TEAM CORGISOCIOLINGUISTICSYA N J U N | J O E Y | X I N N I | K I N TA N

QUESTION 1A

ReflexivesSingular Plural

First person Myself OurselvesSecond person

Yourself Yourselves

Third person ? ?

QUESTION 1AObservation: Put self with the possessive pronouns (my,

your)Change the form to plural if required

ReflexivesSingular Plural

First person Myself OurselvesSecond person

Yourself Yourselves

QUESTION 1BObject Pronouns Possessive Pronouns

Singular Plural Singular Plural1st person Me Us My Our 2nd person You You Your Your 3rd person Him/Her/It Them His/Her/Its Their

Himself Themselves Hisself Theirselves Herself HerselfItself Itsself

Standard English Descriptive Rule

- herself - herself - himself - hisself - itself - itsself - themselves - theirselves

QUESTION 1CActual third-person pronouns in Standard

English

In Standard English, for the the third-person

pronouns, the object pronouns are placed in

front of self/selves instead.

QUESTION 1C

Cockney Dialect: uses herself, hisself, itsself and theirselves

QUESTION 1D

Do not ever use reflexives like "hisself"or "itsself"

because they don't exist in Standard English. Using them

will not make any sense!

QUESTION 1DPrescriptive approach to language will

say:

Indeed, the reflexive forms in (B) do not exist in Standard English. However,

they are valid as they are spoken and recognised by the speakers of the

Cockney dialect. Also, we cannot say they are baseless as they are derived from the descriptive rule observed for the first & second- person reflexive.

QUESTION 1DDescriptive approach to language will

say:

Cockney Dialect is more "systematic" as the reflexives in this dialect are all formed

according to the descriptive rule.

QUESTION 1D

QUESTION 2•Recap•Pidgin: Heavily simplified language created after some contact situation•Creole: native language of a community that was once a pidgin.

QUESTION 2• Tok pisin• one of the three national languages of Papua New Guinea• developed in the early 1800's as a result of increased travel and economic activity between the Melanesians and Europeans• Pidgin or creole??

“We’re OLGETA in this TOGETA”

“We’re all in this together!”

“We’re OLGETA in this TOGETA”

I AM ONE HANDET YIA OLD

Actually I’m around 2000 years old but ok

= How many Christmas’ have you got?= How old are you?

WHICH LANGUAGE TO ADOPT?Context: post-colonial situation

QUESTION 3

MAJOR ISSUES WHEN CHOOSING THE LANGUAGE

• Each language has its own merits and disadvantages. • The context is that of a postcolonial society

Still a young country; possibly no clear vision and mission.

Struggle against the lingering imperial presence.

DONDON AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE

• Why? - Postcolonial societies intend to the dissociate with

colonial past. - Dondon serves to distinguish the country; a means

to assert its newfound national identity. - Spoken by the majority of the society, dissemination

of the language is faster and easier. - Post-emancipation situation often creates a power

vacuum lack of order --> a trans-ethnic language facilitates the unification of the diff. races

ADDRESSING THE LIMITED INVENTORY OF VOCABULARY FOR ‘MODERNIZATION

AND EDUCATION’

• Possibly hinders the rate of development, since there are limited words to describe (and inspire) progress. • However words are constantly created and recycled, according to the needs of the society.

Dondon’s vocabulary bank could potentially expand.

WHY NOT ABABA?• Limited in extent as it is only spoken

among traders the rate of dissemination would be slower.• Trade language trade jargons.

The vocabulary repertoire is very limited. Establishing this as a national language necessitates the addition/creation of many new words, even more than Dondon.

WHY NOT ENGLISH?• Unknown to 80% of the population the

majority of the population may feel alienated; more difficult to disseminate. • Admittedly, being the most popular language in

the world, it may facilitate international trade/ strengthen international ties.

Adopting English does not guarantee progress As a young nation, international relations may

not be their main priority. (may be more concerned with unifying the various ethnics)

Could be adopted as second language after Dondon has been successfully adopted by most inhabitants.

WHY NOT FRENCH?• Spoken by the 20% of the population

rate of adoption would be relatively slower compared to Dondon.• As it is spoken by the ruling elite, the

implementation of English as a national language may lead people to think that the country favours the elite. • Locals may perceive that colonial

influences are still deeply-entrenched within the society.

- What is linguistics? -The scientific study of human language. - Why do we care about it? - Human language is what make us uniquely human. - Language is how we communicate. - It provides insights on how words are pronounced and formed; how sentences are constructed; and how our communication is able to make sense.

QUESTION 4

- Natural language - Variation and change in languages - The ability of us humans to acquire language is an innate instinct.

QUESTION 4

WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT WH-MOVEMENTS? (SYNTAX)

•Wh-movements allows us to form interrogative questions.•Gives us information that we want.•Enables us to phrase questions better.

WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT MINIMAL PAIRS? (PHONOLOGY)

• Minimal pairs are words with only one difference in phonology• Linguistics is about communicating with

another person. • While talking to someone else, we can

emphasize on the difference in phonetics to get the message across accurately.

WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT CHOMSKY?

• Chomsky introduced the idea of a universal grammar• Explains why children are able to acquire their native language in a short period of time•Develop into other branches of generative grammar

IMPORTANCE OF SINGLISH(SOCIOLINGUISTICS)

• Lingua franca between different ethnic groups and dialect groups• Important in Linguistics because it evolved from a

mixture of borrowed words from other languages to form its own grammatical rules.• In different situations, Singaporeans can switch

from Standard English and Singlish (sociolinguistics)• A solidarity symbol in Singapore

IMPORTANCE OF MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION (PRAGMATICS)

• Effective conversation between people • Context of the conversation contributes to

the meaning of the speech.• Abiding by the four maxims would make

the context clearer and lessen misunderstandings

WE’RE DONE. THANK YOU!

Interesting read: A linguist explains the grammar of doge.http://the-toast.net/2014/02/06/linguist-explains-grammar-doge-wow/