week 8 Flashcards
(30 cards)
1
Q
pidgin language
A
- simplified language used to communicate by adults who speak very diff languages
- no structure more complex than a simple clause, no consistent word order, no tense, no way to indicate who did what to whom
- pidgins emerge in colonial and trade situations
2
Q
how are pidgins and creoles created
A
- contact languages between people who speak structurally very diff languages
- mutually unintelligible languages
- borrowing and mixing languages arises from contact
- defining and giving ‘a language’ a name is a social, historical, political process
3
Q
creole language
A
- fully grammatical language developed from a pidgin by children using it as a native language
- consistent word order, tense marking, prepositions, case marking, etc
4
Q
lexifier language
A
- provides most vocabulary, tends to be the most prestigious of the contact languages
5
Q
basilect, acrolect
A
- basilect: most diff from lexifier language - provides more grammatical structure
- acrolect: variety closest to standard lexifier language, more prestigious
- range of variation: people who have learned the acrolect will tend to use words closer to that standard
- not trying to impress anybody, may use more forms from the basilect
6
Q
pidgin = folk name for Hawaiian creole with English as main lexifier language
A
- in linguistic terms, is a creole language
- 600,000 sp
eak as first language - 400,000 speak as second language
- parent languages: Hawaiian, English, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog
- English is the official/prestige language; getting educated has involved “correcting” Pidgin
- systematic phonology, morphology, grammar
- HC has systematic rules that are diff from standard English, often traceable to contributing languages
7
Q
Hawaiian language indigenous to Hawaii
A
- 1 of the influences on Hawaiian creole
- Polynesian language with austronesian language family
8
Q
hawaii’s 2 state languages
A
- Hawaii state quarter features the Hawaiian monarch
9
Q
hawaiian history
A
- king Kamehameha I united Hawaiian islands
- monarchy overthrown
- English made main language of education; Hawaiian language suppressed
- US illegally annexed Hawaii
- Hawaii became 50th state
- Hawaiian language made official alongside English
- start of immersion Hawaiian language nest schools, Hawaii considered critically endangered
- less than 0.1% of population fluent in native Hawaiian
10
Q
Distinction between “lack of grammar/ungrammaticality” and “non-standard grammar”
A
- people in power define what is standard
- nonstandard dialects are spoken more often by lower classes and non-dominant ethnic/racial groups - but they have grammatical rules
- say non standard has no grammar/bad grammar = some equate it with low intelligence, inarticulateness, lack of education
- AAE does not lack grammar, pronunciation is not due to laziness, it is not just slang, it is not standardized - there is not one single form of AAE
11
Q
phonology and grammar
A
pronunciation, rules for verb endings and tenses
- included with style, symbolize an identity: here is where language ideology and politics come in
12
Q
AAE speech style
A
- intonation
- play with words
- discursive structure
- kinesics (body language)
- culturally specific themes, topics
13
Q
problems of naming AAE
A
- historically: AAE spoken by people of African descent, standard spoken by upper-class whites
- less social segregation leads to less linguistic segregation
- now: people of various races speak AAE (if living in AAE environment)
- many African Americans do not speak AAE
- like Hawaiian Pidgin (creole), AAE rules and forms overlap with Std. US English
- nonstandard language formed during slavery and segregation
- strong pressures to assimilate to prestige language English
14
Q
Theories of origins of AAE (Afrocentric, Eurocentric (dialect), and Creolist)
A
- afrocentric, Eurocentric, creolist
- afrocentric: African language, spoken by slaves and deliberately mixed together to disrupt ability to communicate and unite
- Eurocentric: some of the features of AAE are same as nonstandard dialects brought from britain (ain’t)
- creolist: intersection of languages with pidginization and creolization
15
Q
education of word-final consonant clusters
A
reduction:
- told = ‘tole’ last = ‘las’ kind = ‘kin’
16
Q
AAE
A
- non standard language formed during slavery and segregation
- first: pidgin (contact language between English dialects and various African languages)
- then creolization
- strong pressures to assimilate to the acrolect (English)
- AAE not standardized, but does have phonological and grammatical rules
17
Q
double negatives/negative concord
A
- “we can’t go nowhere. I ain’t got no money”
- used in nonstandard English’s like Cockney and AAEVE (hence the stigma)
- not standard in English, but double (multiple) negatives are a normal linguistic option, not an issue of logic
- widely used in Elizabethan English 16th century
- now used in contemporary standard languages such as: Spanish, French, Ukrainian
- it is just as logical to have negativity marked throughout the phrase as it is to mark it once
18
Q
habitual verb aspect (‘be’)
A
standard English:
- simple action or progressive (I run vs. I am running)
- In AAE: habitual “be”
- “we be here every day”
- be as a marker of habitual aspect (recurrence)
- in AAVE: something one uses regularly, and ongoing activity/state (absent in standard English)
19
Q
AAE systems of verb tenses
A
- pre-recent past, longer ago: I been seen him
- recent past: I done seen him
- prepresent: I did see him
- past inceptive: I do see him
- present: I see him
- immediate future: I’m a do it
- soon-post-immediate future: I’m a gonna do it
- indefinite future: I gonna do it
20
Q
copula deletion
A
- “they crazy”
- “where she at”
- Japanese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, arabic, russian, Bengali, ASL
21
Q
aspect (of verbs); habitual aspect
A
- grammatical category that marks duration or type of temporal activity
- may contrast between completed and not yet completed action
22
Q
etymology
A
- history of forms and meanings of a word
- ex: “hazard” comes from Arabic az-zahr; meaning: dice used in games of chance, associated with gambling risk
- now generalized meaning of risk, danger
23
Q
the etymology of “ain’t”
A
- contraction of forms of “to be not” and “to have not” (starting in 1600s)
to be not
- am not - amn’t - an’t
- are not - aren’t - an’t
- is not - isn’t - in’t or en’t - an’t
- ain’t was considered proper contraction for “am not” until it began to be used as a generic contraction for are not, is not, etc., in early 19c.
- cockney dialect of London; popularized by representations of this in dickens, which led to the word being banished from correct English
to have not
- has not, have not - hasn’t, haven’t - Han’t or ha’n’t
- sometimes pronounced with long a, so hasn’t - ain’t
24
Q
etymology of ask vs. aks
A
- etymology from the Oxford English Dictionary
- old English áscian
- csian, axian, survived in ax, down to nearly 1600 the
regular literary form, and still used everywhere in midl. and
southern dialects, though supplanted in standard English by ask,
originally the northern form. Already in 15th cent. the latter was
reduced dialectally to asse, past tense ast, still current dialectally.
25
Cases regarding use of AAE/Ebonics in education (1979 Ann Arbor, Michigan;
)
- school district violated federal law because it failed to take into account the home language of the children in the provision of education instruction
- the judge ordered the school district to find a way to identify black English speakers and to use that knowledge to teach standard English
26
1996 Oakland School district
- school district wanted to treat ebonic as a diff language
- definition as distinct language brings special funds for limlited English proficiency or bilingual education
- treat ebonics not as wrong, but diff, to boost self-esteem while more effectively teaching standard language
- initially, people said: "ebonics will hold blacks back, just plain wrong, not a language"
- as long as social differences, there will be linguistic differences
27
Covert prestige and motivation for non-standard language use
- AAE criticized for not pronouncing things as spelled
- but in English: gh=f in tough
- o =I as in women
- ti = ʃ as in nation
- AAE phonology is systematic, not random breaking of rules, rooted in historical forms of English
- overt: seek higher social status by assimilating to the mainstream standard
- covert: choose to differ from the mainstream standard to identify with particular group (solidarity)
28
Non-standard language, slang, & incorrect grammatical forms in popular music, and racism in how these are often perceived
- Timbaland: the way I are
- Stefani: I'm restless, can't you see I try my bestest
- when
29
pronouncing "th"
1. voiceless th (θ) pronounced as such at the beginnings of words
- think = θıŋk
2. voiceless th (θ) pronounced t or f at middle or end of word
- bath=bæf; with=wıt/wıf
3. voiced th (ð) pronounced as d at beginning of words
- these=di:z; that=dæt
4. voiced th pronounced as v at end of word
- bathe=beiv; smooth=smuv
30
