ELE 501- Descriptive and Applied Linguistics

Professor: Crisanta Toentino-De Leon, Ph.D.

1. In what ways do languages change and develop?

“The only constant in life is change”- Heraclitus.

We face changes every day even the language.  Changes can take originate in language
learning, or through language contact, social differentiation, and natural processes in
usage.

Being a Millennial, I witness how the Filipino language evolves, transforms, and passed
it to generation to generation. In the Merriam dictionary, they also register some new or
invented words that we don’t know where it came from. 

2. What enables a child to learn a language so efficiently?

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious” – Albert Einstein.

Babies learn language through imitation.

Children are really curious and they been asking you several questions because curiosity
is such a basic component of our natures that we are nearly unconscious to its
universality in our lives. They acquiring it without a proper education like when we them
like saying “ahh” “ma-ma” “papa”.
Researchers believe there may be a 'critical period' (lasting roughly from infancy until
puberty) during which language acquisition is effortless. According to these researchers,
changes occur in the structure of the brain during puberty, and after that, it is much harder
to learn a new language. (Birner, 2020)

Again they acquiring language by imitation.

3. What makes it so challenging for an adult to learn a language?

Judging from what has happened to me I still learning and improving my communication
skills. My high school teacher told us “Pag pangit sa pandinig may mali” but as a
language educator, I must not judge it on hearing but on how to use it most a correctly
way.

Adults had a hard time coping with new learning especially the second language maybe
they resist change as mention above by the study of Birner the structure of our brain
change when we hit puberty. It explains what had happened to me.

As I teaching research I notice that my students having a hard-on composing sentence. 

 4. What enables us to produce and understand countless sentences we have never
heard before?

I love the Filipino language and how it works. For instance, when we say the
word "para" when we board on a passenger bus, cab, or jeep wants to tell the driver (or
the conductor) to stop the vehicle so he or she could go down. We say “Para po” instead
of saying the whole phrase/sentence like "Manong, para po sa tabi!" (Driver, please pull
over so I could go down). Another is “Kumain ka Snaba” and we responded “Hindi pa
ko REgutom” instead of saying “no”. We subconsciously acquired and used that it just
funny that we can understand one another and that is the main goal of communication

We must understand a sentence for us to know what does it implies.

 
The principle of compositionality the meaning of a sentence is determined by the
meanings of the worlds it comprises and the semantic significance of the grammatical
structure of the sentence. (Kemp)
As long as we know the meaning of certain words we can produce a sentence
unconsciously. 

5. How do languages achieve their communicative goals?

We read to write and listen to speak.

When we transmit information or message and selects a channel to the receiver and the
receiver overcomes barriers and comprehends the information or idea that the sender
intends to convey.

Lastly, communication is successful only when both the sender and the
receiver understand the same information. 

REFERENCES:
https://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/language_change.html
https://brainblogger.com/2018/02/14/why-children-learn-foreign-languages-easily/
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/faq-how-do-we-learn-language#:~:text=Children
%20acquire%20language%20through%20interaction,is%20being%20used%20around%20them.
https://time.com/3013439/language-trying-hurts-learning/#:~:text=But%20a%20new
%20language%20may,exceptions%20and%20learn%20from%20them.
https://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=EQZDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT43&lpg=PT43&dq=What+enables+us+to+produce+and+underst
and+countless+sentences+we+have+never+heard+before?
&source=bl&ots=4havtloHDb&sig=ACfU3U2HjLIMZWBA_PGaO6ZxNUmedlbCTQ&hl=en&
sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjfi8Dyn7vqAhUjGaYKHapADZsQ6AEwC3oECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q
=What%20enables%20us%20to%20produce%20and%20understand%20countless%20sentences
%20we%20have%20never%20heard%20before%3F&f=false

ROCELLA J. FUENTES

MAED-ELE