INVESTIGATING LANGUAGE CENTRAL PROBLEMS in LINGUISTICS 'A Most Readable Guide to the Questions, Data and Theories of Contemporary Linguistics/Charles W
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INVESTIGATING LANGUAGE CENTRAL PROBLEMS IN LINGUISTICS 'A most readable guide to the questions, data and theories of contemporary linguistics/Charles W. Kreidler, Georgetown University 'The competing paradigms for investigating language are introduced with great skill and without unnecessary technical details or ¡argon. I enjoyed readingBraj it/ B. Kachru, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign This book is intended for anyone with a serious interest in language, but particularly for students taking introductory courses in language and linguistics. It is not a catalogue of facts and theories but a book about ideas and issues. Rather than summarize the range o f research being conducted in linguistics today, it explores a number of the fundamental questions which concern linguists, setting out w hat the key issues are in trying to find suitable answers. Although the issues are discussed within the framework of modern linguistics, they are treated in a way that is as accessible as possible. The book includes a glossary of technical terms and a chapter outlining the way language is described in generative grammar. Ronald Wardhaugh The author is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. Also by Ronald Wardhaugh Introduction to SociolinguisticsSecond Edition Languages in Competition How Conversation Works Cover illustration: Vincent Van Gogh,The Dance Hall, Arles, December 1 888, F547JH1 652, canvas, 65 x 81 cms, Paris, Musée d'Orsay; photograph: Réunions des musées nationaux, Paris. Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates. ISBN D-b31-lâ7SM-S 9780631187547 BLACKWELL 187547 Oxford UK &• Cambridge USA K p < j A u ^ i Investigating Language uU.s.y. öooüöHOi* l a t e....... ^tö'ceíóí No .JL2L... -Ju rebase p nce ..Li.... [o -g- I THE LANGUAGE LIBRARY Edited byDavid Crystal Children’s First School Books Carolyn D. Baker £ 5 Peter Freebody Children’s Writing and Reading Katharine Perera Investigating Clichés and Coinages Walter Redfem A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (third edition) Jf. A. Cuddon A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics Language (third edition) David Crystal How Conversation Works y. Ronald Wardhaugh Jargon Walter Nash Language Crimes Roger W. Shuy Central Problems in Language, Society and Identity ................... John Edwards Languages in Competition Ronald Wardhaugh Oral Cultures Past and Present Viv Edwards and Thomas J. Sienkewicz Linguistics Rhetoric: The Wit of Persuasion Walter Nash Seeing Through Language Ronald Carter and Walter Nash Shakespeare’s English W. F. Bolton Swearing Geoffrey Hughes Words in Time Geoffrey Hughes The Writing Systems of the World Florian Coulmas Ronald Wardhaugh IB BLACKWELL Oxford UK & Cambridge USA Copyright© Ronald Wardhaugh 1993 The right of Ronald W ardhaugh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 1993 Reprinted 1993, 1994 Contents Blackwell Publishers 108 Cowley Road Oxford 0X4 1JF UK 238 Main Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no Preface vii part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any 1 How might we talk about‘talk’? 1 means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. 1.1 Some traditional views 1 1.2 A more promising approach 7 Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way 1.3 A variety of possibilities 12 of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or 1.4 Still wider considerations 18 otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior 1.5 Further issues 27 consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent 2 Do only humans talk? 34 purchaser. 2.1 Mainly of birds and bees 36 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 2.2 Talking apes? 42 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from 2.3 The ‘language’ issue 56 the British Library. 2.4 The‘continuity’ issue 61 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 3 Are we ‘wired’ for language? 67 Wardhaugh, Ronald. Investigating language: central problems in linguistics / 3.1 Are mouths and ears important? 69 Ronald Wardhaugh. 3.2 The puzzle of the brain 82 p. cm.—(The Language library) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-18753-7. — ISBN 0-631-18754-5 (pbk.) 4 Does the mind matter? 94 1. Language and languages 2. Linguistics. I. Title. 4.1 ‘Behaviour’and‘mind’ 94 II. Series. P106.W315 1993 4.2 Taking in what we hear 98 410-dc20 92-38739 4.3 Memories are made of what? 107 CIP 4.4 Getting our words out 115 Typeset in 11 on 12’/2pt Sabon 4.5 Some general issues 118 by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd, Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by T.J. Press Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall 5 Why do languages vary so? 130 This book is printed on acid-free paper 5.1 Speaking a language differently 133 VI Contents 5.2 Relating different languages 145 5.3 Other types of variation 157 5.4 Is variety useful? 166 Preface 6 Of w hat use is language? 168 6 .1 Language as action 170 6.2 Language in action 179 6.3 The functions of language 190 6.4 Can language use us? 197 208 7 How do we ‘learn’ a language? There currently exist several quite adequate introductory linguis 210 7.1 ‘Facts’ to be explained tics texts. These provide beginning students with a basic knowl 7.2 What does ‘learning theory’ tell us? 216 edge of many of the technical concepts of modern linguistics. 7.3 Is the ‘mind’ in control? 223 However, they tend to say very little about how many of the 7.4 Is language ability ‘innate’? 232 issues with which they deal are problematic in some sense, i.e., 7.5 What we do ‘learn’ 239 why linguists actually have the concerns they do have. This book is an attempt to show some of these concerns by relating the kind 250 8 Describing language of interests that linguists have to questions that we ask about language. The book, therefore, can serve as a kind of supplement Glossary of language terms 264 to the aforementioned texts. Or it can stand entirely on its own 273 Further reading for those who are familiar with basic linguistic concepts but seek 275 References to relate these to broader issues. For those who know little 288 Index linguistics at all or who do not seek to learn much about the tech nical aspects of the discipline, the book can serve as some kind of guide to how linguists look at various interesting language issues. I have tried to keep the writing simple and have sought to avoid jargon wherever possible in an attempt to be user-friendly. The text also uses quotes around words as an attention-getting device in order to make readers aware that I am using the words in the quotes in ‘special’ ways. I have also deliberately sought to cover linguistic thinking broadly rather than narrowly, in the belief that such a view best does justice to any really worthwhile attempt to consider how we might go about investigating language. In the belief too that students and readers learn best by doing and thinking, I have concluded each section of the book with a number of suggestions for ‘further investigation’. Necessarily these suggestions vary in purpose and scope. However, they should provide an instructor with material that is immediately viii Preface usable as well as suggestions of kinds of activities that students 1 might find to be interesting and profitable. The independent reader can use the same suggestions to find out more about particular issues and topics. A section at the back of the book How might we talk (p. 273) indicates easily accessible books that are suitable for further reading on topics in the chapter. A glossary of language terms will also be found at the end of the book (p. 264). All users about should find the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Crystal, 1987) and theInternational Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Bright, 1992) to be extremely useful sources of further information about language in general, various languages in particular and linguistics Language study can be a fascinating activity. We all learn how to as an intellectual discipline. use at least one language and, in that learning, often acquire a lot of information about it and about language in general. We find ourselves asking questions about language and we either work out the answers to these for ourselves or others give us various answers. We also hear other people ask questions that we would never think to ask, or answer the questions we ask in ways that may seem to be quite inappropriate. Nor can we always agree with others about what are the really interesting questions we should be asking, and, even on those occasions when we do man age to reach some consensus on this issue, we are still likely to come up with rather different answers. What I will try to do in the chapters that follow is look at some of the questions that people have asked about language and some of the answers that have been proposed to them. However, before beginning, we should address the issue of what ‘language’ itself is. What is its ‘essence’, as it were? There is good reason to believe that only if we can find a satisfactory answer to that question can we proceed to find answers to other questions that might also interest us, e.g.