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    This document discusses 4 common myths about language: 1. That people think in language - but thinking may occur through a "mentalese" not dependent on any specific language. 2. That children learn their mother tongue naturally - but acquisition involves learning complex linguistic patterns and rules. 3. That written language is inherently better than spoken - but writing systems imperfectly represent spoken forms with variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and punctuation. 4. That language exists independently of its users - but languages are shaped by their speakers and cultures through usage over time.

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    This document discusses 4 common myths about language: 1. That people think in language - but thinking may occur through a "mentalese" not dependent on any specific language. 2. That children learn their mother tongue naturally - but acquisition involves learning complex linguistic patterns and rules. 3. That written language is inherently better than spoken - but writing systems imperfectly represent spoken forms with variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and punctuation. 4. That language exists independently of its users - but languages are shaped by their speakers and cultures through usage over time.

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    1 views21 pages

    Sec 4 The Four Myths

    Uploaded by

    CODE -ONE
    This document discusses 4 common myths about language: 1. That people think in language - but thinking may occur through a "mentalese" not dependent on any specific language. 2. That children learn their mother tongue naturally - but acquisition involves learning complex linguistic patterns and rules. 3. That written language is inherently better than spoken - but writing systems imperfectly represent spoken forms with variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and punctuation. 4. That language exists independently of its users - but languages are shaped by their speakers and cultures through usage over time.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 21

    Applied Linguistics 2: The FOUR myths you

    must know are myths


    Dr. Abdellah Elhaloui, CAU

    Reading assignment 2: 25-50


    The FOUR myths you must know are
    myths

    People think in language!

    Children learn their mother tongue!

    Written language is better!

    Language is independent from its users!


    1- People think in language!

    Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
    The hypothesis, first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and
    subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a
    language determines a native speaker's perception and categorization of
    experience.

    2 examples:
    1. Eskimo words for snow
    2. Moroccan “hello”
    1. Tlapa: powder snow
    2. tlacringit: snow that is crusted on the surface
    3. kayi: drifting snow
    4. tlapat: still snow
    5. klin: remembered snow
    6. naklin: forgotten snow
    7. tlamo: snow that falls in large wet flakes
    8. tlatim: snow that falls in small flakes
    9. tlaslo: snow that falls slowly
    10. tlapinti: snow that falls quickly
    11. kripya: snow that has melted and refrozen
    12. tliyel: snow that has been marked by wolves
    13. tliyelin: snow that has been marked by Eskimos
    14. hiryla: snow in beards
    100 Eskimo words for snow
    http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/varia/snow.htm l
    Franz Boas
    July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942
    “Just as English uses derived terms for a variety of forms of water
    (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain, dew, wave, foam) that might be
    formed by derivational morphology [suffixes and other such stuff]
    from a single root meaning 'water' in some other language, so
    Eskimo uses the apparently distinct roots aput 'snow on the
    ground', gana 'falling snow',piqsirpoq 'drifting snow',
    and qimuqsuq 'a snow drift'.”
    Moroccans’ way of saying “Hello!”
    Money and effort
    You go and bring it from the grocery

    No effort but money


    Get someone to bring it for you from the grocery

    No money but effort


    You go and bring it from the fridge

    No money no effort
    Get someone to bring it for you from the fridge
    Mentalese
    “The hypothetical language of thought, or representation of
    concepts and propositions in the brain, in which ideas,
    including the meanings of words and sentences, are couched.”
    (Pinker, S. The Language Instinct)
    The FOUR myths you must know are myths

    People think in language!


    2- Children learn their mother tongue!

    2 examples:
    1. Amazigh Case markers
    2. Southern MD Fronting
    Internal Case/External Case

    argaz urgaz tamghart tmghart


    man woman

    Izrayi urgaz * izrayi argaz tzrayi tmghart *tzrayi tamghart


    zrigh argaz * zrigh urgaz zrigh tamghart *zrigh tmghart
    U-Fronting
    In some varieties of MD
    The sound [u] The sound [ɶ]
    buq “trumpet” tɶt “strawberries
    suq “market” lɶn “color”
    kul “eat, imperative” tɶnsi “Tunisian”
    ful “beans” sɶs “the name of a region in
    the south of Morocco”
    bus “kiss” flɶs “money”
    qus “arch” dɶz “pass”
    xux “peaches” dɶd “worms”
    Which sounds precede and follow ɶ?
    The sound [u] The sound [ɶ]
    buq “trumpet” tɶt “strawberries
    suq “market” lɶn “color”
    kul “eat, imperative” tɶnsi “Tunisian”
    ful “beans” sɶs “the name of a region in
    the south of Morocco”
    bus “kiss” flɶs “money”
    qus “arch” dɶz “pass”
    xux “peaches” dɶd “worms”
    Do alveolars precede and follow U?
    The sound [u] The sound [ɶ]
    buq “trumpet” tɶt “strawberries
    suq “market” lɶn “color”
    kul “eat, imperative” tɶnsi “Tunisian”
    ful “beans” sɶs “the name of a region in
    the south of Morocco”
    bus “kiss” flɶs “money”
    qus “arch” dɶz “pass”
    xux “peaches” dɶd “worms”
    Marrakshis have a rule
    • The vowel u becomes ɶ when it is preceded
    and followed by anl alveolar.

    The vowel u becomes

    u→ɶ The vowel ɶ


    qb……n qs……n
    qbun qsɶn
    The FOUR myths you must know are myths

    People think in language!


    Children learn their mother tongue!
    Written language is better!

    3,866 alphabetical systems

    60,000 years 6,000 years

    Written language does not reflect spoken language in a


    perfect way:
    1. Pronunciation
    2. Vocabulary
    3. punctuation
    The FOUR myths you must know are
    myths

    People think in language!

    Children learn their mother tongue!

    Written language is better!


    Language is independent from its users!

    Corpus
    dictinaries

    Corpus of Contemporary American English


    The corpus contains more than 520
    literature million words of text (20 million words
    each year 1990-2015) and it is equally
    divided among spoken, fiction, popular
    magazines, newspapers, and academic
    Old people texts. https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

    experts
    1st World: objective things
    2nd World: how we expereince things
    3rd World: Spider-net metaphor

    Karl Popper
    28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994
    The TEN myths you must know are myths

    People think in language!

    Children learn their mother tongue!

    Written language is better!

    Language is independent from its users!

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