LINGUIS 210 Montessori Training The Power of Words Questions Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1

LINGUIS 210 Montessori Training The Power of Words Questions Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2.Turdgill ch 1 and 2. LINGUIS 210; Pucci
The Power of Words
LINGUIS 210, Summer 2020
Focus questions for Chapter One, Trudgill
1. What points does the author make about the “function of language in establishing
social relationships,” and “the role played by language in conveying information about
the speaker?” (p. 2).
2. What is a “dialect continuum?” (p. 3)
3. The author makes a number of points about distinguishing between the terms dialect
and language. Although, in general, we refer to “mutual intelligibility” as linguistic
criteria, what other considerations does he offer? What was the most interesting, in your
view? What needs further clarification?
4. What is a “standard” variety of a language? Is it “better” than a non-standard variety?
How does the author explain this? What has the contribution of the “scientific study of
language” (p.8) been in this area?
5. What do the author’s discussions about the non-prevocalic r and pronunciations in
Martha’s Vineyard tell us about judgments about language, from both linguistic and
social points of view? (p. 9-13)
6. What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and why does the author maintain that we must
reject any “strong version” of this? (p. 15)
7. The author discusses ways of expressing kinship relationships. What does this tell us
about social environments and language? How is culture reflected, and how does
language change? (p. 16-18)
8. What did you find interesting about the subject of “taboo” words?
LINGUIS 210; Pucci
The Power of Words
LINGUIS 210; Summer 2020
Trudgill, Ch. 2:
1. How does the author use the terms barriers and distance, to explain both
geographical and social dialects?
2. What differences does the author cite to explain the difference between caste
dialects in India, and social dialects in the English speaking world? What is his purpose
in contrasting these two situations? (p. 25-27)
3. What has the shift from investigating isolated “pure” rural speakers of a dialect to
surveying large numbers in urban areas brought to the field of sociolinguistics? In what
ways has it increased our understandings?
4. What did you understand as being some of the major contributions of Labov? (p. 2831) Why does the author say he is a “methodological genius?” (p. 37).
5. The author defines “inherent variability” which means that the “variation in a dialect is
not due to missing two or more varieties but is an integral part of the variety itself” (p.
34). Why is this point important in understanding people’s speech? How does this
conclusion apply to the work on the ‘s’ in the third person singular?
6. The author ends the chapter asking “what exactly is the value of this kind of
information?” (p.39). What does he ask us to consider?

Purchase answer to see full
attachment