Catch Up #4: Topics in Linguistics

As I said, Linguistics was a very interesting class, especially once we started talking about things other than parts of a sentence. I learned how to transcribe a word--write it the way it sounds rather than the way it's spelled. It's like learning a whole new alphabet. That's more difficult than you would think, because there are many words that people pronounce differently because of dialects. For example, some people (especially those in the South) are likely to pronounce 'pen' the same way they pronounce 'pin.' So the word 'pen' can be transcribed in 2 different ways.

Here are some other topics we covered that I thought were very interesting:

1. Sometimes, words are spelled differently from the way they are pronounced. For instance, you don't pronounce the 'w' in 'whole.' The pronounciation of words started changing from Middle English to Modern English in about the 1400s, which means the way words were pronounced started changing. This is why 'e' at the end of a word is often silent, why we say 'laf' when it's spelled 'laugh.' Apparently, a man named William Caxton brought the printing press to England in the 1490s. This was very important for spelling. Eventually, if he had not brought the printing press, spelling would have become more based around pronounciation. Now, we spell many words very differently from how we pronounce them. Without the printing press, they would be spelled and pronounced the same way.

2. I did not expect this topic to be raised in Linguistics, but communication between the genders--genderlect--is apparently a studied area for linguists. This was my favorite part. There was only one boy in the class, so we girls had a lot to say about it. We learned that:
A. Men interrupt more than women
B. Women ask more questions than men
C. Men lecture, but women converse
D. Both genders talk roughly the same amount (believe it or not!)
E. Women stay on the same topic more often because they go into great detail; men change
topic more often.
F. Women engage in facilitation--making sounds to show they're listening (yeah, uh-huh,
wow, etc.), and men do not.
These are just a few of the things we learned about the differences in how men and women communicate. I think that it would be very useful for men and women to learn about these differences. I think it would help lessen miscommunication and improve relationships. For example, women often complain that men don't listen to them; what they don't realize is that men don't feel the need to facilitate conversation as women do. It does not mean that they aren't listening. If you're interested in more of this topic, look up Deborah Tannen. She is the leading researcher in this area.

3. Everyone who speaks English follows discourse patterns that are familiar in our culture; when someone does not follow the pattern we expect, we become confused and uncomfortable. When we call someone on the phone, we expect them to say hello, or something along those lines. But according to one study, when we expect that, and someone answers, "Smith residence," we often pause, and say, "Uuh... is Beth there?" Though this is normal in other cultures, it isn't in America. Another example has to do with compliments. Have you ever noticed that many people become uncomfortable when someone compliments them? We're not sure how to respond. If we say "thank you," we feel like we're being egotistical. Another study found that continually complimenting a person makes them suspicious and angry. Ever told someone, "You look so pretty today," and then they replied, "Ok, what do you want?" Apparently, this is pretty common. We don't like to be complimented. Here's a good experiment that, eventually, I will attempt: Compliment someone over and over and over. See how they react. They won't like it after a while.

Those are the three most interesting things I learned in Linguistics. I hope you find the information useful!