David Crystal, How Language Works



David Crystal, How Language Works

Student Reading Guide

Introducing language

Chap. 1 How what works?

Identify the following terms

semiotics

olfactory and gustatory modes

Be able to answer the following questions

Should facial movements and body language be considered as language, acc. to Crystal? Why or why not?

What is the relationship between linguistics and semiotics?

What are the three media of linguistic communication?

Chap. 2 How to treat body language

Identify the following terms

tactile communication

distance zones

eyebrow flash

productivity

duality of structure

displacement

Be able to answer the following questions

Facial gestures are a _______ mode of communication used principally to communicate ______.

How do Western and Arab societies differ in interpretaing a “thumbs up” gesture?

We do not call animal communication “language” because it lacks _______ and ______.

Chap. 3 How we use the edges of language

Identify the following terms

whistle language paralanguage Trappist braille

Be able to answer the following questions

Can you learn to “snore in English”, “sneeze in Spanish”, “cough in Chinese”? Why or why not?

What are “whistle languages”? Where are they used? Who uses them?

Give examples of “paralanguage”

Give examples of professions that use special sign languages. Give an example of the religiously motivated use of sign language.

Chap. 4 How we make speech sounds, phase 1

Identify the following terms

pulmonic air egressive air clicks

Be able to answer the following questions

Study Fig. 1 on page 19 and familiarize yourself with the names and positions of the human voocal organs

Language is possible because while speaking we can modify the ______ of the vocal tract

What are the three principal cavities that are used in language:

How does the human tongue differ from that of other primates and what effect does it have on language?

Primates: long, flat, thin tongues that are less mobile.

Be generally familiar with the dynamics of inhaling and exhaling. When we expand our chest to inhale, we in effect ______ air pressure in the lungs. Most speech sounds are maid using _______ air. When we speak we ______ the speed of inhaling and ______ the speed of exhaling.

The type of sound English speaker use when saying “giddyup” to a horse is referred to as a lateral ____.

Chap. 5 How we make speech sounds, phase 2

Identify the following terms

epiglottis

glottis

phonation

incisors

alveolar ridge

hard palate

oral cavity

nasal cavity

velum

uvula

apex

Be able to answer the following questions

Humans have _____vocal cords, which are located in the _____.

The higher pitch of female voices is produced by ________

The three major articulators in the vocal tract are _______

Which language is noted for its pharyngeal consonants?

Study Fig. 2 to learn the different parts of the tongue. Which part of the tongue is immediately in front of the blade? Which part of the tongue is immediately behind the blade?

The most flexible and most mobile of all articulators is the ______. How is the special importance of this articulator expressed in many languages?

Chap. 6 How we transmit sounds

Identify the following terms

oscillation

waveform

cycle

frequency

herz

sound pressure level

decibel (dB)

complex tones

formants

Be able to answer the following questions

What are the three “filters” through which air vibrations have to pass before we hear them as speech sounds?

What happens to air particles when sound waves pass through?

What is the difference between frequency and pitch.

What are formants, and what importance do they have in the recognition of sounds?

Chap. 7 How we hear speech sounds

Identify the following terms

auricle / pinna tympanic membrane auditory ossicles

oval window perilymph

Be able to answer the following questions

The following summarizes the sequence of events that transform air waves into electrical impulses on the brain. Sound waves enter the outer ear channeled by the ______ into the ______ canal. Inside the auditory canal is wax, which functions to _______.

The airwaves then cause vibration of the eardrum, which is technically referred to as the _________ membrane (View Fig. 6 on p. 40.) The eardrum, separates the _____ear from the _____ear.

The Eustachian tubes connect the middle ear to _____ and permit air to enter the middle ear. Via the Eustachian tubes, air pressure inside the ear is equalized to that outside the ear through the two acts of ______ and _____.

The mechanical vibrations of the eardrums are transferred, in the middle ear, to three tiny bones referred to as the _______________. The innermost of these bones is lodged in the _________, which separates the middle ear from the inner ear.

Inside the inner ear there are semi-circular canals, which control our sense of _____. These canals are referred to on Fig. 6 as the _____________. In the inner ear there is also a coiled cavity referred to as the ___________. Its function is to convert the mechanical vibrations of the middle ear into _________ that lead to the brain.

The coiled cavity is filled with two liquids known as ____ and ______. Mechanical pressure from these fluids touches the organ of ______, which contains hair cells that convert the mechanical impulses into __________ that reach the brain.

perilymph / endolymph. Corti. Electrochemical charges.

Chap. 8 How we perceive speech

Identify the following terms

acuity cocktail party phenomenon

Be able to answer the following questions

“b” and “p” are pronounced in the same part of the mouth. What do speakers hear that allow them to distinguish between the two sounds.

One experiment used the sentence four times “It was found that the *eel was on the….” Each time a different word came after “on the….”. The asterisk was a cough. Listeners spontaneously put in the missing consonant without knowing that they were doing so. What determined which consonant they would put in? What does that experiment illustrate?

“Motor theory” and “template matching” are both attempts to explain how we ______. The two major competing theories in this matter are __________ vs. ________.

Chap. 9 How we describe speech sounds

Identify the following terms

phonetics

articulation

voiced / voiceless

oral / nasal

place of articulation

anticipatory coarticulation

preservative coarticulation

IPA

Be able to answer the following questions

To produce nasal consonants or vowels you have to lower the _____

The rounding of the “s” in the word “soup” is an example of _______ coarticulation. In the word “stopped”, the final “d” is pronounced like a “t”, losing its voicing because of the preceding “p”. This is an example of _____ coarticulation

In the IPA consonant chart in Fig. 7, p. 54, as we move from the farthest column on the left to the farthest column on the right, we are moving linguistically from ________ to _______.

What is the major difference between consonants and vowels from a phonetic point of

From a _______ point of viewthe sounds “r” and “w” are vowels. From a ______ point of view they are consonants.

Chap. 10 How we describe consonants and vowels

Be able to answer the following questions

List the four universal criteria we use when describing consonants of any language. (This appplies only to “pulmonic egressive” sounds -- produced by air coming out of the lungs – which accounts for most consonants in all languages.)

Know what is meant by active and passive articulators.

Certain places of articulation are not used, or are rare, in English: retroflex, palatal, uvular, pharyngeal. Give a language that uses each of these.

Each place of articulation of consonants can have several manners of articulation. Learn the meaning of plosive nasal, affricate, lateral, fricative, trill, flap

Why are vowels harder to describe scientifically than consonants?

In describing vowels, the terms front, center, and back refer to ______. The terms high, mid, and low refer to _____.

Chap. 11 How we organize the sounds of speech

Identify the following terms

phonetics phonology phoneme allophone

distinctive features

Be able to answer the following questions

Languages differ in the number of sounds that they use. In what world region do we find the language with fewest sounds? The language with the most sounds?

The difference between two sounds will be relevant phonologically only if a switch from one to another produces a change in the ________ of a word.

In linguistic transcription, brackets around a letter indicate that the sound is being transcribd as a _________. Forward slashes indicate that the sound is being transcribed as _________.

Syllables are combinations of ______ and ______. Give a one syllable English word with the structure CCVCCCC.

Chap. 12 How we use tone of voice

Identify the following terms

suprasegmental

prosodic

intonation

stress

tempo

rhythm

tone

`

Be able to answer the following questions

What are the four prosodic features that speakers modify to change their tone of voice.

What are the two most universal intonation patterns.

How are prosodic features represented in writing?

Two different intonations can be given to the sentence “She’s here, isn’t she…” What are the two intonations and what does each mean.

Be able to identify primary and secondary stress in words like photograph and photography. .

What does the Chinese word “ma” illustrate?

Chap. 13 How children learn speech sounds: the first year

Identify the following terms

feature detectors reflexive noises vegetative noises

Be able to answer the following questions

What experiments indicate that children’s auditory training may begin in the womb?

How does a mother’s response to infant burps or sneezes differ from response to head or hand movements? What does this suggest?

What are the average milestones (in months) for smiling, cooing, laughing, vocal play, babbling, pointing,

What are the two distinct types of babbling? Is babbling random or is it a “practice” for speech? What is the evidence?

Chap. 14 How children learn speech sounds: the later years

The text identifies five common modifications that children in the second year of life make when they try to pronounce consonants. On the basis of this, identify how children would pronounce: so, go, ski, cat, baloon.

What is the “fish phenomenon”

A child may pronounce “water” as “wawa”. What is this called? What may be the function or utility of this common practice?

What are the different intonations that a child may use in saying “dada” (Daddy)? What meaning is communicated by the different intonations?

Chap. 15 How speech can go wrong

Identify the following terms

whisper stutter

Be able to answer the following questions

Stuttering can be produced by physical or by socio-emotional causes. Give an example of each.

There are some language blockages in children that cannot be explained by anatomical defects or by emotional factors. What may be the cause in such cases?

Chap. 16 How we write

Identify the following terms

graphology

boustrophedon

chirography

paleography

epigraphy

diplomatics

calligraphy

dual alphabet

majuscule writing

uncial writing

cursive writing

graphologist

typography

Be able to answer the following questions

What is the first medium on which writing occurred mentioned in the book? What is the most recent?

What are the three “main eras of graphic expression”

On some ancient manuscripts the handwritten letters are faded. What technology can make them legible?

There were four ways utilized for making ancient inscriptions on hard materials such as stone. What were they?

What is calligraphy and in what two world regions is it most frequently practiced?

What type of alphabet became common in the time of Charlemagne that still persists today?

Who is credited with the invention of the printing press? Where did he live? In what century did it appear?

Chap. 17 How we make writing systems: early times

Identify the following terms

grapheme

allograph

phonological writing

pictograph

ideograph

cuneiform

logograph

Be able to answer the following questions

Besides the letters, what graphemes exist in English. How do we indicate that we are discussing a grapheme.

The spelling of the English word sign, pronounced /sayn/, is often decried as irrational by those who want to reform English spelling. Yet the relationship between the two words sign and signature is clearer in writing than in speaking. Why?

Where and when can we place the earliest examples of symbols that are clearly writing? What was the medium on which the writing was done?

What is the difference between a pictograph and an ideograph?

What is cuneiform? How did it evolve? When was it finally deciphered by Western scholars?

Egyptian hieroglyphs combine three types of symbols. Which are they?

Study fig. 10 on p. 110, which shows the evolution of hieroglyphs over time. What is the date of the earliest hieroglyphics? What is the name given to the latest and final form of hieroglyph? (It was used during the period of Greek rule over Egypt.)

Study fig. 11, p. 112, showing the evolution of cuneiform symbols, from pictorial representations of objects to later Assyrian stylized graphemes that have lost their pictorial function. Nonetheless the traces of graphic representation are still there. Examine the symbol for the verb “to go”. What is the pictorial representation? What physical manipulation of the picture occurred before it was stylized into the cuneiform grapheme? Can you still see the traces of the original picture in the stylized cuneiform grapheme?

How many logograms (also known as characters) do you have to learn to have basic literacy in modern Chinese? How many are taught in grammar school? We still have logograms in English. Give examples.

Chap. 18 How we make writing systems: modern times

Identify the following terms

syllabary diacritics netttiquette

Be able to answer the following questions

What is the difference between a syllabary and an alphabet?

Which language requires the smallest number of letters?

In what way is the Gaelic writing system compared to English and contrasted with Spanish?

How does Hebrew and Arabic writing differ from English in terms of the sounds represented?

The earliest known alphabet was the _______ which developed around _____ BCE in the region of _________. (Note: we are talking about full fledged alphabets, not earlier hybrid systems that had ideograms and syllabic graphemes.) Three alphabets developed from this. Which? The Greeks got this alphabet from the _______ and modified it by adding _____.

How does the writing of the English pronoun system differ from that of most other languages?

The text lists nine punctuation marks that have no meaning but that separate different parts of a sentence , and three that convey meaning. You should be generally familiar with these.

Sign Language

Chap. 25 How sign language works

Identify the following terms

iconicity of signs arbitrary signs sign space chereme

Be able to answer the following questions

How do the signs for “help” in American Sign Language and “push” in Chinese Sign Language illustrate the arbitrary nature of signs in sign language?

How do American Sign Language and British Sign Language further illustrate the arbitrary character of gestural signs?

What do raised eyebrows mean in ASL?

What are the three constitutent features of the chereme?

How is signing different from ordinary gesturing?

Chap. 26 How sign languages vary

Identify the following terms

ASL PGSS Amer-Ind dactylology cued speech

Be able to answer the following questions

The earliest century during which sign language was studied was the late ______ century. In which country? Which religion spearheaded the development of sign language? What was the possible source of the signs used?

About how many people use ASL?

Examine Fig. 14 which gives the American and British variants of finger spelling. What is the major difference between the two systems?

Chap. 27 How the brain handles language

Identify the following

gyri sulci lateralization handedness

Broca and Wernicke neurolinguistic models

Be able to answer the following questions

Study Fig. 15 on p. 172. Learn the different parts of the brain, their location, and their

Each hemisphere of the brain has _____ lobes, separated by _________.

Of the following, the dominance of the left or right hemisphere of a person’s brain is predictable most strongly from the person’s ________.

As a general rule, language is governed by the ______ cerebral hemisphere. Both hemispheres of the brain are usually involved in ______.

Though you may not be aware of it, the “s” in “soup” is pronounced differently from the “s” in “see”. The “s” in “soup”is pronounced with rounded lips. The “s” in “see” is pronounced with horizontally stretched lips. (Try saying the “s” in both words by itself to convince yourself.) This suggests that during speech the brain is ______. Which type of linguist does this phenomenon interest?

Studying “slips of the tongue” gives insight into ________ processes.

Chap. 28 How to investigate language structure

Identify the following terms

syntax morphology segmental phonology

Be able to answer the following questions

Too much occurs during speech to analyze everything at once. To assist researchers to focus in on specific phenomenon, linguists divide language into different _____.

Chap. 52 How languages die

Be able to answer the following questions

About how many languages exist in the world? How many may be dying out per year? On which continent is language occurring with the greatest rapidity? What has been the major cause of language death?

Identify Crystal’s three quasi-universal phases of language exinction.

Which two languages have been most successfully revitalized?

Which language has been the object of revitalization attempts in Japan?

There are two languages in England which died out, but which are the object of attempts to revive them. Which languages?

Chap. 54 How language began

Identify the following terms

bow-wow theory pooh-pooh theory becos glossogenetics

Be able to answer the following questions

Reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal track show that it is similar to the vocal tract of …….

The organs which humans use in speech were already present in pre-human primates, where they serve the major functions of _____ and _____. The fact that humans can choke on food that lodges in the larynx suggests strongly that ________.

Crystal suggests an association between the development of language and the development of _____.

Chap. 55 How language changes

Identify the following terms

comparative reconstruction

lexical diffusion

substratum theory

Be able to answer the following questions

The only languages that do not change are _______.

What is the difference between 19th and 20th century studies of language change?

What was a prevailing theological view of language change?

What is the substratum theory of linguistic change? What example is given of its application?

Give examples of overt prestige and covert prestige. Which group is likely to be influenced by each?.

How has the process of analogy influenced English verbs. What slowed the process down?

Chap. 56 How language families work

Identify the following terms

comparative method cognate isolating (analytic) languages

Be able to answer the following questions

The existence of a Proto-Indoeuropean language from which Latin, Greek, and other European languages all descended was posited by ________ in the ______ century. He drew this conclusion on the basis of his study of ______.

When doing historical reconstruction, if you place an asterisk in front of a word you are indicating that _____________.

Examine the Indo-European family chart (Fig. 19, p. 367). What is the name given to the hypothetical parent language? On which sub-branch is English located, and what other languages share that sub-branch? Farsi, the language of Iran, is also called “Persian”. The major language of Afthanistan is Pashto. On what sub-branch are those languages?

There are two types of linguistic classification. Name them. What is the basic criterion for grouping languages genetically?

What is an analytic language, and which language is the classical example?

Sometimes it is difficult to say whether two languages really come from a common ancestor. What causes confusion in this regard?

Chap. 57 How the Indo-European family is organized

Identify the following terms

Kurgans Cyrillic alphabet Goidelic koine

Be able to answer the following questions

Proto-Indo-European was probably spoken before _______ BCE.

We can assume the probable location of the proto Indo-Europeans because of words that refer to ________.

The Indo-European family has _____ branches.

The first Indo-Europeans to spread across Europe were the _______

The earliest extended Germanic text is ______.

The most widely spoken Germanic language is _____

Modern Greek derives from the form of Greek found in which ancient writing?

The oldest sacred text is the _______ written in ______.

Catalan is a ______ language spoken in _______. Occitan is a ______ language spoken in _______.

Which Indo-European language spread as far as Chinese territory?

Chap. 58 How other Eurasian families are organized – part one

Be able to answer the following questions

The Mongolians, now ruled by the People’s Republic of China, speak a language that belongs to the same family as Turkish. That family is the _______ family.

Which important modern language replaced its earlier Arabic alphabet with a western alphabet?

Where are Dravidian languages spoken? Which language is the most important of this group?

Hungarian (Magyar) does not fit into the language families surrounding it. It belongs to the same family as Finnish, in Scandinavia. The family is called the ______ family.

Chap. 59 How other Eurasian families are organized – part two

Identify the following terms

isolate kanji

Be able to answer the following questions

Vietnamese belongs to the ________ family.

How many people speak languages in the Sino-Tibetan family, the family of Chinese? How many major “dialects” does Chinese have? Crystal argues that they are not dialects, but different languages. Why?

Analyze the statistical breakdown of Chinese languages on page 389. Which is the most widely spoken of the Chinese languages, and approximately what percentage of Chinese speak that particular variant as their mother tongue?

How many people speak Japanese and Korean respectively? The classification of both of these languages is disputed. They may both belong to the ________ family, which is the same family as the ________ language spoken in Asia Minor.

Chap. 60 How the Indo-Pacific island families are organized

Be able to answer the following questions

The languages of Polynesia belong to the ________ family, which stretches as far westward as the island of M________, in the Indian Ocean.

The island with perhaps the greatest linguistic diversity in the world is ______

Can the languages of the Australian aborigines be related to languages spoken elsewhere?

What efforts are being made to preserve the few remaining languages of Australia?

Chap. 61 How African families are organized

About how many native African languages have been identified? What African language is used as the lingua franca in most of East Africa?

African languages are traditionally classified into (how many?)_____ families, the largest of which is _____. The most widely spoken language in this largest family is ______. The famous “click” languages of southern Africa belong to the ______ family.

The Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Arabic, are part of a larger family grouping referred to as the ______ family. The language of Judaism is _____. The spoken language of Jesus and the Apostles was probably _______. The language of Islam is ______.

The major language in Ethiopia is _______, which is a ________ language.

The language spoken by the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt evolved into _______. Though now extinct, it is still used as a religious language among _____

Chap. 62 How American families are organized

Compare the number of indigenous languages that were spoken in North America compared to Africa (see. chapter 61).

Eskimo is recognized as an offical language in _____.

One of the few Amerindian languages to have increased in speakers in recent time is

Quiche and Mam, spoken in Guatemala, belong to the ______ family.

The Kuna Indians off the coast of Northern Panama, known for their molas and other handicrafts, speak a language that belongs to the ______ family.

The two major languages of the Andes are _____ and _____.

The only indigenous language in South America which is spoken by a majority of people in the nation is _______ spoken in ________.

Chap. 69 How not to look after languages

Identify the following terms

prescriptivism

Be able to answer the following questions

Who does Crystal label as linguistic quacks?

What British authority advocated making it a crime to coin new words?

List three “rules” which people regularly break but which prescriptivists still try to enforce.

What was the controversy over the word potato?

Looking after language

Chap. 70 How to look after languages: recognizing principles

How do Europeans presumably react to the replacement of British English by American English?

_______ is inevitable and rarely predictable.

Crystal argues that schools should ______ a common linguistic standard and ________ linguistic diversity.

Crystal argues that we should view language change in the metaphor of a _____

In what sense are all languages “equal”?

What used to be believed about “primitive languages”?

Is there empirical evidence that language has evolved from simplicity to complexity like other aspects of human culture?

What criteria does Crystal propose for rating some languages as better than others?

.

Chap. 71 How to look after languages:: recognizing functions

Identify the following terms

referential function phatic communication ludic function

Be able to answer the following questions

The most widely recognized linguistic function is ____.

Give examples of other functions of language besides the communication of ideas.

How does a reference book, such as a manual on car repair, differ from ordinary daily communication?

What is the function of saying “Go, Gators” as a greeting to someone the day before a game?

What type of language functions best when there is ambiguity of meaning?

poetry.

Chap. 72 How to look after languages: recognizing varieties

Identify the following terms

Golden Bull Award Doublespeak Award

Be able to answer the following questions

In what domain is precision more important in English than in other languages? Why?

In what domain of human life are ancient texts of particular importance? How does Islam differ from Christianity with respect to translating sacred texts? Why does this difference exist? What special dilemmas does religious translation have?

What is the major form of “persuasive language” that inundates listeners.

Give examples of what the book labels as “abuse of linguistic power”.

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