ANTH 005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Tok Pisin, Language Ideology, Jargon
9 May 2020
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Document Summary
There does not appear to be an upper limit to the number of languages a child can become fluent in. Curiously, this is actually advantageous rather than detrimental. Conversely, language ideologies may prevent fluency in a language. Kulick in 1992 and 1998: adult attitudes affect retention. Papua new guinea: children choose the more national tok. Pisin, rather than the indigenous vernacular taiap and learn the former with little parental assistance. Hed and save, two cultural concepts of gapun, the same village: Hed: possessed by all people in varying quantities. With the advent of tok pisin, save not only retained its positive qualities but became the concept of new linkages with the outside world. Infants are spoken to rarely, but when they are spoken to, it is the same mix of taiap and tok pisin that the adults converse in. Parents speak in tok pisin when they want their children to learn and retain.
