Portfolio Entry #8: The Study of Language (George Yule)

For this entry, we worked with several chapters from George Yule's ''The Study of Language'' (2010) Cambridge University Press, New York. The chapters discussed in this entry are: Chapter 1, 2, 11, 17, 18, 19. The book has an attractive approach to different aspects of English language, from the origin and history of English, to the grammatical and functional aspects of the language. 

 ⭐   The slideshow presentations were designed as the result of group work.   ⭐

Chapter 1 & 2.

Chapter 1: The origins of Language

This chapter reviews the different theories and sources that tried to account for the origins of language. Some of these sources are: divine powers, socialization, and the development of physical features. Within the theories that consider physical features the source of language, we find the Physical Adaptation Source and the Genetic Source. According to these theories, certain physical characteristics may have helped with the production of speech, along with the humans' innate capacity to produce speech, thanks to a language gene (Genetic Source). Within those that consider Socialization the origin of language, it is believed that early humans had to organize in small groups to survive, therefore it is believed that a set of grunts, groans and curses were the sounds they used to communicate. Even with all these theories, the origin of language is still unknown.

Chapter 2: Animals and Human Language

Humans communicate through language, but how do animals communicate with each other? Animals don’t seem to ‘’use language’’ like we do, they communicate through a set of signals which range from chemical, electrical, acoustic, visual or tactile. There are differences between ‘’animal language’’ and ‘’human language’’ that keep us from learning the others’ language. Animals can’t ‘’use’’ human language, even if they are able to understand it, just like we can’t ‘’use’’ animal language because of our inability to produce and identify all kinds of signals. Moreover, the function of the signals used by animals is to influence the behaviour of other animals, signals provide them information that they consider before making a decision. Human language, on the other hand, is used for more reasons than providing information; for example, language is used for entertainment.

The chapter focuses on the main properties of human language that sets it apart from animal language: reflexibility, arbitrariness, displacement, creativity, cultural transmission and duality. These properties should make it impossible for animals to learn and communicate using human language, but numerous experiments show that animals can ‘’learn’’ our language, even if they can’t produce it the same way as us, or have the proficiency of a human. Chimpanzees are the clear example of that, being taught ‘’Yerkish’’ (an artificial language used by non-humans) or Sign Language.

Chapter 17.

Most languages have a common ancestor, such as the Proto-Indo-European languages. Old English is an early version of English, spoken by the tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes who moved from Northern Europe into the British Isles in the 5th Century. The changes and development of the language were caused by the invasions and wars, as well as the influence and imposition of other cultures, for example: the conversion to Christianity introduced Latin terms to the language, the invasions of the Vikings and the French introduced more new terms associated with these cultures, and caused the disappearance of some sounds from the pronunciation of certain words. The transition from Old English to Modern English brought a syntactic and semantic change, resulting in terms from Old English that ceased to be used. All in all, these changes were gradual as a consequence of the continual process of cultural transmission.

Chapter 18.

This chapter investigates different variations in language based on geographic distribution and their associated features such as accents and dialects, which are used to describe aspects of grammar and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation.

A variety within a dialect continuum may be developed and codified as a standard language that is the variety associated with administrative, commercial, and educational centers, regardless of region. In such contexts, we may find a pidgin, a variety of a language that is developed for some practical purpose, characterized by having a limited vocabulary and lack of complex grammatical morphology. When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade or contact language and becomes the first language of a social community, this variety becomes a creole in a process known as creolization. However, another process known as decreolization may occur, those who have greater contact with a standard variety of the language will tend to use fewer creole forms and structures.

A language may become officially accepted, and there four stages in this process of language planning: the process of “selection”, the “elaboration”, the “implementation” and, finally, the “acceptance”, in which the majority of the population use this language and consider it as the national language.

Chapter 19.

The chapter explores the relationships between speech and society from the perspective of Sociolinguistics. In this work, the author claims that society, its division in social classes, and the roles we take in them, have the power to influence our use of language in a number of ways. According to this view, our speech can vary under the influence of our socio-economic status and membership of a particular speech community. In this way, our speech is characterized by distinct features, called social markers (which can be identified in the uses of a particular grammar, lexis and pronunciation), which are a result of the norms and expectations that the social groups of which we are part of have towards the use of language. These distinct aspects conform our social dialect and our personal dialect, or idiolect. Yule explores concepts such as register and jargon, to explain how our speech is subject to conventional ways of using language which is appropriate in certain contexts; education and occupation, to explain the association of certain expressions with our educational backgrounds; speech accommodation, to address our ability to modify our speech style towards or away of the perceived style of the person we are talking to, that is, our audience; and many other aspects that can influence our choices of speech. This chapter, to sum up, accounts for the impacts that society generates in the use of language, reflecting the power we have to create and maintain connections among each other through speech.

Chapter 11.

Humans have the ability to create complex discourse interpretations out of fragmentary linguistic messages. For instance, “Trains collide, two die”. We immediately know there has been an accident and that “Trains collide” is the cause and that “Two die” is the accident. Discourse is defined as ‘’language beyond the level of a sentence’’, so the analysis of discourse is the analysis of a text, which is composed by more than a couple of sentences. However, discourse is not always expressed in the format of a text with grammatically correct sentences, sometimes discourse is produced in fragments of language: like the headlines of a newspaper, or the broken speech of a foreign speaker.

There is a big variation in what people say in different contexts. To understand it we need to take into account a number of criteria such as the roles of the speaker and hearer. Conversation requires two people taking turns to speak and a common topic.

Discourse analysis is the effort and study to interpret what a speaker is trying to communicate. Texts need: Cohesion, the sentences composing it need to be connected to each other through cohesive ties that mark a relationship of time and elements. And coherence, the ability to make sense, to interpret something from our own experience.

Metacognitive analysis.

I am finally getting used to making more visual presentations, rather than ones filled with large chunks of information. In regards to the information, we take them for granted these aspects of language. As teachers of a foreign language, it is part of our profession to study the history and sociocultural aspects of language. How is it used in certain contexts? How do native speakers carry out conversations? How do they write? What are the differences between our mother tongue and the foreign language? These are all aspects of language that should be taught along with the grammatical rules and structures, to give said structures an actual purpose: the purpose of communication. If we are not learning a language to communicate, then why are we learning in the first place?