unit 3: culture Flashcards
(38 cards)
explain ‘what’s in a name?’
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.
what does Juliet use as an example in her quote?
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.
who is Helen Keller?
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.
why was Anne Mansfield so important for Keller?
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.
how did Keller live before Mansfield?
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.
what was Keller’s problem in learning?
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.
explain the text about disappearing languages.
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.
why are these languages disappearing?
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.
explain the stages of a language dying with an example for each stage.
- 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)
what is thangmi? why is it dying?
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.
who is mark turin?
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.
what does the world oral literature project do?
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.
explain the history of modern english.
- 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.
explain modern english
Modern English was influenced by many languages. Our history lives in the words we speak and hear.
why do languages die so easily?
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.
who is Deb Roy?
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
how did Deb Roy perform his experiment?
he placed cameras all over his house to record his wife, his child and him, to research this.
which 2 elements help children speak their first word?
- contextual support by caregivers
- visual context
what role do caregivers play in language acquisition?
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.
what is a wordscape?
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.
why is English considered the dominant language?
there’s more Hindi, Spanish and Mandarin speakers, but it’s everyone’s second language, and it’s the language used across cultures.
explain the connection between globalisation and English.
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.
WHY is English dominant (4 ex)
- 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
what is Singlish?
English dialect in Singapore
