Applied Linguistics (AL) - A Survey Why Applied ... · Applied linguistics is the branch of...
Transcript of Applied Linguistics (AL) - A Survey Why Applied ... · Applied linguistics is the branch of...
Resourcesa) Dictionaries: e.g. OxfordInternational Encyclopedia of Linguistics = http://www.oxford-linguistics.comb) Handbooks:Davies, A. & Elder, C. eds. (2004). Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Kaplan, R. ed. (2001). Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford U P.Wein, Li/Vivian Cook eds. (2009). Contemporary Applied Linguistics. Language for the Real World. London: Continuum.Handbook of Pragmatics = http://www.benjamins.com/online/hop/Chapelle, Carol A. ed. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. (10 vols., over 1,100 original essays!)c) https://wiki.tu-chemnitz.de/English/AppliedLinguisticsQuizzes: https://moodle2.uni-leipzig.de/login/index.php
c) many journals, e.g. https://academic.oup.com/applij
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Applied Linguistics (AL) - A Survey
general• to understand human behaviour (better)• to become aware of boundaries among people constructed by language• to understand "what is really said/meant“• to produce and understand texts for different societies/cultures efficiently …
job-related:• to use computers to analyse language• to understand language-related computer software • to improve speech therapies• to discover better teaching and learning strategies• to optimize dictionary use and production• to improve training of translators and interpreters …
distinguish between - narrow/traditional AL in educational settings- broad/modern AL in the work-place, in daily life in general
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Why Applied Linguistics? - brainstorming
Language & Society -> Sociolinguistics& Cognition -> Psycholinguistics (Cognitive L.)& Law -> Forensic Linguistics& Culture -> Intercultural Communication(& Computer -> Computational Linguistics)
„issues of the real world“ can occur in problem-oriented research ineducation: learning/teachingidentity: personal background, class, ethnicitytext structure: style, discoursedata analysis/methodology: corpus, discourse analysis
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AL as interdisciplinary and problem-oriented
Applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics concerned with using linguistic theory to address real-world problems. It has been traditionally dominated by the fields of language educationand second language acquisition. There is a recurrent tension between those who regard the field as limited to the study of language learning, and those who see it as encompassing all applications of linguistic theory. Both definitions are widely used.The field of applied linguistics first concerned itself with second language acquisition, in particular errors and contrastive analysis, in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, with the failure of contrastive analysis as a theory to predict errors, applied linguists began to adopt Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar to explain second language learning phenomena. In the 1990s, more and more researchers began to employ research methods from cognitive psychology. Today, the field is a cross-disciplinary mix of departments primarily from linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and education.Sociolinguistics and discourse analysis have played an increasingly important roles within the field, and sociocultural theory has emerged as a competitor to traditional cognitive psychological models of language acquisition. Further controversy over the connection between society, language & mind orients to whether applied linguistics should concern itself with the political ramifications of linguistics. One outcome of this debate has resulted in the formation of Critical Applied Linguistics, which is considered either a separate discipline or an offshoot of applied linguistics proper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_linguistics (17/10/17)
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of linguistics. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, conversation analysis …
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Applied linguistics: definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_linguistics (10/10/06)
1. Textlinguistics/Discourse Analysis2. Sociolinguistics3. Psycholinguistics4. Second-Language Acquisition (SLA) / ELT5. Corpus-Linguistics6. Lexicography7. Translation Studies8. Language & Culture/Politeness/Intercultural Communication (ICC)
AL, as a “hyphenated” discipline: partly methods from sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc.not included here: independent disciplines like clinical linguistics computational linguistics forensic linguistics (authorship: background of asylum seekers, plagiarism, etc.)
= “to see more than meets the eye”
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Survey of AL areasThe „football model“
of linguistic
subdisciplines
lexicology/ psycho-lexiography semantics grammar linguistics
first/secondtranslation pragmatics discourse analysis/ languagestudies text linguistics acquisition
historical linguistics corpus
linguistics
dialectologyEnglish
world-wide
phonology
sociolinguistics
language & culture: intercultural communication
contrastive linguistics
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Text linguistics, also known as written discourse analysis, seeks to analyzetexts beyond the level of the sentence, typically but not necessarily in their situational context. Text linguistics tends to focus on the patterns of how information flows within and among sentences by looking at aspects of texts like coherence, cohesion, the distribution of topics and comments, and other discourse structures. Much like syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences, text linguistics is concerned with the structure of texts.http://www.criticism.com/da/what-is-text-linguistics.php (17/10/12)
Reasons for TextlinguisticsMuch attention has been given to the sentence as a self-contained unit, and not enough has been given to studying how sentences may be used in connected stretches of language. It is essentially the presentation of language as sets of sentences.Text is extremely significant in communication because people communicate not by means of individual words or fragments of sentences in languages, but by means of texts. It is also the basis of various disciplines such as law, religion, medicine, science, politics, et cetera.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_linguistics (17/10/12)
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1. Textlinguistics: definitions
A text is an extended structure of syntactic units [i.e. text as super-sentence] such as words, groups, and clauses and textual units that is marked by both coherence among the elements and completion…. [Whereas] A non-text consists of random sequences of linguistic units such as sentences, paragraphs, or sections in any temporal and/or spatial extension. (Werlich, 1976: 23)
A naturally occurring manifestation of language, i.e. as a communicative language event in a context. The SURFACE TEXT is the set of expressions actually used; these expressions make some knowledge EXPLICIT, while other knowledge remains IMPLICIT, though still applied during processing. (Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981: 63)
[A term] used in linguistics to refer to any passage- spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole [….] A text is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence; and it is not defined by its size [….] A text is best regarded as a SEMANTIC unit; a unit not of form but of meaning. (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1-2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_linguistics (17/10/12)
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1.1 Text: 1.1.1 Definitions
as a “communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality” –
• Cohesion = the ways in which the components of the surface text are connected within a sequence
• Coherence = the ways in which concepts and relations, which underlie the surface text, are linked, relevant and used, to achieve efficient communication
• Intentionality = the text producer’s attitude and intentions as the text producer uses cohesion and coherence to attain a goal specified in a plan
• Acceptability = the text receiver’s attitude that the text should constitute useful or relevant details or information such that it is worth accepting
• Informativity = the extent to which the contents of a text are already known or expected as compared to unknown or unexpected
• Situationality = the factors which make a text relevant to a situation of occurrence
• Intertextuality = the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered text, without any of which the text will not be communicative.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_linguistics (16/10/15)
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Beaugrande/Dressler (1981) define a text
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1.1.2 Coherence and cohesion in texts (Halliday/Hasan 1985)
coherence = extralinguistic factors contributing to the creation of texturein the mind of the receiver!e.g. world-knowledge, culture-specific conventions (“count to 10”)
cohesion = linguistic means which create texture
e.g. anaphoric reference: this (that)substitution of NP by personal pronouns: he/she
conjunctions: but, whileadverbs: first, then, finallylexical repetition:
incl. synonyms: problem – difficulty - issuehypernyms: plant: flower, tree, bush
UK Parliament = Commons + Lords
text-type classification, e.g. sermon, cooking recipe• directive, informative, expressive functions • narrative = novels, reportage (+dynamic verbs, time adverbials)• descriptive = background reports (+stative verbs, place adverbials)• instructive = manuals (+imperatives, politeness forms)• expository = definitions, declarations (+modal verbs)• argumentative = theses, advertisements (+negations, sequencing)but few text-types have only 1 function, e.g. advertisements are argumentative-persuasive (this is good because) + directive (buy now)cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_types (16/10/18)
In modern today’s linguistics (e.g. Halliday’s “social semiotic” SFG) or English for Academic Purposes (e.g. Swales’ EAP/ESP), genre is used not in the literary sense (e.g. drama, novel), but in a discourse-community context as conventionalised, “expected” forms of (argumentation) structure, etc. (e.g. a conference abstract, a BA thesis, a project proposal); unfortunately the related Wikipedia entries are not good enough:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_studies (16/10/18)
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1.1.3 Text-types vs. Genres(see also Corpus compilation in 5.4)
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1.2 Traditional approaches to style1.2.1 Stylistics
1.2.1.1 A linguistic subdiscipline?“Many linguists do not like the term ‘stylistics’. The word ‘style’, itself, has several connotations that make it difficult for the term to be defined accurately. However, in Linguistic Criticism, Roger Fowler makes the point that, in non-theoretical usage, the word stylistics makes sense and is useful in referring to an enormous range of literary contexts, such as John Milton’s ‘grand style’, the ‘prose style’ of Henry James, the‘epic’ and ‘ballad style’ of classical Greek literature, etc. (Fowler 1996: 185). In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistics_%28linguistics%29 (18/10/15)
Stylistics analyses
a) variation in literary language (authors choice, personal style forensic linguistics)
b) variation of text in context (cf. text linguistics, sociolinguistics) or in conventional, discourse community-specific ways of (inter)acting (1.1.4; cf. Fairclough 2003: 26). c) language on a scale of formality – informality: register (spoken – written)
• concerned with the recognizably formal and linguistic properties of a text existing as an isolated item in the world
• referring to the points of contact between a text, other texts, and their readers/listeners
• positioning the text and the consideration of its formal and psychological elements within a sociocultural context studies how readers ‘place’ texts in (their) sociolinguistic context (e.g. genres)
• old view: text = static, monologic ; exists in its own world as a self-sufficient entity
• new focus: text = dynamic, cognitive, intertextual, interpersonal
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1.2.1.2 Major strands of old and new stylistics
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western tradition. Its best known definition comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion."As part of the trivium, rhetoric was secondary to the study of logic, and its study was highly scholastic: students were given repetitive exercises in the creation of discourses on historical subjects (suasoriae) or on classic legal questions (controversiae).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric (12/10/14)
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1.2.2 Rhetorics1.2.2.1 Traditional Rhetoric
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1.2.2.2 New Rhetoric
The new rhetoric is defined as a theory of argumentation that has as its object the study of discursive techniques that aim to provoke or to increase the adherence of men’s minds to the theses that are presented for their assent. It also examines the conditions that allow argumentation to begin and to be developed, as well as the effects produced by this development.
This definition indicates in what way the new rhetoric continues classical rhetoric and in what way it differs from it. The new rhetoric continues the rhetoric of Aristotle insofar as it is aimed at all types of hearers. It embraces what the ancients termed dialectics (the technique of discussion and debate by means of questions and answers, dealing especially with matters of opinion), which Aristotle analyzed in his Topics; it includes the reasoning that Aristotle qualified as dialectical, which he distinguished from the analytical reasoning of formal logic. This theory of argumentation is termed new rhetoric because Aristotle, although he recognized the relationship between rhetoric and dialectic, developed only the former in terms of the hearers.
It should be noted, moreover, that the new rhetoric is opposed to the tradition of modern, purely literary rhetoric, better called stylistic, which reduces rhetoric to a study of figures of style, because it is not concerned with the forms of discourse for their ornamental or aesthetic value but solely insofar as they are means of persuasion and, more especially, means of creating “presence” (i.e., bringing to the mind of the hearer things that are not immediately present) through the techniques of presentation.Chaim Perelman in http://www.britannica.com s.v. new rhetoric
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1.2.3 Mode: spoken vs. written, a continuum?
spoken = written =sentences short long subordination restricted complexsentences incomplete completeconstructions ‘ungrammatical’ grammaticalpremodification little heavyactive form predominate also passivevague language thing, stuff technical termsrepetition + hesitation + structuredprefabricated fillers you know/see (hedges)deictic (immediacy) here, now there, in those days
the difference is not always clear-cut: “written to be spoken”
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1.2.4 Register as a formality scale
= the use of language is determined by the situation and can be situated on a formality scale (cf. Quirk et al. 1985)
Very formal, Frozen, Rigid← FORMAL Neutral INFORMAL →Very informal, Casual, Familiar
Joos (1961) describes five styles in spoken English:• Frozen: Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations; often contains
archaisms. • Formal: One-way participation, no interruption. Technical vocabulary; "Fussy
semantics" or exact definitions are important. Includes introductions between strangers.
• Consultative: Two-way participation. Background information is provided — prior knowledge is not assumed. "Backchannel behaviour" such as "uh huh", "I see", etc. is common. Interruptions allowed.
• Casual: In-group friends and acquaintances. No background information provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptions common.
• Intimate: Non-public. Intonation more important than wording or grammar. Private vocabulary.
There is very little agreement as to how the spectrum of formality should be dividedso the term is often avoided, e.g. Halliday 1978 calls it "tenor" instead.
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1.3 Discourse Analysis
1.3.1 Discourse =< Latin discursus "running to and from", as in debate or argument
The term is used in semantics and discourse analysis. In semantics, the largest linguistic unit composed of several sentences —in other words, conversations, arguments or speeches.• focuses on language as a social practice in its own right and is
concerned with how individuals use language in specific social contexts,
• enables researchers to gain an understanding of how individuals use language to construct themselves and the world around them,
• enables researchers to understand why individuals use language to construct themselves and the world around them,
• enables researchers to understand the ideological effects of individual constructions.
Does discourse reflect or construct meaning?
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1.3.2 History of the term discourse analysis
the term was first used in a paper by Zellig Harris in 1952• in the late 1960s and 1970s, a new cross-discipline in most of the
humanities and social sciences, • at the same time as other new (inter- or sub-) disciplines, such as
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics
Contrast to text linguistics?
• traditional text linguistics often focused on the abstract structures of (written) texts,
• contemporary approaches (in the social sciences) favour a more dynamic study of (spoken, oral) talk-in-interaction
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1.3.3 Critical Discourse Analysis
from 'critical linguistics‘: seminal book Roger Fowler, Günther Kress, Bob Hodge and Tony Trew (1979). Language and Control. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Norman Fairclough's Language and Power (1989; 2001) and Critical Discourse Analysis (1995) articulate a three-dimensional framework for studying discourse, "where the aim is to map three separate forms of analysis onto one another: analysis of (spoken or written) language texts, analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution and consumption) and analysis of discursive events as instances of sociocultural practice" (1995: 2).The approach draws from social theory ( Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu) in order to examine ideologies and power relations involved in discourse Fairclough notes "that language connects with the social through being the primary domain of ideology, and through being both a site of, and a stake in, struggles for power" (1989: 15).Van Dijk (1998) articulates ideology as the basis of the social representations of groups, and more generally advocates a sociocognitive interface between social structures and discourse structures.
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1.3.4 Conversation Analysis (CA)
= the study of talk in interaction• CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential
patterns of interaction, whether this is institutional (in the school, doctor's surgery, courts or elsewhere) or casual conversation.
• CA developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s (inspired by ethnomethodology) principally by the sociologists Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff.
key concepts: • turn-taking organisation, incl. turn construction and allocation,• repair organisation describes how parties in conversation deal with problems in
speaking, hearing, understanding or intercultural communication.
Lit: Schegloff, E. A. (2006). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: CUP.
2.1 Language in multilingual speech communities (Macrosociolinguistics)
2.1.1 Language choicecode: code-switching and -mixing (transfer and integration of loanwords)diglossia: clear functional separation of domains of related (Ferguson) or unrelated (Fishman) language varietiesdomains: family, religion, education, law, administration, media, etc.
2.1.2 Language maintenance and shift (Gaelic, Welsh)language death and loss (Cornish), language revival (Hebrew)
2.1.3 Linguistic varieties and multilingual nationsvernacular and standard languageslingua francas: e.g. Latin, Kiswahili, English for Academic Purposes (= EAP)pidgins and creoles in West Africa (Krio, NP), the Caribbean (Jamaican Creole), the Pacific (Kriol in Australia, Tok Pisin on PNG)some countries distinguish national (e.g. in Malawi: Chichewa) and official (e.g. English) languages
2.1.4 Language planning(e.g. Kiswahili in Africa, but also as a medium or subject in teaching)selection + codification + elaboration + securing variety acceptance
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2. Sociolinguistics
2.2.1 Regional and social dialects2.2.1.1 National varieties / standards / dialectsBritish and American preferences, but also Canada, Australia/New Zealand (wellies -gummies [gumboots] NZ)e.g. in lexicon: luggage - baggage, lift - elevator,in grammar: have you got/eaten; do you have/did you eat?
2.2.1.2 Intranational varieties (dialects)e.g. Geordie speech used in television programmes(stereotyped notions in creative literature to create character and setting)famous isoglosses (dialect lines) in pronunciation: Nengland: but, grass; WEngland: postvocalic <r> retreating (NE US expanding; s. Labov)Cockney: systematic vowel shift (team > tame > time),
rhyming slang (trouble and strive = wife)non-standard grammar less regional, more social
2.2.1.3 Cross-continental dialect chains show the arbitrariness of the terms ‘language’ vs. ‘dialect’e.g. Scottish: I'll not do it (StE: I won't do it)
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2.2 Language variation according to users (Microsociolinguistics)
Standard English = a dialect with an army and a navy (G.B. Shaw)/with a dictionary and a grammar
a short history of standard English from OE Winchester to the Queen? (see my History lecture in SS)
vocabulary: U [=upper-class] and Non-U (lavatory - toilet)RP a social accent (through public schools, BBC)
non-standardpronunciation: <r> postvocalic (+prestige in AmE, -prestige in BrE!),
<h> aich-dropping/-pronouncing (lower – middle class)grammar: 0 present tense 3rd person sing (she say),
0 past tense (he argue), double negation (I ain't seen nothing)
variation as an indicator of language change in progress (see 2.7.)
famous studies: Labov in NY, Trudgill in Norwich, Milroy in Belfast
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2.2.2 Social variation
2.3.1 Traditional dialects in Britain
• very different from StE both in pronunciation & in grammar• rural dialects abandoned in favour of a type of English more like the urban speech
of the local town or city• urban varieties are much closer to StE
→ fewer differences between ways of speaking in different parts of the country = dialect levelling
• English Dialect Dictionary & Grammar (EDD; Joseph Wright, 1898-1905)• The Survey of English Dialects (SED; Harold Orton & Eugen Dieth, 1962-1971)
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2.3 Traditional dialectology
Pronunciation• which – witch• pre-GVS pronunciations (e.g. hus)• voicing of initial fricatives (SW)
→ zee = see• rhoticity (receding)
Pronunciation:1. Vowel of FOOT appears in cup in the Midlands and North of England.2. Vowel of TRAP in words like bath, dance, last, laugh in the North and Wales,
vowel of PALM, FATHER in the South.3. Monophthongs in words like GOAT and FACE in the North and Scotland,
diphthongs in the South.4. Post-vocalic r pronounced in words like CAR, NURSE, FATHER, NORTH in the
Southwest and Scotland. It is absent in the Southeast and North.
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2.3.2 Modern dialects in GB
Grammar:1. Present tense -s in whole verb paradigm: I likes, you likes, she likes, we likes, they likes in South and Southwest of England2. Multiple negation: We don’t want none3. Use of ain’t for negative auxiliaries: isn’t, aren’t, hasn’t, haven’t4. Past tenses of irregular verbs: I done, I come, I seen5. Use of never as past tense negative marker: I never went there yesterday6. them as demonstrative adjective: Look at them big spiders7. Absence of plural marking on measures of distance and quantity: two pound, ten mile8. Absence of adverb marking: he came really quick
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2.3.3 Traditional & modern dialects in GB
https://fred.ub.uni-freiburg.de/• was/weren’t levelling: was is used in positive contexts (all persons),
weren’t in negative contexts [reinterpretation!]• glottal stops:
- before a consonant: le[ʔ] me- before a vowel: ge[ʔ] over- before a pause: stree[ʔ]- intervocalically: le[ʔ]er→ spreading from first environment (‘normal’ today) to intervocalic context→ interes ng because glo al stops emerged at about the same me in London and Glasgow –connection unclear …
• replacement of the two ‘th’ sounds by ‘f’ or ‘v’, so that thin is the same as fin, and brother rhymes with loverused to be a Cockney feature (→ London, East End); spreading rapidly = ‘city‐hopping’:
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2.3.4 Modern dialects in GB – change in progress
1. London area2. Southeast: Reading, Milton Keynes3. Central England (Midlands, East Anglia, South Yorkshire):
Birmingham, Derby, Norwich and Sheffield4. Northern England: Hull5. Northeast of England and Lowlands of Scotland: Newcastle, Glasgow
• “same coin, different currency”? (Kretzschmar 1995)• complicated relationship in part associated with theoretical paradigm shift in the US
(→ Chomsky)• re-orientation from historical (→ comparative philology, reconstruction) to “modern”
(→ future rather than past of language[s])• US sociolinguistics largely synonymous with Labovian (“variationist”) sociolinguistics →
strong quantitative orientation, emphasis on authenticity etc.
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2.3.5 From Dialectology to Sociolinguistics
• sociolinguistics sees language as a social fact• includes view of language change as natural• language history can only in part account for change (→ language-internal
motivations)• many causes (why) and processes (how) of change lie outside language
(→ change cannot be explained in terms of linguistic structure alone)
2.3.6 Sociolinguistics as Language Variation & Change
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2.3.7 From Language Variation to eWAVE (http://ewave-atlas.org/)
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eWAVE feature searchNOT grammatical (=noun classes), referential (husband) or collocational (giggle, handsome guy vs. pretty girl)
2.4.1 Sex-exclusive speech differences (in non-Western communities)e.g. Japanese watshi (neutral), atashi (=female I), boku (=male I), ore (=male friends?) African? languages: marry (=male) - "get married" (=female)
2.4.2 Sex-preferential speech differences (in Western Communities)e.g. glottalized [p],[t],[k]
2.4.3 women tend to use more standard forms than menexplanations: (social) status-conscious
• women's role as guardian of society's values• subordinate groups must be polite (face-protecting)• vernacular forms express machismo• others: different responses to interviewers collecting data
(women are more cooperative conversationalists, working-class men react against middle-class academic speech)Garner, J.F. (1994). Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. New York: Macmillan
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2.4 Gender
• high rise intonation (also: high rise terminal = HRT)- rising intonation contour in statements- interpretation: uncertainty, asking for feedback, positive politeness;
or: ‘I intend to keep talking’- assumed to have originated in Australia/New Zealand in 1960s;
now typical of young women• women leading change
- e.g. Labov (1966, 1994), Chambers (1986) on sound changes• women use more standard language
- e.g. Trudgill (1974), -ing vs. -in’; glottalisation etc.- view challenged today; rather: both men & women use language to identify with
their solidarity group / signal gender affiliation- distinguishing markers will change in case ‘the other group’ catches up
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2.4.4 Classical ‚gendered‘ features
Tannen claims that there are gender differences in ways of speaking, and we need to identify and understand them in order to avoid needlessly blaming "others or ourselves -- or the relationship -- for the otherwise mystifying and damaging effects of our contrasting conversational styles" (p. 17). Tannen takes a sociolinguistic approach to these gender differences since she feels that "because boys and girls grow up in what are essentially different cultures...talk between women and men is cross-cultural communication" (p. 18).
For her study, Tannen traced patterns of speech in past studies and on videotapes of cross-gender communication (pairs of speakers asked to talk on tape). Tannen states that the most important point to consider in studying and learning about gender specific speech styles is that gender distinctions are built into language. Each person's life is a series of conversations, and simply by understanding and using the words of our language, we all absorb and pass on different, asymmetrical assumptions about men and women (p. 243).
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/githens/tannen.htm (16/10/17)
Explanations for differences:a) Deficit Model (Robin Lakoff)b) Dominance Model (Candace West)c) Cultural Difference Model (John J. Gumperz, Deborah Tannen)
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2.4.5 Deborah Tannen (1991): You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation. (popular book translated into 29 languages)
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2.4.6 Sexist terms and their alternatives
“To be avoided” “To be preferred”
mankind humanity, human beings, human race, people,humankind,humans
man-made artificial, synthetic, manufactured, constructed, of human origin
manpower workers, workforce, staff, lab(o)ur, staffing, human resources
man people, humankind, men and women, individuals, human beings
chairman chairperson, chair, convener
headmaster headteacher, head
policeman police officer
fireman fire fighter
http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/23sexism/sexist.html (18/10/15)
(distinguish between language change and age-specific language)
2.5.1 Research Approachesreal-time and apparent-time (=age-grading) studies
2.5.2 Society's Expectations: • younger and older use more vernacular forms,• middle years normal patterns of standard/prestige forms
solidarity markers
e.g. Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Language (COLT): http://clu.uni.no/icame/colt/ (16/10/17, last updated 2003!)
• 500 000 words of 50 hours of recorded conversations from 31 boys and girls aged 13 to 17 from 5 socio-economic groups
• data-base for linguistic analyses of swear-words (f*)
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2.5 Age
• linguistic ideal: "all languages are equal"• sociolinguistic reality: "all languages have resources to be developed/reflect
social status of speakers"other markers: food, dress, religion
2.6.1 Black American (the Creole connection)->AAVE = African American Vernacular English
e.g. absence of copula be, multiple negation
2.6.2 Black Britishan anti-language = opposition to mainstream values
networks (cf. 2.8.4 below):density (number of contacts) - plexity(multi-dimensional interactions: multi-/monoplex)
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2.6 Ethnicity2.7.1 Speaker innovation and variationspontaneous vs. network-specificby imitation, innovations spread by adoption, diffusion in community networks (weak ties of link person as innovation bridge)e.g. which - witch, whether - weatherNorthern Ireland: man [mo:n] - map [ma:p], mo'er(cf. letters-to-the editor)
2.7.2 Social marking postvocalic [r]2.7.3 Spread (wave metaphor)style to style (casual > formal, incl. spoken > written)word to word (lexical diffusion): e.g. today/advanced RP: really=rarely, fear=fair
2.7.4 Reasonsstatus: particularly upper working class (less consciously) from neighbouring communities with greater social statussex: men as innovators tend to introduce vernacular forms, women prestige forms in (face-to-face) interactions
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2.7 Language change
1. Blurring of the class structure 2. Education for all (university expansion in 1990s)3. Introduction of public broadcasting (provides a model for oral E = RP)
(BBC “the wireless” 1922, TV 1953 after E2 Coronation)4. Proliferation of film and video
(Multimedia: 1927 film + sound, etc. → “Americanisation”)5. Popular Youth Culture
(“decline in formality”, “decline in standards”)6. Decline of rural dialect and the rise in urbanisation
(industrialisation, mobility, communication)7. Global communication (new forms – new technical developments)
(the internet: WWW, web 2.0: blogs, wikis, P2P/forum, etc.)
http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/04change/process.html (18/10/15)
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2.7.5 Realtime processes of change at work on modern English(late 20th C.)
Basil Bernstein, Language and Social Class (US) (1966) William Labov, New York (1966) Peter Trudgill, Norwich (1974) Jenny Cheshire, Reading (1982) James & Lesley Milroy, Belfast (1992) Paul Kerswill, Milton Keynes (1996) Deborah Tannen, Men and Women in Conversation (US) (1998)
http://raysweb.net/poems/articles/tannen.html (18/10/15)
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2.8 Classical case studies
“Basil Bernstein made a significant contribution to the study of communication with his sociolinguistic theory of language codes. ““The restricted code is suitable for insiders who share assumptions and understanding on the topic, whereas the elaborated code does not assume that the listener shares these assumptions or understandings, and thus elaborated code is more explicit, more thorough, and does not require the listener to read between the lines. “Bernstein suggests a correlation between social class and the use of either elaborated or restricted code. He argues that in the working class you are likely to find the use of the restricted code, whereas in the middle class you find the use of both the restricted and elaborated codes. His research suggests that the working class individuals have access only to restricted codes, the ones they learned in the socialization process …”“Though Bernstein's sociolinguistic work on 'restricted code' and 'elaborated code' is widely known it represents only his very earliest work. This early work was the subject of considerable misunderstanding and controversy. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Bernstein (24/10/11)
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2.8.1 Berstein (1966): restricted code?
probably the most famous study in (micro-)sociolinguistics often considered the first “true” sociolinguistic study
(before there was sociolinguistics as a subdiscipline) important for
• method(s)• investigated variable(s)• combination of factors• mutual influence of factors
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2.8.2 Labov2.8.2.1 Labov (1966): NYC Department Store Study
Saks Fifth Avenue• at 50th Street and 5th Avenue• near the center of the high fashion shopping district
Macy’s• at Herald Square (34th Street and Sixth Avenue)• near the garment district
S. Klein• used to be at Union Square (14th Street and Broadway)• not far from the Lower East Side
stores were classified by:• location• number of pages of advertising (NYT & NY Daily News)• prices of comparable items (e.g. women’s coats - $90 in Saks, $79.95 in Macy’s,
and $23 in Kleins)• size and layout of the store
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NYC Dept. Store Study: social background
type of study: rapid anonymous survey interviewer (WL) posed as customer asked sales clerks for an item which he knew to be located on the 4th
floor• Excuse me, where is/are … ?• Response: Fourth floor.
elicitation of careful style → interviewer leaned forward and said Excuse me?
response: repetition of Fourth floor.
4 tokens of /r/ from every speaker in• 2 different environments (pre-consonantal; word-final)• 2 different styles (casual; careful/emphatic)
combined with social stratification of stores, a clear picture emerged; distribution depends on• store• position• style
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NYC Dept. Store Study: linguistic research methodology
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NYC Dept. Store Study: r frequency by dept. store
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NYC Dept. Store Study: r frequency by input
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4th floor 4th(emph.) floor(emph.)
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http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/labovny.html (18/10/15)
Labov's research in the Lower East Side of New York City showed that individual speech patterns were part of a highly systematic structure of social and stylistic stratification. He studied how often the final or preconsonantal (r) was sounded in words like guard, bare and beer. Use of this variable has considerable prestige in New York City. It can be measured very precisely, and its high frequency in speech makes it possible to collect data quickly.
One self-contained part of the research has become particularly well known. The speech of sales assistants in three Manhattan stores, drawn from the top (Saks), middle (Macy's) and bottom (Klein's) of the price and fashion scale. Each unwitting informant was approached with a factual enquiry designed to elicit the answer - "Fourth floor" - which may or may not contain the variable final or preconsonantal (r). A pretence not to have heard it obtained a repeat performance in careful, emphatic style.
The findings were that the sales assistants from Saks used it most, those from Klein's used it least and those from Macy's showed the greatest upward shift when they were asked to repeat.
The results from the department store study highlight the main themes of the research. Frequency of use of the prestige variable final or preconsonantal (r) varied with level of formality and social class.
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NYC: results
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2.8.2.2 Labov: New York Lower Eastside
http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/vinyard.html (18/10/15)
In his study, Labov focused on realisations of the diphthongs [aw] and [ay] (as in mouse and mice). He interviewed a number of speakers drawn from different ages and ethnic groups on the island, and noted that among the younger (31-45 years) speakers a movement seemed to be taking place away from the pronunciations associated with the standard New England norms, and towards a pronunciation associated with conservative and characteristically Vineyard speakers, notably the Chilmark fishermen. The heaviest users of this type of pronunciation were young men who actively sought to identify themselves as Vineyarders, rejected the values of the mainland, and resented the encroachment of wealthy summer visitors on the traditional island way of life. Thus, these speakers seem to be exploiting the resources of the non-standard dialect. The pattern emerged despite extensive exposure of speakers to the educational system; some college educated boys from Martha's Vineyard were extremely heavy users of the vernacular vowels.
To summarise: On Martha's Vineyard a small group of fishermen began to exaggerate a tendency already existing in their speech. They did this seemingly subconsciously, in order to establish themselves as an independent social group with superior status to the despised summer visitors. A number of other islanders regarded this group as one which epitomised old virtues and desirable values, and subconsciously imitated the way its members talked. For these people, the new pronunciation was an innovation. As more and more people came to speak in the same way, the innovation gradually became the norm for those living on the island.
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2.8.2.3 Labov: Martha's Vineyard
transfers Labov’s approach from US to England: the realisation of {ing} is variable in almost all varieties of English “dropping one’s g’s” tends to be associated with lower class and less careful style T. investigated -ing in 4 styles and 5 (sub)classes of society in Norwich (East Anglia) T. created index scores for each class and style
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2.8.3 Trudgill (1974): The Social Differenciation of English in Norwich(PhD thesis and case study!)
/ŋ/ /n/
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-ing in Norwich
study of different neighbourhoods in Belfast (mid-1970s) 3 lower status urban working-class communities 8 phonological variables 46 speakers Network Strength Scale explained more differences than “simple” sociological factors social networks are sometimes considered predecessors of communities of practice (cf. in particular work by P. Eckert)
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2.8.4 Milroy & Milroy (1992): Social Networks
Social Networks: low density, uniplex network structure
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Social Networks
1st order zone
2nd order zone2nd order zone
high density, multiplex personal network structure
Innovation not through leaders, but through ‘lames’ (with few ties)
growth of English world-wide: E as native > second > international language- English now main foreign language in almost all countries- used for business, education, access to information by substantial proportion of world’s
population- dominant language of the internet; often used in e-mails
(→ problem of writing systems in other than Roman alphabets)- TESOL/TEFL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages/as a Foreign Language) → enormous personal, political, academic & commercial interests
IELTS (=International English Language Testing System) is the world’s proven English test:“Over 1.4 million candidates take the test each year to start their journeys into international education and employment. IELTS is recognised by more than 6000 institutions in over 135 countries.You can rely on IELTS - the test that sets the standard.” (http://www.ielts.org/)
lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) = a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues
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2.9 World Englishes: ENL -> ESL -> EIL – ELF/lingua franca
The way English is used as a lingua franca is heavily dependent on the specific situation of use. Generally speaking, ELF interactions concentrate on function rather than form. In other words, communicative efficiency (i.e. getting the message across) is more important than correctness. As a consequence, ELF interactions are very often hybrid. Speakers accommodate to each other's cultural backgrounds and may also use code-switching into other languages that they know. Based on the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English(VOICE) and additional research, the following features of ELF lexicogrammar have been identified:• shift in the use of articles (including some preference for zero articles) as in our countries
have signed agreements about this• invariant question tags as in you’re very busy today, aren't you? (and use of other similar
universal forms)• treating ‘who’ and ‘which’ as interchangeable relative pronouns, as in the picture which
or a person who• shift of patterns of preposition use, for example we have to study about• preference for bare and/or full infinitive over the use of gerunds, as in I'm looking
forward to see you tomorrow• extension to the collocational field of words with high semantic generality, for example
perform an operation• increased explicitness, for example how much time instead of how long• exploited redundancy, such as ellipsis of objects/complements of transitive verbs as in "I
wanted to go with..." or "You can borrow...'"However, these features are by no means invariant or “obligatory”. Rather, these forms do not seem to compromise effective communication within an ELF setting when they do occur.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca (14/10/15)
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English as a lingua franca (ELF): features
• BrE & AmE as ‘traditional’ centres of ‘the English language’• today: English is pluricentric → many centres
2.9.2 Kachru’s ‘circles’ model
• inner circle (→ English = L1; e.g. GB, USA, Aus, NZ) → ‘norm-providing’• outer circle (→ English = official language; most former colonies, e.g. African
countries, India) → ‘norm-developing’• expanding circle (→ English neither L1 nor former colonial lg., but increasingly
important in every-day life as lingua franca; most of Europe, Russia, China) → ‘norm-dependent’
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2.9.1 Standard English & Englishes
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Kachru’s model of concentric circles (cf. Crystal 1995: 107)
E. Schneider (2007): Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge U.P.:
describes development of postcolonial English(es) in 5 stages• distinguishes settler strand & indigenous varieties• because of different historical developments, countries are at different stages of the model• debate: model also applicable to ‘pseudo’-postcolonial varieties, e.g. Irish English,
American English? (Schneider says yes)
Five underlying principles underscore the Dynamic Model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider's_dynamic_model 14/10/15):• The closer the contact, or higher the degree of bilingualism or multilingualism in a
community, the stronger the effects of contact.• The structural effects of language contact depends [sic!] on social conditions. Therefore,
history will play an important part.• Contact-induced changes can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms, from code-switching
to code alternation to acquisition strategies.• Language evolution, and the emergence of contact-induced varieties, can be regarded as
speakers making selections from a pool of linguistic variants made available to them.• Which features will be ultimately adopted depends on the complete “ecology” of the
contact situation, including factors such as demography, social relationships, and surface similarities between languages etc.
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2.9.3 Postcolonial English: Schneider‘s Dynamic Model I
(1) Foundation• new colony; settlers & indigenous population share territory• identities are clearly distinct• linguistic effects: toponymic borrowing (→ names)
(2) Exonormative Stabilisation• stable colony under coloniser’s rule• mixing of identities (local + coloniser/coloniser + local)• spreading of bilingualism; lexical borrowing
(3) Nativisation• combination of old & new; permanent sharing of same territory• adoption of local culture (settlers); widespread L2 English (indigenous population)• restructuring; phonological innovations
(4) Endonormative Stabilisation• cultural self-dependence; members same nation• acceptance of local norm; literary creativity• stabilisation of new variety → homogeneity, codification
(5) Differentiation• stable young nation; identification as members of smaller groups• social networks determine (linguistic) contacts• ‘dialect birth’ → new varieties = group identity markers(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider's_dynamic_model 14/10/15)
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2.9.3 Postcolonial English: Schneider‘s Dynamic Model II
Definitions of Psycholinguistics on the WWW:• The study of how language is understood and interpreted and how and why the
individual responds to discrete aspects of language.naming.com/resources.html
• The interdisciplinary field of psychology and linguistics in which language behavior is examined. Note: Psycholinguistics includes such areas of inquiry as language acquisition, conversational analysis, and the sequencing of themes and topics in discourse.www.nde.state.ne.us/READ/FRAMEWORK/glossary/general_p-t.html
• The branch of cognitive psychology that studies the psychological basis of linguistic competence and performance. wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics (18/10/15)
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3. Psycholinguistics
=concerned with psychological processes that make acquisition and use of language possible
approaches:1. language comprehension (spoken and written)2. speech production3. language acquisition
• language = a cognitive system internalized within the human mind/brain (correspondence hypothesis)
• neurological foundations of language: particular areas of theneocortex are responsible for human language faculty (results from aphasia research)
aphasia: impairment or loss of language ability due to brain damage
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3.1 Approaches in psycholinguistics
Broca: located lesions in left hemisphere; related handedness to speech capabilityplasticity of the brain (i.e. temporal variability)
Wernicke: separated auditory nerve in the left hemisphere
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3.2 Neurological foundations of language
3.3.1 Aphasia is a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions.http://www2.organizedwisdom.com/medical/tag_search/Aphasia (14/10/15)Depending on the area and extent of the damage, someone suffering from aphasia may be able to speak but not write, or vice versa, or display any of a wide variety of other deficiencies in language comprehension and production, such as being able to sing but not speak.
spatial: lateral distribution - detectable in lesions; PET, fMRI scanstemporal: brain plasticity; learnability constraints
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3.3 Language-related areas of the brain
Broca aphasics:• nonfluent• agrammatical• morphemeless• unimpaired comprehension
Wernicke aphasics:• fluent (logorrheic)• impaired meanings• neologisms• severely impaired comprehension
refers to the way human beings process speech or writing and understand it as language. Most recent theories back the idea that this process is made completely by and inside the brainAcoustic stimuli are
• received by the auditive organ (ear) and • converted to bioelectric signals• transported through scarpa's ganglion to the primary auditory cortex, on both
hemispheres: the left side recognizes distinctive parts such as phonemes, the right side takes over prosodic characteristics and melodic information.
• The signal is transported to Wernicke's area on the left hemisphere • then to Broca's area, in charge of interpreting and transmitting information to the closely
located motor-related areas of the brain for speech production.
you can see language processing in eye-tracking experiments!
natural language processing (NLP), a subfield of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics
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3.3.2 Language processing
L1 acquisition enables children to produce virtually infinite amounts of linguistic data
input (is not intake!) includes: distorted input (also: “deviant input”; says Chomsky) can be:
• mispronunciations, slips of the tongue• omitted rules• inference of rules out of defective material• negative evidence = pointing at errors
typical errors in L1: *go-ed (overgeneralisation) atypical errors: *I no like syntax
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3.4 The paradox of psycholinguistics3.5.1 Nativist theories= children are born with an innate propensity for language acquisition, this makes the task of learning a first language easier. It allows children to quickly figure out what is and isn't possible in the grammar of their native language, and allows them to master that grammar by the age of three. → language as a fundamental part of the human genome, as the trait that makes humans human, and its acquisition as a natural part of maturation, no different from dolphins learning to swim or songbirds learning to sing.
• based on Chomsky • originally: children are born with a hard-wired language acquisition device (LAD) in
their brains. • later expanded into Universal Grammar, a set of innate principles and adjustable
parameters that are common to all human languages.
The presence of Universal Grammar in the brains of children allow them to deduce the structure of their native languages from "mere exposure".Much of the evidence supporting the nativist position is based on the early age at which children show competency in their native grammars, as well as the ways in which they do (and do not) make errors.
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3.5 First Language Acquisition theories and issues:
Universal Grammar: the study of the common grammatical properties shared by all natural languages and of the parameters of variation between the languagesEvidence: a) IF a linguistic property of an individual speaker is a property in all known languages andb) IF the property is not acquired as imitation of input data evidence that the property comes from specific feature of UG
The theory of Universal Grammar proposes that if human beings are brought up under normal conditions (not conditions of extreme sensory deprivation), then they will always develop language with a certain property X (e.g., distinguishing nouns from verbs, or distinguishing function words from lexical words). As a result, property X is considered to be a property of universal grammar in the most general sense.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar (14/10/15)
Universal linguistic properties:Semantics: thematic roles: e.g. AGENT, INSTRUMENT, found in nearly all languagesSyntax: word order patterns of functional categories: S, V, O found in nearly all languages
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3.5.2 Universal Grammar
Eric Lenneberg stated in 1964 that the crucial period of language acquisition ends around the age of 12 years. He claimed that if no language is learned before then, it could never be learned in a normal and fully functional sense (cf. Kaspar Hauser).
Lenneberg proposed brain lateralisation at puberty as the mechanism that closes down the brain's ability to acquire language, though this has since been widely disputed.
In second language acquisition, the strongest evidence for the critical period hypothesis is in the study of accent, where most older learners do not reach a native-like level. However, under certain conditions, native-like accent has been observed, suggesting that accent is affected by multiple factors, such as identity and motivation, rather than a critical period biological constraint .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language_acquisition
cf. Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: Morrow.
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3.5.3 Critical period hypothesis
3.6.1 Phonological development
Separate non-speech from speech: at birth response to humans6 months: articulatory skills emerge
babbling: experimenting to gain control� babbling partly independent of particular languages, universal
12 months: babbling increases until children produce real wordsbabbling/real words overlap for weeksbabbling stops, children have about 50 words
Universal trends1) vowels before consonants2) stops before other consonants3) phonemic contrasts manifest in word-initial position
pat - bat before mop – mob24 months consonants: stops [p b, t d, k g] fricatives [f, s]
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3.6 First Language Acquisition stages
Initial state: no internal morphological structure, no affixeswords: single root morphemes, gradual basis for word formation1) irregular plurals/past: initially on case by case:
man men run ran2) overuse of rule (overgeneralization):
man mans run runned3) combination of 1) and 2): mens, ranned4) complete rule acquisition
Acquisition order:progressive –ing, plural –s, possessive –s, the, a, past tense –ed, 3rd person -s, auxiliary be
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3.6.2 Morphological development: grammatical morphemes
Grammatical: plural –s productivity: wugz – test = children who have successfully acquired the allomorph /z/ of the plural morpheme will allocate this plural to a nonsensical word, e.g. one wug – 2 wugs /wʌɡz/
Lexical/derivational:• agentive –er• compounds • adjectival –y• adverbial -ly• instrumental –er
morphemes with restricted application like -ly (*fast-ly) are acquired much later supports that lack of exceptions is supportive
child acquires that plural –s cannot be inside compounds: rat–eater vs. mice-eater
multiword compounds: order errors like *breaker bottle
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3.6.2 Morphological development: productivity
Child must detect from input what the prevailing word order is1) Generative linguistics: “setting of parameters”;
input = trigger, happens early & remains stable
2) Acquisition = process of pattern inducing (= data-driven learning)
Evidence for 1): rapidity of language acquisition, full sentences basic word order
Evidence for 2): pattern inducing is understood with some V but not with other V
theory: first stages: verb-specific acquisitionlater stages: acquisition of transitivity
children learn appropriate relations verb by verb
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3.6.3 Syntactic development
Innatism (Chomsky) vs. constructivism (Piaget)- common root: pool of general-purpose cognitive abilitiesexistence of conceptual primitives (space, time)
Words are used to refer (principle of reference): core = symbol + object: "stands for" relation
memory limitations enforce categorization (principle of extendibility)
objects in contrast to actions/events and objects in contrast to parts of objects (principle of object scope) consistent with social environment (conventionality)
Concept emergence from morphemes:• countability: plural-morpheme• durativity: progressive –ing• gender: derivational morphemes (-ess)
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3.6.4 Conceptual/semantic development
3.7.1 Definitions= the ability to read and write= the ability to use language proficiently= "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed
and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society." (UNESCO)
Effects of literacy• literacy is proven to have certain cognitive consequences• reading deepens and alters people’s knowledge about language• reading raises metalinguistic awareness
3.7.2 Types of readingReading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practices, development, and refinement.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)
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3.7 Literacy
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Reading comprehensionas a complex task
The native-speaker (NS) concept is rich in ambiguity• ‘native speaker identity’ → almost myth-like• Chomsky: distinction between NS & NNS is pointless• child may be(come) NS of 1st language as long as acquisition is finished before
puberty (→ Critical Period Hypothesis)• NS/NNS differences are not innate but learned
3.8.1 Characteristics of a native speaker• exhibits normal control especially in fluent connected speech
(though in writing only after long schooling)• has command of expected characteristic strategies of performance and of
communication• is expected to “know” another native speaker
(intuition & characteristic systematic set of indicators: linguistic, pragmatic, paralinguistic; assumption of shared cultural knowledge)
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3.8 The native speaker in AL/language teaching/learning
everyone is a native speaker of his/her own unique code (→ no semilingualism)• everyone accepts and adheres to the norms of a standard language
(→ includes both ‘informal standards’, i.e. dialects, & ‘formal’ standards)• those near the centre or model of the standard language are favoured and advantaged;
those near the extremes are disfavoured and disadvantaged• NSs have intuitions about their standard language (but knowledge of and performance in
those norms will be shaky); intuitions are learnt (not innate)all NSs:
• have access to some kind of language faculty• are less insecure • are less likely to practice hypercorrection• less likely to have learning problems
In an article titled “The Native Speaker: An Achievable Model?” published by the Asian EFL Journal a study was compiled which states that there are six general principles which relate to the definition of “native speaker”. These principles, according to the study, are typically accepted by language experts across the scientific field. A native speaker is defined according to the guidelines that:1. The individual acquired the language in early childhood 2. The individual has intuitive knowledge of the language 3. The individual is able to produce fluent, spontaneous discourse 4. The individual is competent in communication 5. The individual identifies with or is identified by a language community 6. The individual does not have a foreign accenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_speaker/First language (23/11/13)
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3.8.2 Definitions of a NS
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3.8.3 6 criteria of being a Native Speaker
4.1 Definitions= the process by which people learn languages in addition to their native language(s) The term second language is used to describe any language whose acquisition starts after
early childhood (including what may be the third or subsequent language learnt). The language to be learned is often referred to as the "target language" or "L2", compared
to the first language or "L1". Natural second language acquisition may be seen in contrast to first language acquisition
and language learning, which is guided, based on instruction.
empirical studies include:• descriptive: error analysis, interlanguage (s. below)• developmental: order of acquisition, sequence of patterns, variability
learner-external (e.g. teaching techniques) vs. learner-internal factors (e.g. motivation)
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4. Second Language Acquisition (SLA)4.2.1 Transfer & interference
“The most effective materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner.” (Fries 1945: 9)“Since the learner tends to transfer the habits of his native language, we have here the major source of difficulty or ease in learning the structure of a foreign language. Those structures that are similar will be easy to learn because they will be transferred and may function satisfactorily in the foreign language. Those structures that are different will be difficult because when transferred they will not function satisfactorily in the foreign language and will therefore have to be changed. We can say that the degree of control of these structures that are different is an index to how much of the language a person has learned.” (Lado 1957: 59)"I propose therefore as a working hypothesis that some at least of the strategies adopted by the learner are substantially the same as those by which a first language is acquired." (Corder 1967: 166/7)
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4.2 The Contrastive Linguistic Approach
Focus: contrasts and correspondences between L1 and L2Theoretical framework: behaviorism / structuralismBasic assumptions:
- learning = imitation (of input) + transfer - contrasts = learning difficulties = errors
Empirical counter-evidence: - Not all contrasts result in difficulties and errors - Not all errors result from contrasts
e.g. developmental errors (Richards 1971)Criticism:In its strongest formulation, the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis claimed that all the errors made in learning the L2 could be attributed to 'interference' by the L1. However, this claim could not be sustained by empirical evidence that was accumulated in the mid- and late 1970s. It was soon pointed out that many errors predicted by Contrastive Analysis were inexplicably not observed in learners' language. Even more confusingly, some uniform errors were made by learners irrespective of their L1. It thus became clear that Contrastive Analysis could not predict all learning difficulties, but was certainly useful in the retrospective explanation of errors.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrastive_analysis (13/11/13)
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4.2.2 The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis
4.3.1 Definition= an assumption of a latent psychological language structure for second language learning The learner creates an emerging linguistic system that has been
developed by a learner of a second language (or L2) who has not become fully proficient yet but is only approximating the target language: preserving some features of their first language (or L1) in speaking or writing the target language and creating innovations.
An interlanguage is idiosyncratically based on the learners' L1 and their experiences with the L2.
It can ossify (or fossilize) in any of its developmental stages.
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4.3 The Interlanguage Hypothesis (Selinker 1972/74)
language transferL1 structure = L2 structure correct language production
= positive transferL1 structure L2 structure incorrect language production
= negative transfer = interference transfer of training strategies of second language learning strategies of second language communication overgeneralization of TL linguistic material (as in L1) simplification
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4.3.2 Issue1: Interlanguage incorporates different learner strategies
"Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules, and subsystems which speakers of a particular NL will tend to keep in their IL relative to a particular TL, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the TL." (Selinker 1972: 212)
"A crucial fact . . . which any adequate theory of second language learning will have to explain is this regular reappearance or re-emergence in IL productive performance of linguistic structures which were thought to be eradicated. This behavioral reappearance is what has led me to postulate the reality of fossilization and ILs." (Selinker 1973/4: 36)
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlanguage_fossilization (18/10/15)Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL 10, 3: 209-231.
Problem: What is the “target” language? Like a native-speaker?
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4.3.3 Issue2: Fossilization in the latent psychological language structure
"We must therefore make a distinction between those errors which are the product of such chance circumstances and those which reveal his underlying knowledge of the language to date, or, as we may call it his transitional competence. The errors of performance will characteristically be unsystematic and the errors of competence, systematic." (Corder1967: 166)
Two views on correctness:Learners want (have) to be correct, i.e. they want (have) to produce utterances that are grammatically correct:
external view: correct in relation to the target language norminternal view: correct in relation to the learner’s own knowledge of correctness
The status of errors:Errors are part of the external view: They show deviations of the learner’s interlanguagefrom the target language (which indicate that the learner is actually learning and not just imitating) but they are only weak and indirect indicators of specific interlanguagestrategies.
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4.3.4 Issue3: Correctness and Errors
4.4.1 Focus on the learning perspective Theoretical framework: a mentalistic approach (from Chomsky 1964) creative construction:Dulay, Heidi C. & Burt, Marina K. (1974). You can't learn without goofing. In: Richards, J. C.
(ed.) Error Analysis. Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman, 95-123
Dulay, Heidi C. & Burt, Marina K. & Krashen, Stephen D. (1982). Language Two. Oxford: Oxford U.P.
the learner’s in-built syllabus the natural order hypothesis, cf. Krashen 1982
input � intake comprehensible input, cf. Krashen 1985
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon. Krashen, S. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. New York: Longman. Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/Krashen.htm (18/10/15)http://www.sdkrashen.com/ (18/10/15)
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4.4 The identity hypothesis / L1 = L2
Acquisition-learning hypothesistwo independent systems of L2 performance:acquisition is a product of subconscious processing similar to children’s L1 acquisition and requires
life-like L2 interaction, which focuses on communication rather than correctness, while learning occurs through formal instruction and comprises conscious processing, which results in
knowledge about the L2, e.g. grammatical rules‘learned competence’ acts as a monitor or editor: that is, whereas ‘acquired competence’ is
responsible for the fluent production of sentences, ‘learned competence’ consciously corrects them learned knowledge enables learners to read and listen more, so acquisition is effective
Monitor hypothesisa learner's learned system acts as a monitor to what they are producing while only the acquired system is able to produce spontaneous speech, the learned system is used
to check what is being spokenThe interlocutors monitor their spontaneous speech using their learned system .The Monitor Model predicts faster initial progress by adults than children, as adults use this
‘monitor’ when producing L2 utterances before having acquired the ability for natural performance, and adults will input more into conversations earlier than children.
However, in the long term, SLA started in childhood will be superior in ultimate attainment as children will already have control of some L2 acquired before pubertal changes began inhibiting learning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_theory (18/10/15)
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4.4.2 Krashen‘s Monitor Model I
The natural order hypothesisLike first language learners, second language learners seem to acquire the features of the target
language in predictable sequencesContrary to intuition, the rules easiest to state (and thus to 'learn') are not necessarily the first to
be acquired,e.g. the rule for adding an -s to third person singular verbs in the present tense is easy to state,
but even some advanced second language speaker fail to apply it in rapid conversation. Input hypothesisOnly comprehensible input will result in acquisition of the target language learners must be exposed to input that is just beyond their current level in order to make
progress. If the level of input is at i+1 the learner will make progress. If it is too high, for instance i+7, the learner will be unable to acquire it.
Affective filter hypothesisa learner's emotional states act as adjustable filters that freely permit or hinder input necessary
to acquisitionadolescence and puberty are not good periods for SLA, as this ‘affective filter’ arises out of self-
conscious reluctance to reveal oneself and feelings of vulnerability.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_theory (18/10/15)
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Krashen‘s Monitor Model II
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL = UK) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL = US) = Applied Linguistics in its early days
development of ELT:• grammar-translation language teaching• the direct method• ‘natural’ language approach• (audio-lingual method)• the communicative approach• the cognitive approach?
NB: Different use in different countries!English as a second language (ESL), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL),
English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL) all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages
cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_foreign_or_second_language
CEFRL stages: cf. beginner A1, A2; intermediate B1, B2; advanced C1,C2cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages
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4.5 English Language Teaching (ELT)
5.1 Introductory discussions5.1.1 Definitioncorpus1 = body or collection of written or spoken material
upon which linguistic analysis is based
corpus2 = machine-readable “representative”, i.e. stratified “model”i.e. more than a text collection!
for computer-based language analysis: corpus-informed (language awareness/ELT)based vs. corpus-driven (research)
5.1.2 Tools corpus-analysis software:WordSmith (with ICAME CD)Sara (with BNC in TUC Bib)AntConc downloadable free from
http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html (18/10/15)
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5. Corpus Linguistics (CL)
pro methodology:• CL is not parallel to phonology, syntax, lexicology or pragmatics (core linguistics)• CL is not restricted to any linguistic level (can be used to address phonological,
syntactic, pragmatic etc. questions, [as is sociolinguistics ?])• “corpus” no reference to area of linguistic investigation (vs. sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, etc.)• methodologies adopted from social sciences inform sociolinguistics, but are not a
theory in themselves (participant observation, interviews, etc.)
pro theory:• CL has a particular outlook on language
• rules of language are usage-based, not normative (as in prescriptive grammars)• linguistic change occurs when speakers use language for communication
• CL introduced new methods and principles which have theoretical status ≠ theory
→ pro methodology?
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5.1.3 CL: methodology or theory?
• descriptions of English strongly biased (personal views)• normative descriptions do not take variation into consideration• authenticity of invented examples can be questionable• introspection-based results not verifiable, e.g. “I get myself a soft drink.” (pop,
soda, coke considered incorrect)• personal opinion is reflecting idiolect, not real speech• professor’s shoeboxes
• Jespersen kept thousands of notes of real English from literary texts• first to use them as authentic examples in his grammar
• corpus data can address preferences / tendencies; quantitative questions in general (frequency effects etc.)
• improved reliability of corpus-based over intuition-based approach• BUT: corpus-based approach not suitable for all research questions
→ approaches should be seen as complementary rather than exclusive
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5.1.4 The corpus-based vs. the intuition-based approach
for the popularity of corpus linguistics, esp. among non-native speakers
because it combines a qualitative and quantitative perspective
• citations used as a sample of language• provides a view beyond individual experience• rules out individual salience• computer processable
output: - concordances (KWIC=key word in context)- collocates (milk gets sour, butter rancid, eggs addled = groceries spoil differently) - relative vs. absolute frequencies (“normalise” = per 1 M. words)
can a specific corpus norm replace native-speaker (intuitive) norms? (cf. 4.5 above)
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5.1.5 Reasons
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AntConc example
1) type of corpus data• representativeness (c-driven: large corpora balance themselves; c-based: belief in
natural balance unwarranted)• corpus size (c-driven: the larger the better; BUT: generally only analyse every nth
instance – unclear how this is different from c-based methodology)2) attitudes towards existing theories and intuitions
• corpus annotation (c-driven: strong objections)• c-driven: tabula rasa ideal → no preconceived idea as to results; BUT:
in reality, c-driven approaches make us of traditional categories such as word classes, etc. without defining them (which is a de-facto annotation …)
• c-based: typically start out from a theoretical issue / problem and use corpus data to illustrate / solve it
3) research focus• c-driven: holistic approach to language description (since such notions as pragmatics
or syntax demand a theory)• c-based: focus on individual levels of linguistics
4) c-based approach by no means as radical as c-driven approach• c-driven approach “claims to be a new paradigm within which a whole language can
be described”
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5.2 Corpus-based vs. corpus-driven approaches
(forerunners 1950s American structuralists, e.g. Harris)1959 Quirk: Survey of English Usage (SEU)
1,000,000 words written/spoken 1953-1987>London-Lund corpus of spoken English
1963/64 Francis/Kucera: Brown Corpus1M of written American English from 1961
1970-1978 Johansson & Leech: LOB parallel to Brown1M written BritE (Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen Corpus) from 1961
1980 - Cobuild Corpus (Birmingham, Sinclair) -> Bank of English1990 - International Corpus of English (ICE):
UK, US?, CA, AU/NZ, EA (KE/TZ), ZA, HK, SG, IN, PH, etc.1990 - International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE )1990 - 1993 British National Corpus 100M (10M spoken)from 1990 Freiburg Corpora: FLOB and Frown from 1991 etc. (parallel LOB/Brown)
for recent language change
since 1998 www as “corpus” (WebCorp, WebPhraseCount)since 2011 BYZ mega/reference corpora
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5.3 Developments in corpus compilation5.3.1 50 years of corpus history
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5.3.2 Corpora on the history and variation of English
Kortmann (2005:36)
Academic English Corpora: Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP) Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) British Academic Spoken / Written English (BASE / BAWE)cf. ChemCorpus of student / academic writing (theses)
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5.3.3 Reference corpora on the WWW
http://search‐micusp.elicorpora.info/simple/
99 100
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Johansson, S & Hofland, K (1993) Towards an English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus
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Corpus design translation / parallel corpora
Original Norwegian
Original EnglishTranslated Norwegian
Translated English
5.4.1 Corpus typeslarge and stratified: mega-/reference corpora
• British National Corpus (BNC) 90 M written/10 M spoken, demographic/context-governed from 1991-94http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
• American / Australian National Corpus being compiled now (problematic; ANC 20 M)
‘national corpora’, e.g. ICE http://ice-corpora.net/ice/e.g. ICE-East Africa, ICE-Canada (parallel corpora)
genre/domain specific corporae.g. SPACE (Specialised & Popular ACademic English), TRAINS (dialogue) corpus from 1991-93
translation corporae.g. EU (EuroParl) corpusEnglish-German Translation Corpus
‘quick and dirty’/ad-hoc corpora, e.g. for translation problems, not translating
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5.4 Corpus compilation principles
Leech: representative = findings can be generalised (What)Biber: representative findings show the same degree and extent of variability as the total population (How)
a representative corpus must contain different text types / genres / registerspossibility of constructing a monitor corpus, depending on the view on a corpus (dynamic vs. static)
in a general corpus, balance and sampling are responsible for achieving representativenessacceptable level of balance also depends on intended uses (e.g. specialized corpora)
N.B.: “any claim of corpus balance is largely an act of faith rather than a statement of fact as, at present, there is no reliable scientific measure of corpus balance” (McEnery, Xiao & Tono 2006: 16)
researchers often adopt earlier corpus construction procedures (primarily BNC) → National
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5.4.2 Representativeness / Balance in corpus design
sample = scaled-down version of a larger populationsampling units: e.g. a book, newspaper, periodicalsampling frame: the list of sampling units actually used in the corpus compilation (e.g. all books available in one particular library)target population: group to be represented in the corpus sampling techniques:
• simple random sampling: sampling units are numbered, elements are chosen based on a list of random numbers; problem: rare types / genres may not be selected
• stratified random sampling: divides population into groups (strata), samples each stratum at random
sample size:• use full texts or text chunks from written sources?• if chunks, where from (initial, middle, end chunks)?
→ again, these should be balanced (no either-or)proportion & number of samples from each category
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5.4.3 Sampling
Types of mark-up:• structural markup: descriptive information about the texts• “metalanguage” → structure of electronic documents
(e.g. structure of conversations, categorizing parts of speech, segmenting of spoken or written text, marking of overlapping speech)
• bibliographic information about written text (genre, number of words, tagger which assign part-of-speech), ethnographic information about individuals in spoken texts (e.g. age, gender, social class, region; usually very limited)
• part of speech markup: part-of-speech designation (e.g. noun, verb); produced by software program called tagger (e.g. CLAWS; 95% accuracy)
• grammatical markup: parses grammatical structures (e.g. phrases, clauses); produced by software program called parser (usually 70 – 80% accuracy)
• always manual checks necessary
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5.4.4 Annotation / mark-up
• taggers assign part-of-speech designations to each word in a sentence• first tagging programme 1971 by Greene and Rubin• out of this programme developing of CLAWS tagset by University of Lancaster
(still widely used in its updated form)• according to Leech (1997: 25-6) tagsets should strive for:
- conciseness- perspicuity: tagsets should be as readable as possible- analysability: tags should have order and hierarchy above more specific tags
taggers are of two types:• rule-based: based on rules of grammar written into the tagger → e.g. EngCG-2• probabilistic: based on statistical likelihood that a given tag will occur in a given
context; can be trained on corpora→ the larger the tagset, the greater the accuracy of tagging
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5.4.5 Annotation procedures
5.5.1 Pattern types: investigating contextcollocation = the appearance of one particular wordform in certain distance of another particular word form
> different meanings can have different collocatescolligation = the appearance of one particular word form in a particular grammatical structureconnotation = the semantic environment,
can have positive or negative value (“semantic prosody”)e.g. happen, cause, attempt, try, fail
collostruction analysis has 3 methods (Wikipedia):• collexeme analysis, to measure the degree of attraction/repulsion of a lemma
to a slot in one particular construction;• distinctive collexeme analysis, to measure the preference of a lemma to one
particular construction over another, functionally similar construction; multiple distinctive collexeme analysis extends this approach to more than two alternative constructions;
• covarying collexeme analysis, to measure the degree of attraction of lemmas in one slot of a construction to lemmas in another slot of the same construction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collostructional_analysis (15/12/13)
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5.5 Corpus search & analyses
absolute vs. relative frequency of a word form (standard) deviation from mean frequency of word forms
5.5.3 Corpus research examples
How frequent is a particular morphological form/grammatical structure? Which particular structures have particular meanings? Which particular structures have particular locations in texts?
corpus tasks have degrees of complexity
relevance of tagging: • parts-of-speech (POS), e.g. CLAWS tagging for LOB
(http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws/trial.html)• semantic: semantic web/web 3.0
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web)
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5.5.2 Types of frequency: exploring vocabulary
= an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and/or rule-based modelling of natural language from a computational perspective not limited to any particular field of linguistics traditionally, performed by computer scientists who had specialized in the
application of computers to the processing of a natural language
= often grouped under artificial intelligence today, but that has older applications (1950s) as well: language analysis: tagging, parsing, annotation (5.6.1) machine translation: SYSTRAN (5.6.2) text processing: spell checkers, style checkers, automatic text production (abstraction/summarisation), Q&A systems speech recognition and synthesis (telephone/communication systems) others: expert/dialogue systems, CALL, etc.
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5.6 Towards computational linguistics
EXAMPLE OF POS TAGGING from LOB (CLAWS1 tagset):hospitality_NN is_BEZ an_AT excellent_JJ virtue_NN ,_, but_CC not_XNOT when_WRBthe_ATI guests_NNS have_HV to_TO sleep_VB in_IN rows_NNS in_IN the_ATI cellar_NN !_! the_ATI lovers_NNS ,_, whose_WP$ chief_JJB scene_NN was_BEDZ cut_VBN at_IN the_ATIlast_AP moment_NN ,_, had_HVD comparatively_RB little_AP to_TO sing_VB '_' he_PP3A stole_VBD my_PP$ wallet_NN !_! '_' roared_VBD Rollinson_NP ._.
square brackets (sequential/horizontal, no indentation; Lancaster):[S[N Nemo_NP1 ,_, [N the_AT killer_NN1 whale_NN1 N] ,_, [Fr[N who_PNQS N][V 'd_VHDgrown_VVN [J too_RG big_JJ [P for_IF [N his_APP$ pool_NN1 [P on_II [N Clacton_NP1 Pier_NNL1 N]P]N]P]J]V]Fr]N] ,_, [V has_VHZ arrived_VVN safely_RR [P at_II [N his_APP$ new_JJ home_NN1 [P in_II [N Windsor_NP1 [ safari_NN1 park_NNL1 ]N]P]N]P]V] ._. S]
from: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/ucrel/annotation.html#treebank
semantic tagging semantic web: Tim Berners-Lee has described the semantic web as a component of "Web 3.0"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
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5.6.1 Language analysis:part-of-speech tagging + syntactic annotation/treebanks + semantic web
SYSTRAN (founded by Dr. Peter Toma in 1968) one of the oldest machine translation companies, extensive work for the United States Department of Defense and the European Commission,provides the technology for Yahoo!, AltaVista's Babel Fish, and most of the language combinations offered by Google's language tools, etc.try it at http://www.systran.co.uk/!
problems: syntactic ambiguities (mind, round) semantic (sense disambiguation; e.g. bank) lexical discrepancies between source and target language (e.g. inflection, non-existent direct translation equivalents, sentence structure, etc.) style, naturalness, etc.
possibilities:• completely automated: only in very restricted domains, fields (manuals)
(controlled language, e.g. Canadian weather forecast)• partially automated: only computer-assisted tools (CAT)
(e.g. translation memory)
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5.6.2 Problems and possibilities of Machine Translation (MT)
Practical lexicography is the art of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language and developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries.A specialized dictionary (Fachwörterbuch) covers a restricted set in LSP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary (04/01/17)
lexicon = the vocabulary of a language, in cognition or in a book/databaseencyclopaedia contains articles on topics in every field of life, “the world”;
e.g. Encyclopædia Britannica today only online: https://www.britannica.com/thesaurus = derived from 16th century New Latin, in turn from Latin thesaurus, from
ancient Greek θησαυρός thesauros, "store-house", "treasury" = a listing of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings since Roget's Thesaurus 1852!! (15.000 words) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget%27s_Thesaurus (04/01/17)
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6. Lexicography
6.1.1 DefinitionsA reference book containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each
word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.A book listing the words of a language with translations into another language.A book listing words or other linguistic items in a particular category or subject with
specialized information about them: a medical dictionary.in Computer Science:
• A list of words stored in machine-readable form for reference, as by spelling-checking software.
• An electronic spelling checker.http://www.answers.com/topic/dictionary
[Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiō, dictiōn-, diction]
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6.1 What is (in) a dictionary?dic·tion·ar·y (dĭk'shə-nĕr'ē) n., pl. -ies.
monolingual: • UK: Oxford/Cambridge Advanced: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/oald7/• US: Merriam-Webster http://www.m-w.com/
bilingual English - German:• http://beolingus.de/ = http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/• http://dict.leo.org/ in Munich
WordNet= a semantic lexicon for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called
synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets
purpose: • to produce a combination of dictionary and thesaurus that is more intuitively usable, and • to support automatic text analysis and artificial intelligence applications.
The database and software tools can be downloaded and used freely or browsed online: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
Thesaurus: http://www.bartleby.com/110/
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6.1.2 On-line dictionaries
Formal Criteria: • a list of the headwords (entries)• information “under” each headword (s.v.)
Functional Criteria:• a reference work
(to provide information about difficult technical words)
• a storeroom for a language (to find out what once existed and what exists today)
• a code of law (to decide whether to accept or reject regional, historical or social variants)
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6.1.3 What is (in) a dictionary?which (types of) criteria are necessary or distinguishing, e.g. Advanced Learners’ Dictionaries?
Linguistic Content Criteria:• Spelling• Lexical meaning• Word-class (part of speech)• Pronunciation (API/IPA?)• Stress• Etymology?• Collocations?• Grammar?• Examplesetc.
To record the morphological and phonological development of words, from ancient languages (French, Latin, Greek, Old Norse, *Germanic, *IndoEuropean, etc.), up to their first occurrence in English?
Or to tell the story of the word’s history? e.g.Camera … [from Latin camera ‘small room’. The modern sense developed in the 19th century via the 18th century term camera obscura, denoting a darkened upper room with a (rotating) angled mirror at the apex of the roof, which projected an image of the surrounding landscape onto a flat surface in the room]
Or both?NOT in modern Advanced Learner Dictionaries
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6.1.4 Etymology in the dictionary?A collocation is a sequence of words which co-occur more often than would be
expected by chance refers to the restrictions on how words can be used together, e.g.
prepositions are with verbs, or verbs with nouns not be confused with idioms (=fixed syntagmatic combinations)
from http//:wasps.itri.brighton.ac.uk
alcohol (as modifier) BNC freq. MI score (=mutual information)alcohol consumption 131 34.0alcohol abuse 114 31.3alcohol intake 53 18.2alcohol misuse 23 17.7 alcohol content 35 15.3alcohol problem 38 11.3 alcohol dependency 5 10.1alcohol dependence 7 9.2
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6.1.5 Collocations in the Dictionary
since misuse is less frequently used than content, MI is higher although the absolute frequency is lower
(the first dictionaries were multilingual!)1604: Robert Cawdrey (2,500 words)
A Table Alphabeticall … of hard usuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latin, or French, etc. … gathered for the benefit and help of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or any other unskillful persons*
1616: English Expositor; John Bullokar1623: English Dictionarie; Henry Cockeram1656: New World of English Words; Edward Phillips1702: A New English Dictionary; John Kersey (28,000 words)1721: Universal Etymological English Dictionary; Nathaniel Bailey (40,000 words)J. A. H. Murray et al. (1884-1928): OED = Oxford English Dictionary
• historical principles • interaction with literary, medieval and Indo-European scholarship
(cf. History of English Language & Culture)
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6.2 History of Lexicography
a lexicographer ="A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words“ (Johnson 1755, s.v.)
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„National Dictionaries“
Dr. Samuel Johnson (1755)Dictionary of the English LanguageTwo volumes, 40,000 entries
Noah Webster (1828)An American Dictionary of the English LanguageTwo volumes, 70,000 entries
today all dictionaries are based on large-scale corpora, esp. the BNC• new lexical entries are found • existing lexical entries are enriched by additional information extracted via corpus
analysis (e.g. most common forms, connotation, etc.) • important aspects of word meaning and grammar are highlighted,
which were simply never noticed by linguists who had no data to work with• word frequency analysis is used for annotating lexical entries • collocational information is collected, organized, and presented (e.g. idiom
identification) • (domain specific) knowledge is extracted • lexical items unlikely to be found in dictionary sources are extracted (e.g. proper
nouns) • real examples showing how central and typical features of English are used are
provided • paradigmatic- and syntagmatic-driven semantic clustering is performed
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6.3 The Corpus Revolution:word-watching corpus compilation/analysis
A.S. Hornby (1947): Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD)• Pedagogical with syntax, e.g. verb patterns, count vs. uncount nouns
P. Procter (1978): Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE)• Restricted defining vocabulary, more elaborate syntax • Semantic fields in the electronic version
J. M. Sinclair, P. Hanks, et al. (1987): COBUILD Dictionary of English
now published as Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.• Corpus-based; real-language examples. • Full-sentence definitions, showing how to use the word normally and naturally
P. Procter (1995): Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE)from 2nd ed: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD)• Corpus-based; gives syntagmatics and semantic fields
M. Rundell (2001): Macmillan English Dictionary (MED)• Much pedagogical help with vocabulary building
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary, first published in 2008
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_learner's_dictionary (17/01/04)
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6.4 Development of Monolingual (British) Learner Dictionaries (today all with CD Rom)
The purpose(s) of monolingual dictionaries:• To answer all of everybody’s questions about words, without knowing in advance
what the questions are going to be.• The lexicographer must consider the needs, expectations, and limitations of the
dictionary user.Coverage (from core vocabulary to encyclopedia)
• slang and neologisms (journalists love them!)• technical vocabulary for a technological world • names of famous people and places
Many dictionaries also give guidance on usage.
all with CD Rom!!
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Monolingual (British) Learner Dictionaries today
• A verbless phrase or a full sentence (as in Cobuild)? • Defining the ‘essence’ of something, or characterizing what it typically is.• How much technical detail to put in, and how to present it?• The role of examples.• How to express changing beliefs, skepticism (e.g. about alchemy).• How to relate figurative extensions to the ‘literal’ meaning (e.g. alchemy = a
former science, but also apparent magic; alcohol = strong drink as well as a chemical)
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6.4.1 Style in lexical entries
historical principles? = oldest sense first• camera 1.a small room. 2.the treasury of the papal curia. 3.a device for taking photographsor representing conventional contemporary usage?• camera 1.a device for taking photographs. 2.in camera: in a small room (used of a judge hearing evidence in private)or frequency? = most frequent sense first? original before metaphorical? Cobuild: run a shop before run down the street ?
6.4.2 Arrangement in lexical entries
madrigal – from Italian madrigale, medieval Latin carmen matricale ‘simple song’ (i.e. one without instrumental accompaniment), from Latin matricalis ‘maternal, simple, primitive’, from matrix ‘womb’magazine – via Italian from Arabic makzin ‘storehouse’ (for armaments and goods, hence, figuratively, for facts): the same word as French magasin ‘shop, department store’standard example nice:The meaning of nice has changed greatly over the years, and academics are often conscious of change - and dislike it, on account of accuracy of meaning. It comes from a Latin word (nescius) meaning 'ignorant', and in early times meant "foolish, silly, simple; ignorant". (Sometimes it went further than this pejorative sense – it had the sense of the modern British slang 'tarty'.) Its second main meaning was that of 'precise' or 'fastidious'. Scientists will still occasionally say that they have made "a very nice measurement". This is not an idle boast, meaning "I have done something very agreeable". It means they have carried out a very careful and precise measurement. In older literature, you may see people described as "nice eaters", which means they are dainty, or even fussy, about their food. There are several huge changes, like these, and many more subtle ones, in the history of nice. OED has this to say: "The semantic development of this word from 'foolish, silly' to 'pleasing' is unparalleled in Latin or in the Romance languages. The precise sense development in English is unclear." That in itself should be enough to stop any student wanting to write nice in a good piece of writing. … It is said, probably apocryphally, that one old-fashioned academic remarked on first hearing of the first landing on the moon (1969): "I say, that's awfully nice", by which he meant that the engineering and navigation were so accurate that they filled him with a sense of awe. The fact that these words communicated only a general sense of approval to people less careful with language than himself was the point of this joke.http://slb-ltsu.hull.ac.uk/awe/index.php?title=Nice_%28changing_meaning%29 (18/10/15)
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6.4.3 Semantic development
According to Herbst's classification (1996: 328-330):1) Hornby's verb patterns consist of letters and numerals which are not user-friendly since the
codes are neither transparent nor mnemonic. 2) mnemotechnically designed systems (in which, for instance, T stands for 'transitive')
developed in LDOCE1 and in the fourth edition of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD4).
3) abbreviations for grammatical terms (e.g. '+ to-v' means 'followed by the to-infinitive') took the place of opaque codes (in LDOCE2 and COBUILD1), and it became immediately apparent what sort of information was being provided.
In the history of EFL dictionaries LDOCE1 played a leading role in simplifying grammar codes and applying them to nouns and adjectives. When its first edition appeared in 1978, the Longman team had extended Hornby's syntactic approach to the English lexicon to other parts of speech: they not only developed a new coding system for verbs, but also coded noun and adjective complementation which was a huge step ahead in EFL lexicography (Stein 1989: 26-27).
Danger: the (English) public are resistant to grammar.But grammatical differences must be stated to distinguish one sense from another.solutions in New Oxford Dictionary of English (NODE) 19982003 2nd ed. Oxford Dictionary of English; NOT based on OED=Oxford English Dictionary:
• NODE uses [with obj.], [no obj.], [with adverbial], with obj. and adverbial], etc. (it dares not go much farther!)
• NODE uses various other devices, including highlighting common phraseology in examples.
• NODE makes no explicit mention of count nouns except where contrasted with mass nouns.
CONTRAST CIDE 1995 (cf. 6.4 above)
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6.4.4 How much grammar in the dictionary?
Page design: breaking the monotony of the page.Boxed features – for usage notes, historical asides, and other subsidiary information. Example: USAGE The core meaning of refute is ‘prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong’, as in attemptsto refute Einstein’s theory. In the second half of the 20th century, a more general sense developed, meaning simply ‘deny’, as in I absolutely refute the charges made against me. Traditionalists object to the second use on the grounds that it is an unacceptable degradation of the language, but it is now widely accepted in standard English.
conclusion (2008): traditional vs. electronic?
“The electronic versions of these works are superior to their hard-copy counterparts in terms of accessibility and flexibility of information retrieval (enhanced by their graphical user interface), wider macrostructure (in some EDs), more detailed microstructure, thesaurus-like resources, complex search mechanisms, copy and print functions, extra components, multimedia resources, and the degree of customization.” Review in http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num1/review1/default.html (18/10/15)
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6.4.5 User-friendly presentation in dictionaries
Johnson 1755 (3) An Arabick term used by chymists for a high rectified dephlegmated spirit of wine, or for anything reduced into an impalpable powder. Quincy.
If the same salt shall be reduced into alcohol, as the chymists speak, or an Impalpable powder, the particles and intercepted spaces will be extremely lessened. Boyle.
Sal volatile oleosum will coagulate the serum on account of the alcahol, or rectified spirit, which it contains. Arbuthnot.WordnetNoun* S: (n) alcohol, alcoholic drink, alcoholic beverage, intoxicant, inebriant (a liquor or brew containing alcohol as the active agent) "alcohol (or drink) ruined him"* S: (n) alcohol (any of a series of volatile hydroxyl compounds that are made from hydrocarbons by distillation)Cobuild (1987)Drinks that can make people drunk, such as beer, wine, and whisky, can be referred to as alcohol. Do either of you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol? … No alcohol is allowed on the premises. Alcohol is a colourless liquid that is found in drinks such as beer, wine, and whisky. It is also used in products such as perfumes and cleaning fluids. …low-alcohol beer … Products for dry skin have little or no alcohol.New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) … a colourless volatile flammable liquid which is the intoxicating constituent of wine, beer, spirits, and other drinks, and is also used as an industrial solvent and as fuel.Alternative names: ethanol, ethyl alcohol; formula: C2H5OH. drink containing this: he has not taken alcohol in 25 years. Chemistry. any organic compound whose molecule contains one or more hydroxyl groups attached to a carbon atom.
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6.4.6 Comparing dictionaries e.g. alcohol
Christmas noun [C or U](the period just before and after) 25 December, a Christian holy day which celebrates the birth of Christ:We're going to my mother's for Christmas.Happy Christmas!We had a lovely Christmas.the Christmas holidays
Christmassy adjective INFORMALtypical of Christmas, or happy because it is Christmas:It looks very Christmassy in here with the tree and all the decorations.I'd feel more Christmassy if it were snowing.
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, s.v.) Christ•mas / krɪsmƏs/ noun [U, C]
1 (also Christmas Day) 25 December, the day when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ: Christmas dinner / presents—see also Boxing Day2 (also Christ•mas•time) the period that includes Christmas Day and the days close to it: the Christmas holidays / vacation Are you spending Christmas with your family? Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!—see also white Christmas
(from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, s.v.)
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6.4.7 Comparing CALD and OALD e.g. Christmas
Translation is the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language (the "source text") and the production, in another language, of an equivalent text (the "target text," or "translation") that communicates the same message.
Translation must take into account a number of constraints, including context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms.
Traditionally translation has been a human activity, though attempts have been made to computerize or otherwise automate the translation of natural-language texts (machine translation) or to use computers as an aid to translation (computer- assisted translation = CAT) .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translationin contrast: Interpreting, or "interpretation," is the intellectual activity that consists of
facilitating oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two or among three or more speakers who are not speaking, or signing, the same language.
Translation errors are often quoted in humorous literature or on the internet:http://mentalfloss.com/article/48795/9-little-translation-mistakes-caused-big-problems (18/10/15)
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7. Translation Studies
7.1.1 Nida & Taber (1969: 152) Interestingly, a genre- and discourse-specific approach:their universals of discourse are
• the marking of the beginning and end of the discourse (e.g. “Once upon a time … they lived happily ever after.” a story)
• the marking of major internal transitions• the marking of temporal relations between events• the marking of spatial relations between events and objects• the marking of logical relations between events• the identification of participants• highlighting, focus, emphasis, etc.• author involvement
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7.1 Historical Approaches
reader/listener assumes equivalence (instinctive view),translator creates equivalence (more or less conscious view),researcher investigates equivalence (contrastive view) (1) is a precondition/requirement of translation (different from other types of FL
transformations: adaptation, abridgment, summary, etc.) translation = replacement of the SL text by the TL equivalent (no subtypes or degrees exist in translation!)
(2) is never complete the TL text is identical with the original text only from certain (formal, situational, contextual, communicative, etc.) aspects (various types and degrees of equivalence exist!)
(2.1) normative view: prescribes what the translator has to do to produce an equivalent translation; what it is that he/she has to definitely preserve, or can sacrifice from the original text
(2.2) descriptive view: describes, on the basis of the analysis of numerous translating facts, how translators create equivalence, what it is that they have preserved or sacrificed
(3) is text-type dependent no identical equivalence requirements can be established for different text types (e.g. a users’ manual, a movie script): the number of text types determines the number of equivalence types possible (Reiss 1971)
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7.1.2 Translation equivalence
word level & above word level (i.e. clause, sentence) grammatical level (e.g. tense/aspect):“grammatical rules may vary across languages and this may pose some problems in terms of finding a direct correspondence in the TL. In fact, she claims that different grammatical structures in the SL and TL may cause remarkable changes in the way the information or message is carried across. These changes may induce the translator either to add or to omit information in the TT because of the lack of particular grammatical devices in the TL itself. Amongst these grammatical devices which might cause problems in translation Baker focuses on number, tense and aspects, voice, person and gender.”
textual level (theme – rheme)• textual 1: thematic & information structures (→ coherence)• textual 2: cohesion
“It is up to the translator to decide whether or not to maintain the cohesive ties as well as the coherence of the SL text. His or her decision will be guided by three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type.”
pragmatic level (effect on reader, see speech act)“Implicature is not about what is explicitly said but what is implied. Therefore, the translator needs to work out implied meanings in translation in order to get the ST message across. The role of the translator is to recreate the author's intention in another culture in such a way that enables the TC reader to understand it clearly.” http://www.bokorlang.com/journal/14equiv.htm (18/10/15)
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7.1.3 Baker (1992): equivalence at different levels
Insufficient world knowledge and/or insufficient linguistic knowledge • comprehension/production problems
Creative exploitation of linguistic means of expression• comprehension/production problems
Insufficient source text comprehension• comprehension/production problem: linguistic decision, e.g. disambiguation
Lack of semantic/communicative autonomy• production problem: disruption of spontaneous linguistic retrieval
Continuing presence of the source text• production problem: linguistic interference (translationese)
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7.2 Problems of Translating
a core skill for any language service provider
7.3.1 Frame of referenceHouse rules, style guides, standards (incl. ISO)increased availability of CAT tools to monitor quality post-translation:
• Terminological consistency• Translation memory compliance
e.g. http://www.metatexis.com/ for testing, but market leader is TRADOS• Technical aspects: tags, software testing
7.3.2 Localisation/Localization= adaptation of language, content and design to reflect local cultural sensitivities in web
design and software= adapting computer software for non-native environments, especially other nations and
cultures, so that it is as familiar as possible to a specific locale, by displaying text in the local language and using local conventions (e.g. units of measurement, currencies, symbols, paper size, colours?)
also internationalization = the process of ensuring that an application is capable of adapting to local requirements (e.g. writing system).
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7.3 Translation as a professionto ensure adequate translation and natural language in target text
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7.3.3 Corpora for translation studies
• An original text aligned with its translated text/s
• Two corpora in different languages covering the same topic
• A monolingual corpus consisting of only translated texts
• Two monolingual corpora of the same language, one of translated and one of original texts
• Parallel Texts/Corpora
Translation Corpora
• Comparable Corpora
• BiText
all here: http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/
phil/english/ling/sitemap.php
Sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.
Basic MT performs simple substitution of words in one natural language for words in anotherComplex MT may be attempted using corpus techniques, allowing for better handling of
differences in linguistic typology, phrase recognition, and translation of idioms, as well as the isolation of anomalies.
Current machine translation software often allows for customisation by domain or profession (such as weather reports) — improving output by limiting the scope of allowable substitutions. This technique is particularly effective in domains where formal or formulaic language is used. It follows then that machine translation of government and legal documents more readily produces usable output than conversation or less standardised text.
usually improved output quality can also be achieved by human interventionhttp://www.altavista.com/computer aided translation, translation memory systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_memory (18/10/15)
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7.4 From Machine Translation to Computer Assisted Translation
bilingual dictionaries:Beolingus: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/http://dict.leo.org/
“translation dictionary”http://www.linguee.com/ (also iPhone app!)“=a unique translation tool combining an editorial dictionary and a search engineLinguee offers numerous benefits compared to other online dictionaries:
• It contains approximately 1,000 times more translated texts• Single word translations are displayed in a clear, user-friendly structure• Linguee offers a great variety of contextual translation examples• Its interactive user guidance facilitates the translation search: just move your mouse
across a translation - matching example sentences will be displayed instantly• The frequency of a translation is displayed and the most common translations are
accentuated• The source of an example sentence is shown as a link below the respective sentence”
7.6 Examples of translationsTUC: http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/en/“Faculty” vs. “School” in British and US university systems?
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7.5 Resources
Definitionsculture = transgenerational practices through which humans communicateculture = a network of habitual disparitiesculture = a system of symbols by which humans enact embodied understanding (Geertz); cultural meanings are not individual but shared, publicGeertz 1973 proposes cultural relativism, but does not deny universals
if cultural universals exist, they must be abstract, insubstantialculture = a system of knowledge, what one has to know in order to act acceptably (Goodenough 1996) Raymond Williams (1958) moves “Cultural studies” from “High Culture” to “Ordinary Culture”
8.1 Locating Culture on different levels of language pronunciation: complex (vowels/consonants, intonation) lexicon: esp. colours, esp. green (spectrum and metaphors) syntax / grammar:
• conceptualisations (mass/count)• modality to express politeness (could you do this for me?)• “veritative” to express that s.th. is true (in English, part of “modality”)
text / discourse:• hedges in academic writing (I think, they claim)• deixis in demonstrative systems (this, that, archaic: yonder)• argumentation structure: models
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8. Language & CultureKaplan (1966) paragraphing strategies reflect cultural styles (diagram below)Galtung (1985) hypothesized 4 different “intellectual styles”:
Saxonic, Gallic, Nipponic, Teutonic
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Models in argumentation structure
linguistic relativity n. The hypothesis first suggested by the German ethnologist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) and reformulated in the 20th century by the US fire prevention officer and linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1943) that people who speak different languages perceive reality and think differently, because categories and distinctions encoded in one language are not necessarily available in another. E.g., the language of the North American Hopi Indians has no forms corresponding to English tenses and no words for conceptualizing time as a dimension; therefore, Whorf argued, it would be difficult for a Hopi and an English-speaking physicist to understand each other's thinking about time. See also linguistic determinism, Sapir—Whorf hypothesisfrom www.encyclopedia.com (18/10/15)
Linguistic determinismA main point of debate in the discussion of linguistic relativity is the strength of correlation between language and thought. The strongest form of correlation is linguistic determinism, which would hold that language entirely determines the range of possible cognitive processes of an individual. This view has sometimes been attributed to Benjamin Lee Whorf, and to Ludwig Wittgenstein, but it is not currently the consensus that either of these thinkers actually espoused determinist views of the relation between language and thought. Linguistic determinism is also sometimes described as " the Strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis", while other forms of correlation are referred to as "the weak Sapir-Whorf hypothesis". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf_hypothesis (18/10/15)
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8.2 Sapir –Whorf hypothesis
Basic assumption: different societies - different speechsystematic differences exist, they reflect cultural valuesthis can be explained via independent valuesneeded: a grid of culture-free perspectivee.g. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), based on a set of lexical universals and universal syntactic patterns (Wierzbicka 1994)this describes society's tacit cultural rulese.g.US/Anglophone societyit is good to say what I think norm allows disagreementeveryone can say something like: I do not like this /I do not think soformal features:English tag questions: ,isn’t it?invite the listener to agree
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8.3 Cultural scripts and universals
Japanese societyit is good not to say what I thinknorm forbids overt disagreementyou cannot say (to a “senior”):I do not like it /I do not think soformal features:ne (jap.): emotionally supportive particlene = I think you would say the same
definition interculturalAlthough Wikipedia 2009 says: “Intercultural communication principles guide the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries” the term is ambiguous, because it may be the same as cross-cultural (s. below)OR it may emphasize that in intercultural communication a new communication context is created that constitutes more than a compromise between the two (or more) cultures of its communication participantsdefinition cross-cultural= how people from different cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate effectivelydanger: misinterpretations of social meaning can result from unrecognised differencescross-cultural pragmatics:• in the Japanese context in response to a kindness, instead of the speech act of thanking,
the speech act conventionally performed is that of excusing - excusing for the trouble that one has caused the other person.
• requests in German tend to be made syntactically in a more direct manner than in English (House / Kasper 1981).
CCC is becoming the norm in larger companies → increasing need for analysis & advice awareness raising through critical incidents?
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8.4 Cross-cultural communication (CCC) ICross-cultural communication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication, which is also used in a different sense, though) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-cultural_communication (2012)Improving Intercultural CommunicationIt is essential that people research the cultures and communication conventions of those whom they propose to meet. This will minimise the risk of making the elementary mistakes. It is also prudent to set a clear agenda so that everyone understands the nature and purpose of the interaction. When language skills are unequal, clarifying one's meaning in five ways will improve communication:• avoid using slang and idioms, choosing words that will convey only the most specific denotative
meaning;• listen carefully and, if in doubt, ask for confirmation of understanding (particularly important if
local accents and pronunciation are a problem);• recognise that accenting and intonation can cause meaning to vary significantly; and• respect the local communication formalities and styles, and watch for any changes in body
language.• investigate their culture's perception of your culture by reading literature about your culture
through their eyes before entering into communication with them. This will allow you to prepare yourself for projected views of your culture you will be bearing as a visitor in their culture.
If it is not possible to learn the other's language, it is expedient to show some respect by learning a few words. In all important exchanges, a translator can convey the message.When writing, the choice of words represent the relationship between the reader and the writer so more thought and care should be invested in the text since it may well be thoroughly analysed by the recipient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercultural_communication_principles (2012)
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Cross-cultural communication II