Short and final thoughts

I had compiled a rather large response to this blog, but then, somehow, decided against posting it.

I have failed to have been convinced of many of the conclusions to which I have been compelled in this class. I'm still a Prescriptivist and still believe in having a national language.

The class overall has been undoubtedly fascinating. I am hoping that a majority of students will be capable of re-examining their own speech in relation to its context in a thoroughly racist, imperial, and patriarchal world.

I would engender to understand how a vastly different society organizes its mechanisms of authority.

After this class I would want to speak to those who had a passion for what was discussed.

Goodnight.

what was it all about?

I have learned a lot from this course about language that I had never thought of or noticed before. For me, the most interesting idea that we learned about was how language helps define a person's identity. I notice it so much more now, that the way people speak and the words they use really do have a huge influence on how they are percieved. Just by having a short conversation with someone, you can find out so much about them by studying their language, like where they are from, or whether they are a prescriptivist or are more laid back. I hope that by completing this final project, it will give another opportunity to see how much language can influence a situation in the real world (rather than just talking about it in class). I think that by taking this class I have learned to better understand what people are saying, not only because I pay closer attention to their words, but also because I notice how and why they say things, so I can sort of read between the lines a little better than before.

Post 9

In this course, I found that language and its uses are very powerful. Now I keep catching myself trying to analyze there speech and speech environment. Before this course I never put much though into language, or how our language roots came from. I found it very interesting on how some people will use certain language to control another group of people. I definitely know a lot more about how language is used through out the world now at the end of the semester than I did before this class started. The things I learned in this class will be a great help in finishing my final project. In my final project I am going to the senior center with my grandma and playing bingo with all the other senior citizens.

Greater Awareness

I have learned so much in this course about the tremendous influence language has on our society. It is amazing to think back on this semester. We have gone over so much information in many different areas such as history, politics, race, gender, power struggles, etc. The biggest thing I have come out of this class with is increased awareness. I have become much more aware of how people use language to identify themselves. I have noticed that this class has caused me to listen to the way others interact with each other. I like observing the way all the little subcultures in our city use language. I caught myself listening to two gamers the other day. At first I didn't notice I had been listening to them and analyzing the way they were using language. When I finally realized I had been observing their language practices, it dawned on me that I have been making observations like that since after our first paper. I believe the ability to break down and analyze language is a very valuable skill that I will be able to use throughout my life.

Post 9

From this class, I will probably remember, mostly, that I became more informed about the variety of races and different perspectives the world has on them. There were a few words that I learned in this class that I have never heard before and I may or may not remember them in the future. One new word that I learned was ‘the C-word.’ From the things I learned in this class, I will be able to apply them and use them in my final paper. I know more what is expected now than I did at the beginning of the semester. In my final project I will discuss the language use of loan officers in a bank while they converse with different dealers. I will probably use what I learned in this class in my everyday life as I converse with people especially those who are not my same race.

dialectology

In this course, I discovered the most interesting aspects of lingustical transformation. The language is a reflection of our thoughts, mentality, and our expression towards the world. The historical circumstances, traditions, and culture have a great influence on language. The way in which we speak identifies us who we are. This is our identity. Through the course of dialectology, we found the different lingustical variations of American English. There are vernacular and social dialects, which have interesting historical development. USA is a big country with many ethno groups, which have their own history, traditions, and ways of development. Therefore, it is not surprisingly that all those dialects so different, unusual, and unique.
The study of dialects itself is, the study of variant features within a language, their history, differences of form and meaning, interrelationships, distribution, and, more broadly, their spoken as distinct from their literary forms. This discipline recognizes all variations within the bounds of any given language; it classifies and interprets them according to historical origins, principles of development, characteristic features, areal distribution, and social correlates. For example when we talk about AAE, we all realize the history of African American ethnicity and understand the way in which their dialect had been formed. So it is all about dialects. Now we are witnesses another lingustical revolution is the bilingual transformation of Spanish English. Again we can follow all steps to answer on one simple question is why do we have such kind of phenomenon as Spanish English. There is because of great population of Spanish speakers in the country. However to find out the deep roots of lingustical transformation we should look very carefully in anthropological and etymological retrospections. Because every language is own culture and history of ethno group. And we are investigators on philological fields who wants to learn all those aspects in the lingustical system.

Post 9--Last Post: What was it all about?

Hi everyone,

In this, the last post, I'd like you to reflect on the course. Today, when we talked about English as an official language, so many themes of the semester came up: language and identity, language and power, politics and language, diversity, "-isms" (racism, etc.), language and nationality, education, etc. I think it's a great topic for the last discussion day of the course.

What about you? As you reflect back on the course, what will you take with you from it both in the short and mid/long-term? How will your experiences in this course affect how you undertake your final project? What questions would you like to answer about language through your final project? What about after the class? Do you think that you'll apply any of the concepts/knowledge that we experienced in this course to life? to school? to whatever?

Thank you for a great class. I still think this was one of the smartest classes I've ever had. If only it was also one of the most "attended" ; - ).

Tiffany