Articulate While Black

What do Language Varieties do?
EBONICS RANT

• IT SHAPES IDENTITY.
• not just a list of features that belong to a given race, rather, linguistic features can be employed by speakers as they shape their identities or more accurately engage in a process and projects of identification.
• IT IDENTIFIES RACE: project here is to "language race". It is an importnat aspect of "racializing" individuals 

What about Black language?

• any black person who is successful must be able to speak several different forms of the same language fluently (multi-dialectal)
• "blaccent"-John McWhorter (all the aspects of Black English that can be coded in speech)
• language remains relatively UNEXAMINED by scholars of race and ethnicity, it plays a crucial role in the construction of racial and ethnic identity.
• not seen as a site of cultural struggle, so it is not part of our public national discourse

How about Obama?

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 2008

• seen as a "good" speaker
• clear
• direct
• down to earth
• careful
• measured
• deliberate
• inspiring
• empowering
• motivating
• highly educated
• articulate
• handsome, nice looking
• speaks standard

• language entails all aspects of communication (these are very NUANCED for fluent speakers) Entails communicative and linguistic competence.
• vocabulary
• grammar
• prosody
• stylistic modes of expression
• linguistic play
• paralingusistic features
• knowledge of the culture (hip hop, etc)
• rules for style shifting 
• examples
• nah
• copula absence
• signifying (snappin, bustin, crackin, playin the dozens, dissn)- entail use of wit and humor
• shifting style closer to the person he is speaking to
• preacher style (pauses metaphors, rhythm and repetition, cadence, timing, signifying and storytelling)
• cites scripture
• offers the flock a choice between good and evil, right and wrong
• offers a way to perfect our character
• call and response
• referencing the black struggle

YES WE CAN, New Hampshire

• Courting the White audience
• speaks standard English-whites don't feel alienated by his language
• educated, calm and polite
• white mother
• WHITE SYNTAX
• CHRISTIAN (not Muslim)
• linguistic links between him and famously admired African Americans
• Funny (diffusses)

• Courting the Black audience
• familiar with black style
• black father (African)
• Member of Black Church, CHRISTIAN (Reverend Wright)
• BLACK STYLE
• sounds Black but not too Black (linguistic shame)
• linguistic links between him and famously admired African Americans

A MORE PERFECT UNION SPEECH

• ARTICULATE; While Black
• "racially coded" meaning
• linked with Standard English, Whiteness, and intelligence
• theory of "exceptionalism"-he's not like those other Blacks (lazy, dumb, criminal)
• The "New" racism (Yoshino), Racism 2.0
• The language of African Americans is intensely scrutinized-social monitoring, language policing in the public sphere (like Black Bodies)
• subtext of amazement and bewilderment when used by Whites about Blacks (assumption-inarticulate) 
• can cast them as "White" (good or bad)
• Intentionality is no longer a measure of racism
• praised for abiding by White linguistic norms
• evokes long standing tradition of Black language as "deficient"
• Linguistc hegemony is beneficial to linguistic minorities and linguistic homogenization is preferable to linguistic diversity

Linguistic Profiling

Language Change and Attrition

Language  Change, Attrition & Loss

-langauges are constantly changing as long as they are "living".

BLOOMFIELD: (traditional)

• you cannot directly observe change, only its consequences
• most variation is random and inconsequential
• aimed at DESCRIBING this change
• write INTERNAL HISTORIES of languages showing structural changes that have occurred over periods of time. (internal change)
• BORROWING: usually appears somewhat idiosyncratic (may retain FOREIGN marking) WHY? (external change)
• describe exotic objects
• scientific words
• variant "attitudes" about language (French versus English)

Newer views look at PROCESSES of change rather than descriptions:

• FAMILY TREE
• at some point in time varieties "split" (protoforms) and less frequently "coalese"
•  WAVE THEORY (Labov & Baily)
• changes flow into and interact with one another (fluidity of boundaries between languages)
• LEXICAL DIFFUSION (Baily)
• changes "diffuse" in language sometimes in idiosyncratic ways (sounds diffuse through lexicon (words))
• sounds spread this way through PRODUCTIVE words

PROCESSES OF CHANGE

• Change from Above & Change From Below (Labov)
• CHANGE FROM "BELOW"
• generalizations of form which filter through all levels of society; originating from a "restrictive subgroup" of a speech community.
• commonly a marker of regional status
• change away from the norms of the standard
• SOLIDARITY MARKER (indicates group membership)
• below the level of consciousness (social awareness)
• CHANGE FROM "ABOVE"
• Change becomes the marker defining a speech community and shows stylistic variation. High status people stigmatize certain forms and initiate change from above. 
• hyper-correction in SECOND GENERATION PHENOMENON
• become markers of ETHNICITY (we just talked about!!!)
• more dramatic changes in form and function than change from below
• at the level of conscious social awareness

Labov's 11 stages (example):

1. sound change occurs in a restricted sub-group
2. spreads to all members of the subgroup (change from below-unconscious)
3. hyper-correction in next generation exaggerates these differences
4. changes spread to other groups with similar values
5. changes limited by speech community
6. variation becomes the marker of the group and shows variation stylistically (elaborated on creatively)
7. members of the highest status group stigmatize changes
8. this initiates changes toward the highest prestige form (change from above)
9. hyper0-correction from above
10. chages disappear under extreme stigmatization
11. Prestige form solidifies status

Bailey's Lexical Diffusion (example)

1. each speaker controls a "lect"
2. the lects of various speakers are inter-related
3. researcher plots variation between the lects to see how langauge is changing
4. changes 'diffuse" through vocabulary in certain "fixed" patterns (sound changes)
5. "s-curve" describes these changes  (slow-fast-slow)
6. shows how a particular change spreads through a set of words in which a phonological feature undergoing change actually occurs.

WHAT CHANGES IN LANGUAGE? Every Level of Language

• SOUND CHANGES
• ASSIMILATION: when one sound is influenced by the pronunciation of a neighboring sound
• noctum-->notte
• sandwhich-->samwich
• usually motivated by EASE OF ARTICULATION
• DISSIMILATION: when sound moves away from the pronunciation of a neighboring sound
•  fifth-->fift
• reservoir--> resewar
• MERGER /COALESCENCE: mereging of two phonemes
• which--->witch
• reed-->read
• archaeology--->archeology
• SPLIT: one sound becomes two
• athlete--> athelete
• LOSS: a sound disappears from the language
• "great vowel shift in the history of English"
• HAPOLOGY: loss of a sound because of its similarity to a neighboring sound
• hoarse-->horse
• METATHESIS: two sounds change places
• ask---> aks
• spaghetti-->psghetti
• SYNCOPE:loss of medial sounds
• sewer-->sore
• crayon-->crown
• coral-->carl
• ACOPOPE: the loss of final sounds (very common)
• helpe-->help
• going-->goin'
• PROTHESIS: addition of initial sound
• schola-->eschuela
• EPENTHESI: introduction of an extra medial sound
• athlete--.athelete
• commercial-->commercianl
•  GRAMMATICAL CHANGE
• ANALOGY: irregular grammatical partners are changed in accordance with the regular patterns which already exist in the language (extends the patterns range)
• fish---->fishes
• water--->watwers
• deer-->deers
• shrimp--.shrimps
• BACK FORMATION:gives a new "base" form
• burglar (n)-->burgles (v)--> was burgled (adj)
• worker (n)-->work (n)---> work (v)-->working person (adj)
• FOLK ETYMOLOGY: false histories that make sense culturally based on similarity of sound. Etymology is the history of a word
• garter snake---->garden snake
• gamblind--->sandblind
• Alzheimer--->old timers
•  crevice--->crawfish/crayfish
• moscalini--->mussalini (gnats)
• scapegoat---> and escaped goat
• SEMANTIC CHANGE
• BORROWINGS:arrival of new words-remain marked, degree depends on how "accepting" the borrowing culture is. USA-very, France-not at all.
• transfer exactly (except for phonological accommodation)
• ballet, aupair, bon voayage, et cetera
• alter when transferred
• LOAN TRANSLATIONS/CALQUES: words may be borrowed whole but PARTS translated separately and new words are formed
• telephone--->fernsprecher (distant speaker)
• hunger grabs me (I'm hungry)
• ears hard (deaf/won't listen)
• types OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
• EXTENSION: a word widens its meaning
• freshman (all first year not just male or college)
• kleenex (all facial tissue)
• xerox (all copying)
• virtue (not just righteous male qualities)
• NARROWING:word becomes more specialized in its meaning
• liquor (liquid)
• deer (animal)
• token (symbol)
• mete (meat)
• animal (not human)
• SHIFT: moves from one SENSE to another
• immoral (customary)
• profane (mundane)
• silly/gay (happy)
• navigator (ship-car-plane-internet)
• artist (painter-actor-dancer-singer)
• FIGURATIVE USE;shift in meaning based on similarity of things
• crane (bird)--->machinery
• mouse (rodent)--->computer control
• bitch (female dog)--->nasty female, pain
• cool (temp)--->even headed
• bull (animal)---> strong
• AMELIORATION: word loses its original negative meaning
• bitch (AAVE)
• mischievous (disastrous)---> playful trouble
• PEJORATION: word develops a negative sense 
• notorious (widely known)
• villain (peasant)
• liberal
• feminist
• negro
• dick, cock, piss, fag, gay, ass...
• WORD LOSS:
• groovy
• far out 
  
• WORD ADDITION
• ACRONYMS
• SOBL
• NATO
• RSVP
• RADAR (radio detection & ranging)
• LASAR (light amplification through simulated emission of radiation)
• POSH (port out, starboard home)
• BLENDING; combination of of the parts of two or more words
• smog
• brunch
• hangry
• duplex
• CLIPPING: shorten words w/out paying attention to their derivational morphology
• exam
• dorm
• taxi/cab (taximeter cabriolet)
• gym
• COINAGE: creating words w/out using any method already described 
• name brands -Kodak, Exxon
• snob
• pooch
• FUNCTIONAL SHIFT: shift parts of speech without changing a word to create new words
• laugh, run, steal, buy----> (nouns)
• position, process, contrast----> (verbs)
• EPONYMY: names created from people
• Washington DC
• kaiser, czar (Ceasar)
• ohm (George Ohm)
• watt (James Watt)

LANGUAGE ATTRITION, DEATH & REVITALIZATION

• ATTRITION: 
• languages begins to lose its parts (all structural levels)
• languages begins to lose its uses (contexts for use0
• language begins to lose its speakers

• DEATH
• there are no longer any native speakers of a language
• language ceases to change

• REVITALIZATION:
• language is resurrected in whole or part
• recreation : Hebrew
• revitalized whole : Celtic, Welsh

WHAT is encoded in Language?...OR...WHO CARES IF WE LOSE IT?

Australian Aboriginal Language

·    Land as connected to language

·    Mti Ke

§  Ten noun classes through which all objects and beings in the world are classified(5)

§  Totems also define being: (WEB OF RELATIONSHIPS)

·         Nhanjdji marri (plant0

·         Mi marri (poisonous seeds which can be edible)

·         A marri: cockroach which lives on the plant

·         Me marri (people of this plant totem)

·    Damin & Other Secret or initiate languages (Hale)

§  Simple vocabulary requires you to evoke cultural knowledge and then display your proficiency in it

The Notion of Dreaming:

·    600 languages originally spoken in Australia

·    Intricate kinship

·    Attachment to land by ancestral beings through dreamtime (dawn of consciousness)

§  Dreamtime beings often lived in the form of animals

§  Animals acting like humans moved over featureless land and created its qualities. When they left the world they bequeathed these features to the people of their totem

§  Oral history in the form of stories NAME & EXPLAIN the landscape-patterns of wording and patterns of earth of inextricably tied together

§  Words come down from dreaming

§  SONGLINES: the routes that were taken in the dream time by ancestral beings. Through stories, decedents of these totems can follow these songlines.

§  Told in the same “words” (language) that the ancestor spirit uttered

Murrinh-Patha

·    Pronoun System

§  4 categories; (each has its own word for first person, second person and third person)---changes how we say “how are you?” for ex.

·    Singular

·    Dual

·    Paucal-3-15

·    Plural

§  Free-form or Infixed

·    Kinship & language

§  Distinguishes between kin groups

§  Designates exact relationship and other qualities which are important in a culture

·    Number of children

·    Gender of children

·    Age & wisdom

o   Teenagers: trapped between two worlds: neither is fully available to them

o   Transformation from h/g to sit down culture in one generation is too massive a transition to facilitate maintenance of their language (or culture)

How to survive?

• Tiwi & the tourist trade
• Two forms: traditional (elders-polsynthetic) and modern (simple inflectional & borrowed vocabulary)
• Is education the enemy or can it be used to assist language maintenance?
• English 3 seasons: Tiwi 13 lesser seasons that recognize intimacies about the environment for which English has no words

Kriol or Broken

• Derived from northern territory pidgin English
• Created by children who grew up hearing parents speak pidgin
• Pejorated from traditional and English spaeaking culture
• Has become the identity language of teenagers-assert black identity

Language & Racism

The Everyday Language of White Racism

·         How racism plays out in the everyday speech of white Americans.

·         racism is not a thing of the past but, rather, a current social and political fact.

·         white racism is inherent in U.S. culture and is found in and reproduced through the everyday language of white, middle-class Americans

·         most white people in the United States are disturbed by these matters and resist seeing themselves as racists.

·         Three key premises or assumptions are held by white common sense thinking on race.

o   First, folk theory holds races to be biologically valid. This assumption persists, even though biological anthropologists and geneticists long ago demonstrated that there is only one race, the human race. An example of how this nonscientific, white, common sense assumption persists is found in the argument that racial intermarriage will erase racial difference and conflict. In other words, the common sense assumption advances a genetic solution to a non-genetic, social construction.

§  Hill also cites numerous articles in news media that treat the scientific consensus as an “astonishing novelty,” as if the common sense assumption held scientific validity. Another way the erroneous biological view persists is in the “one drop rule,” enforced during Jim Crow that held that any trace of African ancestry made a person African-American. This “one drop” assumption can be seen in the way that Barack Obama was described as the “only black in the U.S. Senate” and the “first African-American” president even though he describes himself as a son of a white, Kansas mother and Kenyan father.

o   A second assumption of white folk theory holds that racism is entirely a matter of individual belief and that the ignorance of this individual view can be corrected by education. This view is commonly communicated in opinion pieces that rightfully desire an end to racism and decry the use of racial epithets. While Hill agrees the anti-racist intention is good, the proposed solution of educating individuals who are ignorant is completely inadequate to the task of addressing institutional and systemic racist practices.

§  A November 20, 2009, op-ed piece by a Louisiana State University senior in the New Orleans Times-Picayune is an example of Hill’s point. The op-ed, entitled “Tackling Bigotry at Ole Miss, LSU and Other SEC Schools,” rightly criticizes common racist talk and practices at SEC football games. However, like folk theory, the major assumption of the op-ed is that “it’s unfortunate for the individuals ignorant enough to believe such behavior is ok.” After all, “hopefully,” white racism is not “in the majority. ” Although the behavior widely persists in the institutional and societal context of SEC football games, the proposed solution is to educate individuals to overcome “intolerance,” ignoring the systemic breadth of the problem.

§  Critical race theorists do not deny that individual attitudes and beliefs figure in racism; rather, critical race theorists, like Hill, demonstrate how collective human interaction, including everyday language, produces and reproduces racial inequality. Hill’s analysis details the ways that well-intentioned whites still talk and behave in ways that advance systemic white advantage and disadvantage for people of color.

o   A third key assumption of white common sense or folk theory is that prejudice is part of the human condition, a view that is commonly described in the statement that “all people prefer to be with their own kind.” Critical race theorists demonstrate how whites use the premises of common sense knowledge to deny or distort the fact that societal resources, and benefits and burdens, are allocated so unequally. Hill points out that the distinctiveness of white social and political racism is “the magnitude of White power, and the enormity of [its] distortion.” 

Chapter 1

·         racism is embedded in American history, institutionalized in daily life, and therefore often invisible to white people

·         two theories of race and racism—

o   folk theory

o   critical theory

·         Hill’s analysis explains how racism persists in white “folk theory,” or “common sense” knowledge that takes things for granted as the way things are. folk theory of race erases what is really important, attends to the irrelevant, and creates traps and pitfalls in the face of intellectual contradiction.

Chapter 2

·         white, middle-class Americans form their own racist language ideologies portraying language minority populations as inferior and backward. These language ideologies, permeated with racism, are designed to camouflage racist discourses from white Americans

o   white virtue—the idea that whites are highest in a racialized hierarchy because of their biological, cultural, and moral qualities.

chapter 3,

·         racial slurs as well as a variety of interesting examples of slur usage and the involvement and reaction of some white people.

o   people are most likely to utter explicitly racist statements in their own voices when they are protected by anonymity” (p. 177).

o   the legal status of slurs based on the First Amendment, international law, and Critical Race theorists.

o   proscription of racial slurs needs to be effected.

Chapter 4

·         gaffes-racist slurs claimed to be unintentional by American society.

o   reproduce negative stereotypes and harm people of color.

·         social alexithymia-where whites reject the feelings of people of color who object to racist language.

chapter 5

·         covert racist discourses- forms of racism that, although invisible to whites, reproduce negative stereotypes and are perceived by people of color with hurt and frustration on many occasions.

o   Mock Spanish-how whites parody Spanish terms in their conversations in ways that convey inferiority.

o   examples found in television, newspaper articles, and artifacts such as illustrations of greeting cards and mugs.

chapter 6,

·         linguistic appropriation-how whites carry out this discourse,

o   terms appropriated from from African Americans, Native Americans, and Spanish speakers.

o   produces negative consequences for minority languages and their speakers.

chapter 7

·         current ills of racism in U.S. society, and realistic solutions to eradicate racism and create harmony among all citizens

Essay: Disney & The Reproduction of Culture (10/25)

After reading the Chapter linguistically analyzing Disney films by Lippi Green, choose one animated film and give a detailed analysis of the way that "subordinate groups" are represented. (List each group and describe the characters which represent them).

• Include all the "tools" which may be employed to create stereotypes, and reinforce the superior position of White, Christian, heteronormative values in your analysis. 
• Remember that many of these tools and techniques may be subtle, relying on a combination of verbal and nonverbal cues, while reinforcing shared values (good vs evil, kindness vs cruelty, etc.). 
• Finally, consider how the reinforcement of these stereotypes within these strongly held beliefs makes their presentation powerful in children's media.

NEW DUE DATE!

Essays should be written in expository form. 

The P Word

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/11/13241068/samantha-bee-trump-hot-mic-leaked-audio

TABOO WORDS AND THEIR POWER in interpreting meaning.

pussy
cock
dick
piss
ass
faggot
bitch
and.....

Language  Change, Attrition & Loss

-langauges are constantly changing as long as they are "living".

BLOOMFIELD: (traditional)

• you cannot directly observe change, only its consequences
• most variation is random and inconsequential
• aimed at DESCRIBING this change
• write INTERNAL HISTORIES of languages showing structural changes that have occurred over periods of time. (internal change)
• BORROWING: usually appears somewhat idiosyncratic (may retain FOREIGN marking) WHY? (external change)
• describe exotic objects
• scientific words
• variant "attitudes" about language (French versus English)

Newer views look at PROCESSES of change rather than descriptions:

• FAMILY TREE
• at some point in time varieties "split" (protoforms) and less frequently "coalese"
•  WAVE THEORY (Labov & Baily)
• changes flow into and interact with one another (fluidity of boundaries between languages)
• LEXICAL DIFFUSION (Baily)
• changes "diffuse" in language sometimes in idiosyncratic ways (sounds diffuse through lexicon (words))
• sounds spread this way through PRODUCTIVE words

PROCESSES OF CHANGE

• Change from Above & Change From Below (Labov)
• CHANGE FROM "BELOW"
• generalizations of form which filter through all levels of society; originating from a "restrictive subgroup" of a speech community.
• commonly a marker of regional status
• change away from the norms of the standard
• SOLIDARITY MARKER (indicates group membership)
• below the level of consciousness (social awareness)
• CHANGE FROM "ABOVE"
• Change becomes the marker defining a speech community and shows stylistic variation. High status people stigmatize certain forms and initiate change from above. 
• hyper-correction in SECOND GENERATION PHENOMENON
• become markers of ETHNICITY (we just talked about!!!)
• more dramatic changes in form and function than change from below
• at the level of conscious social awareness

Labov's 11 stages (example):

1. sound change occurs in a restricted sub-group
2. spreads to all members of the subgroup (change from below-unconscious)
3. hyper-correction in next generation exaggerates these differences
4. changes spread to other groups with similar values
5. changes limited by speech community
6. variation becomes the marker of the group and shows variation stylistically (elaborated on creatively)
7. members of the highest status group stigmatize changes
8. this initiates changes toward the highest prestige form (change from above)
9. hyper0-correction from above
10. chages disappear under extreme stigmatization
11. Prestige form solidifies status

Bailey's Lexical Diffusion (example)

1. each speaker controls a "lect"
2. the lects of various speakers are inter-related
3. researcher plots variation between the lects to see how langauge is changing
4. changes 'diffuse" through vocabulary in certain "fixed" patterns (sound changes)
5. "s-curve" describes these changes  (slow-fast-slow)
6. shows how a particular change spreads through a set of words in which a phonological feature undergoing change actually occurs.

WHAT CHANGES IN LANGUAGE? Every Level of Language

• SOUND CHANGES
• ASSIMILATION: when one sound is influenced by the pronunciation of a neighboring sound
• noctum-->notte
• sandwhich-->samwich
• usually motivated by EASE OF ARTICULATION
• DISSIMILATION: when sound moves away from the pronunciation of a neighboring sound
•  fifth-->fift
• reservoir--> resewar
• MERGER /COALESCENCE: mereging of two phonemes
• which--->witch
• reed-->read
• archaeology--->archeology
• SPLIT: one sound becomes two
• athlete--> athelete
• LOSS: a sound disappears from the language
• "great vowel shift in the history of English"
• HAPOLOGY: loss of a sound because of its similarity to a neighboring sound
• hoarse-->horse
• METATHESIS: two sounds change places
• ask---> aks
• spaghetti-->psghetti
• SYNCOPE:loss of medial sounds
• sewer-->sore
• crayon-->crown
• coral-->carl
• ACOPOPE: the loss of final sounds (very common)
• helpe-->help
• going-->goin'
• PROTHESIS: addition of initial sound
• schola-->eschuela
• EPENTHESI: introduction of an extra medial sound
• athlete--.athelete
• commercial-->commercianl
•  GRAMMATICAL CHANGE
• ANALOGY: irregular grammatical partners are changed in accordance with the regular patterns which already exist in the language (extends the patterns range)
• fish---->fishes
• water--->watwers
• deer-->deers
• shrimp--.shrimps
• BACK FORMATION:gives a new "base" form
• burglar (n)-->burgles (v)--> was burgled (adj)
• worker (n)-->work (n)---> work (v)-->working person (adj)
• FOLK ETYMOLOGY: false histories that make sense culturally based on similarity of sound. Etymology is the history of a word
• garter snake---->garden snake
• gamblind--->sandblind
• Alzheimer--->old timers
•  crevice--->crawfish/crayfish
• moscalini--->mussalini (gnats)
• scapegoat---> and escaped goat
• SEMANTIC CHANGE
• BORROWINGS:arrival of new words-remain marked, degree depends on how "accepting" the borrowing culture is. USA-very, France-not at all.
• transfer exactly (except for phonological accommodation)
• ballet, aupair, bon voayage, et cetera
• alter when transferred
• LOAN TRANSLATIONS/CALQUES: words may be borrowed whole but PARTS translated separately and new words are formed
• telephone--->fernsprecher (distant speaker)
• hunger grabs me (I'm hungry)
• ears hard (deaf/won't listen)
• types OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
• EXTENSION: a word widens its meaning
• freshman (all first year not just male or college)
• kleenex (all facial tissue)
• xerox (all copying)
• virtue (not just righteous male qualities)
• NARROWING:word becomes more specialized in its meaning
• liquor (liquid)
• deer (animal)
• token (symbol)
• mete (meat)
• animal (not human)
• SHIFT: moves from one SENSE to another
• immoral (customary)
• profane (mundane)
• silly/gay (happy)
• navigator (ship-car-plane-internet)
• artist (painter-actor-dancer-singer)
• FIGURATIVE USE;shift in meaning based on similarity of things
• crane (bird)--->machinery
• mouse (rodent)--->computer control
• bitch (female dog)--->nasty female, pain
• cool (temp)--->even headed
• bull (animal)---> strong
• AMELIORATION: word loses its original negative meaning
• bitch (AAVE)
• mischievous (disastrous)---> playful trouble
• PEJORATION: word develops a negative sense 
• notorious (widely known)
• villain (peasant)
• liberal
• feminist
• negro
• dick, cock, piss, fag, gay, ass...
• WORD LOSS:
• groovy
• far out 
  
• WORD ADDITION
• ACRONYMS
• SOBL
• NATO
• RSVP
• RADAR (radio detection & ranging)
• LASAR (light amplification through simulated emission of radiation)
• POSH (port out, starboard home)
• BLENDING; combination of of the parts of two or more words
• smog
• brunch
• hangry
• duplex
• CLIPPING: shorten words w/out paying attention to their derivational morphology
• exam
• dorm
• taxi/cab (taximeter cabriolet)
• gym
• COINAGE: creating words w/out using any method already described 
• name brands -Kodak, Exxon
• snob
• pooch
• FUNCTIONAL SHIFT: shift parts of speech without changing a word to create new words
• laugh, run, steal, buy----> (nouns)
• position, process, contrast----> (verbs)
• EPONYMY: names created from people
• Washington DC
• kaiser, czar (Ceasar)
• ohm (George Ohm)
• watt (James Watt)

Disney & Dialects

"animated films offer a unique way to study how a dominant culture reaffirms its control over subordinate cultures and nations be re-establishing , on a day to day basis, their preferred view of the world as right and proper and primary. Precisely because of animations innocence and innocuousness, the film makers have a broader spectrum of tools available to them and a great deal of leeway."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBJwWsvmxeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFrxy2NCHcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KJnqvQrBT8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKEnc9lcpfA


Why Disney Matters:

• large share of the market
• cultural appropriation
• increased influence of broadcast media
• internalize categories and stereotypes

Results:

• language stereotypes are reinforced
• foreign places are stereotyped
• foreign cultures/subcultures are stereotyped
• certain groups are left out.
• children believe portrays to be true
• evoke other cultures only in so far as they mesh with the expectations of American audiences
• "animated films offer a unique way to study how a dominant culture reaffirms its control over subordinate cultures and nations be re-establishing , on a day to day basis, their preferred view of the world as right and proper and primary. Precisely because of animations innocence and innocuousness, the film makers have a broader spectrum of tools available to them and a great deal of leeway."

where is stigmatized language used?

• animal characters
• evil characters
• stupid/clownish characters
• irresponsible Latinos
• gregarious Italians
• nefarious Asians
• smart mouthed, lazy & disrespectful African Americans (will be dark)
• savage Native Americans
• linguistic profiling: THE ABILITY TO CHARACTERIZE SOMEONES RACE THROUGH THE WAY THEY SPEAK
• Good and evil is strongly correlated with race and ethnicity

The Educational System

Education: viewed as the key to success

• built on the cornerstone of literacy
• mandatory
• create an informed electorate which will perpetuate the values of the nation-state
• Primary education's goal: acquisition of literacy with the adoption of spoken and written SAE

Role of Teacher:

• authority figure and role model
• teacher's ideology has a huge impact on students
• may inadvertently perpetuate inequality
• see student errors as laziness, carelessness, incompetence (rather than nonstandard competence)

Focus: 

1. Students who speak nonstandard english and how successfully they cope
2. language spoken by teachers

Even though policies recognize the legitimacy of nonstandard forms and children's right to use them, this is often not translated into educational practice.

Arguments:

• appropriacy
• children are potentially productive members of literacy communities rather than language communities where the primary focus is on testing and teaching written language
• "communicative competence" child learns to adjust their speech and writing to the appropriate context (public context SAE (WIDER COMMUNICATION),  home langauge for home (NARROW, LIMITED, PROVINCIAL))
• problem may arise when we do not question what is appropriate
• ideologies and judgements may come from both sides

Ideologies are reflective of the fear of EMOTIVE responses to certain ways of speaking, NOT MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY. (language focused discrimination)

STRATEGIC THEORIES IN EDUCATION FOR NON-SAE CHILDREN:

• Monodialectal Approach (verbal deficit)
• Bidialectal Approach (appropriacy)
• Dialectal Appreciation (change ideology by bringing it to light)

Impact of "Verbal Deficit Model-Bernstein):

• see children who do not speak SAE as having a deficit of language
• see children who do not possess SAE as having a deficit/different cognition 
• see that children need to be helped to overcome these handicaps

Underlying Principles of "Appropriacy"

• based on supporting economic structures
• teachers discriminate and "reject" childrens home speech
• children internalize negative evaluation of themselves
• decreases chances of thriving in educational setting
• believed by most students by the time they complete elementary education/see their accent as "hurting" them in some way and see the need to stop it
• "separate but equal"

Bidialectalism based on

• seeing other two options as surrendering to prejudice
• teacher discriminates because the EMPLOYER does
• child pays the price of discrimination by accommodating
• never suggests that the speakers of SAE stop to consider THEIR prejudice
• Does separate but equal policy make discrimination go away? (if not, or if we don't care if it does, it means that we think that the variety/people are inherently inferior).

Cleansing Native Americans of their LANGUAGE & CULTURE

• without tribal languages which functioned as a marker of social identity and provided a cohesive force in the face of so much turmoil in the USA, indigenous peoples could be more easily drawn into the fold
• Also led to dialectal Native-English, which is surrounded by its own prejudices
• Bidialectalism/Bilngualism (Also with Mexican Americans). 
• Arizona

TEACHER TALK

• Standards and the "accent test".
• no longer required but other competency tests that do the same thing
• teachers blamed for students failure or failed ideologies
• winnow out teachers with-non-SAE accents
• acceptable for a phys-ed teacher, but not an english teacher
• Parents fear not that the teacher will be incomprehensible, but that the students will pick up their substandard accents
• Graduate Students: 
• about power (questions/lack of clarity)
• about perceived ethnicity
• then about accent (comprehension)
• evaluate those with a perceived accent as a poor teacher
• students respond most positively to teachers with the greatest homophily  
• pronounced in "hostile" subject areas (math, science)
• shifts communicative burden entirely to the teacher

Literacy and Power

LITERACY: The ability to read and write (personal location)...but literacy is situated not in the individual, but in society (social location). Therefore, literacy interrelates with the workings of power. (Gee)

• reading and writing are socially embedded in all cultures.
• written texts can influence orality (conversations) and visa versa.

"Literacy not only involves competency in reading and writing, but goes beyond this to include the critical and effective use of these in peoples' lives, and the use of language (oral and written) for all purposes."  (Gee)

• This definition involves critical thinking about what one reads, as well as expanding the term to encompass oral forms of literacy.

According to the National Institute for Literacy (http://novel.nifl.gov/nifl/faqs.html):

"The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 defines literacy as 'an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society.' This is a broader view of literacy than just an individual's ability to read, the more traditional concept of literacy. As information and technology have become increasingly shaped our society [sic], the skills we need to function successfully have gone beyond reading, and literacy has come to include the skills listed in the current definition."

• This definition is important as it looks at literacy, at least to some extent, from a more contextualized perspective. 
• The definition of 'literate', then, depends on the skills needed within a particular culture and environment. 

In academia, the definition of literacy has also evolved from an exclusive focus on reading and writing to encompass a more inclusive and expansive perspective. Some of that work has come from researchers involved in exploring literacy among diverse populations and across cultural/political/socioeconomic boundaries. In the introduction to their edited volume, Dubin and Kuhlman (1992) discuss the changing definition of literacy:

On the way to becoming a book, the 'literacy' part of our title has taken on meanings that go beyond the simple definition of 'reading and writing' as we had conceived of it in 1984....we acknowledge that the word literacy itself has come to mean competence, knowledge and skills (Dubin). Take, for example, common expressions such as 'computer literacy,' "civic literacy,' 'health literacy,' and a score of other usages in which literacy stands for know-how and awareness of the first word in the expression. (p. vi)

The authors go on to state that:

The past decade has been marked by significant new directions in literacy research brought about by questions which seek to discover how literacy functions in families...in communities...and in workplaces... What does it mean to be 'literate' as a member of a particular culture? What are the patterns of literacy use within fields of work, within professions, within age-groups? (p. vii)

Hiebert (1991) takes an explicitly constructivist perspective to the definition of literacy:

For some time now, a new perspective on literacy, and the learning processes through which literacy is acquired, has been emerging. This new perspective does not consist of old ideas with a new name, but rather it represents a profound shift from a text-driven definition of literacy to a view of literacy as active transformation of texts. In the old view, meaning was assumed to reside primarily within text, whereas, in the new view, meaning is created through an interaction of reader and text. (p. 1)

Langer (1991) takes this notion of interaction of reader with text a step further, contrasting "literacy as the act of reading and writing and literacy as ways of thinking" (p. 13). This author brings up the notion that the standards for literacy depend on the context within which one functions: "...literacy can be viewed in a broader and educationally more productive way, as the ability to think and reason like a literate person, within a particular society" (p. 11). The author argues that:

It is the culturally appropriate way of thinking, not the act of reading or writing, that is most important in the development of literacy. Literacy thinking manifests itself in different ways in oral and written language in different societies, and educators need to understand these ways of thinking if they are to build bridges and facilitate transitions among ways of thinking. (p. 13)

 Most authors also typically maintain the notion that comprehension and use of written text is central to literacy. 

• Steelman, Pierce and Koppenhaver's definition is a good example: "To be literate is to be able to gather and to construct meaning using written language" (p 201).

Others emphasize the importance of oral language development to written language by highlighting both in their definition of literacy.  

• Foley (1994): "[f]or the purposes of this discussion, the term 'literacy' will be used broadly to refer to the mastery of language, in both its spoken (or augmented) and written forms, which enables an individual to use language fluently for a variety of purposes" (p. 184). Yet this author also cautions that while "[t]here is general agreement today that spoken language abilities are closely related to the development of literacy skills in the normal population" (p. 185), "[l]inguistic ability, as opposed to speech production ability, appears to be the more critical factor" (p. 186).

LITERACY EVENTS vs. LITERACY PRACTICES

• Literacy Events: occasions in which written language is integral to the nature of participants interactions and their interpretive processes and strategies (Heath)
• stresses the situated nature of literacy - literacy events always take place in social contexts.
• have social interaction rules which regulate the type and amount of talk about what is written and define ways in which oral language reinforces, denies, extends, or sets aside the written material

• Literacy Practice: the general cultural ways of utilizing written language (Hamilton and Barton)
• literacy events are activities, and observable episodes, literacy practices are NOT specific, observable occurrences, but  general NORMS regarding how written texts tend to be interpreted, produced and discussed

AUTONOMOUS VS. IDEOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING LITERACY

• Autonomous model suggest literacy and its development will have the same effect regardless of the culture in which it arises - independent of its social context
• orality is destined to produce writing which is a mark of advanced thinking
• GREAT DIVIDE between oral and literate societies (primitive/civilized)

• Ideological models oppose this view and believe that, there is NO ove-racrching and context free characterization of the cognitive and social consequences of literacy. So, this model focuses on the ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTS, associated with particular occurrences of literacies.
• there are no universal attributes of literate sociaties
• literacy skills are never acquired neutrally
• reveals situated approaches to literacy

SITUATED APPROACHES

• Preschool literacy in the USA
• Shirley Brice Heath
• how did preschoolers and adult act around and interact with written texts ?
• How did the different ways of being socialized into reading and writing have an influence on children's subsequent performance in school? (Bernstein also)
• three communities studied
• Maintown (wmc)
• children encouraged to give attention to books almost from birth
• children's bedrooms had bookcases and parents read to them regularly
• talked about books during their reading and outside of school contexts
• encouraged "fictional" storytelling
• learn the authority of books-how to be quite and patient when they are read
• ready for school
• Roadville (wwc)
• baby rooms decorated with literacy based stimuli (alphabet, etc)
• books used to instruct children, teaching labels with them and testing children on these labels, given workbooks to practice
• literacy habits were NOT extended beyond reading or make connections to the real world
• fictionalized accounts of real events are viewed as lies-reality is better than fiction
• did well in school to start, but failed to be able to give their own opinion in response to reading (fell behind)
• Tracktown (bwc)
• immersed from birth in constant human communication, verbal and nonverbal
• did not read to their children and homes did not have any reading material
• children rewarded for listening to and imitating verbal and nonverbal behaviors of others. 
• develop complex and creative abilities to play with language-develop rich verbal repertoires on their own
• face totally unfamiliar types of questions and interactions with literacy. majority fail at learning these.

in sum, children in these three communities are socialized into orality and literacy, and this had profound influence on their subsequent school performance.

• love-letter writing in Nepal
• Men were all practically literate but most women were initially not. What would happen as women gained literacy skills was Ahearn's question.
• women used skill in love letter writing in a surprising way increased elopements in what was traditionally a culture characterized by arranged marriage
• love letters were acceptable where dating was NOT
• letter writing characterized the person as educated (developed) rather than backward
• created new ways in which villagers thought about themselves
• Instant messaging (and now TEXTING!): more like speech writing
• have blurred the line between speech and writing to the point that hybrid forms are emerging.
• people refer to real time instant messaging as "talking"
• this frame of "talk" helped to shape the STYLISTIC INNOVATIONS and reinforce the ideological association of IM with INFORMAL SPEECH rather than writing.---want to reposition IM and in many cases text messaging as "speaking" (in written form)
• also indicative of a SPEECH COMMUNITY attempting to set itself apart from other speech communities
• "be" & "like" use increases from 6% to 50% from 2003-2006

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