LIO2042 SOCIOLINGÜÍSTICA

Partial Exam
Through the use of your class notes, the chapters in Holmes (2013), Bell (2014) and at least two other
sources, different from the ones we have used in class during this part of the semester, choose and answer
three of the following questions. The answers will be evaluated based on accuracy, development of ideas
and evidence of critical thinking which entails a close examination of the question-at-issue to gather, and
assess relevant information to answer. There may be more than one position that you could take, but it is
up to you to provide evidence for your criteria. The five questions/activities are worth the same amount of
points. Each answer should be at least one page long, use Times New Roman 12pt. References using APA
style should be included.

1. The UNESCO Atlas of the World´s Languages in Danger refers that there are around 3,000
endangered languages worldwide. Explain the terms endangered language, language loss, language
death and revitalization. Support your answer using different factors that we have read/discussed
during the course and through the round-table presentations. What are the difficulties involved in
reviving a ‘dead’ language and maintaining a dying language at even a minimal level? Consider
current situations among the native peoples of the Americas and of small minority language groups
of immigrants in large powerful nations. Should it be the speakers of these languages to be in charge
of the revitalization and maintenance process or should it be the government and institutions?
Discuss how these issues are related to linguistic rights.
Endangered languages and language death are very important for people and especially linguists
to pay attention to. Language death is when a language is no longer in use due to the speakers being
dead, or there is no evidence of the language being used anymore by a group of speakers. There may be
knowledge or evidence of the language existing from historical texts, but it is no longer in use. When a
language dies, we lose a lot of important things, one of them is culture. In many cultures, their language
is very important to them, they have songs, poems, and specific ways of expressing themselves that
another language cannot do it justice. The cause of language death is due to many reasons; speakers
dying from war, genocide, or disease. Another reason is when a country is colonized and a new
dominant language enters, and people are forced to assimilate (Almurashi, 2017). After many years, one
language may become more dominant and people feel ashamed to use their native language, they then
only teach their young the now dominant language, and the elders are the only ones who speak it. Since
only the elders know how to speak this language, they will eventually die due to old age and the only
record of their native language may be in written or recorded forms.

Language plays an important role in knowing about history, ancient methods, and even ancient
medicine (Almurashi, 2017). Language can also factor into economic benefits, because it can increase
tourism and cultural interest from tourists and linguists (Almurashi, 2017). These factors all play a role in
why linguists and people from endangered speaking groups need to pay attention to language revival,
because every language is important. There are many ways to go about language revival, like raising
awareness through media, funding endangered language groups and getting support from linguists and
universities. The most important factor in my opinion is making people of these language groups aware
that their language matters and is nothing to be ashamed of. There is power in groups of people and by
raising awareness of these problems, it can let people know that their language is important, and that
people outside of these groups will advocate for them. If an endangered language is represented in the
government or the media, people will start to care more.
 Language revival is important, but few people care about it, or don’t even know it is happening.
It is up to the governments of countries with vulnerable languages to help people of endangered speech
communities preserve or revive their language and culture. It is also said that the decision to revive a
language depends on the language's viability (Alshehri, 2016). “McKay (1996, p. 226) provides a number
of factors that play an important role in language revitalization programs: the capability of using the
language as a system of full communication, the number of speakers, the economic situation and the
political position of the speakers and their language, and the speakers' attitudes to both their language
and the dominant language (Alshehri, 2016).” These are all taken in as factors to whether a language
should be revived. They also mention that the decision to revive the language depends on its status
(Alshehri, 2016). This means that the language will only be viable for revitalization if it has some sort of
power; whether it be governmental or economical. This is unfair to people of language communities
that have very few speakers, because they don’t have government or societal recognition. A language
like this is an example of a language that people outside of the speech community, that people wouldn’t
care about reviving.

References

Almurashi, W. A. (2017). Why we should care about language death. International Journal of
English Language and Linguistics Research, 5(5), 62-73.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330131917_WHY_WE_SHOULD_CARE_ABOUT_LANGUAGE_
DEATH

Alshehri, A. A. (2016, September). Language Revival: Significance, Strategies, Methods and Issues.
Eajournals.org. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.eajournals.org/wp-
content/uploads/Language-Revival-Significance-Strategies-Methods-and-Issues.pdf

2. A central premise of Whorf’s argument of the relationship between thought and behavior to
language is that language is composed of meaningful forms that refer to an infinite variety of
experience. A language, then according to the Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis, essentially provides its
speakers with a ready-made classification of experience which may be used as a guide for
thought. Do you agree or disagree with the Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis that language influences
culture and culture language? To what extent does a language shape and control the thinking of
its speakers and reflect their world view? In this discussion include at least two different
examples and explain how these express the world view of these languages.

The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis can be argued to be true or false from many perspectives. From a
personal perspective, I am 50/50 with the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis. I believe that your language does not
have a lot to do with your perspective on the world, but it is rather your country, culture, economic status,
and upbringing that shapes this view on the world. Language does go hand-in-hand with culture and your
country, but it is only a mere factor and since all languages have the same properties, I don’t believe it
can have much influence on a person's view of the world. In some ways, I believe it is correct because
certain languages have many terms for one concept, or those definitions are different from one language
to another. A good example of this is one Language that Whorf studied is one of the Hopi Indians in
Arizona, a language where they do not use past or future tenses, and Whorf argued that they may not
have a concept of time at all (United Language Group, 2017).

Another example of this is that people who speak Mandarin or Chinese tend to be better at
understanding mathematics because of their language. In Chinese their numbers are worded differently
than in other languages, therefore giving Chinese speaking children an advantage when it comes to
mathematics. “One example is the Chinese counting system, where the boundary between 10 and 11 is
explicit in both written and spoken forms. The Chinese word for 11 is (shi yi), literally ‘ten–one’; that for
12 is (shi er), literally ‘ten–two,’ and so on. The same rule applies for larger numbers, such that 20 is (er
shi) ‘two–ten,’ 59 is (wu shi jiu) ‘five–ten–nine’ and so on. Hence, new numbers could easily be inferred in
Chinese, and it is clear that the numbers are organized according to a base-ten system (Dowker, Winifred
2016).” There are even studies that show Chinese and English students performed similarly, but the
Chinese speaking students were a year above the English-speaking students (Dowker, Winifred 2016).
People who speak Chinese may see the world differently than people who speak English, but in a
mathematical sense, meaning that numbers may stand out to them in the world and that they think more
statistically or logistically. But this does not always have to mean that every Chinese speaking student is
good at math, and that English speaking students are not good at math.

I believe that these factors can make a person view the world differently, but I think that culture,
country, and upbringing have a larger effect on this view. For example, a person who grew up in a small
village in the African wilderness has a completely different perspective than a person who grew up in New
York City. The largest difference is landscape, one is a large city, the other a small community, maybe far
away from other civilizations. One setting is more primal, and the other is more industrial. The person
from Africa may know more about animals, plants, and the environment, and views the world as natural
and pure, compared to the person from NYC who views the world as more material, and they have more
influence from capitalism. Both people speak different languages, but their environment is what shapes
their view on the world, not necessarily their language. Now, if we take two people that come from a
similar environment but speak different languages, that is where we may see a difference in world view.
For example, a person who lives in the countryside in Maine, United States, may have a similar world view
of that of a person who lives in the countryside in Southern France. Differences in language give each
person a different way of expressing themselves by using different terms and ways of explaining things,
therefore giving each person a different perspective.

References

Mark, W., & Dowker, A. (2015, February 26). Linguistic influence on mathematical development is specific
rather than pervasive: Revisiting the Chinese number advantage in Chinese and English children.
Frontiers in Psychology. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4341514/

United Language Group. (n.d.). The Sapir Whorf hypothesis and language's effect on cognition. United
Language Group. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from
 https://www.unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/the-sapir-whorf-hypothesis-and-languages-effect-
on-cognition

3. Is multilingualism a problem? Under what conditions or circumstances could it represent a

problem? Do you agree that there is a bias towards monolingualism? What are some examples of
this bias? Discuss the differences between individual and societal monolingualism. Provide
examples. What ideology is behind the idea of “one nation, one language”? Is this at all possible?
Should every nation speak only one language? Explain pros and cons. What causes language
contact?
Multilingualism and bilingualism are very common, and both can have benefits but also come with
consequences. From a personal standpoint as a bilingual speaker (Spanish and English) living in Mexico, I
have found many advantages to being bilingual. Being in a foreign country can be difficult, but speaking
the language makes it a lot easier to get around, especially if you are more proficient. For me, I am able
to communicate with more locals and make more friends at my university because I speak their
language, and I am also able to understand jokes and jargon, which puts me at more of an advantage
than other international students. A bilingual or multilingual person is at an advantage when it comes to
traveling, because it may be easier to converse with locals and get around. I found that when I was in
Peru, many people treated me with more respect and were excited to speak to me because I was a
foreigner that spoke Spanish. A bilingual or multilingual person can also experience benefits in cognitive
and sensory processes. “Bilingual experience can enhance cognitive and sensory processing, allowing a
bilingual person to better process information in the environment and provide a clearer signal for
learning. (Mahzoun, 2021).” Along with cognition, a bilingual person has a larger vocabulary, which
makes writing and spelling easier. This applies more to people who are bilingual from birth (Mahzoun,
2021).

Although there are many advantages to being bilingual, it also comes with consequences. There are
many societal prejudices towards speaking your native language in a place where a dominant language
is more present. This is very present in the United States, where a lot of bias exists against minority
groups in many parts. From an academic perspective, being multilingual is a huge advantage, but from a
societal perspective, many are judged for using a different language than the national or official
language. In an article in the New York Times, they described some experiences of people getting judged
by using a different language: “In New York, a restaurant customer threatened to turn the staff over to
immigration authorities if they didn’t stop speaking Spanish to one another. In Montana, a Border Patrol
agent demanded the identification of two American citizens chatting in Spanish at a gas station. In
Georgia, one Walmart customer scolded another for speaking Spanish to her 3-year-old daughter
(Matthews, 2019).” They also provide some data about how Hispanics feel about speaking Spanish in the
United States: “Last year, the Pew Research Center found that 22 percent of Hispanics said someone
had criticized them for speaking America’s most popular foreign language. Twenty percent said they had
been told to go back to their home country (Matthewa, 2019).” This shows that people although they
speak two languages, and are competent in both, they still face racism. The idea of “one nation, one
language” exists in the United States because many people believe that you must speak English, even
though it is a nation of immigrants with many cultures and languages.
There is also bias against a monolingual person because they are the minority in the world, and they can
also be at more of a disadvantage in the corporate world. Using the Unites States as an example,
because there are a lot of immigrants from Latin America and Spanish speaking. In certain places in the
U.S., you are more likely to get hired if you speak Spanish. Although there may be a bias against
monolingual people, I believe that bias is more for them. In Monolingual bias in New Zealand
Classrooms by Dr. Jae Major, it states that there is more bias for monolingual speakers of English
nowadays because of its dominance in the world today (Major, 2018). This means that a dominant
language, whether it be English, Spanish, French, etc., is more preferred and people that speak a
different language, maybe a smaller, native language, are at a disadvantage. The article talks about how
the prime minister of New Zealand said that because he and other monolinguals of English didn’t speak
Māori, that it shouldn’t be used in classrooms, even though it is counted as an official language in New
Zealand (Major, 2018). This shows that there is a bias towards a monolingual person who speaks a
dominant language, but the case for a person who is monolingual and speaks a smaller, less dominant
language, would be at a disadvantage.

All of these examples have to do with linguistic rights. All languages are the same, and although one
language may be more dominant than another, that does not make one language less important. People
should not be treated differently because of their native language, nor should they be judged for trying
to acquire a new language. Language is what makes a person who they are, and they should not have to
give up their language to fit into a certain category.

Mahzoun, P. (2021, October 26). The effect of bilingualism and multilingualism on academic behavior.
IntechOpen. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/78862

Major, J. (2018, November 27). Monolingual bias in New Zealand classrooms. Ipu Kererū. Retrieved
September 29, 2022, from https://nzareblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/monolingual-bias/

Mathews, J. (2019, April 25). Perspective | Half of the world is bilingual. What's our problem? The
Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/half-the-world-is-bilingual-whats-our-
problem/2019/04/24/1c2b0cc2-6625-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html