Role-Shifting & Linguistic Performance through the Works of Zora Neal Hurston

     

    Zora Neal Hurston was a profound and unparalleled Black female author of the twentieth century. She is famous for works such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, both of which highlight African American Vernacular English in the south. Why is it necessary for this language to be just as recognized and valorized? Because it is a crucial component to our country's social and literary history. Today, there is racist discourse that is still running rampant in conversation with Black English. It is classified as not being "grammatically correct" or "standard English," especially when regarding Black youths in the education system. Contrary to this symptom of systematic racism, this is a language that is alive and well and here to stay. 

    In regards to today's conversation, Ben Rampton defines “situational code-switching as a relatively routine ‘contextualization cue’, in which speakers introduce (and recipients accept) a new but fairly familiar and accessibly definition of the situation.” (Coupland & Jaworski 293) In regards to the specifics of Hurston’s role as a writer, her circumstances at one point are what contributed to her apparent “passivity.” While working in New York, she had a wealthy white benefactor who always sought to control the "Black narrative" she wanted to be written. This was a direct assault on language and the depiction of African American artists. As a result, this caused the prominent author to play different "roles" in her career in order to financially survive. Like many starving artists, Hurston needed to subsist in a competitive world that wasn't designed for her. While many would admire her for her perseverance, her actions supported the notion of “strategic essentialism” as described by Danielle Fosler-Lussier: “…a disempowered people’s temporary use of stereotypes about themselves to promote their own interests—in this case, to guard a valued heritage against a specific act of appropriation.” (Fosler-Lussier 79) This upset her fellow African American authors and artists of the time, for they felt she was catering to the white audience, the one that was profiting off of their work. 

    Their Eyes Were Watching God finally reemerged within classrooms, giving her a newfound platform and stage for her narrative. When the protagonist Janie and her husband Joe (who is the newly elected mayor of Eatonville) are speaking before a crowd, an onlooker asks: “And now we’ll listen tuh uh few words uh encouragement from Mrs. Mayor Starks.” (Hurston 43) Her husband responds: “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home.” (Hurston 43) Throughout this portion of the novel, the townspeople look up to Joe not just as a mayor, but consider him to be Godlike, their "savior." It’s almost as if the town is referencing to the “naïve Black person” looking for anything they can get in terms of settlement and a good life. Despite his Joe's detestable behavior, he is always lauded and worshipped as this biblical figure. And portraying the everyday working Black person as desperate and naïve will naturally cause for criticism and reevaluation of her work from the Black perspective. 

Hurston was an unparalleled author, anthropologist, and literary visionary during her time, and continues to be in our high school and college classrooms. Despite social issues within her own community, and Hurston’s apparent passivity, she was a visionary Black female author that did what she needed to survive and create. She highlighted a language that still receives so much criticism and disdain to this day, and reminds her audiences that validity and relain of African American Vernacular English. 

The Celtic Influence in the English Language.

(Flag)

            For centuries it has been believed that the Celtic languages had very little influence on the English language. Of the sixteen Celtic languages that have existed, there are only six left: Irish, Manx, Scottish, Breton, Cornish, and Welsh. Knowing that there were so many different versions of the Celtic languages, it makes sense that some of those languages made an impact on the ever-evolving English language from the fifth century to the present day. The more apparent languages that have influenced English are German, Danish, French, and Latin. Still, the Celtic languages have been wholly dismissed by historians claiming that the Anglo-Saxons would never stoop so low to take on a common language. While conducting my research on the topic, I found that previous scholars from the past century had very similar views to Otto Jespersen, who did not view the Celtic languages in a kind light. A book called The Celtic Roots of English, written by Markku Filppula et al. uses many examples of the kind of thinking that was put forth in the early twentieth century:

        “We now see why so few Celtic words were taken over into English. There was nothing to induce the ruling classes to learn the language of the inferior natives; it could never be fashionable for them to show an acquaintance with that despised tongue by using now and then a Celtic word. On the other hand, the Celt would have to learn the language of his masters and learn it well; he could not think of addressing his superiors in his own unintelligible gibberish.”  

 This view and the view of other scholars is called the ‘Germanist View’, where the belief holds to this day that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the native British and made the women slaves and wives, intending to purify the new country that they had taken over. 

           The belief that the Celtic languages made little to no impact on English besides place names and surnames was not challenged or looked at more closely until the middle of the twentieth century. The new challenges to the Germanist views are highly intriguing, stating that there is archeological evidence that the native British were not wholly extracted but that there was a much more peaceful transition that took a few thousand years. The archeological findings are crucial in the new line of questioning as to why earlier scholars were so determined to have their views put forth as absolute truth. The population of Anglo-Saxons was far fewer than that of the natives when they first arrived in England, so massive immediate extinction of the native British was highly unlikely and has been proven to be untrue. With that said, there was a period of bilingualism between the Anglo-Saxons and native British, “There must have been at least some degree of close relationship and intermarriage, through which British personal names were taken into Anglo-Saxon” (Filppula et al.). Knowing that personal names and place names have been a part of the English language for some time now, more and more evidence is coming to light that the Celtic language may have played a much more significant role in the English language that was once believed. The Celtic influence on English still exists and can be found in more regional dialects of England, specifically the North and Southwest regions. 

           

            An example that has been widely researched and discussed is the word ‘do.’ The Periphrastic DO has only been found in the Celtic languages and does not originate from any other language. ‘DO’ was put in place for questions, negatives, an “emphatic” contexts. There has also been a lot of work on the Celtic Hypothesis and a host of words where their origins are still being debated or have not been given a place to settle. 

The idea that Celtic languages had an influence on English is still relatively new, and there is a lot more research to be done. The scholars who have scratched more than the surface still update their findings as new theories and evidence come to light. I think this idea is fascinating and could drastically change the way we see the world and its languages. For linguists to pursue this line of work and prove the old research was seemingly misled and came from less evidence and from more of a personal viewpoint is very fitting with the ideologies of today’s world. 

Are Bilingual Settings Beneficial to Bilingual Students’ Language Development?

Classroom Image

There are conflicting viewpoints about bilingual education. Some scholars and teachers believe that it helps the student develop in both languages, while others think that it does not benefit the student’s language development. The internet has a large amount of educator websites and blogs that spew a ton of differing information out there. I believe, that as of now, bilingual education is not truly benefitting students’ language development in both languages. I encourage anyone to perform their own research and read what is being said about this topic, but also evaluate those sources critically. 

I came to my own conclusion about bilingual education by reading various online resources. As you read on, you will see how some authors differ in credibility than others and how that helped me in making my own decision about bilingual education. To start, Dr. Nelson Flores proposes “The most effective English language learning programs, Flores said, are dual language bilingual education programs” (How Monolingual Teachers Can Support Bilingual Students). He is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, which makes him qualified to discuss these topics, but he does not use any data from scholarly research to back his claim. He does not provide the readers any sort of articles or textbooks that he learned from. There are also no test scores provided to show that bilingual students are doing better with their language development in a bilingual setting.  

While Dr. Flores is advocating for bilingual education with no research to back it up, Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras explain why a bilingual education is not actually beneficial for students. Gandara and Contreras use research to support their claim that:

Although well-implemented bilingual programs can claim a "moderate" advantage over English-immersion instruction, no language intervention has erased the gap between English speakers and English learners, or between native-English white children and Latinos (Bilingual Education: The Failed Experiment)

Gandara and Contreras use a multitude of scholarly sources throughout their article on ¡Colorín Colorado!. They explain historical background and evaluate research for their readers. In doing so, Gandara and Contreras provide a substantial counterargument to anyone that believes bilingual education is helpful to bilingual students’ language abilities. 

         In my own research this semester in Linguistics, I wrote about bilingual students and teacher influence. One section of my paper included research about a code-switching (alternating between two or more languages) classroom. In this article titled "Teacher's Code-Switching and Bilingual Children's Heritage Language Learning and Cognitive Switching Flexibility",the preschool classes that participated in the study included teachers that would teach English for part of the day and a Singapore national language for the other part of the day. Ultimately, He Sun, Nurul Yussof, Poorani Vijayakumar, Gabrielle Lai and Beth Ann O’Brien provided findings that the code-switching did not provide the students with any vocabulary development in their home language. The main purpose of bilingual education is to increase ability in both languages simultaneously; Sun and his colleague’s scholarly reviewed study proved that this setting was not increasing ability.

         I do not think providing bilingual education to students is beneficial for their language development. The research demonstrates that the students are not increasing language ability from these types of settings any more than they would in a general monolingual setting with some supports. By understanding that bilingual classrooms are not increasing students’ language development, then teachers and linguistic scholars may be able to come together to find different ways that will make a positive impact on the bilingual students’ linguistic development. 

Language in Marketing

Language in Marketing 

  In the world of marketing and business, words are used to communicate in more than one way. Language is used to sell a product, to draw curiosity and interest, and to get consumers to want to buy the product at hand. Using persuasive language is going to attract customers to the product. According to entrepreneur.com, these are the top ten persuasive words that a customer wants to hear to draw them in for a purchase.  

   Being persuasive is not the only way you can draw a customer in for a purchase. Language in marketing is used to draw the attention of a consumer to the product. Most of the time, this is done by using slogans or catch phrases that will either remain in a consumer’s head if they hear it on the radio or television, or, catch the consumer’s eye if they pass it on a billboard.

Picture from blogspot.com via google images

 According to the article “Marketers take a fresh look at the language barrier” from the New York Times, written by Eric Pfanner, companies have different marketing strategies for different places. Marketing in different areas would be effective different ways for targeting consumers. Marketers should know that slogans and the content of what they are trying to sell is going to differentiate depending on where they are marketed. To make sure that the slogans and selling points are clear and concise, the language needs to be understood by the consumers. The language must appeal to people who already buy the product and future consumers.

  Memes are another way that consumers can communicate to consumers. According to the article “Meme Marketing: How Brands are Speaking a New Consumer Language” on Forbes, marketers are jumping at the chance to use social media to their advantage. The marketing team tailors the content so that it will attract the most amount of people via social media. This new way of marketing is going to attract the attention of more consumers which will hopefully lead to the increase of sales. Marketers must use technology and what is popular at the time to boost consumer response.

    The power of words and use of language in marketing is important. Especially in making advertisements to sell the product. According to an article on morethanbranding.com, “Both Advertising and Marketing use graphical, textual, verbal or sound communication tools in order to construct messages that lead to consumption of products and services that are offered by a brand…” According to the article, is the marketing team does these six things, it will be successful in the use of the language to attract consumers. The messages should be simple, they should effectively communicate a story, it should be short and concise, the context should be effective, use rhetoric language that is understandable, and use symbology that consumers will understand and will be effective.  

            The use of language in marketing should be able to draw the attention of the consumer to the product. The marketing strategies should be able to sell the product from the slogan and the advertisement.

Bilingualism in Education

Bilingualism is the fluency or use of two languages. Being a country who often gets people from all around the world, America is often introduced to people who can speak more than one language. Bilingual students often face many challenges in a classroom, as well as many advantages. While many teachers struggle with teaching their students, others have help from those around them to succeed in teaching their bilingual students. Being a student who’s parents came to the United States from a different country, I know first hand what struggles bilingual students have to face.

Many school systems do not understand the importance of students knowing two languages. They are so focused on what they know how to speak, that they forget how valuable knowing two languages can be for a student. 

The New York Times published an article titled The Spanish Lesson I Never Got at School written by a bilingual student whos parents came to the U.S as immigrants and put him in a public, English speaking school. Hector Tobar speaks of the troubles he faced in public schools because of the two languages he is fluent in. Tobar tells his readers that public schools concentrate so much on English grammar, but in their Spanish classes, they focus so much on how to speak, rather than the grammar concept which is equally important. While mastering English is very important, taking away from the other language is taking away from an important life-long skill. Knowing two languages is something priceless, and schools do not fully understand that.

The Guardian posted an article, Bilingualism offers 'huge advantages', claims Cambridge University head where Leszek Borysiewicz talks about the importance of allowing children to become as bilingual in the school systems as they possibly can. 

Leszek Borysiewicz, vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, sees bilingualism is an important asset. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

Borysiewicz believes that allowing students in schools to learn different languages and become bilingual, is enhancing heritage which is something that we should all learn about in order to grow as individuals.

While both Borysiewicz and Tobar both agree that students should learn more than one language for they will benefit from it, an article posted on The Atlantic, The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism says otherwise. Ed Yong explains that although many people believe that students who are bilingual benefit from two languages by learning much quicker, and are more likely to preform well on exams, Yong proceeded to do research and found that a bilingual advantage only shows up in one in six tests of executive function. Therefore, he does not believe that bilingual students are more advanced or have more benefits as any other student does.

All three articles have their own opinions when it comes to bilingualism in a classroom. Some believe that it is important and beneficial, while others do not believe that there is any difference between a student who only speaks one language. It is important to educate today's society through social media, and open up their minds to the endless possibilities when it comes to our school district and what it is allowing our students to learn and take with them throughout their future.

Signing Stars- "Singing" in ASL

         

Signing Stars- "Singing" in ASL

         In this crazy world of colliding views, constant fighting, and partitions in beliefs, there is one 
thing that everyone has accepted- country music is terrible. No? Okay, rap is just babbling and 
yelling. No? Pop is like nails on a chalkboard. Still not everyone agrees?!  Fine, we all have different 
views on music, but one thing is for sure- it is only for those that can hear it, right? Nope! Even the 
deaf community loves music! Roots of music in sign language date back to basically the beginning of 
the language. Just like for the hearing community, music is incredibly influential and inspirational for the deaf community. In recent years, mainly thanks to YouTube, signed music has grown more and more popular. Signing stars are continuously emerging, creating an entire community for not only signers, but viewers as well.

            Signed music is different from English in more ways than the obvious. There are two forms of signed music. The first is translation. This is when a signer translates the English lyrics to ASL (American Sign Language). According to an article in The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, there is more to translating music than just than just signing the words. The signer must create emotion in the signs by putting an emphasis on certain signs, using facial gestures, and slightly mixing up the lyrics for a more comprehensive translation, due to the fact that ASL does not directly translate. In a video by Stephen Torrence , he not only signs the song Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, but he also provides what he is saying in ASL under the lyrics in English to show the differences in the languages. Another way of signing music is what is called “percussion signing.” This includes songs, chants, etc. that were originally created in sign language. 

Interpreter Barbie Parker at Lollapalooza Day One in Chicago, Illinois

           Translation signing is what has really blown up lately though. Though there are plenty of videos of serious translation, the humorous translations are what took the internet by storm. In a video by Keith Wann, he comically describes the difficulties of signing rap in a rendition of ICE ICE Baby. Both Stephen and Kieth, along with a few others, were mentioned in a New York Times article about signed singing. At the time the article was written, Stephen's rendition had 2 million views. A few years later and the video has over 3.1 million views! This, of course, cannot be credited fully to the NYT, but it is safe to say that the exposure to the masses helped. Videos of interpreters at music festivals and concerts, such as Lollapalooza, have also brought attention to signed music. In February 2018, the spotlight will be on  the deaf community more than ever. According to an article from fox2detroit.com, deaf performer Kriston Lee Humphrey will sign the National Anthem at this year's Super Bowl while country superstar Luke Bryan sings. 

           Signed music is a great way of connecting people of two different communities. Chance the Rapper is doing his best to seamlessly integrate both communities during his shows. An article on Hiphopdx.com explains that the 24 year old has created a team called DEAFinitly Dope that is composed of ASL interpreters that he will bring on tour. They will sign all of his songs alongside him for the entire tour. Chance is also putting members of the deaf community in the front row to enhance their experience as much as he can. In addition to providing interpreters for his deaf fans, Chance has also posted videos of him learning to sign his song as well. 

        Signed music is not something new to the deaf community, but for many hearing people, they are only just discovering the art that is singing without making a sound.  A YouTube trends manager explains that "40 percent of all videos tagged 'sign language' on YouTube were posted in just the past year." Though signed music is getting attention in pop culture, it is still severely lacking in academic writing. There are very few sources of academic writing on the topic, but hopefully within the next few years as the art continues to become more popular, there will be more scholarly articles on it.