worlds within words
TRANSCRIPT
Worlds within Words
By K. David Harrison (Oxford University
Press 2007)
DiscussantMr. Kurt S. Candilas
MAE – Eng. 1
January 19, 2013
Studying the form of a linguistics expression without studying the meaning is like a sipping a fine wine, swishing it around in your mouth,
and spitting it out – it can be fun, but not intoxicating.
-Randall Eggert, Linguist
I. Language Change just Happens
• Nobody directs this intricate process of language change, on its individual or group levels.
• There is no decision-maker or authority, but orderly change happens nonetheless.
• No schoolteacher, committee, lexicographer has authority to decide whether a particular word counts as a word in a language.
• The innovations of words only become part of the language by a mysterious process of social learning and consensus.
• Purists may denounce a word as “bad English” for example, but the adoption and usage of words become acceptable if changes are bound to endure.
• Thus, lexicographers and grammar teachers then catch up and acknowledge such innovations processes.
II. Are All Languages Equally Complex?
• The sentiment behind this argument is noble: we should not regard any other people or culture as primitive or any more or less intelligent than ourselves.
• Most of the world’s languages remain undescribed or underdescribed.
• We have no way to measure complexity within a single language or across multiple languages.
• innate ability of the human
• the size of the speech community
• the level of contact among speakers
• the range of uses of a language
• the modality (spoken or signed)
• the intricate historical processes of language change.
The complexity of the language arises from many unlike factors, notably on:
III. Complexity Run Amok
• Grammars that seem to have run amok, stretching the very limits of complexity. In particular, small languages whose grammars seem average often contain an astonishing complexity.
• Since grammars are shaped by culture and environment, as well as by human brains.
The following is a Chomskyan structure found in small, obscure
and endangered languages
claimed by Harrison (2007)
Smelly Talk
• A unique morpheme of the language of Siberian (Tofa), consisting of such morpheme that speakers can add to any noun.
Example:
The word “ivi” of Tofa language means reindeer, if we add the olfactory suffix –sig, we get a new word “ivisig” that means smelling like a reindeer.
Key points: Derivation and Inflection of Words
• An onomatopoetic words of nomadic yak herders (Tuvan) that equip its speaker with an unusually complex, combinatory system for expressing and representing sounds.
Example:
Kongur – sound of a big bell ringing
Kingir – clanging keys
Kangyr – a giant empty metal barrel rolling alongKey points: Onomatopoeia (words associated with sounds)
Sound Talk
Willy-nilly Talk
• A doubled word which linguists dub as “reduplication” that pops up predictably and in subtly different forms in languages.
Examples:(Rotokas language)
tapa – to hit > tapatapa – to hit repeatedly
kopi – a dot > kopikopi – spotted
Examples:(Filipino language: Cebuano)
ayo – to buy > ayoayo – take care
balik – to come > balikbalik – to come repeatedly
• A classifier language through assigning every noun to one of several abstract categories.
Example:
Common Quality Examples of Objects
Come in pairs eyes, hands, ears, etc.
Small & roundish nuts, bullets, berries
Thin & flat leaves, papers, blankets
Touchy-feely Talk
• A speaker of either of the sexes talks differently depending on its interlocutor.
Examples:
The word “mehinen” of Arapesh in New Guinea refers to different entity. If you are a man, I am referring to your sister’s son, but if you are a woman I’m referring to your brother’s daughter.
Man-talk, Woman-talk
Handy-Talk, Talking Hands
• World’s signed languages – spoken natively by deaf people
• A small system of gestures with a limited range of uses.
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