Lesson 4 - R&W, Culture - LANGUAGES

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Read the text Signs of Success, and explain what is meant by “the success”.

Signs of Success
Feb 19th 2004 | SEATTLE
From: The Economist print edition

Deaf people are making a profound contribution to the study of language

Just as biologists rarely see a new species arise, linguists rarely see a new language being born. You have to be in the right place at the right time, which, usually, you are not. However, the past few decades have seen an exception. Linguists have been able to follow the formation of a new language in Nicaragua. The catch is that it is not a spoken language but, rather, a sign language which has arisen spontaneously in deaf children. Ann Senghas, of Columbia University, in New York, one of the linguists who has been studying this language, told the AAAS conference in Seattle about her discoveries. And Susan Goldin-Meadow, of the University of Chicago, who studies the spontaneous emergence of signing in deaf children, filled in the background by showing how such children use hand signals in a different way from everybody else.
The thing that makes language different from other means of communication is that it is made of units that can be combined in different orders to create different meanings. In a spoken language, these units are words. In a sign language, these units are gestures. Dr Senghas has been studying the way these gestures have evolved in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). The language emerged in the late 1970s, at a new school for deaf children. Initially, the children were instructed by teachers who could hear. No one taught them how to sign; they simply worked it out for themselves. By conducting experiments on people who attended the school at various points in its history, Dr Senghas has shown how NSL has become more sophisticated over time. For example, concepts that an older signer uses a single sign for, such as rolling and falling, have been unpacked into separate signs by the youngsters.
Even deaf children who have no deaf acquaintances use signs as words. The order the signs come in is important. It is also different from the order of words in both English and Chinese. However, it is the same, for a given set of signs and meanings, in both America and Taiwan.
This result, if confirmed in other studies, could have profound implications. Another much-argued question in linguistics is whether there is some sort of grammatical template that acts as part of a language instinct and is wired into the brains of new-born children. Such a template would help a child to learn a language quickly. However,the different grammars of actual languages suggest it cannot, assuming that it does exist, be imposing itself too strongly. In spite of this, the sign languages of Dr Goldin-Meadow's children are entirely self-invented. If there is a deep structure, they are surely drawing on it directly. The order of their signs may, thus, be a direct reflection of what that structure is.
For now, Dr Goldin-Meadow is cautious. However, it may turn out that the truth comes not out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, but from their hands.
From: The Economist print edition Feb 19th 2004 | SEATTLE www.theeconomist.com

The word “success” is in the title because ….
In your own words, write down your answer:

Answer: The sign language observation can contribute to solving the question of language origin.

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Writing a letter of apology

Here is a general structure for writing a letter of complaint. Your task will be to write a letter of apology answering all the points that are raised. Look at it, and think about what a letter of apology might look like:

A Complaint Letter Template

General Letter of Complaint
[Your address 1]

[Other contact details you may wish to give: phone number, e-mail etc.]

[Name of contact person, if available]
[Title, if available]
[Customer Services Manager, if you don't have a contact name]
[Company Name]
[Company address 1]
Re: [Account number, product, service etc]

Dear [Contact Person or Customer Service Manager],
On [date], I [bought, rented, had serviced etc] a [name of product with model number, service performed etc] at [location and other details of the transaction].
I am disappointed because your [product, service, billing etc.] has [not performed as it should, was wrong etc] because [state the problem as you understand it giving as much detail as possible].
To resolve the problem I would appreciate if you could/would [state the action you require e.g. a refund, service performed again etc.]. Enclosed is a copy/are copies of the [receipt, contract etc.].
I look forward to hearing from you and to a resolution of this problem. I will wait for [set a time limit] before seeking help from [the Trading Standards, a consumer group, solicitor etc. (details of the relevant authorities)]. Please contact me at the above address or by phone [give numbers].
Yours sincerely.

[Print Your Name]
Enclosures: [state the names of any documents you have enclosed]
Cc: (Include Name, Company if you want to send a copy of this letter to someone else)

From: www.howtocomplain.com

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You are working for an internet shop. Your customer did not get his/her books on time. Write an appropriate letter of apology. Use some of the tips above. Bring the text to class.

Proverbs and sayings

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    Read the following proverbs:
  1. A penny saved is a penny earned.
  2. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
  3. The appetite grows with what it feeds on.
  4. A fool and his money are soon parted.
  5. Time is a great healer.
  6. Prevention is better than cure.
  7. The early bird catches the worm.
  8. A bad workman blames his tools.
  9. There is no accounting for tastes.
  10. Once bitten, twice shy.
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Follow-up activities.

    Think about the following topics and bring your ideas to the next lesson:
  1. Are people’s observations (e.g. about the weather) from different cultures similar or different?
  2. Can you recall any proverbs relating to the weather forecast in your own language?

Digital miniature devices (ipods, laptops, palmtops)


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Study the following terms and visualize them:

read-write device
self-contained chip
10 megabits-per-second deta transfer rate
audio-visual supplements
built-in antenna
low-power integrated circuit design

Study the following words before you read the text: embedded - placed
wristband – a form of band that goes around your wrist
retrieval - the process of getting information back when it is lost
prototype – a model

Read the following text and find out what was revolutionary about the invention described. How many different applications can you report?

HP Unveils a Revolutionary Miniature Wireless Data Chip



Some of the potential applications include storing medical records on a hospital patient's wristband; providing audio-visual supplements to postcards and photos; helping to fight counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry; adding security to identity cards and passports; and supplying additional information for printed documents.

The experimental chip, developed by the "Memory Spot" research team at HP Labs, is a memory device based on CMOS (a widely used, low-power, integrated circuit design), and is about the size of a grain of rice or smaller (2 mm to 4 mm square), with a built-in antenna. The chips could be embedded in a sheet of paper or stuck to any surface, and could eventually be available in a booklet as self-adhesive dots.

"The Memory Spot chip frees digital content from the electronic world of the PC and the Internet, and arranges it all around us in our physical world," said Ed McDonnell, Memory Spot project manager, HP Labs.







-- An audio photo: Attach a chip to the prints of photographs and add music, commentary or ambient sound to enhance the enjoyment of viewing photos.






17 July, 2006 From: www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/060717a.html

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