20Reading Critically1usually)mutually understood goals.Moreover, language use arises in these jointactivities, which are often extremelydiffcult without it.For example,imagine going to a shoe shop in order to purchase a pair ofJohn Wayne cowboy boots.This involves a sales assistant approaching youand offering help, interacting with a sales assistant in order to have your feetmeasured, the assistant fetching the required cowboy boots from the stockroom for you to try on, agreeing the purchase, making payment, and theassistant boxing or wrapping theboots.This service encounter is an example ofa culturally recognised joint activity. And, crucially, it relies on language use inorder to accomplish thedesired outcome:the purchaseof theboots.But in addition to using language during the course of a service encounter ofthis kind, we have to build a mental representation of what is going on, in orderto keep track of what stage we are at in proceedings. This involves integratinginformation we get from language, with information derived from other cues,such as seeing that the sales assistant has brought the wrong colour boots fromthe store room, or that uncomfortable feeling when the boots are too tight, asyou try them on,The information which accumulates, during joint activities ofthis sort,is gleaned from our discourse--our use of language-and from theongoing and ever-changing situation(s) in which we find ourselves.Recall that I said that words consist of symbols: form-meaning pairings.)Language encompasses a widerange of different types of knowledgewhich serveto support symbol use. Onekind of knowledge concerns the individual soundsthat make up a particular language, and the rules that govern the way thesesounds can be combined. While there is a finite inventory of all the possiblesounds a human being can make, different languages draw on different numbersof these in producing the words that make up a language.This is whya Frenchspeaker finds it difficult to pronounce the“th"sound in English. This soundsimply doesn't exist in French.Indeed, English speakers often sound equallyabsurd when speaking other languages,as I can attest from years of mangling theFrench language.A number of French sounds simply don't exist in EnglishStandard English consists of 12 simple vowel sounds.These include the /i/ inpit and the /e/ in"pet."There are, in addition, a further eight two-vowel soundsequences,known as diphthongs, such as the /ei/in“day”English also has 24consonants like the /z/ in"zip"and the /n/ in“ring"This makes a total of 44"*Editor'snote:Frequentlywe say that there are 28 consonants,altogether 48 distinct sound segments inEnglish.However.the phonemes of English and their number vary from dialectto dialect,and also depend onthe interpretation of the individual researcher, Here we keep the original text unchanged
20 Reading Critically 1 usually) mutually understood goals. Moreover, language use arises in these joint activities, which are often extremely difficult without it. For example, imagine going to a shoe shop in order to purchase a pair of John Wayne cowboy boots. This involves a sales assistant approaching you and offering help, interacting with a sales assistant in order to have your feet measured, the assistant fetching the required cowboy boots from the stock room for you to try on, agreeing the purchase, making payment, and the assistant boxing or wrapping the boots. This service encounter is an example of a culturally recognised joint activity. And, crucially, it relies on language use in order to accomplish the desired outcome: the purchase ofthe boots. But in addition to using language during the course of a service encounter of this kind, we have to build a mental representation of what is going on, in order to keep track of what stage we are at in proceedings. This involves integrating information we get from language, with information derived from other cues, such as seeing that the sales assistant has brought the wrong colour boots from the store room, or that uncomfortable feeling when the boots are too tight, as you try them on. The information which accumulates, during joint activities of this sort, is gleaned from our discourse—our use of language—and from the ongoing and ever-changing situation(s) in which we find ourselves. Recall that I said that words consist of symbols: form-meaning pairings. Language encompasses a wide range of different types of knowledge which serve to support symbol use. One kind of knowledge concerns the individual sounds that make up a particular language, and the rules that govern the way these sounds can be combined. While there is a finite inventory of all the possible sounds a human being can make, different languages draw on different numbers of these in producing the words that make up a language. This is why a French speaker finds it difficult to pronounce the "th" sound in English. This sound simply doesnt exist in French. Indeed, English speakers often sound equally absurd when speaking other languages, as I can attest from years ofmangling the French language. A number of French sounds simply dont exist in English. Standard English consists of 12 simple vowel sounds. These include the /i/ in pit and the Ie/ in "pet：' There are, in addition, a further eight two-vowel sound sequences, known as diphthongs, such as the /ei/ in "day." English also has 24 consonants like the /z/ in “zip" and the /i)/ in "ring." This makes a total of 44 * Editor's note: Frequently we say that there are 28 consonants, altogether 48 distinct sound segments in English. However, the phonemes ofEnglish and their number vary from dialect to dialect, and also depend on the interpretation ofthe individual researcher. Here we keep the original text unchanged
UnitI TheNature of Language21distinct sound segments from which all English words are derived-at least instandard BritishReceived Pronunciation (RP).This total may,on the faceof it,be somewhat surprising,given that the alphabet consists of only 26 letters.Yetthe English spelling system is,infact,the Latin spelling system,and asappliedtoEnglish is notoriously treacherous,as ismadeabundantly clearbythefollowingpoem byT.S.Watt:I take it you alreadyknowOftoughandboughand coughand dough?Others may stumblebut not youOn hiccough,thorough, sloughand throughWelldone! And now you wish perhaps,To learn of less familiar traps?Beware of heard, a dreadful wordThat looks likebeardand sounds likebird.And dead, it's said likebed,notbeadfor goodness' sake don't call it "deed!"Watch out for meat and great and threat(theyrhyme with suiteand straight and debt).A second type of knowledge involves word structure.Each of us intuitivelyknowshowsimplewordsarecombinedtomakecomplexwords-andthemeanings associated with the parts of words involved. We know the differencebetween"teaching”“teacher"and"teachable"A teacher is a person who carriesout the activity of teaching,while a subject is teachable (or not).We add thesuffixes"-er""-ing"and-able"to the verb stem"teach"at will in order to derivethe requisite meaning. We also know that while a "teacher" is someone whoteaches, we can't necessarily add -er"willy nilly to create similar meanings.Much of our knowledge appears to be word-specific.For instance, a"villager"isnot someone who"villages”and a"bestseller"is not someone who"bestsells"Infact,abestseller is notaperson atall.Another type of knowledge relates to the range of meanings associated with福words and other linguistic expressions.Knowledge of this kind is not therestricted definitional kind that you might find given as concise definitions in adesk dictionary,for instance. The sort of meanings associated with words thatyou carry around in your head is better likened to an encyclopaedia. In fact,knowledgeof this type is commonlyreferred to as encyclopaedicknowledge.Forinstance,consider everything you must know in order to understand what"open"means in the following expressions:"open a book,"“open your briefcase,"openthe curtains,”“open your mouth"and"open her blouse"The kind of knowledge
Unit 1 The Nature of Language 21 distinct sound segments from which all English words are derived—at least in standard British Received Pronunciation (RP). This total may, on the face of it, be somewhat surprising, given that the alphabet consists of only 26 letters. Yet the English spelling system is, in fact, the Latin spelling system, and as applied to English is notoriously treacherous, as is made abundantly clear by the following poem by T. S. Watt: I take it you already know Oftough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble but not you On hiccough, thorough, slough and through. Well done! And now you wish perhaps, To learn ofless familiar traps? Beware ofheard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead, its said like bed, not bead for goodness * sake dont call it "deed!” Watch out for meat and great and threat (they rhyme with suite and straight and debt). A second type of knowledge involves word structure. Each of us intuitively knows how simple words are combined to make complex words—and the meanings associated with the parts of words involved. We know the difference between “teaching： ”teacher" and "teachable." A teacher is a person who carries out the activity of teaching, while a subject is teachable (or not). We add the suffixes "-er； "-ing" and "-able“ to the verb stem "teach” at will in order to derive the requisite meaning. We also know that while a "teacher“ is someone who teaches, we cant necessarily add M-erM willy nilly to create similar meanings. Much of our knowledge appears to be word-specific. For instance, a "villager” is not someone who “villages" and a “bestseller“ is not someone who “bestsells." In fact, a bestseller is not a person at all. Another type of knowledge relates to the range of meanings associated with words and other linguistic expressions. Knowledge of this kind is not the restricted definitional kind that you might find given as concise definitions in a desk dictionary, for instance. The sort of meanings associated with words that you carry around in your head is better likened to an encyclopaedia. In fact, knowledge ofthis type is commonly referred to as encyclopaedic knowledge. For instance, consider everything you must know in order to understand what "open” means in the following expressions: 'open a book： "open your briefcase^ * open the curtains；' "open your mouth" and "open her blouse." The kind of knowledge
22ReadingCritically1you musthaveaccess to,stuffed somewhere in yourhead,concernstherangeofscenarios in which very different sorts of things can be“opened"After all, weapply“open"to very different sorts of “containers"such as a briefcase,a mouthand a blouse, with apertures of different kinds, whose opening is achieved indifferent ways and for different purposes.It is less clear thata book is a container,and it is not at all clear that there is a container that is opened by virtue ofopening curtains.We conventionally use“open"in relation to these verydifferentscenarios,and many others, including such things as“opening"a bank account.The word meanings that are stuffed into our heads appear not to resemble thenarrow,precise definitions of a dictionary at all. Rather, they relate to the sortsof things and situations with respect to which“open"can apply,the way theopening occurs, and the purposes for the"opening"event.Consider how youwould go about opening a blouse versus a briefcase, the different sorts of entitiesyou would be likely to find inside each (!),and the reasons for the"opening"event.Another kind of knowledge concerns our ability to combine words usingknowledge of regular patterns in order to make a seemingly infinite numberof novel sentences; we possess knowledge of the abstract rules that make upeverything you and I know about English sentence structure.Part of thisinvolves our knowledge regarding word order.We know, intuitively, that inthe expression"The window cleaner nervously kissed the supermodel,' thewindow cleaner did the kissing. But if we reverse the window cleaner and thesupermodel-"The supermodel confidentlykissed the window cleaner"-nowwe have a different"kisser"and"kissee" Part of what you, and I, know about alanguage, then, involves knowing the order in which words are positioned ina sentence. The order, after all, determines the role we attribute to the windowcleaner and the supermodel in the kissing event.Of course, other languages varyin quite remarkable ways.Hungarian,for instance, has no fixed word order.Eachlanguage represents a unique system replete with its own conventions.In addition, we possess a large inventory of idioms which are an essential partof any language,and which often pose problems for the language learner Forinstance, try explaining to a foreign student why, in English, we can sleep"tight,"soundly"and"deeply”but we don't sleep"wide!""To bend over backwards"means, somewhat bizarrely,to try veryhard, rather than to bend over backwards,and"to jump down someone's throat"means something quite different fromwhat it literally says. And"to kick the bucket,which means"to die,changes itsmeaning entirely even if we replace just one of the words.For instance,"tokickthe mop"refers, presumably,to a frustrated janitor rather than death
22 Reading Critically 1 you must have access to, stuffed somewhere in your head, concerns the range of scenarios in which very diflferent sorts of things can be “opened.” After all, we apply "open" to very different sorts of "containers" such as a briefcase, a mouth and a blouse, with apertures of different kinds, whose opening is achieved in different ways and for different purposes. It is less clear that a book is a container, and it is not at all clear that there is a container that is opened by virtue of opening curtains. We conventionally use “open" in relation to these very different scenarios, and many others, including such things as “opening“ a bank account. rIhe word meanings that are stuffed into our heads appear not to resemble the narrow, precise definitions of a dictionary at all. Rather, they relate to the sorts of things and situations with respect to which “open" can apply, the way the opening occurs, and the purposes for the “opening“ event. Consider how you would go about opening a blouse versus a briefcase, the different sorts of entities you would be likely to find inside each (!), and the reasons for the "opening” event. Another kind of knowledge concerns our ability to combine words using knowledge of regular patterns in order to make a seemingly infinite number of novel sentences; we possess knowledge of the abstract rules that make up everything you and I know about English sentence structure. Part of this involves our knowledge regarding word order. We know, intuitively, that in the expression “The window cleaner nervously kissed the supermodel,M the window cleaner did the kissing. But if we reverse the window cleaner and the supermodel— “The supermodel confidently kissed the window cleaner” 一now we have a diflferent “kisser" and "kissee：' Part of what you, and I, know about a language, then, involves knowing the order in which words are positioned in a sentence. The order, after all, determines the role we attribute to the window cleaner and the supermodel in the kissing event. Of course, other languages vary in quite remarkable ways. Hungarian, for instance, has no fixed word order. Each language represents a unique system replete with its own conventions. In addition, we possess a large inventory of idioms which are an essential part of any language, and which often pose problems for the language learner. For instance, try explaining to a foreign student why, in English, we can sleep "tight； “soundly" and “deeply,“ but we dont sleep "wide!” "To bend over backwards” means, somewhat bizarrely, to try very hard, rather than to bend over backwards, and "to jump down someones throat" means something quite different from what it literally says. And "to kick the bucket；' which means “to die： changes its meaning entirely even if we replace just one of the words. For instance, uto kick the mopM refers, presumably, to a frustrated janitor rather than death
Unit1TheNatureof Language23The final kind of knowledge that I'll touch on relates to what we might thinkDof as contextualisation cues. These include the gestures which accompanyour utterances, our facial expression, and cues relating to features of stress,intonation and pitch. For instance, whether the pitch of an utterance rises orfalls can determine whether we interpret the utterance to be a question or astatement.Moreover,even a well-judged pause orglance can providean effectivemeans of signalling meaning; for instance, Marina Hyde, the journalist, writingin The Guardian, once noted that the appeal of Alistair Campbell-Tony Blair'sonce fearsome spin doctor-was“based entirely on the look he wore-a lookwhich said:Id liketo shag you,if only I had the time."(2,809words)
Unit 1 The Nature of Language 23 The final kind of knowledge that fll touch on relates to what we might think of as contextualisation cues. These include the gestures which accompany our utterances, our facial expression, and cues relating to features of stress, intonation and pitch. For instance, whether the pitch of an utterance rises or falls can determine whether we interpret the utterance to be a question or a statement. Moreover, even a well-judged pause or glance can provide an effective means of signalling meaning; for instance, Marina Hyde, the journalist, writing . in The Guardian, once noted that the appeal of Alistair Campbell-Tony Blairs once fearsome spin doctor—was "based entirely on the look he wore—a look which said: lIcl like to shag you, if only I had the time." (2,809 words)
24Reading Critically1InterculturalReflectionThe following research topics are designed to help you find out moreabout the nature of language.Choose one from them,havea groupdiscussion based on prior independent research,and then prepare a five-minutepresentationorwriteanessayof 200-300words.Word order is important in both English and Chinese,for a changein the word order of a sentence may bring changes to the meaningconveyed.Do you think that Chinese and English follow the same wordorderintheirsentences?Supportyourargumentswithexamples.2.Language is forever changing. You can feel the changes that are takingplace in a language most vividly in the way it is used on the Internet.Carry out a small survey to find out the differences between InternetChinese and everyday Chinese3.Learn more about American sign language and Chinese sign languageIn what ways do you think they resemble and differ from English andChinese respectively?
24 Reading Critically 1 Intercultural Reflection The following research topics are designed to help you find out more about the nature of language. Choose one from them, have a group discussion based on prior independent research, and then prepare a fiveminute presentation or write an essay of 200-300 words. /. Word order is important in both English and Chinese, for a change in the word order of a sentence may bring changes to the meaning conveyed. Do you think that Chinese and English follow the same word order in their sentences? Support your arguments with examples. 2. Language is forever changing. You can feel the changes that are taking place in a language most vividly in the way it is used on the Internet. Carry out a small survey to find out the differences between Internet Chinese and everyday Chinese. 3. Learn more about American sign language and Chinese sign language. In what ways do you think they resemble and differ from English and Chinese respectively?