Language
gradually transforms itself over the centuries and this usually has
a direct effect on attitudes towards language. Some people may disapprove of alterations (for instance,
the purist movement that pleaded the
search for purity in the XVIII century). However, it is and has always been normal for
speakers to have a range of different speech forms in their
repertoire, and to vary them according to the needs of the occasion.
When a social or regional variety, for example, is chosen as the
standard, there is a process of acceptance. It becomes a standard
functionally elaborated (used for administration, intellectual
fields, religion, etc.). The other varieties then do not get used
for these functions. At the medieval period there was
no standard variety. They all wrote in different 'dialects' or
varieties. Thus, once one variety becomes supravalued, the others become
infravalued. Sometimes the literacy uses one dialect and the oral
communication uses another variety, which is what happens nowadays
in many cases. Then, people become diglossic, with two languages or
two dialects used for different social functions.
[Aitchinson (2001), Language Change, CUP. /Labov
(2001), Principles of Linguistic Change, Blackwell]
Exercise I:
Rewriting statements
Exercise II: Listening comprehension
1,
2,
3,
4, 5
(YouTube)
Listening comprehension
1,
2,
3,
4,
5 (MP3)
Filling in the blanks
1,
2,
3,
4,
5
Transcription:
Let There Be Words,
Constant Change,
Mother Tongues,
Civilization To Colonization,
Life And Death
-
FIRST ASSIGNMENT
A 125/200-word summary of the main topics we have worked
in class (reading, listening, etc.).
-
Title: Language
and its main features.
-
Format: MsWord
/ pdf
-
Submission: Send
a Word or a pdf file to
montserrat.batllori@udg.edu
-
Deadline
/ due date: February
22nd.
-
Percentage of the
final mark: 5%
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