COLEGIO ANGLO MEXICANO DE COYOACÁN
S E C U N D A R I A
ES4-614
CICLO ESCOLAR 2016-2017
GUIDE
LITERATURE
Nombre del alumno: ____________________________________Grupo:_________
Fecha: _________________
Read the passage. Then answer the
questions below.
The Creators of Grammar
No student of a foreign language
needs to be told that grammar is complex.
By changing word sequences and by adding a range of auxiliary verbs and
suffixes, we are able to communicate tiny variations in meaning. We can turn a statement into a question,
state whether an action has taken place or is soon to take place, and perform
many other word tricks to convey subtle differences in meaning. Nor is this complexity inherent to the
English language. All languages, even those
of so-called 'primitive' tribes have clever grammatical components. The Cherokee pronoun system, for example, can
distinguish between 'you and I', 'several other people and I' and 'you, another
person and I'. In English, all these
meanings are summed up in the one, crude pronoun 'we'. Grammar is universal and plays a part in
every language, no matter how widespread it is.
So the question which has baffled many linguists is - who created
grammar?
At first, it would appear that this
question is impossible to answer. To
find out how grammar is created, someone needs to be present at the time of a
language's creation, documenting its emergence.
Many historical linguists are able to trace modern complex languages
back to earlier languages, but in order to answer the question of how complex
languages are actually formed, the researcher needs to observe how languages
are started from scratch. Amazingly,
however, this is possible.
Some of the most recent languages
evolved due to the Atlantic slave trade.
At that time, slaves from a number of different ethnicities were forced
to work together under colonizer's rule.
Since they had no opportunity to learn each other's languages, they
developed a make-shift language called a pidgin. Pidgins are strings of words copied from the
language of the landowner. They have
little in the way of grammar, and in many cases it is difficult for a listener
to deduce when an event happened, and who did what to whom. [A] Speakers need to use circumlocution in
order to make their meaning understood.
[B] Interestingly, however, all it takes for a pidgin to become a
complex language is for a group of children to be exposed to it at the time
when they learn their mother tongue. [C]
Slave children did not simply copy the strings of words uttered by their
elders, they adapted their words to create a new, expressive language. [D] Complex grammar systems which emerge from
pidgins are termed creoles, and they are invented by children.
Further evidence of this can be seen
in studying sign languages for the deaf.
Sign languages are not simply a series of gestures; they utilise the
same grammatical machinery that is found in spoken languages. Moreover, there are many different languages
used worldwide. The creation of one such language was documented quite recently
in Nicaragua. Previously, all deaf people were isolated from each other, but in
1979 a new government introduced schools for the deaf. Although children were taught speech and lip
reading in the classroom, in the playgrounds they began to invent their own
sign system, using the gestures that they used at home. It was basically a pidgin. Each child used the signs differently, and
there was no consistent grammar.
However, children who joined the school later, when this inventive sign
system was already around, developed a quite different sign language. Although it was based on the signs of the
older children, the younger children's language was more fluid and compact, and
it utilised a large range of grammatical devices to clarify meaning. What is more, all the children used the signs
in the same way. A new creole was born.
Some linguists believe that many of
the world's most established languages were creoles at first. The English past tense –ed ending may have evolved
from the verb 'do'. 'It ended' may once
have been 'It end-did'. Therefore it
would appear that even the most widespread languages were partly created by
children. Children appear to have innate
grammatical machinery in their brains, which springs to life when they are
first trying to make sense of the world around them. Their minds can serve to create logical,
complex structures, even when there is no grammar present for them to copy.
1
In paragraph 1, why does the writer include information about the
Cherokee language?
A To show how simple, traditional cultures can have complicated grammar
structures
B To show how English grammar differs from Cherokee grammar
C To prove that complex grammar structures were invented by the
Cherokees.
D To
demonstrate how difficult it is to learn the Cherokee language
2
What can be inferred about the slaves' pidgin language?
A It contained complex grammar.
B It was based on many different languages.
C It was difficult to understand, even among slaves.
D It was created by the land-owners.
3
All the following sentences about Nicaraguan sign language are true
EXCEPT:
A The language has been created since 1979.
B The language is based on speech and lip reading.
C The language incorporates signs which children used at home.
D The language was perfected by younger children.
4
In paragraph 3, where can the following sentence be placed?
It included standardised word orders
and grammatical markers that existed in neither the pidgin language, nor the
language of the colonizers.
A
B
C
D
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