Before our next class, write at least 250 words summarizing the important points from the reading and today’s lecture and post your summary as a comment to this blog post.
An important thing to remember for your summaries is that you should include the name of the person who wrote a given day’s reading. Names are important, because it gives them credit for their ideas and writing, and it demonstrates that you know how to acknowledge from where/who those ideas come to us.
A second important thing to remember is that you should write and save your summaries somewhere else before copy-and-pasting them into the comment box. This protects the writing that you do in case anything were to happen to erase your writing during the comment posting process on OpenLab.
A third important thing to remember is that you should copyedit your writing before copy-and-pasting it into our OpenLab site. This means that you should read through it again and run spell/grammar check before saving it and copy-and-pasting it.
In Victoria Fromkin’s book, “What is Language,” Ms. Fromkin explores the concept of language and its evolutionary origin. The author affirms that to understand humanity, we need to understand that which makes us human: language. The words of a language can be listed in a dictionary, but not all sentences that make up language can be listed. Speakers use a fixed set of rules to produce and understand an incalculable number of sentences. The rules are intrinsically part of the grammar of a language, which develops when you acquire the language and includes the sound system, the structure and properties of words, how words may be combined into phrases and sentences, and the ways in which sounds and meanings are related.
When a person knows a language, that person knows what sounds are in that language, and what sounds are not. Users of a language are intimately knowledgeable about the sound system of that language, and that knowledge extends beyond a catalogue of words. It means knowing the starting and ending sounds, and what sounds follow each other.In addition to know the system of words, humans know what images constitute what word.
The author further distinguishes between linguistic competence and linguistic performance. A person has the ability to produce millions of word sentence, but memory and endurance act as limitations on our linguistic performance. The writer also points to disparate grammars. She lists descriptive grammar which is set of rules about language, based on how it is actually used; in a descriptive grammar, there is no right or wrong language. Conversely, prescriptive grammaris a set of rules based on how people think language should be used. In a prescriptive grammar there is right and wrong language.
The author affirms that the basis for the acquisition of language is the universal grammar theory; The American linguist, Noam Chomsky, proposed this theory. This theory proposes that human have a hard wired, biologically predisposition to language. Chomsky’s theory is that language learning is facilitated by a predilection that our brain have for certain structures of language. This strong evidence points to the rapid language development in children where children acquire language through exposure. In addition, the writer points to deaf children as proof that the ability to hear and produce sounds is not crucial to learning language. The writer points to sign language, a gestural-visual language, as evidence of this theory.
Language comes naturally to humans starting from learning words and then forming them into a specific order using grammar in order to communicate. “Introduction to Language” by Victoria Fromkin breaks down the evolution of linguistics, how we use it today, and they way it’s changed over time. Language begins with a sound pattern to a word that leads to a concept where you can make an image in your head about that specific sound. In different countries language changes because they have different principles that need to be followed in order to communicate such as their sounds pattern and grammar. For example, if you don’t know a countries sound pattern then you will be unable to make words following the specific sound therefore unable to comprehend the meaning of the word. With linguistics one word doesn’t necessarily have the same meaning in every language it might mean something else in some other part of the world. Language is a global culture that every country shares in order to communicate.
There’s no explanation why language connects sound and the picture image we see. It’s just an automatic instinct in humans to create something in our heads when we have an understanding of the words that are being said to us. Linguistics is studied in two ways synchronic a specific point of time when language is studied and diachronic studying language through time. Neither of them has shown to show advantages of how language should be spoken. No language is better than another they have their own uniqueness. Language is a major contributing factor of how we see the world today without the world probably wouldn’t have any technologies in order to communicate with people all over the world.
In the reading What is Language? Victoria Fromkin explained many different ways of language. Language is an arrangement of human communication. Language can be either by speaking or writing to a person. You must have to ability to speak so you can practice the language. Fromkin mentioned that language can be by playing, fighting, showing love and emotion. Language can also be by deaf people communicating with each other. The author also mentioned that our creative ability it’s not a reflection of what we say we also need to add our understanding of new words that we learn or hear it.
Victoria Fromkin said that speakers of all languages have the ability and the knowledge to understand and this helps them to make up some new sentences. The author also said that “grammar of a language consists of the sound patterns.” The relationship between language and grammar, it helps us to build our language skills. Also, develop the critical resources that we need, grammar helps us to understand the concepts need to talk appropriately about language. There are two ways of using the word grammar, mental grammar, and internalized grammar.
Victoria mentioned sign languages in and evidence for language universals. At the end, the author listed some rules that were part of languages. Linguistic competence is different from linguistic performance. There are different kinds of grammar such as mental grammar and descriptive grammar, perspective grammar, universal grammar and teaching grammar. All of these grammars lead us to speaks the languages perfectly and understand it clearly which will help other understand us clearly too.
In Victoria Fromkin’s book, “What is Language,” Vicotria Fromkin explains to us what exactly language is about. She tells us how we are unique because we are human beings, but how exactly does one identify as a human being? Vicotria Fromkin explains how we are humans by the way we can communication to each other which is also known as language. Language has a lot of variables to consider especially when it comes to their grammar, sound system, structure of words, and how words can be used as phrases and sentences with different meanings. Words can be explained, but when spoken in a sentence the word that they describe in a sentence doesn’t hold the same meaning to what’s the definition in the dictionary. One important aspect of language is the sound. People who study language know what is an word and what’s not by the sound. The author herself tells us the difference between a linguistic competence and performance. A linguistic performance is when you speak as many words as you possible can, but it’s limited to your memory and endurance. Grammar is an important way to build our language especially the set of rules that are set for example descriptive grammar is a set of rules about language based on how it is actually used in a descriptive grammar there is no wrong answer for this. Grammar is a major factor to language. It’s based off on how people think about language and how it should be used.
The author explains how to acquire knowledge. Young child at a very small age get exposed to language and is able to learn languages quicker. Our brains is hard wired to memory and language therefore we have a good understanding on how to learn language. The author notes how even people born without hearing issues can learn language because of hand gestures and sign language as a way to learn.
Language is all around us. Language defines us and separates us from any other species on earth. In Africa some people don’t consider newborns to be humans. They are considered to be things until they learn a language. In her article “What Is Language”, Victoria Fromkin talks about what is means to know a language. We spend most of our day talking and communicating with the people around us, whether it be face-to-face, over the phone, or through the use of any technological device. In each way, we communicate through the use of language. Knowing a language means that you are able to produce sounds that mean something and others can understand what you are saying as well as you can understand them. Knowing a language also means that you are able to connect sound sequences to certain meanings. With having this knowledge, you are able to string together phrases and then form clear and coherent sentences. Language changes according to the culture. In other countries, the language is different because of the different sound patterns and rules that they follow. However language isn’t only a way of communicating with a person vocally, you can also use language to communicate with a person through the use of sign language. Deaf people create and understand sign language, in the same way that a normal hearing person understands language when they are spoken to. Sign language uses hand and body gestures as well as facial expressions to represent words, compared to a normal hearing person using sound sequences to create words. Human language is universal and every human being has the capability to learn a language and sign language is the best way to prove that humans are able to acquire language.
During last Tuesday’s class we went over a few key points from Chapter 1 in Victoria Fromkin’s book, An Introduction to Language. In this chapter Fromkin discusses the fundamentals of linguistics, which is the study of language. I’m thinking it may do me well to re-read this text because I realize I have more questions now than I did prior to sitting down to complete this assignment.
Originally, I believe I wanted to connect what Fromkin states at the beginning of the chapter where she said that language is what distinguishes us from other animals, it is the source of human life and power, to the observations that I have made of the development of my three year old’s grammar. It is incredible watching And from there I wanted to speak on the fact that the ability to learn a language is innately hardwired into our brains, because I am witnessing this presently while observing the, overall, development of my son’s grammar, specifically his syntax. It’s amazing watching him transition from an intolerable toddler to the incredibly intelligent human being that I’ve so been looking forward to meeting, speaking, and reasoning with. Pardon my grammar, but I believe you can follow what I’m saying. Gone are the days when he would cry endlessly to him now being on his way to learning the standard dialect. Hallelujah!
In reading the text I did notice that Fromkin repeatedly states throughout that no language is either inferior or superior to another. Fromkin also introduced a concept that I was familiar with, but was unaware that a term existed to describe it, “linguistic profiling” where someone is judged by their linguistic performance. If all languages are on par with one another, reading this has made me wonder why the standard dialect remains dominant in our society.
In Victoria Fromkin’s book, “What is Language,” Fromkin discusses the evolution of linguistics. Fromkin talks about the differences between spoken language and written languages. With spoken language you don’t know what that language is, it’s a continuous string of sounds. You would have to have the correct grammar and vocabulary to understand that language. She says with globalized culture we’re hamagonizing our culture in other words making it the same. As technical communicators we must always think about the audience you are trying to communicate with. You need to know your audience’s needs and part of that is the spoken language. Knowing a language means that you are able to produce a sound that others can understand and you can understand them. Fromkin says that we are unique because we are human beings but what makes us unique is the way that we communicate with each other. As human beings we are able to articulate and form sounds of different variations to create language and then use this language to communicate with others. When someone knows a language they know what sounds are a part of that language and what are not. Besides sounds humans know what image goes with what words. There is no reason why humans can associate words with an image. The connection between the sound image and concept is almost always arbitrary. Linguistics is studied in two ways, synchronic and diachronic. Synchronic means a specific point of time and diachronic means the study through time as it changes over times. Both ways offer different advantages of leaning.
Early in life the formational aspects of the brain are in development, making it easier to learn a myriad of languages then during adolescent years or adulthood. In Victoria Fromkin’s What is Language she defines in her textbook language as the sound, concept system that human beings use to communicate by sending, encoding, or receiving, or decoding sounds we produce. We’re already prewired in order to learn a certain language – units of it include words, grammar, connotation, and written script. For the written aspect of language, we don’t have any prequel requirement in our brains. It’s actually very complicated and difficult for anybody in any culture to learn their native written language. For we are to drawn on different areas of the brain so can reproduce that writing. Recognize that spoken language is relatively easier to acquire because our brains anticipate, but with written language its something that comes later, its artificial that our usual selves have to create over our lifetimes. In this course we know that spoken language is used as means of communicating with others. Its a continuous steam of sounds along with writing, a form of technology enabling the spoken language to other sign systems. Keynote to remember – Always think about the audience you’re trying to communicate with – their needs. Through language we have understanding, that essential trait that make us human. Some see this as a remarkable feat for human beings to have the civility to communicate using spoken sounds. The probability of bilingual speakers in an territory recognized under national language is more than eighty percent.