Week 10 Lab: TedEd Videos on Language

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 Does Grammar Matter?

  • The video also brought up an important point about how speech evolves language, and how positions of power dictated how language is spoken. I never knew that the standardized way of writing was pushed by those in power, but it does make sense. It's interesting to see how descriptivism and prescriptivism analyze language in unique, important ways.
  • I've actually never considered the role of grammar in a global context, but my language classes have pointed out how irregular sentence structures can be. For example, I'm currently learning Latin, and verbs and subjects can be placed wherever in a sentence, with adjectives following the noun. This is in stark contrast with English. As a result, I can see why these rules can make English difficult to learn.
  • The video also teaches of the divide within linguistics between the two fields. Prescriptivism considers the language to follow a consistent set of rules and standards, while descriptivism see variation and adaptation as a natural process of language. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but it's important to see how both fields connect with one another to show just how complex language development is. Overall, this video was really insightful!

How Languages Evolve:

  • The video was really fascinating, since linguistics follows the evolutionary framework similar to biological evolution. I took an Evolution class last semester, and this video shows so many parallels between both fields.
  • The video also taught me about the limitations of our understanding of language's evolution. It's difficult to learn and analyze old languages, and it's difficult to connect all these groups into one language. Furthermore, the point about political divides is important, since they divide languages even when the linguistic roots could be the same. This could make it difficult to connect languages in a historical context; old political divides could make similar languages go by different labels.

 

The diversity of language. Source: Flickr

 

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