Entry #8 Oral assaigment

The study of Language. (Yule, G. 2010).

Unit 1 & 2

LEE 4 - GROUP 8 - UNIT 1 & 2 de AgostinaSanguinetti

Unit 1

This unit will deal with different theories about the origins of language. It is uncertain to provide specific explanations about this topic as there are several speculations on it. We, humans, are able to produce sounds, a feature that we share with all vertebrates and it is located in an ancient part of the brain. Regarding the attempts to explain the real origin of language Yule will mention six sources that developed different theories which dealt more with how humans produce speech rather than how spoken language truly originated. These theories are: 

• The “divine” source.
• The “natural sound” view.
• The “social interaction” view.
• The “physical adaptation” view. 
• The “tool-making” view.
• And the “innateness hypothesis”.

Unit 2

This unit will, mainly, compare animal and human language. Yule establishes that communication cannot be taken as a distinguishing feature in human language. Although, it is possible to make a clear distinction in the type of signals we sent in communication.  Yule will highlight the different properties that make human language unique. One of these properties is called reflexivity and consists of the possibility to reflect on language. A property animals lack.
Yule will also emphasizes the fact that, unlike animals, whose nature allows them to communicate by following the instinct, culture is an essential factor in the acquisition of human language since human language is acquired by cultural transmission.

As a result of this comparison, the conclusion of this unit will be that it is difficult to conceive that animals may be able to understand human language. There is not a solid argument that demonstrates language acquisition on animals, and even less the ability of producing human language.

Unit 11 

LEE 4 - GROUP 8 - UNIT 11 de AgostinaSanguinetti

Throughout this unit, Yule will introduce us to the analysis of discourse, by explaining the different features involved in the interpretation of texts, be them written or oral.

The concepts of coherence, cohesion, speech events and the multiple aspects of conversation analysis (turn-taking, cooperative principle, hedges and implicatures) are developed to give us the tools to come to conclude that the correct interpretation of any piece of discourse is based on our knowledge of language forms and structures as well as on our social, cultural and background knowledge.

Unit 17

LEE 4 - GROUP 8 - UNIT 17 de AgostinaSanguinetti

This unit will deal with language history and change. Yule states that language change and variation are inevitable and they happen gradually. Throughout this unit he will analyze these changes and variations in a diachronic way (viewed from the historical perspective of change through time). For this analysis he will show the ways in which scholars are able to establish relationships between different languages by building family connections. He will use two examples, either looking at records of older generations of different languages or by studying cognates; words in different languages that have a similar form and share or have shared a similar meaning. Then he will continue explaining how scholars do comparative reconstruction, leading to sound reconstruction (centered in the phonology aspects) or word reconstruction (which deals with lexical aspects of written forms).

Yule will also stress the importance of knowing the history of a language in order to unravel the circumstances that promoted its changes; no if matter they are variations in its written forms and sounds or in its syntactic and semantic aspects. 

Unit 18

LEE 4 - GROUP 8 - UNIT 18 de AgostinaSanguinetti

In this Unit, Yule will involve us in the distinction between Standard language (the one we find in Broadcasting, Education, Administration and Commerce, also known as “printed English”) and that spoken in different regions, even within the same country.

After introducing us to the existence of Linguistic Geography, which studies a language accordingly to where it is used, and Dialectology which provides us with a specific and worthy criterion to distinguish between two or more different dialects of the same language, he will continue by deepening in the concepts of accent, dialect, dialect continuum, bilingualism and diglossia to end by explaining the features of Pidgins and Creoles. 

Unit 19 

LEE 4 - GROUP - UNIT 19 de AgostinaSanguinetti

In this Unit, Yule will make us focus on the different variations a language, especially in its spoken forms, goes through even within the same geographical area. These changes may be rooted in sociolinguistic factors, the search for prestige, migratory reasons, etc. The author will also introduce the concepts of speech accommodation, or the ability to adjust the way in which we speak to move toward or away our interlocutor; jargon, or special technical vocabulary; and slang or colloquial speech.

Metacognitive analysis

I like to believe that I have improved on my power point presentations, mostly on the design, but also on my summary skills. Now I feel more comfortable to prepare authentic material for my classes.  

Regarding the topic of this entry, I found it not only extremely interesting but necessary as a foreign language teacher.