1. Chapter 7-Verbal The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Cultural Variations in Language
Discourse: Language and Power
Moving Between Languages
Language and Identity
Language Politics and Policies
Language and Globalization

2. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Language Versus Discourse
1. La langue (language) - the entire language system, including various forms such as pidgin and creole.
2. La parole (discourse) - how language is actively used by particular communities of people, in particular contexts, for particular purposes.

3. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Components of Language
Semantics
Syntactics
Phonology
Morphology
Pragmatics
Phonetics
International Phonetic Alphabet

4. Definition of Verbal Codes
Morphology: The meaning units
Syntactics: The relationship of words to one another (arrangement)
Pragmatics: The effect of language on perceptions and behaviors

5. Definition of Verbal Codes
Verbal Codes: a set of rules about the use of words
Semantics: The study of the meaning of words
Phonology: The sound units of language

6. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Language and Meaning: What language issues are universal?
The power of language
Systems of difference influence how we classify the world.
Expressions may not communicate the same meanings in different cultures.

7. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Language and Meaning: What language issues are universal?
Osgood’s semantic differential:
- Evaluative dimension
- Potency dimension
- Activity dimension

8. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically
Language and Perception:
The nominalist position: Perception is not shaped by the particular language we speak.
The relativist position (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis): The particular language we speak determines our thinking and perception of reality.
The qualified relativist position: Language is a tool rather than a mirror of perception.

9. Cultural Variations in Language
Communication Style (verbal and nonverbal):
Tonal coloring or the metamessage contextualizes how listeners accept and interpret verbal messages.
Some cultural groups prefer high-context communication over low-context communication styles.

10. Cultural Variations in Language
Other Dimensions of Communication Style:
Direct/Indirect
Elaborate/Exact/Succinct
People communicate differently in different speech communities and contexts.

11. Discourse: Language and Power
Co-cultural communication
Language in use depends on social relations as well as contexts.
Orbe: Groups with the most power consciously or unconsciously develop communication systems that support their perceptions of the world, in which groups without power must also function.

12. Discourse: Language and Power
Orbe’s Co-cultural communication strategies:
Nonassertive separation
Nonassertive accommodation
Nonassertive assimilation
Assertive separation
Assertive accommodation
Assertive assimilation
Aggressive separation
Aggressive accommodation
Aggressive assimilation

13. Discourse: Language and Power
Semiotics - how different discursive units communicate meaning
Semiosis is the process of producing meaning.
Meaning is constructed through the interpretation of signs.
Signifiers are culturally constructed, arbitrary words or symbols we use to refer to something else, the signified.

14. Discourse: Language and Power
Discourse and Social Structure: Societies are structured so that individuals occupy specific social positions.
Power and labels: The use of labels, as signifiers, acknowledges particular aspects of our social identity.

15. Moving Between Languages
Multilingualism
- A bilingual person speaks two languages.
- People who speak more than two languages are multilingual.
- Interlanguage is a kind of communication that emerges when speakers of one language are speaking in another language.

16. Moving Between Languages
Translation and Interpretation
- Translation refers to the process of producing a written text (the target text) that refers to something said or written in another language (the source text).
- Interpretation refers to the process of verbally expressing what is said or written in another language.

17. Moving Between Languages
Translation and Interpretation (cont.)
- Languages differ in their flexibility of expression for different topics, which makes accuracy in translation, or equivalency, even more difficult.

18. Language and Identity
Code switching refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or accents.
- to accommodate other speakers
- to avoid accommodating others
- to express another aspect of their cultural identity
Code switching can take on important political meaning.

19. Language Politics and Policies
Language policies are laws or customs that determine which language is spoken where and when.
They are embedded in the politics of class, culture, ethnicity, and economics--not language quality.

20. Language and Globalization
Rapid changes are occurring in the languages spoken and learned in the world.
The dream of a common international language or lingua franca has long marked Western ways of thinking.
Today, the dominance of English raises important issues for intercultural communication.

21. E. Meanings are Context- Based
III. Message Characteristics
A. Messages are Packaged = to create a unified meaning

22. Messages are Rule-Governed
C. Vary in Abstraction
D. Vary in Directness