Onomatopoeia vs. Arbitrariness

 Onomatopoeia (The echo of nature)

The controversy among linguist concerning either language is arbitrary or onomatopoeia begins since 6 B.C. in the ancient Greek. There were two groups of linguist who had different concept of naming things in language; they were, in one side, phusis who believed that language was onomatopoeia and thesis, on the other side, who believed that language was arbitrary. 

• First was introduced by phusis;

• There are connections/associations between words and nature; 

• The echo of nature is used to name the concepts of material.

• Other examples of onomatopoeia:splash, pick, sway, etc.  

            

             Arbitrary 
“There be no direct, necessary connection between the nature of the things or ideas language deals with and the linguistic units or combinations by which these things or ideas are expressed”

• The language items have no direct connection with the concepts they represent;

• In naming things, human doesn't follow certain rule;

• The names of things are the result of convention among the language users.

Language, Dialect, and Varieties

Key terms:
Language variations
Language
Dialect
Accent
Idiolect
Sociolect

Internal Variation: the property of languages having different ways of expressing the same meaning. Importantly, this refers to within language, not across language, differences. (Phones, words, sentences)

External Variation?

Always remember DIALECT is NOT synonymous with accent

Regional Dialect

What are Isogloss, Dialect boundary, and Dialect continuum?
Criterion of mutual intelligibility

 Language issues and non linguistics factors
Prestige (standard vs. non-standard) Overt Prestige vs. Covert Prestige
The standard dialect is the dialect that is associated with prestige in the society at large.

Register (Class)
Politic

 Kinds of variation
• Phonological variations
• Morphological variations
• Syntactic variations
• Semantic variations


Can you give the examples for each?