English language

Generative Oscillation - A Cognitive Model for the Emergence of Language

by Thorold (Thor) May

Research Material for a discontinued PhD

DRAFT COPY ONLY

NOT READY FOR PRINT PUBLICATION

The GO model proposes a co-generative view of the emergence of language. Most conventional linguistics models conceive... more The GO model proposes a co-generative view of the emergence of language. Most conventional linguistics models conceive of language as a representational system of symbols which refer to events, either mental or external to the organism. This representational function is said to motivate the linguistic system and (depending upon the linguistic model) largely control its form. The GO (Generative Oscillation) model proposed here recognizes the representational role of language. However it notes that as the mental linguistic system itself becomes efficiently organized, it creates an internal logic and drive of its own. To some extent this internally motivated linguistic system is conceived to override the external motivation to represent another reality. Since the internal linguistic system is dynamic and generative, it may give rise to linguistic output which seems strange in an inter-human communicative context (or even within the reflective mind of the creator). Thus while the external communicative context can become a constraint on unmotivated non-representational "internal language", it might not eliminate it. The Generative Oscillation model proposes that actual language production is an oscillating compromise between the representational function of language and the mental "language bot" itself (i.e. an internal self-organizing system) which is generating language strings just because that is what language language bots do. As far as I know, the Generative Oscillation Model, or anything like it, had not been suggested before in linguistics at the time of writing. Some conventional linguists may find it a bit "off the wall".

LE INTERFERENZE DELL'INGLESE NELLA LINGUA ITALIANA TRA 'PROTEZIONISMO' E 'DESCRITTIVISMO' LINGUISTICO: IL CASO DEL LESSICO DELLA CRISI

by Antonio Taglialatela

di prossima pubblicazione sul semestrale "Linguæ &", 02/2011, Milano: LED online. ISSN 1724-8698

The issue of the interference of English on modern Italian has always been of interest to several researchers in... more The issue of the interference of English on modern Italian has always been of interest to several researchers in Italy. This paper outlines how this interference has affected the Italian language over the last two decades. To this purpose, we have deemed interesting to quote and contrast the views of two eminent Italian scholars involved in the long-lasting debate between linguistic ‘protectionism’ and ‘descriptivism’ – i.e. Arrigo Castellani and Tullio De Mauro.
We have taken into account the most widespread English loanwords of the economic crisis found in the three major Italian newspapers from the 1st September 2011 to the 1st March 2012 and we have then verified if to date they are present in three well-known Italian monolingual dictionaries.
As a result, most of these loanwords have been shown to be adequately integrated into the Italian language in both written and oral texts.
It would be advisable to take this work into due consideration in the light of the international perspective on which global communication pivots today.
*****
La questione dell'interferenza dell'inglese sull'italiano contemporaneo è sempre stata oggetto di grande interesse da parte dei ricercatori. Partendo da tale premessa, questo lavoro vuole espremere alcune importanti considerazioni su come negli anni questa interferenza abbia influenzato, e continui ad influenzare, la lingua italiana. Abbiamo ritenuto interessante da un lato citare e confrontare le posizioni di due illustri studiosi, quali Arrigo Castellani e Tullio De Mauro, nell'ambito dell'aspro confronto tra protezionismo e descrittivismo linguistico - anche prendendo in esame alcuni degli anglismi più diffusi nell'italiano contemporaneo nell'ambito dell'attuale crisi economico-finanziaria -, dall'altro abbiamo verificato la lemmatizzazione degli stessi in tre noti vocabolari monolingui italiani.
Sulla base delle analisi effettuate questi anglismi risultano oggi ben integrati tanto nell'italiano scritto che in quello parlato.
Questo lavoro può essere inserito nel quadro del rapporto italiano-inglese alla luce della prospettiva internazionale intorno cui la comunicazione si muove oggigiorno.

A Cure For Formal Language Errors In Papua New Guinea (& Elsewhere) - This Is Your Problem, Friend, Not Mine

by Thorold (Thor) May

The material in this article is as relevant now as it ever was. Some things don't change.  It was first published in Guidelines - A Periodical For Classroom Language Teachers, Vol.8, No.1,  June 1986, SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, Singapore. This is an extended version of a paper given  at the TESLA Conference in Goroka, PNG, in July 1985.

This paper proposes that teacher correction often has very little transfer effect on a student's later language... more This paper proposes that teacher correction often has very little transfer effect on a student's later language behaviour. It examines reasons for this, and the motivational paradigm within which students operate. The paper argues that student self-correction is more likely to have a measurable long term effect. A mechanism to motivate directed self-correction is therefore proposed. This mechanism involves subtracting marks from assessed essays, and indicating line locations where there is a problem, without however explaining the problem. The procedure gives students the option to recover the lost marks through re-editing and re-submission within a time frame. The system has been tested empirically and found to yield promising results. The method of error evaluation also results in a lower burden of pointless correction for teachers.

When Grammar Doesn't Help

by Thorold (Thor) May

This paper questions the role of grammar in language teaching and learning. Firstly it identifies the constituencies... more This paper questions the role of grammar in language teaching and learning. Firstly it identifies the constituencies in academic language teaching, and their often conflicting notions of language programs. Several kinds of learners are discussed, with particular attention to the large group who are uncomfortable with any technical analysis, including formal grammars. Some conventional ideas about what a natural language grammar actually is are challenged. The consequences of a connectionist view of language processing are briefly explored. The power of collocation sets is identified as a key to language acquisition. Language is set in the broader cognitive context of memory processes and patterns of generalization. Pedagogical grammars are viewed as forced external generalizations with little organic presence in memory, but some suggestions are made about how to make use of them. Actual student language memory, as well as teacher self-insight into L1 are both contrasted with the idealized patterns assumed by academic language programs. Finally, the stubborn problem of average teacher behaviour is set against the real ways in which people appear to use grammars and learn languages.

Stress, Rhythm and Intonation for Teachers and Students

by Thorold (Thor) May

also available on the blog, Thor's Language & Teaching Notes at http://thorslanguageandteachingnotes.byeways.net/?p=38

This document is directed at teachers and students of English as a second or foreign language.

These are notes on English stress, rhythm and intonation.

Part A is for students and Part B is for... more These are notes on English stress, rhythm and intonation.

Part A is for students and Part B is for teachers.

The treatment here is “technical”, as by a linguist, but in very plain language. Even with poor formal English, L2 speakers who “sound right” will gain social acceptance, and this in turn will greatly accelerate their learning.

Firstly the concept of “the music of a language” is introduced. It is noted that languages are on a scale of “syllable timed” to “stress timed” (though this is not a simple matter). English is a stress-timed language. Both word stress and sentence stress are essential in English. However, proper word liaison and elision marks native speakers from non-native speakers. Some advice is given on how to practice privately and in a classroom. The importance of teacher talk as a model is noted.

Purposive Constructions in English

by Thorold (Thor) May

The detailed analysis of Purposive Constructions in this long paper will help researchers to clarify these phenomena in English, even though the linguistic model employed, Chomsky's Government and Binding, has (in my view) been superseded.

Abstract: This thesis* explores some of the syntactic & semantic properties of Purposive Constructions in English.... more Abstract: This thesis* explores some of the syntactic & semantic properties of Purposive Constructions in English. The term "purposive" is recognized as a semantic concept which finds regular expression in a small range of syntactic configurations. Purpose Clauses (PCs) and Rationale Clauses (Rat.Cs) are examined in some detail. Briefer reference is made to several other configurations, notably Because Clauses, So-That Clauses and Infinitival Relatives. In general Purposive Constructions comprise rather fuzzy semantic categories. Nevertheless, the main syntactic features are fairly clear. Interpretation of the constructions requires a systematic account of the control of empty slots (ellipted NPs) by thematic elements in the matrix clause. General conditions of Government and Binding appear adequate to predict the distribution of gaps in most Purposive Clauses. However, the relationship between propositions predicated of a common argument in these constructions is found to sometimes require matching conditions too subtle for syntax alone to predict. A concept of Thematic Coextensiveness is introduced to account for such matching.

Language Tangle - Predicting & Facilitating Outcomes in Language Education - PhD Thesis - ThorMay

by Thorold (Thor) May

Doctoral dissertation in knowledge worker productivity (specifically language teaching productivity) awarded by the University of Newcastle, NSW in 2010. The abstract and links to supporting documents including the thesis itself may also be viewed at http://thormay.net/lxesl/lxtangle_abstract.html. The full dissertation title is "Language Tangle - Predicting and Facilitating Outcomes in Language Education".

This thesis argues that foreign and second language teaching productivity can only reach its proper potential when it... more This thesis argues that foreign and second language teaching productivity can only reach its proper potential when it is accorded priority, second only to language learner productivity, amongst the many competing productivities which are always asserted by stakeholders in educational institutions.

A theoretical foundation for the research is established by examining the historical concept of productivity, and its more recent manifestation as knowledge worker productivity, especially as applied to teachers.

The empirical basis of the thesis is sourced from a chronological series of twenty biographical case studies in language teaching venues in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania and East Asia. The biographical case study methodology, although rare in applied linguistics, is justified by reference to its wide and growing application in other fields of qualitative research. The case studies are analysed for common patterns of productivity, as well as teaching productivity inhibition or failure.

It was affirmed across all of the case studies without exception that external parties could not control or even reliably predict what individual students might learn, and how well, from instances of instructed language teaching. This was regardless of the power of institutional players, external resources, curriculums or the teacher. Student belief in the immediate value of what was to be learned in a given lesson, and personal confidence in an ability to learn it were the most critical factors.

Teaching productivity was found to turn, ultimately, on the teacher's ability to influence the probability of student learning. The teacher could best influence learning probability by enhancing student motivation. The most effective environments for teaching productivity were seen to be those where the teacher was professionally equipped and politically enabled to exercise judgements which maximized opportunities for student language learning productivity. A negotiated pact concerning both curriculum and method often proved effective, especially with mature students, and at times required some deception of institutional authorities.

Empirically, the encouragement of reciprocal learning relationships between teacher and students was found to be powerfully enabling for language teaching productivity in the case studies.

In many venues a small but effective minority of 'intimate learners' were also able to leverage their language learning productivity by forging more personal relationships with the teacher.

The wider cultural paradigm within each of the countries represented in the case studies sanctioned different paths and limitations for both language learners and teachers, and hence was seen to influence teaching productivity in critical ways. It was found that under certain conditions, notably (but not exclusively) those prevailing in many East Asian educational institutions, that certification of foreign language skills had a higher cultural, employment and monetary value than the actual ability to exercise foreign language skills.

A negative influence on teacher productivity in many of the case studies was an ignorance about language learning and teaching amongst institutional players. The disregard of language teacher professionalism was fed by a belief that being able to speak a language was all that was necessary to teach it, and reinforced by misinterpreting the meaning of test results. Related to this, an imbalance of power relationships between teachers or students with other institutional interests was consistently found to interfere with teaching and learning productivities. Overall, the model of productivity understood in institutions instanced by the case studies tended to reflect a 19th Century economic paradigm of capital, raw materials (students) and labour (dispensable classroom workers) rather than any more sophisticated grasp of knowledge worker productivity.

It was demonstrated in the context of the case studies that productivity, and in particular knowledge worker productivity, is a complex concept whose facets require detailed analysis to arrive at a proper understanding of the role that foreign and second language teachers play in educational institutions.

Plain Speaking : Judging an Oratory Contest

by Thorold (Thor) May

Although first published in 1989, this paper retains relevance, especially for the "speech competitions" which are run (usually poorly) in countries where English is taught as a second language.

Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the criteria which judges are likely to apply in the Fiji National Oratory... more Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the criteria which judges are likely to apply in the Fiji National Oratory Contest. It comments upon some features of the 1989 contest, and suggests factors which may have underlain the performance of contestants. However, the analysis is not merely local to an historical time or place. Oratory contests are a special case of the “speaking competitions” which are widespread in countries where English is learned as a second language. The cultural beliefs and traditions which come into play in public speaking are especially important in cross-cultural situations. The solutions discussed here have universal relevance for speakers and judges.

Evaluating Linguistic Difficulty

by Thorold (Thor) May

This material was originally published in TESOL News Vol. 8 No. 3 1987 . In spite of the date, its content remains very current for language teachers and others.

While ESL teachers cannot eliminate linguistic difficulties, with an awareness of the factors involved it is possible... more While ESL teachers cannot eliminate linguistic difficulties, with an awareness of the factors involved it is possible to minimise the confusion of their students. This article systematically analyses some important problem areas in language learning. It itemizes a range of syntactic and semantic phenomena, considering in each cas how the rule or pattern might pose a difficulty for some learners. This paper has been published for a number of years now, and the writer has become aware that many teachers themselves have found it a useful aid in preparing and presenting course material.

Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION // orders of complexity // LEXICAL DIFFICULTY // Syllabic length:// Clusters // Irregular spelling // Irregular stress // Affixes // Multiple denotation // Range of connotation // Specialized application // Frequency of lexical items // Selectional restrictions // Subcategorical restrictions // MEASURES OF STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY IN SENTENCES // Sentence length // Qualifying words // Adverbial and prepositional phrases // Conjunctive sentences // Equi-deletion // Deletion by convention // Permutation // Transposition // Embedding // Sentential complements // Topicalization // Presupposition // Tense // Aspect // Agreement (concord) rules // Anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric references // DISCOURSE COHESION // CUEING // IDIOM // CONCEPTUAL DIFFICULTY // More accessible reference // Less accessible reference // Types of Inference // REFERENCES

Fluency Vs Accuracy OR Fluency AND Accuracy for Language Learners?

by Thorold (Thor) May

This document is also available on the blog, Thor's Language & Teaching Notes at http://thorslanguageandteachingnotes.byeways.net/
// This is the outline of a seminar on teaching methodology given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, in November 2009.

Abstract : This seminar paper indicates a fundamental difference in objectives between language learning for... more Abstract : This seminar paper indicates a fundamental difference in objectives between language learning for certification and learning for live use. Whereas accuracy is an absolute goal within schooling contexts, its value on the street is highly variable. This difference is reflected in teaching perspectives.

Tips_for_Teachers

by Thorold (Thor) May

Also available on the blog, Thor's Language & Teaching Notes at http://thorslanguageandteachingnotes.byeways.net/?p=28

These notes consist of three parts : 1. Some short backround notes on the profession of teaching languages; 2. A few... more These notes consist of three parts : 1. Some short backround notes on the profession of teaching languages; 2. A few useful links for teaching tips and content; 3. A collection of ten activities which the seminar presenter has invented or borrowed, and found to be popular with students.// This is an outline from one of a monthly series of seminars by Thor May on teaching skills. The seminars were given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. This seminar was conducted on 10 June 2008

Myths about Languages in the Philippines (2008)

by Isabel Pefianco Martin

Fearing English in the Philippines (2008)

by Isabel Pefianco Martin

I think (that) something's missing: Complementizer deletion in non-native e-mails

by Mercedes Durham

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 1(3). 2011

PRIVATIVE WORDS AS A MEANS OF LACK AND DENIAL

by Venera Suleymanova

          Some verbs and figuratively- ideomatic phrases from diffirent levels of language... more           Some verbs and figuratively- ideomatic phrases from diffirent levels of language like syntactic, lexical, morphological, semantic ones take an active part in expressing indirect negation. The relation between privation and denial with lexical-semantic, grammatical systems of language gives a useful material for structural and functional typology of English language.
        We explored privation as a semantic universality which is specific to all languages and gave different expressions showing privation,lack and denial in English, German and Azerbaijan languages. The great number of negative and privative prefixes has drawn our attention while investigating them through  structural,  communicative, pragmatic, functional-semantic  and stylistic foctors.
In English some morphological privative markers like un-, in-, dis-, de-, non-,etc. make a series of  words from different parts of speech, ecpecially there are a plenty of verbs made by adding morphological units.

BA Dissertation: 'What the Fuck?'

by Elizabeth Marsden

Unpublished dissertation submitted for completion of a Bachelors Degree with Honours in English Language. Supervised by Dr. Liz Holt and Dr. Jim O'Driscoll.

This paper provides an analysis of swearing in casual conversation using both a pragmatic and a conversation analytic... more This paper provides an analysis of swearing in casual conversation using both a pragmatic and a conversation analytic methodology using Gail Jefferson's 'Laughter in Interaction' study as a template. This dissertation helps to add to the growing body of research stating that swearing is not simply due to outbursts of emotion, but is a controlled phenomena, governed by observable rules.

Lookalike language (column 'English Today', 2012)

by Jan Blommaert

Estudio experimental sobre la relación entre la percepción, segmentación de eventos y el aspecto léxico y gramatical en la verbalización

by Sonia Suárez Cepeda

En prensa

Abstract
In this paper we analyze, from a ragmatic-semantic perspective, the interaction between the ... more Abstract
In this paper we analyze, from a ragmatic-semantic perspective, the interaction between the  speakers’ selection of  the lexical aspect (Aktionsart) and grammatical aspect to express their temporal representation of the events observed in a sequence of videos. Our study draws on the assumptions that speakers’ choices are the result of a “thinking for speaking” process (Slobin 1997, 2003:167), and that their organization of perceptions follows a hierarchical order, as proposed by Zack in his Theory of Event Segmentation (Zacks 2001, 2007; Tversky et al 2008). We also follow París’ pragmatic-semantic approach (París 2007), assuming that the lexical aspect or Artionsarten is determined by the intrinsic semantic properties of each verb prior to any compositional analysis, and it is part of the Lexical Semantic Representation (LSR) of the verb (Verkuyl 1993, Krifka 1998, París 2007). In contrast, grammatical aspect expresses time in terms of (im)perfect intervals. Both aspectual systems interact , yielding a complex system of temporal notions encoded in the Spanish language. Our hypotheses were that the speakers’ decisions on the use of (im)perfect, progressive or preterite morphosyntactic markings to express temporal notions depend on two main features: the dynamics of the event itself, and the speakers’ perception of the event as a bounded or unbounded episode. The results showed that perception and verbalization are  distinct instances  in which the epistemic distance is determined by: 1) the experiencer, 2) the inmediacy of the experience itself and 3)  the properties of the perceived object. Aspectual markings present variations according to the epistemic distance the speakers’ choose to express.
Key words: cognition, event segmentation,  grammatical aspect, Aktionsart, narrative.

Strumenti di analisi per la lingua inglese

by Giuliana GIusti

So Noxious a Premonition

by Mohamed Eno

Excerpted from my forthcoming volume Guilt of Otherness: A Brief Personal Memoir in Poetry

Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is... more Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is dedicated to all men and women academics who at some point in their professional life felt oppressed, frustrated or marginalized for one reason or another by the powers that be in their respective institutions.