Language_Acquisition_vs._Language_Socialization

Learning to Communicate: Theories of Anthropologists and Linguists When understanding language and communication, anthropologists and linguists study people, societies, languages and cultures in different ways. Linguists study what is referred to as language acquisition, the process by which humans acquire the capacity to learn a language and use words to communicate. These studies focus more on grammar and structure of language and how people gain the knowledge of and capacity for words and communication. Anthropologists study language socialization which is the process of acquiring language to be integrated into a community and to learn social norms of speaking. This involves the study of how individuals are taught to use language to be considered as a competent member of their society. With different approaches, these two fields of study explore the concept and ways of individuals learning language to become competent in communication with others. One subject of study within linguistics is linguistic competence. When acquiring a language, certain rules of sentence structure must be followed in order for the individual to make sense to be able to communicate with the rest of the society. In order to be considered as a linguistically competent individual, one must be able to relay their thoughts in a clear, understandable manner that follows the rules of grammar. For instance, in the English language the sentence “I would like a hamburger” is the correct way to order a hamburger. However, “A hamburger would like I” is incorrect because of the improper sentence structure; a person that is linguistically incompetent (at least in English) could possibly produce a sentence like this. If an individual came into the United States and did not know how to properly speak English, they would be looked down upon in this society because of their incompetence for the language. There are 5 layers of language structure: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. In all languages, phonetics (production of sounds), phonology (patterns formed by the way sounds are combined) and morphology (the structure and formation of words) are extremely similar. Syntax (structure and formation of sentences) and semantics (meaning of sentences) differ from language to language. In order to be linguistically competent, a person must be able to form sentences by properly using these five layers of structure. Linguists loosely define linguistic competence as the speaker’s ability to produce and understand sentences using the correct structure. In order to be considered as linguistically competent, one must understand the structure of sentences and the ability to correctly use words within this structure. In addition to linguistic competence, another subject of study is called communicative competence. Communicative competence encompasses the five layers of language structure that has been described in the previous paragraph as well as the social knowledge of when and how to appropriately speak. Communicative competence occurs when an individual talks and what they say is an appropriate response for the conversation. Within communicative competence, there are three subcategories of competence: grammatical (words and rules, 5 layers of language structure), sociolinguistic (appropriateness) and strategic competence (appropriate use of communication strategies). For example, if someone is crying, a communicatively competent individual would not ask the person crying why they are so happy. If an individual were to do this, they would be out casted by the other person for incompetence which, in this case, comes across as a sarcastic, rude remark. Communicative and linguistic incompetence are similar in the aspect that they both require the proper knowledge of language structure. They differ because communicative competence requires not only linguistic competence but social knowledge and understanding; one can be linguistically competent but not communicatively competent. Another controversial comparison within the fields of linguistics and anthropology is the argument of how language is actually acquired. One theory of this is called empiricism. This idea states that when children are born, they do not know anything about language or grammar and that language socialization is taught through imitation. Philosopher John Locke believed in that the empiricist theory is true; he believed that all children are born with a tabula rasa or blank slate. Empiricists argue that language is acquired through experience with words, sentences, etc. However, this notion is flawed and disagreed with. The dissenting theory is called nativism, or the innateness hypothesis, which is the linguist argument in favor of language acquisition. The innateness hypothesis (made popular by the linguist Noam Chomsky) states that all languages follow the same principles called ‘Universal Grammar’ (UG) which is inborn knowledge in every child. Chomsky argues that the concept of UG is far too complex for children to comprehend based on their ability to understand as well as their limited experiences, therefore this grammar must be hardwired into every individual’s brain or coded in the DNA of humans. Explanations that rationalists (those that agree with Chomsky and the innateness hypothesis) provide for children acquire language are that language is learned through correction and reinforcement, influence from guardians and the role of cognitive development. The innateness theory is valid because it does not depend on language acquisition by imitation; children do not learn how to speak solely by imitating what their parents/ guardians say. Since children can form sentences that they have not heard before, the innateness hypothesis and concept of UG are proven to be true. A child is able to produce this sentence “My dog is green and blue” even though the sentence is false and not previously said to the child. This proves that language is not learned by imitation because children can produce any statement that they can form. Finally, when collecting research on language acquisition and language socialization, there are two methods of collecting data: recordings and ethnographic data. Ethnographic data is used by anthropologists to study different cultures throughout the world. Ethnography encompasses the study of people, languages, ethnicities, composition of countries, etc. This is an example of researching language socialization because ethnography shows how language affects culture because of the make-up of individual countries and their regions. Ethnography is the anthropological way to study language socialization throughout the world. However, linguists used recorded data (video and tape) to study language acquisition. Linguists record data from people in different countries/ regions of the world, from individuals in the same country but at different points in their lives, from the same person but at various ages, etc. Where anthropologists focus on how language affects socialization, linguists are interested in how individuals advance with language. Language acquisition and language socialization both encompass the way that people learn, use and understand language, but those that study either one these two topics study different aspects of how language affects the everyday life of humans. Linguists research how we learn to speak, form sentences and how these humans are ‘pre-wired’ to acquire language. Anthropologists also research how people speak and form sentences, but they study how language affects people, their society and the world. Though Anthropology and Linguistics research Universal Grammar, they differ in how language is studied in relation to cultures and people and how language is learned.