What is folk theory in linguistics?

What is folk theory in linguistics?

Folk linguistics is the study of speakers’ opinions and beliefs about language, language varieties, and language usage. Adjective: folk-linguistic. Non-linguists’ attitudes toward language (the subject of folk linguistics) are often at variance with the views of specialists.

What is language according to linguists?

Language is the ability to produce and comprehend spoken and written words; linguistics is the study of language.

What is folk linguistics why should you care?

Abstract: Folk linguistics seeks to discover what nonlinguists know about language and to derive from that knowledge evidence of their underlying folk theory of language.

What is folk multilingualism?

a type of bilingualism that is associated with working-class immigrant communities where the native language is primarily oral and its use is unsupported by formal education.

What is the objective of perceptual dialectology studies?

Perceptual dialectology investigates what ordinary people (as opposed to professional linguists) believe about the distribution of language varieties in their own and surrounding speech communities and how they have arrived at and implement those beliefs.

What is multilingual and monolingual?

By definition ‘monolingual’ means the ability to speak only one language, ‘bilingual’ two languages and ‘multilingual’ several languages. Individuals who learn two languages in the same environment so that they acquire one notion with two verbal expressions are compound bilinguals.

What is multi linguistics?

multilinguist in British English (ˌmʌltɪˈlɪŋɡwɪst) a person who can speak several languages.

What is the difference between covert and overt prestige?

Overt prestige is related to standard and “formal” language features, and expresses power and status; covert prestige is related more to vernacular and often patois, and expresses solidarity, community and group identity more than authority.

What is folk linguistics in psychology?

Folk linguistics is the study of speakers’ opinions and beliefs about language, language varieties, and language usage. Adjective: folk-linguistic. Also called perceptual dialectology. Non-linguists’ attitudes toward language (the subject of folk linguistics) are often at variance with the views of specialists.

What are folk beliefs about language?

From a scientific perspective, folk beliefs about language are, at best, innocent misunderstandings of language (perhaps only minor impediments to introductory linguistic instruction) or, at worst, the bases of prejudice, leading to the continuation, reformulation, rationalization, justification, and even the development of a variety of social

What is an example of folk etymology?

Examples of folk etymology such as interpreting asparagus as “sparrow-grass”. These are cases where speakers deduce an incorrect word origin. Another folk etymology is the assumption that the New York place name Fishkill (on Fishkill Creek) means a place to kill fish.

Are on-linguists’ beliefs important?

As noted by Montgomery and Beal, ” [N]on-linguists’ beliefs have been discounted by many linguists as unimportant, as arising from a lack of education or knowledge, and therefore invalid as legitimate areas for investigation.”