Assignment
:
1
Subject
:
Sociolinguistic ( 5656 )
Programme
:
TEFL Diploma
Semester
:
Spring - 2014
Submitted By
:
Syed Asim Raza
Roll Number
:
AY543408
Registration # :
14PVI01252
Submitted To :
Sir Shoukat
Q.2 Write short notes on the given topics. The notes must include relevant examples.
i. ii. iii. iv.
Distinguish between standard language and dialect. Distinguish between dialect and idiolect. Distinguish between pidgin and Creole What is an isogloss?
Difference between Language and a Dialect Dialect
The term dialect comes from a Greek word „dialektos‟ which is used in two different ways.One usage refers to variety of a language that is characteristics of a particular group of speakers, the other usage refers to a language socially to a regional or national standard language. Take the case of Urdu, for example. The Urdu spoken by an ordinary Pakistani person living in Karachi will be different from that of a person living in Peshawar. There will be variety of language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and the influence of the regional languages will be apparent. These difference lead to a variety within a national language, and this is called dialect One reason variation occurs is because of geographical proximity. For example, a people settled on two banks of a large river. Prior to their settlement, they spoke the same dialect of the same language. However, many years later, since they failed to cross over to interact with each other, their language experienced independent growth on both banks of the river and ultimately formed two different dialects [of the same language]. When the people finally crossed over to interact fo r the first time, they noticed that they understood most of each other's speech. Another way a dialect can be formed is by external influence. For example, a people (who speak a singular dialect of the same language) settled in a valley and were bordered by another people (who speak a totally different language) to their north. Those people who bordered these strange people began interacting with them, while their counterparts to the south didn't. Over a series of years, the northern half of the people started speaking differently from the southerners (although they still spoke the same language). The southern people then realized that they could only understand bits of the speech of their northern counterparts. This signals the development of a new dialect within their language.
Standard Lanuage A standard language is a language diversity used by a group of people in their conversation. A language is a well developed form of communication that is shared by members of a particular group, whereas a dialect is a form of variation that occurs within that language based on several reasons. Typical characteristics of a standard language include several of the following:
An authoritative dictionary which records the vocabulary of the language (Cambridge or Oxford English Dictionary
An authoritative grammar which records the forms, rules and structures of the langua ge
A recognized standard of pronunciation;
Mention of the language in legal documents (for example the constitution of a countr y);
The use of the language throughout public life (for example in a country‟s parliament) and its formal instruction in schools; A body of literary texts; Formal instruction of and research into the language and its literature in institutions of higher education; An institution promoting the use of the language and its formal instruction in educational institutions abroad. Translations of key religious texts such as the Bible or the Koran.
Idiolect comes from two Greek words, “idio”, which means p ersonal and “lect” Idiolect: which means language. It is essentially your personal language. Imagine you were to write a dictionary of all the words you use, then that would be your idiolect. The greatest influence on your language is your immediate family, and the people you spend time with. For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence, essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user, the idiolect is a way of referring to this specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, idiolect is more like a dialect with a speech community of one individual Multiple Idiolects
"Almost all speakers make use of several idiolects, depending on the circumstances of communication. For example, when family members talk to each other, their speech habits typically differ from those any one of them would use in, say, an interview with a prospective employer. The concept of idiolect refers to a very specific phenomenon--the speech variety, or linguistic system, used by a particular individual. All those idiolects that have enough in common to appear at least superficially alike belong to a dialect. The term dialect , then, is an abstraction." Pidgin
Traditionally, a pidgin is a language that arises in a new contact situation involving more than two linguistic groups; the groups have no shared language that is, no single language is widely known among the groups in contact and they need to communicate regularly, but for limited purposes, such as trade. For some combination of social, economic, and political reasons, they do not learn each other's languages, but instead develop a pidgin, with vocabulary drawn typically (though not always) from one of the languages in contact. The new pidgin's grammar doesn't come from any one language; instead, it is a kind of cross-language compromise of the grammars of the languages in contact, with more or less (usually more) influence from universals of
second-language learning: in particular, ease of learning helps to determine the linguistic structure of a pidgin. The process by which a pidgin is created is \negotiation" Pidgin carries several implications. One is that a pidgin is nobody's native language: pidgins are always spoken as second languages (or third, or fourth, or...) and are t ypically used for limited purposes of intergroup communication. A second implication is that, thanks to their limited social functions, pidgins have less linguistic material than non-pidgin langu ages fewer words, limited grammatical and stylistic resources in syntax and discourse. In addition, for reasons that are probably connected mainly to ease of learning, Creole
A creole has a jargon or a pidgin in its ancestry; it is spoken natively by an entire speech community, often one whose ancestors were displaced geographically so that their ties with their original language and socio-cultural identity were partly broken. Such social conditions were often the result of slavery. For example, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Africans of diverse ethno-linguistic groups were brought by Europeans to colonies in the New World to work together on sugar plantations. For the first generation of slaves in such a setting, the conditions were often those that produce a pidgin. Normally the Africans had no language in common except what they could learn of the Europeans‟ language, and access to this was usually very restricted because of the social conditions of slavery. The children born in the New World were usually exposed more to this pidgin – and found it more useful – than their parents‟ native languages. Since the pidgin was a foreign language for the parents, they probably spoke it less fluently; moreover, they had a more limited vocabulary and were more restricted in their syntactic alternatives. Furthermore, each speaker‟s mother tongue influenced his or her use of the pidgin in different ways, so there was probably massive linguistic variation while the new speech community was being established. Although it appears that the children were given highly variable and possibly chaotic and incomplete linguistic input, they were somehow able to organize it into the creole that was their native language, an ability which may be an innate characteristic of our species. This process of creolization or nativization (in which a pidgin acquires native speakers) is still not completely understood, but it is thought to be the opposite of pidginization: a process of expansion rather than reduction (although a pidgin can be expanded without being nativized). For example, creoles have phono-logical rules (e.g. assimilation) not found in early pidgins. Creole speakers need a vocabulary to cover all aspects of their life, not just one domain like trade; where words were missing, they were provided by various means, such as innovative combinations (e.g. Jamaican Creole han-migl„palm‟ from English hand + middle ). For many linguists, the most fascinating aspect of this expansion and elaboration was the reorganization of the grammar, ranging from the creation of a coherent verbal system to complex phrase-level structures such as embedding.
Isogloss Isoglosses Boundaries between two regions which differ with respect to some linguistic feature are called isoglosses. The term isogloss literally means „same language‟ (iso + gloss). The term is used in two slightly different ways and is also represented graphically in two different ways. One way of displaying an isogloss is to draw a single line between two regions which are found to differ with respect to some linguistic feature. The single line separating the regions is the isogloss.
The alternative representation links by means of lines the locations of speakers who share the realisation of feature a with those who share feature b. The two lines form a heterogloss referring to those speakers who are at the interface between the two isoglosses. While the heterogloss is more precise at the interface, it is neutral with regard to any claim about those features (a and b). A single isogloss is in turn less precise about the interface, cutting through it arbitrarily. However, there are lots of cases in which both, isoglosses and heteroglosses make the same claim (compare gradual and abrupt transition). Patterns of isoglosses Certain patterns of isoglosses have recurred time and again in various surveys that have been carried out. Their recurrence is an interesting fact about dialect, but what is also striking is the pattern itself. One of those patterns shows up as a welter of isoglosses that criss-cross one another almost chaotically. A classic example for such a pattern displaying a wild variety of combinations of dialectal elements is the set o f isoglosses which separate Low German from High German and which runs east and west across Germany and Holland on a line just slightly north of Berlin. Bundles of isoglosses It is important to note that each isogloss plots a single linguistic feature. The significance of a dialect area increases as more and more isoglosses are found which separate an area from adjacent ones. The coincidence of a set of isoglosses is called a bundle, as for instance in the case of the isoglosses running throughout Germany. Perhaps the most striking example of a bundle of isoglosses was obtained by the French survey by Gilliéron and Edmont. Grading of isoglosses It seems clear that some isoglosses are of greater importance than others often depending on what particular feature they mark. With bundles it is almost the same. Structural categories of isoglosses In attempting to determine the linguistic significance of isoglosses, categorizing them according to the type o f linguistic feature they describe may be the first step followed by grading them according to their linguistic structure or empirical observations. The categories can be characterized as follows:
Lexical isoglosses describe contrasts in the words used by different speakers to ch aracterize the same object or action, like the use of the words Dutch cheese and cottage cheese. Pronunciation isoglosses include most of the examples discussed so far, referring to contrasting pronunciation. It seems appropriate to rank lexical differences as more supe rficial than pronunciation differences because the former are more likely to be subject to self-conscious control or change by speakers than the latter. In phonology, there are also two types of isoglosses. The first one is phonetic, involving contrasts in the phonetic output of two regions as the result of a more general or an additional phonological rule. Differences in phonemic inventories, on the other hand, involve phonemic isoglosses. Q.3 Discuss the importance of the term “bilingualism” and “multilingualism” in the field of Sociolinguistics. Write their definitions, differences, similarities and their importance with special reference to Pakistani society.
The traditional definition of bilingualism is something like “ the ability to use two languages freely and fluently with native speaker like proficiency. If we accept this rather stringent definition, many of us might be a little uncertain about our claims to bilingualism. There are
speakers, of course, who have this very enviable facility; there are Swiss nationals who can switch quite effortlessly between French and German, there are American who can do likewise between English and Spanish and, last but certainly not least, there are many Pakistani and Indians who are equally talented. Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness.
Multilingualism is a common and increasing phenomenon in present day society which can be studied from different perspectives. It is believed that there are two groups of societies / nations in the world: monolingual and bi/multilingual. Into the extended features are different varieties of multilingualism on topic such as bilingual and trilingual: bilingualism is the ability to speaks or write fluently in two languages, and in trilingualism the number of languages involved increases to three. People may become bilingual either by acquiring two languages at the same time in childhood or by learning a second language sometime after acquiring their first language. Bilingualism means an equal ability to communicate in two languages or bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages, but with the possibility of greater skills in one of them. A bilingual or trilingual can experience some periods of mixing the two or three languages and borrowing vocabulary to express ideas, sometimes within the same sentence. There are two kinds of multilingualism, additive bilingualism (which has positive effects) and occurs when a person acquires a new language learning it in the childhood without losing his mother tongue. The other one is called subtractive bilingualism (which has negative effects) and is when a person stops using his mother tongue replacing it by a new language. It occurs when, for example, a person lives in a cultural environment where his own language is minority. There is one kind of bilingualism which is called Social Bilingualism and it happens when most of the population of a community speaks two languages. Appel and Muysken divided it into three kinds: Monolinguals groups of different languages; Practically all the people speak two languages and when there are a monolingual group and other one which is bilingual and it is minority.
Receptive Bilingualism Receptive bilinguals are those who can understand a second language but they can‟t speak it. Receptive bilingualism may not be confused with the mutual intelligibility, which is the case of a Spanish native who can understand Portuguese, or vice versa, due to the lexical and grammatical similarities between both languages.
Cognitive processing
The cognitive processing is a collection of elements which made possible the fact of memorization, thinking, remembering or learning; especially in the three stages of the memory (sensory, short-term and long-term) at the time of linking concepts and keep information. The cognitive processing is approached to those aspects of learning which can facilitate or make difficult the learning and the memory. It is characterised by using strategies which attract attention to the learner in order to improve his in terest in studying.
How to approach Multilingualism? Sociopolitical and socio-cultural identity features might influence native language literacy. We will devote this part to an emphasis on the approach to bilingualism, that is to say, the models that learners can follow in order to reach bilingualism. These models are differenciated in terms on how, when and where to learn a foreign language. Our approach will be focused on the three following models: Sequential Bilingualism: In this model, learners receive literacy instruction in their native language until they acquire a certain literacy proficiency. Some researchers agree in the age of 3 as the one in which a child has basic communicative competence in his or her native language. Bilingualism is carried out after this. In other words, sequential bilingualism occurs when the child has exposure to the first language (L1) and later to a second language (L2). Simultaneous Bilingualism: Simultaneous bilingualism refers to the action of receiving language input from two different languages at the same time since a very early age or even since birth. The main difference between simultaneous and sequential bilingualism is that in the first case, the individual learns two language in the same environments so that he or she acquires one notion with two verbal expressions, while in the second case, the individual acquires the two language in different contexts (e.g. home and school), so the words of the two language belong to separate and independent systems. Coordinated Bilingualism: In this model, the aim is to spend equal time in separate instruction of the native language and of the community language. On the one hand, the native language instruction focuses on basic literacy. On the other hand, the community language instruction focuses on listening and speaking skills. Therefore, in coordinate model there is a language that dominates: the native language (L1). To sum up, multilingualism is the ability of speaking different languages; but it is not as simple as it seems. As we have seen before there are different kinds of multilingualism like bilingualism and trilingualism. Inside bilingualism we can find three approaches which are coordinate, simultaneous and sequential multilingualism, moreover we have seen the differences between additive and sequential bilingualism. There is a kind of bilingualism which is not very known which is social bilingualism. On the other hand, we have explained that there are different countries which use English as mother tongue and also the indigenous languages of those countries. And finally we have shown a map of Europe which its respective languages.
Q.4 Language does indeed involve sounds and meanings but it is also the study of the situation. Discuss the statement.
Language is central to social interaction in ev ery society, regardless of location and time p eriod. Language and social interaction have a reciprocal relationship: language shapes social interactions and social interactions shape language. Sociolinguistics is the study of the connection between language and society and the way people use language in different social situations. It asks the question, "How does language affect the social nature of human beings, and how does social interaction shape language?" It ranges greatly in depth and detail, from the study of dialects across a given region to the analysis of the way men and women speak to each other in certain situations. The basic premise of sociolinguistics is that language is variable and ever-changing. As a result, language is not uniform or constant. Rather, it is varied and inconsistent for both the individual user and within and among groups of speakers who use the same language. People adjust the way they talk to their social situation. An individual, for instance, will speak differently to a child than he or she will to their college professor. This socio-situational variation is sometimes called register and depends no only on the occasion and relationship between the participants, but also on the participants‟ region, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and gender. One way that sociolinguists study language is through dated written records. They examine both hand-written and printed documents to identify how language and society have interacted in the past. This is often referred to as historical sociolinguistics: the study of the relationship between changes in society and changes in language over time. For example, historical sociolinguists have studied the use and frequency of the pronoun thou in dated documents and found that its replacement with the word you is correlated with changes in class structure in 16th and 17th century England. Q.5 What do you understand by language variation? Is there any variation present in English language? If yes, then please mention the variation with examples.
Variation in language use among speakers or groups of speakers is a notable criterion or change that may occur in pronunciation (accent), word choice (lexicon), or even preferences for particular grammatical patterns. Variation is a principal concern in sociolinguistics. Studies of language variation and its correlation with sociological categories, such as William Labov's 1963 paper "The social motivation of a sound change," led to the foundation of sociolinguistics as a subfield of linguistics. Although contemporary sociolinguistics includes other topics, language variation and change remains an important issue at the heart of the field. In sociolinguistics, a general term for any distinctive form of a language or linguistic expression. Linguists commonly use language variety (or simply variety) as a cover term for any of the overlapping subcategories of a language, including dialect, idiolect, register, and social dialect. (See Examples and Observations, below.)
In The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), Tom McArthur identifies two broad types of variety : " (1) user-related varieties, associated with particular people and often place s, . . . (2) use-related varieties, associated with function, such as legal English (the language of courts, contracts, etc.) and literary English (the typical usage of literary texts, conversations, etc.).
Examples and Observations:
"A 'variety ' can be regarded as a 'dialect' for some purposes and a 'language' for others, and casual ambivalence about such matters is common worldwide. . . . "Language scholars have in recent decades used the term variety to label a subdivision within a language. Varieties may relate to a place or community (as with Indian English and two of its subvarieties, Anglo-Indian English and Gujarati English), to uses (as with legal English and advertising English), and to combinations of the two (as with British legal English and American advertising English). . . . "In recent years, variety has proved to be a fairly safe term, allowing language scholars to avoid being too specific about kinds of speech and usage on occasions when being specific is not necessary and/or when there is a risk of being charged with discrimination against a group by calling its usage 'a dialect.' The negative baggage that attaches to this term in English is greater than any occasional positive connotations it may have. . . . "Most importantly, however, the term dialect fails when discussing English as a world language. Although it has done sterling service in detailing, for example, regional variations in Old, Middle, and Modern English in Britain, and for regional varieties of English in the United States (notably Northern, Midland, and Southern), it is entirely inadequate in other situations, as for example two of the most vigorous US 'Englishes': African-American English (which has never neatly fitted the traditional dialect criterion of regionality) and the entity not quite covered by the term 'Spanglish': a hybrid of Spanish and English used by Spanish-speaking immigrants from Latin America in many parts of the country."
Language Judgments
"From a linguistic point of view, there is no basis for preferring the structure of one language variety over another. Judgments of 'illogical' and 'impure' are imported from outside the realm of language and represent attitudes to particular varieties or to forms of ex pression within particular varieties. Often they represent judgments of speaker groups rather than of speech itself." Language Varieties in the Classroom "The topic of language variety needs to be explored in classrooms with the same intensity and
focus as issues of class, race, culture and gender. In the same way as critically aware teachers tend to disdain school and classroom practices based on narrow class, racial, cultural, or gendered norms, the same teachers need to question policies and practices that privilege one language variety and its users ahead of other varieties and their users. At the same time, schools in local contexts still have to get on with the the job of teaching a language-based curriculum that uses some language variety as its main pedagogical vehicle."
Q.6 What are the social functions of language? In which ways code-switching between Urdu and English is fulfilling the social functions of language in Pakistan? Give examples (see Supplementary Reader, Chapter 5 for help).
No one can deny the important roles played by language in our daily lives. For this reason, we are going to mention some social function of language: language is not simply of communicating information about the weather and other subjects , but it is also a very important means of establishing and maintaining relationships with other people . Another important social function of language in conveying information about the person you are with for instance what sort of job they do and what social status they have . Without this information you will not be sure how to behave towards him. Of course, you can make intelligent guesses about the second from their clothes and other visual clues , but can hardly ask direct questions about their social background. What you can do is to engage them in conversation and the thing you are going to learn will be learnt not so much from what the other says as from how it is said . Thus , we can notice that there is a close relationship between language and society. Some of the other functions are : Social functions: Interacting with other people o Functions used when socializing Functions used in establishing and maintaining relationships o Functions involving barriers o Functions involving influencing people o o Functions involving feedback Functions involved in arguing o Functions involving avoiding trouble o Self-expressive functions o Functions involving expressing opinions Functions involving expressing emotions o Cognitive functions o Functions for managing conversations Code Switching
The practice of moving back and forth between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language. Also called code-mixing.
"Code-switching performs several functions (Zentella, 1985). 1. First, people may use code-switching to hide fluency or memory problems in the second language (but this accounts for about only 10 percent of code switches). 2. Second, code-switching is used to mark switching from informal situations (using native languages) to formal situations (using second language). 3. Third, code-switching is used to exert control, especially between parents and children. 4. Fourth, code-switching is used to align speakers with others in specific situations (e.g., defining oneself as a member of an ethnic group).
5. Code-switching also 'functions to announce specific identities, create ce rtain meanings, and facilitate particular interpersonal relationships' (Johnson, 2000, p. 184)." (William B. Gudykunst, Bridging Differences: Effective Intergroup Communication, 4th ed. Sage, 2004) We must realize that code switching is closely related to such factors as topic, situation, function and role. We will be looking into the social element of the code switching between Urdu and English. Following are the examples where it has been used. o
cooking koe nai seekhi...driving seekhne ka plan tha but me b intaha ki dheet hun tm unao??hwz ur api n any gud newz ??tmhe msgz nai miltay mob pe meray??? n nahi me bht bht bht bht zyada mind kr rahy hun tmhare msgz na krne.
yar is post pay comment karo.. ap nay jis post pay comment kiy hai vo display ni ho rahi Yar again .. vo post jis pay ap nay comment kiy thay vo notification aya hau but show ni ho rahi. The source of the above quoted examples is a social networking site. On the other hand we use code switching on daily basis when interact with others, and on various situations. So me of the examples are as under:o
Please „ Yar maira aik kaam kardo. Ham nay picnic pay jana tha lakin ab mood nahee hai. Tum logoun kee exams kee preparation kaisee ja rahee hai. Yar ajkal bohat bore ho raha hun, there is nothing to do , kia karoun. Sorry, Mai app ka kaam nahee kar saka. He said it was not his fault and who bilkul theek hai. Jo Africa say aye they were very worried
The above examples clearly indicate the code switching or mixing between Urdu and English. This is called stable and consistent borrowing. Q.7 What linguistics.
is
Sociolinguistics?
Explain
in
detail
its
continuum
as
a
subject
of
Sociolinguistic is essentially a study of language used in society. Certainly, language is a very significant and unique feature of the culture of any society since it gives clear indication as to how people behave. The relationship between a language and its users is both complicated and informative. Society shapes and colours language. A society is represented by its language. Language in various forms and uses is the prime concern of the sociolinguistics. They study society to get better view and understanding of the language- to be better informed about the diverse linguistic choices that speakers have to make.
Sociolinguists argue that language exists in context, dependent on the speaker who is using it and dependent on where it is being used and why. Speakers mark their personal history and identity in their speech as well as their sociocultural, economic and geographical coordinates in time and space. So taking a broad approach to the subject of sociolinguistics would mean to include in it everything: from considering 'who speaks', what language, to whom, and when and to what end, i.e. the social distribution of linguistic
items, to considering how a linguistic variable might relate to the formulation of a specific grammatical rule in a particular language or dialect and, finally, to the processes through which languages change. (Wardhaugh 1992) It is important to recognize that much of the interest in sociolinguistics has come from people who have a practical concern for language, rather than a desire simply to understand better how languages work. In particular it became possible in the US in the 1960s & 1970s to fund relatively large scale research projects connected with the speech of underprivileged groups, on the ground that the findings would make possible a more satisfactory educational policy.
Relationship between language and society
There is a variety of possible relationships between language and society.
a) Social structure may either influence and determine linguistic structure such as children speak differently from other children and, in turn, children speak differently from mature adults. Variety of language may also reflect regional, social or ethnic origin and possibly even gender of people. b) A second possible relationship is directly opposed to the first: linguistic structure and/or behaviour may either influence or determine social structure. (The Whorfian hypothesis - e.g. Bernstein claims that languages rather than speakers of these languages can be 'sexist'). c) There is another view which states that there is no relationship at all between linguistic structure and social structure and that each is independent of the other. And it is thought that linguistics differs from sociolinguistics in taking account only of the structure of language to the exclusion of the social contexts in which it is learnt and used.
d) The fourth one is that the influence is bi-directional: language and society may influence each other. This influence is considered to be dialectical in nature, i.e. that speech behaviour and social behaviour are in a state of constant interaction' and that 'material living conditions' are an important factor in the relationship (Dittmar 1976).
In fact, there are different ways that society can impinge on language which makes the field of sociolinguistic reference extremely broad. Studies of the various ways in which social structure and linguistic structure come together include personal, stylistic, social, sociocultural and sociological aspects. But sociolinguistics should not be viewed as a mechanical amalgamation of standard linguistics and standard sociology. Del Hymes has pointed out that „specific points of connection between language and society must be discovered‟ , and these must be related within theories that throw light on how linguistic and social structures interact. Or, as Gumperz (1971) has observed, sociolinguistics is an attempt to find correlations between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur. Social structure itself may be measured by reference to such factors as social class and educational background; we can then attempt to relate verbal behaviour and performance to these factors. The scope of sociolinguistic research is extremely broad. To sum up, we can say that linguistics, sociology and sociolinguistics are complementary. The teacher of any foreign language needs to have both a knowledge if the formal systems of that language (its grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation) and an understanding of the social norms that govern appropriate choices of such systems. Q.1 What is correct and what is not correct is ultimately a matter of what is accepted by the society and language is a matter of conventions within the society. Discuss in detail.
Philosophy of language is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality. For continental philosophers, however, the philosophy of language tends to be dealt with, not as a separate topic, but as a part of logic (see the section "Language and continental philosophy" below).
First and foremost, philosophers of language prioritize their inquiry on the nature of meaning. They seek to explain what it means to "mean" something. Topics in that vein include the nature of synonymy, the origins of meaning itself, and how any meaning can ever really be known. Another project under this heading of special interest to analytic philosophers of language is the investigation into the manner in which sentences are composed into a meaningful whole out of the meaning of its parts. Secondly, they seek to better understand what speakers and listeners do with language in communication, and how it is used socially. Specific interests may include the topics of language learning, language creation, and speech acts. Thirdly, they would like to know how language relates to the minds of both the speaker and the interpreter. Of specific interest is the grounds for successful translation of words into other words.
Finally, philosophers of language investigate how language and meaning relate to truth and the world. They tend to be less concerned with which sentences are actually true, and more with what kinds of meanings can be true or false. A truth-oriented philosopher of language mi ght wonder whether or not a meaningless sentence can be true or false, or whether or not sentences can express propositions about things that do not exist, rather than the way sentences are used. The subject matter of linguistics comprises all manifestations of human speech, whether that o f savages or civilized nations, or of archaic, classical or decadent periods. In each period the linguist must consider not only correct speech and flowery language, but all other forms of expression as well. And that is not all: since he is often unable to observe speech directly, he must consider written texts, for only through them can h e reach idioms that are remote in time or space. The scope of linguistics should be: a) to describe and trace the history of all observable languages, which amounts to tracing the history of families of languages and reconstructing as far as possible the mother language of e ach family; b) to determine the forces that are permanently and universally at work in all languages, and to deduce the general laws to which all specific historical phenomena can be reduced; and c) to delimit and define itself. References
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99023499.pdf http://www-personal.umich.edu/~thomason/temp/lgcont7.pdf http://www.gu.edu.pk/New/GUJR/PDF/Dec-2013/10Urdu%20and%20English%20%281%29.pdf https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=stratagies+to+analyse+data+qualitatively&ie=utf8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefoxa&channel=sb&gws_rd=cr&ei=0N15VM2zM4LYavDugYgP#rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&channel=sb&q=what+is+multilingualism http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com/learning.html
http://www.bilingualbaby.eu/methods/other-methods
http://www.neuropsicologiahoy.com/img/conferencia_adquisicion_bilingues.pdf
