Re: Learning a language

From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 06/14/04 

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:50:35 GMT

Eugene Holman wrote:
>
> In article <osao8rx1xvry$.1u7usezhqlqxb.dlg@40tude.net>,
> b.scott@csuohio.edu wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 17:51:21 -0400 "alexB"
> > <alexb7623@hotmail.com> wrote in
> > <news:10cpiq63qscgq84@corp.supernews.com> in sci.lang:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > What
> > > Atkinson says sounds totally irrational. He says that slaves first learned
> > > English, then after a few generations developed the Pidgin English. It does
> > > not make any sense whatsoever.
> >
> > Of course it does. The sequence that he's envisioning is
> > clear enough. The first slaves dealt directly with native
> > speakers of English; some learned the language reasonably
> > well, while others did not. Later slaves had little contact
> > with native speakers and were therefore exposed mostly to L2
> > speakers whose competence varied widely. From this point on
> > there would have been little reinforcement of the
> > native-speaker norms.
> >
> > I don't know whether this is right, but it's plausible, and
> > it certainly makes sense.
>
> Elaborating their own norms for English would also have given the slaves
> the elements of a new social identity. Addtionally, in condtions of
> illiteracy, with no mass communications, and most of their contact with
> native-speaker English being the local dialects, it seems obvious that the
> language of the slaves would embark on its own path of evolution.

"Elaborating their own norms"??

Have you been skimming Joshua Fishman with zero attention to the social
context of slavery? 

-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net

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  • Re: Learning a language
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  • Re: Learning a language
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    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Learning a language
    ... Could you rephrase it in a plain English. ... as a matter of in-group solidarity reinforced by vernacular norms. ... Norms that make it easy to distinguish "slaves' speech" from "masters' ...
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