible
communicative isolation
prestige dialect
overt/covert prestige
dialect continuum
standard dialect
hypercorrection
bidialectal
issolgoss
prescriptive standard
pidgin/Creole
decreolization
style shift
slang