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Discussion Post #3
My target language, Catalan, fits well within Aitchison’s model of layered linguistic organization, from phonology and grammar to broader linguistic and other dimensions. At the grammatical level, its rich verbal morphology and SVO syntax structure shares a lot of similarities to other Romance languages that I am already familiar with. Therefore, grammatical acquisition for me is rather straightforward. Currently, my primary focus is on applied linguistics in order to build a basic understanding of Catalan. This includes paying attention to structures such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. As my understanding of the language increases increases, I consider to move toward sociolinguistic, anthropological linguistics and historical perspectives to develop a better understanding of Catalan, particularly its development from Latin and its divergence from other Romance, and specifically Ibero-Romance languages. Now having read Crystal’s How to Investigate Language…
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One of the main beginner pieces I learned was that Korean has the Subject-Object-Verb structure for a sentence. Although I am still on the beginner parts of learning Korean and have not done too much work with sentences, I know that this may cause me some difficulty. I have decided to change my way of thinking though so instead of trying to translate a sentence into English and get confused with the sentence structure, I am going to try to read it as it is and understand it in Korean. Because of the difference in sentence structure, I know that this may effect my way of understanding what I am reading or saying. When looking at the diagram on page 9, I know it is important to combine these different parts so that I fully understand the language. Right now I am more focused on phonetics because I am working with Emily to truly memorize the sounds that each letter of the Hangeul alphabet make. Even though I am learning these sounds, that does not mean that I understand what I am…
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What kinds of structures do you observe in your language of study?In Mandarin, I've observed basic syntactic structure. It follows SVO word order. I've also noticed morphological/grammatical words that modify sentences. Ma at the end of a sentence turns statements into questions, and de in the middle of a sentence usually before a noun shows possession. These can be added to sentences to change their function without changing the word order.How do you combine different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of your target language?Honestly, I haven't been intentionally combining disciplinary perspectives. My approach has been 99% applied linguistics. I'm learning full phrases from my friends and memorizing them for practical communication. This is technically touching on pragmatics since I'm learning phrases in their actual usage rather than in isolation, but it's not really a systematic approach to the disciplinary frameworks shown in Aitchison's…
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Bahasa Indonesia is often said to be one of the easier non-romance languages for English speakers to learn, and a large part of this is due to Indonesia’s linguistic structures. Grammatically, it is similar to English because both languages use an SVO word order. Another facet of Indonesian grammar is that there are no tenses to learn; vocabulary words provide context for when the action occurred. Adjectives also follow nouns, which I haven’t had as much trouble with, thanks to my previous Spanish learning. While there are many pronouns in Indonesian, in informal speaking/writing, people are referred to by name or by adding 'sir '/'ma'am' (Pak/Bu) before their name. Combining different disciplinary perspectives helps me better understand Bahasa Indonesia by allowing me to process my learning in chunks and connect my interests outside linguistics to my language study. Learning about the history and culture of Indonesia will give me a richer understanding of vocabulary and how to use…
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