(See related pages)
|
|
|
Answer: Animals have systems of communication, but they are not the same as human language. Primates use a form of communication known as a call system, which is much more limited than human language. There are only a limited number of calls, and their meanings are fixed and stimuli-dependent. For example, most animals have a call for "danger," but to be used and understood it must be made in the presence of some form of hazard. They cannot create new calls, such as "danger from a predator" or "danger from a falling item." Nonhuman animals also are unable to communicate about things that are not present, such as things over the horizon or things in the past. But human language, which is highly symbolic, has these capacities, and for this reason we can discuss and learn from others' experiences. It is important to note that experiments involving nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas demonstrate that they do possess rudimentary capacities for language. In fact, several nonhuman primates have been taught American Sign Language and are able to use a few hundred signs in fairly complex ways. Answer: Japanese characters are a staple on American TV, and so most Americans are familiar with what a "Japanese" accent is like. More specifically, we are familiar with the speech patterns of native Japanese speakers when they learn English later in life. One common mispronunciation is confusing the "r" sound and the "l" sound such as in "craw" and "claw." This mispronunciation is made because there is no meaningful distinction between the "r" sound and the "l" sound in Japanese. Linguists refer to sound contrasts that differentiate meaning as phonemes. The sounds "r" and "l" are actually very closely related, and it is only because these sounds are important for distinguishing words with different meanings in English that speakers learn to differentiate between them. English has about 35 phonemes. There are also many sound distinctions that are phonemic in other languages but not in English. Consequently, native English speakers have a hard time recognizing these distinctions. For example, native English speakers have difficulty hearing the difference between the [ph] in pin and the [p] in spin—a distinction that is phonemic in Hindi, spoken in India. Answer: Most linguists view BEV as a dialect of American English (not a separate language). In fact, BEV is a complex linguistic system with its own phonology and syntax. Although there are clear phonological and grammatical differences between BEV and SE, it must be stressed that SE is not superior to BEV as a linguistic system. However, SE is the prestige dialect—the one used in the mass media, in writing, and in most public and professional contexts—and therefore has the most "symbolic capital." Answer: Historical linguistics studies the evolution of languages. Linguists have shown that Romance languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian are derived from Latin. Likewise they have shown that English, German, and Dutch are daughter languages of a protolanguage referred to as proto-Germanic. Because all of these languages are derived from the same parent language, linguists say they belong to the Germanic language family. |