week 2- speech acts

So. This week we learnt about speech acts. This was all new and interesting to me as I had never really taken a module about the English language, or linguistics, but what struck me the most was the inherent value of language itself. We use language on a day-to-day basis, often taking it for granted. I had previously learnt, during literature classes, that language can convey power; how the persona speaks may convey his authority. But only during the lecture did it hit me..Yes, language actually DOES things. Which is quite scary. When I took the MRT train home, the 'reserved seat' sign popped out at me and got me thinking: "that's exactly what I learnt today, that sign actually makes people give up their seats". That, is actually quite amazing, though not as majorly significant in the way a marriage vow changes your life forever, which was an example given in class. Then I linked it to Psychology...indeed the way you say things can determine whether people do what you say. Wouldn't you like to know. Haha.

We also learnt about how studies can be cross-cultural (between people of different cultures speaking their own native languages), interlanguage (between people with varying competencies of the same language. It should really be intralanguage, no?) and sociopragmatic (how different factors in society affect how speech is performed, like class or gender or age). Wow. I would only have been able to think of the first and last research areas. The three different aspects of possible research provided me with food for thought... For interlanguage variation, maybe comparing a native speaker with a new learner would yield variations in types of words used, like how people trying to learn a new language often learn in stages, such as pronounciation and alphabets, then nouns and verbs. Usually grammar comes in at a later stage, because you only need it when you string the nouns and verbs into sentences. Ah. Which also explains why some of my friends learning English have brilliant vocabulary but have more problems with sentence construction.

Sociocultural variation is so..sociological. Haha. It's probably a vicious cycle, like how sociocultural factors determine language used, and as we all know, language is about doing power. Thus..the language people use reflects the power they have, whether it is in terms of their education level, SES, class, and also determines the power they have, such as their access to resources, and their life chances. For example, someone born in an illiterate family grows up lacking language competency, affecting his access to job opportunities and it all feeds back into the system so he remains poor! How discouraging. Nah, of course individual motivation plays a big part too...

And then, we talked about how Chinese and American people generally give, and respond to compliments differently, and how this reflects the cultural values of a society. The former usually rejects compliments, while the latter accepts or deflects them. I recalled an incident when I had been chatting online with a friend in China. I complimented him for being smart, and he rejected it, saying that he was stupid. Correspondingly, I replied by saying no, he wasn't. His reply then was:" I know, I'm just being polite". I has thought this slightly strange at that time, but now I see that it's due to cultural differences! Indeed, modesty seems to be valued in Chinese societies. Even in Singapore... although our class exercise showed a somewhat expected migration towards Western patterns of compliment acceptance. During Chinese New Year for example, people always say that I'm smart, being able to enter university, and I find myself answering:" No lah..". Maybe like what someone suggested, we respond differently to compliments about our performance, and our possessions, and are more likely to accept the latter.

Wow. This entry is longer than I expected. Haha. Well, overall, from the first two lectures, I've already felt like I learnt something about different cultures. It seems to offer additional insight on Cultural Studies, my minor, which was partly my intention in taking this module, apart from the fact that it sounded interesting. So.. here's to a good start!