Imagine that you have received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of your target language and culture. How would you get started, and what would you investigate? How would different structural components presented in class appear in your work?
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If I were to be given a grant to conduct a research, I would start with a field trip to Europe starting with the lower Tiber River since that is where Latin was originated within a small group of people. The reason why I would like to start this way is to document the significant origin of a very famous language. Later, I would go to Italy and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa to collect historical and cultural data from the local museums. The things that I would like to investigate is Italian dialect bilingualism as there are Italian dialects that are extremely different from it but still related. Specifically,I would then visit Sicily since it is my favorite Italian city. I will compare the phonemes, morphemes, lexemes , and syntax to demonstrate the differences and possible relation to culture.
Well first I would book a first class flight to Amsterdam. I would spend about a week sitting in a cafe observing communication between citizens and conducting ethnographic research. This would give me a better understanding of social cues and daily interactions.
So far in my studies of Dutch I have been trying to consume Dutch media, but I think it would be very interesting to consume media in the Netherlands, so I could observe how Dutch citizens respond and react to current events. I would study the pop culture in the Netherlands, and how Dutch people give feedback and communicate to each other about these events. I would be interested to learn about how structural components that I have studied in written media vary when listening to informal verbal communication in the target language.
First off, If I were to do a linguistic study of French, the proper thing I should get started with is watching French movies or TV shows. Although I might now understand dialogues between characters, I would at least get a rough idea of how French sounds like. That is, finding out some of unique phones that set French apart from other languages, such as nasal sounds and intense "h" sound. Then, without knowing the basic structures like morphemes and syntax, I would ask French speakers around me for help. Since students of University of Richmond are diverse in terms of cultural and language backgrounds, I have more opportunities getting information about basic grammars and words from French speakers. In fact, some French words do appear in English dictionaries with slightly or even completely no change in meaning or pronunciation. In a French sentence or phrase, we set in stone several words whose meanings we know. Then, it makes possible for us to deduce the meaning and attribute of other words. Having done all tasks above, I am able to provide a basic linguistic composition of a certain sentence or phrase.
It would be a different story for conducting research about French cultures. Languages are a part of cultures, but cultures are not always limited in languages. To understand a culture, one needs to know about its geography, history, people, education, belief, and other factors that pertain to what French people are like. Geographic location of a country is often correlated to weather and eating preference. On the other hand, learning history of a country enables one to obtain information of how cultural traits, including language, evolve through time. There must have been abandoned practices that the modern French society is not compatible with. At last, education and belief of a country provide us directions French is moving toward and type of convictions and personalities that French value.
Hi Adam,
I think watching movies in French is a great idea to practice listening and reading French. Because you know English, reading subtitles in French and then hearing actors/actresses speak the language will help you significantly. I tried watching some Korean movies on the website called viki.com with the Learn Mode on. It is still somewhat hard for me to use this type of learning strategy since the actors/actresses are speaking at their regular pace and I don't have a sufficient vocabulary to read the subtitles yet. Recently, I have been listening to podcasts on Spotify that teaches daily Korean phrases, and I enjoy that much more.
I would start by examining the phonetics of Moroccan Arabic. Understanding the phonetic inventory of MA is the key to understanding both its designation as a form of Arabic and yet also its divergence. Indeed, MA largely possesses the same phonetic inventory as Modern Standard Arabic, yet it also includes the letters /p/, /v/, and /g/ because of its interaction with romance languages, specifically French and Spanish. However, if I only study phonetics, I would still understand MA to simply be a dialect of Arabic with some outside influence, which is overly reductionist.
If I wanted to understand how MA can be seen as a different language or a creole, I would have to study MA’s phonology as well. Although MA’s writing system and phonetics are very similar to MSA, its phonology is more reminiscent of the Amazigh languages. Like the Amazigh languages which are native to Morocco and the Maghreb region, MA uses very few vowels and many consonant clusters, making the language sound very different from other forms of Arabic – indeed, Arabs cannot even understand MA because of its Amazigh-based phonology which obfuscates its seemingly familiar phonetic inventory.
Finally, I would study MA’s grammar, which is largely secondary because of MA’s role as an informal language. Moroccans in business, government, or other high-ranking jobs use MSA because of its complex grammar and formality. MA, on the other hand, largely keeps the basic Arabic grammar while eschewing the trickier aspects and also integrating French elements (such as the use of [l’] as a definite article instead of the Arabic [al] and the use of both [du] and the Arabic [min] to express possession). However, I still do not understand MA’s grammar patterns (i.e. the context when the Arabic grammatical elements are used vs. when the French grammatical elements are used). It largely seems random to me as an outsider, which is why I need to study it.
Hi Cutty,
I believe starting with phonetics is a great first step in learning your target language. Thankfully, in my target language, Korean, there is an alphabet so I can learn how to pronounce Korean characters with a system in mind. On the other hand, my native language, Cantonese/Mandarin, there is no alphabet system. Therefore, the pronunciation of characters and spelling is based on memory, which is one of the factors that make learning Mandarin or Cantonese so much harder than Korean.
Depending on the amount of money granted, I would first fly to the country that speaks my target language, so that would be South Korea. This way I can fully immerse myself into the language and the culture. I would take a few days to get comfortable with the culture, food, language, and lifestyle of native South Koreans. Then, I believe going to historical sites that are still preserved in South Korea can teach a tremendous amount about the traditions and cultural traditions that make up South Korean culture. One aspect of Korean culture that I am highly interested in is the formal versus informal language structure. It amazes me how there are different degrees of respect when it comes to Korean language and culture, but sometimes, it confuses me as in which type of language should I use. On the other hand, when I speak English in different settings, there isn’t a specific line between informal versus formal/respectful words. I typically just go with what I feel is appropriate at that moment.
I believe knowing which type of language to use (i.e. formal versus informal) depends on how comfortable I feel about the words and phrases to use in either type. Formal phrases are typically longer in Korean compared to informal. Distinguishing formality in written form is not the issue, but mainly knowing which one to use in which type of setting. The obvious situations such as during an interview, speaking to elders, or speaking to senior ranking coworkers use formal Korean is easy to remember. Additionally, I think it may be cumbersome to first think about what kind of relationship I have with the other party then choose which type of language to converse. However, I believe this issue for me would be resolved once traveling to South Korea and have countless interactions that would help me distinguish between formality. Studying the history of Korean formality would be an interesting path to pursue since respect seems to go hand in hand with formality. As someone just starting to learn Korean, the difference between formal versus informal may not seem clear at first, but I believe deciding which type to use is going to be second nature when I have a strong foundation built.
To start with a research study of my target language (Portuguese) and its culture, I would start with the origins and how the Portuguese came into existence.
In order to understand a culture we have to know where that culture is coming from. And for that, there is an important component learned during this course that we should take into account. That is the language family concept. So, I should clarify that Portuguese is a Romance language coming from the Indo-European family.
After knowing this initial information, I would start a more general search of information. However, what is true is that sometimes to understand their culture we have to know things about their language, and that is why I should also pay attention to Portuguese vocabulary to know certain words that are essential. For example, if I am researching food, I should know one basic world as it is ‘bacalhau ', which is one of the main dishes in Portugal.
Hi Pablo,
After a quick google search, bacalhau looks yummy! I have had salted fish in the past since my grandmother would prepare it during the fall season, but I never had anything like bacalhau before. Usually in Chinese culture, we eat salted fish on a bed of rice to neutralize the salty favor, but I am interested to know what the favor of bacalhau tastes like alone.