basics of language basicsof language language learners FOR language learners basics of language “Peter W. Culicover and Elizabeth V. Learning a language involves so much more than Hume’s book Basics of Language for just rote memorization of rules. Basics of Language F O R language learners Language Learners is a must-read for for Language Learners systematically explores all language teachers as well as language the aspects of language central to second language learning: the sounds of language, the different learners. The accessible explanations grammatical structures, the social functions of and examples provide fodder for communication, and the psychology of language teacher-facilitated discussions related learning and use. Peter W. Culicover and Elizabeth to the Comparisons Standards in Pre-K V. Hume guide the reader through all the nuances through university world language that empower a person, regardless of age, to be F O R classrooms.” a much more effective, efficient, and proficient language learner. —Deborah W. Robinson, Ph.D., President, National Council of State Supervisors for Languages Unlike books specific to one single language,Basics of Language will help students of all languages. Readers will gain insight into the structure and use Peter W. Culicover is Humanities Distinguished of their own language and will therefore see more Professor of Linguistics at The Ohio State University, and Elizabeth V. Hume is professor clearly how the language they are learning differs and chair of the Department of Linguistics at from their first language. Language instructors will The Ohio State University. find the approach provocative, and the book will stimulate many new and effective ideas for teaching. Both a textbook and a reference work, Basics of Language will enhance the learning experience for anyone taking a foreign language course as well as the do-it-yourself learner. COVER DESIGN: Laurence J. Nozik AND Culicover COVER IMAGES: iStock Inc.; PhotoDisc, Inc. ISBN13 978-0-8142-5172-0 Hume The Ohio State University Press Columbus www.ohiostatepress.org ,!7IA8B4-cfbhca!:t;K;k;K;k Peter W. Culicover AND Elizabeth V. Hume Basics of Language for Language Learners 2ND EDITION Basics of Language for Language Learners 2ND EDITION Peter W. Culicover and Elizabeth V. Hume THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS / COLUMBUS Copyright © 2017 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Culicover, Peter W., author. | Hume, Elizabeth V., 1956– author. Title: Basics of language for language learners / Peter W. Culicover and Elizabeth V. Hume. Description: Second edition. | Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017015374 | ISBN 9780814254431 (pbk. ; alk. paper) | ISBN 0814254438 (pbk. ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages—Study and teaching. Classification: LCC P51 .C78 2017 | DDC 418.0071—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015374 Cover design by Laurence Nozik Text design by Jennifer Forsythe and Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Minion Pro The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi- als. ANSI Z39.48-1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments xi SECTION I TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING Chapter 1 Language Learning 3 Chapter 2 Brain Training 18 Chapter 3 Memory 28 Chapter 4 Using a Dictionary 36 SECTION II SOUNDING LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER Chapter 5 Foreign Accents 49 Chapter 6 How to Make a Consonant 60 Chapter 7 How to Make a Vowel 79 Chapter 8 Putting Sounds Together 90 Chapter 9 Common Pronunciation Errors 100 SECTION III THINKING LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER Chapter 10 The Role of Form in Language 115 Chapter 11 Talking about Things 128 Chapter 12 Describing Things 144 Chapter 13 Talking about Events 159 Chapter 14 Talking about Time 180 Chapter 15 The Work That Sentences Do 191 v vi CONTENTS SECTION IV ACTING LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER Chapter 16 The Link between Language and Culture 207 Chapter 17 Politeness 226 Chapter 18 Swearing, Insults, and Taboos 240 Chapter 19 Conclusion 248 Subject Index 251 Language Index 256 Consonants of Standard American English 258 The International Phonetic Alphabet 259 Preface Who This Book Is for e wrote this book for the student of language who wants to understand better how language works. We assume that the student is a speaker of Eng- lish, either a native speaker or someone who has learned English as a second language. The challenge for this student is to learn how to become a successful learner Wof other languages. Our view is that you (the student) have had some exposure to learning a language. You have found certain parts of the activity to be relatively easy, and others to be very challenging, perhaps almost impossible. Our goals are to help you take advantage of the parts that you find easy and build on them and to find ways to deal more effectively with the parts that you find more challenging. Language learning, like many other skilled activities that people engage in, does not come easy for the average person. Think of playing a sport at a very competitive level, or a musical instrument. Success in these activities, and in language learning, requires perseverance and practice for the average person (and that’s most of us!). The truth is that there is no silver bullet, no magic potion, no super pill that will get us where we want to go without exerting the effort. How Language Works “OK,” you say, “I understand that this is going to take work, I am willing to put in the effort.” The approach that we are taking in this book is that the effort will pay off much vii viii PREFACE more if you have an understanding of how language works. In learning a second lan- guage you have a tremendous advantage, which is that you have already learned at least one other language—your native language. You have an intuitive understanding of how language works, so that you will very likely recognize a lot about language if we illustrate it using your own language. But most people have a very imperfect and sometimes mistaken explicit understand- ing of how language works. That is, they are not able to recognize aspects of language on their own, such as what the possible sounds are and how they are produced, and explain them to themselves and others. What we are aiming for in this book is a basic, explicit understanding of how language works that is based on one’s own language and can be applied to thinking about the language to be learned. It is our belief that a conscious understanding of the workings of language is a very important tool in dealing with the challenge of learning another language. It does not substitute for perseverance and prac- tice, but it should help you to make the best use of the effort that you are willing to make. Here is one illustration. In order to be able to speak a language, you need to be able to make the sounds. You can try to imitate the sounds and get correction from an instruc- tor, you can hire a tutor, you can work with tapes and software, and you can even go live in a country where the language is spoken. All of this is helpful, and if you work at it long enough, you will get better. What this book contributes is an understanding of how the various parts of the mouth are used to make different sounds and how the sounds differ depending on how the parts of the mouth are used. It does not substitute for imitation and correction, for practice with tapes, and so on. Its goal is to provide you with a conscious understanding of what is going on in your mouth and in your mind as you are trying to produce the sounds of a language. We want you to understand why some sounds are easy for you and some are hard, what kinds of mistakes you make and why those, and how to fix them most efficiently. We have the same kinds of goals in your understanding of grammar, of how language is used in social settings and how language can be inadvertently misused. This book is not about theory; it is about practical understanding. Of course, there is a lot of theory behind what we have put in this book—we are not making it up. But your concern is not with understanding the theory of how language works; it is with understanding how language works. So, with this in mind, we keep the technical terminology to a minimum. We intro- duce terms for things so that we can refer to them—the first sound in boy is a bilabial stop (we’ll explain what that is soon), the word boy is a noun, and so on. Some of these terms are familiar to some readers, but not all are familiar to all. So check off what you already know, and pay close attention to what is new to you. Most importantly, the things that are most familiar to us in our own language reemerge in other languages in many different ways, some of which are familiar, and some of which are not. We are using the native language, and the terminology for main features of the native language, as a plat- form for looking at other languages that differ from it. Preface ix Just below we provide a more detailed overview of the four sections that make up this book: I: Tools and Strategies for Learning a Language II: Sounding like a Native Speaker III: Thinking like a Native Speaker IV: Acting like a Native Speaker Section I of the book, “Tools and Strategies for Learning a Language,” focuses on lan- guage learning and on learning more generally.