Language Instinct - Essay Example

Language Instinct English is the first language to many people all over the world. It was and still is the rifest language in my native land. It was the only language spoken in my environs. My father being of Irish descent, my uncles and aunts used to teach me some Irish phrases when I was young. Unfortunately, I was not into Irish. The language I first studied was Latin. I studied Latin for two years in high school. The thought of being multilingual always intrigued me. When my father expatriated to Canada an opportunity presented itself, and I studied French to make blending in the Canadian environment efficient. Out of curiosity and thrill I could read and understand French eventually. The skills improved adversely during the three years in Canada. Since English and French are both national languages of Canada, I used both languages. However, I had interests in French and used it frequently making English dormant. The mastery of French fueled my thirst of multilingualism. Therefore, I decided to include an Asian language in my resume. The pursuit of studying an Asian language was out of my linguist interest to know many languages. I picked Chinese as my preferred language. The choice was merely mathematical; I decided to start with the furthest country from where I am. In addition to that, Chinese language also has varied dialects that make the whole language tricky. This further heightened my interests to study Chinese language since it would give me the challenge I desired. The classes were really demanding, and the language proved tricky since it was different from the English language where most of the words are pronounced as they are put down. In Chinese, one has to balance between reading and writing, as well as listening and speaking. The vocabulary must be memorized the old fashioned way. The vocabulary is memorized word after the word, and failure to combine the different words results to words that does not make sense (Kachru, & Nelson 149). The construction is not a matter of trial and error since the words are not tested to see if they make sense. A particular word is chosen for a particular sentence; and two sentences may contain the same type of words though with different meanings. In summary, the Chinese language is a tricky one. For a full articulation into the language, the oral skills must be sharpened. Oral classes are different form listening classes, so are reading classes different from writing classes. The grammar knowledge has to rhyme with the practical skills. The written syllables also sound different from the way they appear. Comparison of sounds Chinese vowels will be described to shed light on the complexity that can be encountered by any English speaker. The Chinese characters, called han-zi, were developed long ago, and they have developed over a long history. The earliest forms of characters date back to over 3000 years. There are rules that are used to arrange the characters as well as punctuate them. The characters are not constituted by an alphabet as English is. They are written in a logo symbolic manner. Chinese language has six vowels and these vowels are pronounced similar to the way other languages pronounce vowels (Kachru, & Nelson 143). The table below shows the vowels found in Chinese. a As in “Star” e As in “Stir” i As in “bit” o As in “law” u As in “boot” ü As in “yellow” Chinese syllable consist of 3 elements. The elements include the initial sound, final sound and the tone. The initial sounds are usually consonants. On the other hand, final sounds in a word must contain at least a vowel. There are syllables that consist of only an initial sound, while there are syllables that only consist of a final sound. In Mandarin Chinese, there are twenty one initial sounds unaspirated aspirated nasal Voiceless fricative Voiced fricative Labial B P M F Alveolar D T N I Velar G K H Palatal J Q X Dental sibilant Z C S Retroflex Zh ch sh r 35 final sounds Simple finals a,e,I,o,u, ü Compound finals ai, ao, ei, ia, iao, ie, iou, ou, ua, uai, üe, uei, uo Nasal finals Front nasals:an, en, ian, in, uan, üan, uen, ün Back nasals: ang, eng, iang, ing, iong, ong, uang, ueng Most of Chinese words are pronounced with the application of a lot of aspiration. Aspiration is exhalation or the puffing out of the air. In English, the difference between the sounds of g/k or b/p or d/t is the voicing of the first pair and not voicing of the second pair. Voicing implies that one can feel the lynx “buzzing”. In Chinese, the effect is the opposite. The first pair is not voiced while second pair is audibly voiced (Kachru, & Nelson 147). The voicing of the pairs is quite a challenge especially if Chinese is the first Asian language an individual is studying. Intonation is also used to differentiate the meaning of sound. Tones and modes are mostly used in English poetry to bring out the speakers feeling. However, tones in Chinese are used to bring out the difference in the same words used in a sentence construction. The phenomenal proved to be a tricky one in the whole process of learning Chinese. A sentence structure is based on the sounds of the word although some words may have more than one sound. In this case, the condition should not to be confused with an accent or dialect. Moreover, one word can be used in different sentences to give different meanings. Comparison of grammar English language expresses both location positions of objects in relation to a preposition. An example is the preposition ‘in’. ‘In’ includes both the idea of a location and the ‘insides’ of the said location. An example is, ‘in the car’. The phrase, ‘in the car’ has a different meaning from a phrase like ‘over the seat’ (Kachru, & Nelson 160). Both prepositions describe different locations. ‘In the car’ describes the inside of the car while ‘over the seat’ describes above the seat. The ‘over’ cannot exist without the presence of the seat. The ‘in’ cannot exist without the presence of the car. The location is tied to the position. In Chinese, location and physical relation of a preposition are not tied together. Chinese takes the preposition then adds a post-position to the subject. There are two positions in preposition description. The separation makes yet another difference between Chinese and English. For example, “over the seat.” In the phrase, “over” can exist without the seat and still have the same meaning as the original phrase. Chinese language also has a construction like, “over the seat there,” which is used to imply “over the seat”. Such a construction is considered as repetition in English. The removal of one location, let’s say, “over” or “there” gives the sentence a different meaning from the original (Kachru, & Nelson 159). Such cases make the English speaking people view objects in a different dimension as compared to the Chinese speaking. English have three dimensions in the construction of sentences on the basis of an object whereas the Chinese language has more than three dimensions in the construction of sentences in reference to a particular object. The English view events in a different light as compared to the Chinese. These differences in views explain the difference in expression between the two languages. Language and thought An object may seem like a subject, and a subject may seem like an object in some instances. The structural property of sentences makes it difficult to distinguish between the object and the subjects. English language characterization makes the Chinese language seem colloquial. One may only learn Chinese language by starting from its basics and advancing way up (Kachru, & Nelson 152). Comparing English words to Chinese words for translation may mislead a learner. Chinese translations to English have the same effect as the famous Russian translation of, “Ones meat is ones poison” to English. Words combination structures have different phrase structure using the same words. Objects in English are animated to express a certain process. The process of animating objects is also different from what is normally viewed in English. For example, “going down” in English means an object is undergoing the process of “go” to a place “down”. In Chinese, the same phrase is viewed as a concrete object rather than a process of transition from one place to another. Chinese language also view the environment and surroundings in a different manner compared to English (Kachru, & Nelson 149). The environment and surroundings defines linguists. Words and phrases are coined according to what is in the same space as the subject or object at hand. The different views on the environment and surrounding make the two languages very different in word and sentence construction. Words in Chinese are independent of the environment while words in English are dependent to the environment. The dependence and independence to environment presents a challenge to an English speaking learner. Learning should be independent on English background since picking same words from either language can be used to construct sentences with different meanings. The “isomorphism” of linguists is well defined by the two languages. The grammatical constructions of the two languages also differ a great deal. Acquisition English acquired at a very early stage makes one construct sentences without paying attention to rules of grammar. Through the construction of grammar, one is unable to define whether a sentence is grammatically correct or not. A person is not able to draw a clear cut line between the “correctness” and “wrongness” of a sentence. Exposure to a language determines the level of the acquisition to that particular language. Fluency is also determined by acquisition. The more exposed a person is to a certain language, the more acquainted he/she becomes to the language (Kachru, & Nelson 156). To master a language, one must have an instinctual ability. This is the use of instincts to determine the construction of sentences and phrases. On the other hand, using grammatical rules across different language platforms causes a big hindrance to acquisition. Therefore, different language grammatical rules must be memorized individually and not compared to one another for easy and efficient acquisition. Work Cited Kachru, Y. & Nelson, C. “World Englishes in Asian Contexts.” Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006. Print Read More

 

Read More