1. Language History and Change
During the reading of this text, I realized how much a language can change, and
how similar two languages can be. This is the result, of course, of hundred of
years of evolution, and the exchange of cultural badge between people of
different countries and continents.
I realized, after reading, that the change of an original form of language, to what
we have now, is enormous. One dialect, of a specific place can derivate to a
complete new language, even though, the root of it is the same as other
languages that can sound completely dissimilar.
It is also very important, that the use of a language is not only measured by the
quantity of people who speak it, but also by its expansion around the world, with
the result of the use of the one which is more widely spoken, that the one with
the most native speakers (English and Chinese).
By comparison of different languages, I had the chance to realize how older
languages gave the seeds to modern languages, and how these new dialects
are related in small things like vowel or consonant sounds.
It is also, a very useful tool for teaching, to show to the students how English
and Spanish are related not only to each other, but also with German, French,
etc. It would be easier in a way, to teach to the students a foreign language,
looking for similarities between it, and their mother tongue.
The historical development of English, explained in the text with events, and
examples of language change, is an excellent help for the course. In unit one of
Lexical Analysis, a considerable amount of it is related to History in terms of
episodes during time that changed the language by adding new words and that
is very well explained along some passages of the document.
Also, during the reading of this text, what is very noticeable is that some
phenomenon of the change or evolution of the language is explained, and this is
an excellent support for teaching. The fact of knowing the processes of
language change will help us, as teachers, to explain to the students what can
affect the way we speak, and even how our own dialect could be in the future.
It is rather interesting, to see how English structure have changed across time. I
think that even for native speakers, it would be too hard to create
communication with Old or Middle English speakers. Of course, this is the same
with other languages, but English is our main topic. The cessation of the use of
some words is a particular interesting topic. How words are replaced by easier
or more usable ones, or the fact that new technologies make objects obsolete,
so specific or general words related to those objects are forgotten; even the
banning of some words, after conquest or political changes.
Broadening and narrowing, as two phenomenon of the acquisition of words, is
very helpful for this course, due to the fact that these terms are covered in some
units.
Is an important matter, to emphasize that these changes are gradual; therefore
most of us will not notice these changes in our own languages.