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Linguistic Facts (and a Few Opinions) By Steve Hoenisch Last updated on Feb. 17, 2006 Copyright 1996-2006 www.Criticism.Com Table of Contents 1 A System of Systems 2 Languages in Contact 3 Language Change 4 Culture and Society 5 Education Policy 6 Phonology 7 History 8 Linguistic Development and Language Learning 9 Pragmatics and Discourse 10 Syntax 2 Languages in Contact"A trait that is only loosely connected and essentially
free-floating can be superseded very quickly," Kroeber says (as
quoted by Weinreich, p. 6).
"New hybrid languages, such as creoles and pidgins, have been
formed as a result of the modifications in languages that have
been in contact." -- Weinreich, 1968, p. 69.
"Invariably, in a borrowing situation the first foregin
elements to enter the borrowing languages are words." -- Thomason
and Kaufman, 1988, p. 37.
3 Language Change"The commonest form of markedness constraint is some
version of the claim that, at least in interanlly motivated
change, more marked structures will become less marked." --
Thomason and Kaufman, 1988, p. 22.
"Many linguistic changes are best seen as simplifications,
i.e., as changes from more marked to less marked in systematic
terms." -- Thomason and Kaufman, 1988, p. 23. (Though changes in
the opposite direction likewise occur, and so do changes in both
directions at once; see p. 25.) [HINT: Read "less marked" as meaning more widespread.]
4 Culture and Society"The more abstract the element, the more difficult the
transfer." -- Linton, asserting somewhat tentatively, quoted by
Weinreich, 1968, ff. 23, p. 35.
5 Education Policy
"It seems clear that knowledge of grammatical rules is an
essential component of the interactive competence that speakers
must have to interact and cooperate with others. Thus if we can
show that individuals interacting through linguistic signs are
effective in cooperating with others in the conduct of their
affairs, we have prima facie evidence for the existince of shared
grammatical structure. One need not as the nineteenth-century
normative grammarians did, and many modern educators continue to
do, attempt to judge an individual's basic linguistic ability in
reference to an a priori set of grammatical standards." --
Gumperz,
 Discourse Strategies, p. 19.
6 Phonology"Phonological rules of all sorts do diffuse from language
to language." -- Thomason and Kaufman, 1988, p. 16.
8 Linguistic Development and Language Learning"From 18 months to 4 years, the child learns the most
important rules of syntax." -- Labov, in Therapuetic
Discourse, p. 2.
9 Pragmatics and Discourse"There are at least half a dozen distinct and different
kinds of meaning component or implcation (or inference) that are
involved in the meaning of natural language utterances. The
distinctions are based on the fact that each of these kinds of
inference behaves differently in projection, i.e. in the ways in
which they are compounded when a complex sentence, whose parts
produced the inferences in question, is built up." S. Levinson
(1983: 13).
10 Syntax"The notion of "grammatical" cannot be identified with
"meaningful" or "significant" in any semantic sense. --Syntactic
Structures, p. 15.
"Any search for a semantically based definition of
"grammaticalness" will be futile." --SS, 15.
"I think we are forced to conclude that grammar is autonomous
and independent of meaning." --SS, 17.
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