Abstract
The paper examines the book "A Journey into the Deaf-World" by Harlan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister and Ben Bahan. It discusses how the book covers many technical issues in detail, but the underpinning for all of it is that the Deaf-World is its own unique culture with its own unique language and is every bit as much of a subculture as it is to be African-American or some branch of Hispanic. It looks at how the beliefs of people in the Deaf-World about their culture and language are challenged by people charged with helping them: educators, psychologists, audiologists, social workers and others all tend to think of hearing loss as a disability. It provides a detailed history of sign language and the use of ASL (American Sign Language).

From the Paper
"Many people in the Deaf-World object to this view. They know the richness of their language and understand its cultural significance, which the authors broke out into several sections. They note that ASL is a symbol of identity for people in the Deaf-World. In addition, it is the only language they can use to communicate with each other. It binds them together. One fear the Deaf-World has is that forced oral communication will undermine their culture, because it will force deaf people with no sign language skills to talk only with non-deaf people."

Tags:ASL, educators, psychologists, audiologists, social, workers

Abstract
Language is one of the most powerful emblems of social behavior. The relationship of language and society puts forward a field of study called sociolinguistics. It is the study of relationships between language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and how languages function in communication. This paper discusses what sociolinguistics is all about, looks at language, dialects, gender differences in speech and the issues of language and culture.

From the Paper
"When two people communicate with each other, we call the system of communication they use language. In the normal transfer of information they also send vital social messages about who they are, where they come from, and with whom they are associated. To point out how much there is to say about language and society, let me refer to an example used by R.A.Hudson in Sociolinguistics. It pertains to a society of about 10, 000 Indians that occupy an area half in Brazil, half in Columbia. These Indians are divided in twenty tribes, which are grouped in five phratries. There are three crucial facts about this society that are subject to interest and present the relationship between society and language. First of all, each tribe speaks different language. Second, the five phratries are exogamous, which means that a man cannot marry a woman from the same phratry. Considering these two facts, we easily come to the following linguistic consequence: a man's wife must speak different language. The third crucial fact is that marriage is patriocal. A rule states that the woman speaks to her children using only her husband's language. The linguistic consequence is that a mother teaches her children a language she speaks as a foreigner (thus one can hardly call the children's first language their mother tongue). This Indian community can be referred to as a "sociolinguistic phenomenon". It is the perfect example for the complicated relationship language-societyand a clear answer to the question why we need sociolinguistics."

Tags:culture, dialects, history, variety

Abstract
This paper shows how cultural misunderstandings are often as a result of incorrect or incomplete translations. The writer explains that people are influenced by the culture in which they live and this helps form their impressions and the ways in which they communicate. Consequently, a metalanguage is required to enable people to discuss a specific language without their culture impacting upon it.

From the Paper
"Cultural differences, which upon careful analysis may not be very great, are often exaggerated by the language barrier thus making it hard to conduct a comprehensive cultural analysis. If a person were to attempt to analyze another culture purely in terms of their own culture, this would clearly lead to misunderstanding and a breakdown in communication. This cultural divide is reinforced by the differing languages spoken in the varying cultures being compared. Whilst in a cultural analysis cultures may not be directly compared, the person conducting the analysis is still influenced by the culture to which they belong. As language forms a part of the activities which people undertake in their cultures, language is obviously going to have a large impact upon the cultural analysis being undertaken. By this, I am referring to the fact that if the person conducting the analysis merely translates lexemes from another language into his/her own language, the analysis will be incorrect as the cultural concepts underpinning the languages will be different. Thus it becomes necessary to be able to give definitions in a consistent fashion which does not rely upon any particular cultural concepts."

Tags:culture, language, linguistics, metalanguage, nsm, semantics

Abstract
A personal opinion paper which addresses the following questions - Does globalization of English form a serious threat? Do languages other than English face a slow death? This essays argues the eminent future of English and mother tongue.

From the Paper
"It appears that English is to become the main language in Europe, and perhaps the world. This topic has been discussed extensively and widely and there has been massive scientific research in recent years. I came upon the article "The Great English Divide" merely by chance, and the discussion caught my particular interest, as I am a Dutch-speaking Belgian, living in multi-lingual South Africa and currently studying towards a degree in English. I surfed the Internet, and found hundreds of articles discussing this same subject. The articles of my choice are only a few examples. Professor David Crystal has nominated a book to the subject "English as a global language" , where he researched these three questions: What makes a world language? Why is English the leading candidate? Will it continue to hold that position? David Crystal has written a number of books on the topic itself. My main interest is how this globalisation of the English Language will influence English as a language. Is the idea of globalisation of English not just a triumphalist notion? Will the increase of the use of English in non-English speaking countries change English vocabulary and grammar? Will the use of 'Fusion English' increase? Paradoxically, could it mean that the population of Europe will become monolingual and could therefore mother languages become extinct?"

Tags:english, globalisation, globilization, language, mother, tongue, linguistics

From the Paper
"In his book, Seeking Voices: A trip to the world of the deaf, Oliver Sacks spends most of his time dealing with the development and of sign language for the deaf, and the fact that before the development of modern sign language, many deaf people were considered retarded because they were unable to communicate. Even with early versions of sign language, the deaf were limited in developing language skills because so much of language depends on "hearing" the spoken word - intonations, inflections, the emotions it contains, etc. These are difficult to convey in sign language. By its very nature, sign language is a kind of shorthand form of communication.
Many schools for the deaf teach their students to vocalize as well as use sign language because, while the deaf can converse fluently among themselves in sign language, most people in ..."

Tags:book, review

From the Paper
EBONICS AND LITERACY
"Dialects in the United States are spread throughout the country. Not all members of a group speak the same dialect, and dialects among groups differ. he most controversial dialect in American English is Ebonics. In order to advance socially and economically, individuals must have access to the culture of power, and therefore, dialect use is often discouraged by teachers in favor of Standard English use. But, does sufficient reason exist to discard or devalue vernacular dialects in pursuit of literacy in Standard English?

There is scarcely a country in the world today that could claim to be monolingual in any real sense Furthermore, historical linguistic conflicts reemerge as minorities assert their identity ( Literacy , no date, p. 1). In 1990, over 30% of the public school ..."

Abstract
This paper studies the origins of military jargon and measures the influence of military jargon and slang on the English language. It shows how the conquesting armies of the colonial British government adopted many phrases, words and slang which have made their way into everyday spoken English. It compares how British soldiers and American soldiers, when interacting in the World Wars, transferred military slang between each other.

From the Paper
"The English language has been going through the evolution process for hundreds of years. A number of words that were not recognized a few hundred years back are now commonly used. English has been continuously changing for centuries because of several reasons. Influence of other societies and cultures on English is the primary reason for this continuous change. Moreover, several military adventures conducted by the British Empire, which led to the expansion of the United Kingdom to almost one fourth of the earth's surface, also significantly influenced the English language. During these military operations, several English soldiers were exposed to some new cultures and societies. As a result of the influence from other cultures, they started using jargons and slang in their conversation, which were primarily adopted from several foreign languages. Similarly, American soldiers also adopted some jargons and slang during the Wars fought by American Army. "

Tags:america, british, war, foreign, culture

Abstract
This paper is composed of annotated bibliographies and a literature review of ten different research articles dealing with the acquisition of nonverbal, gestural, or sign languages. It addresses non-verbal language as a first language and a second language, as well as non-verbal language and symbolic communication systems in non-human primates and prehuman ancestors.

From the Paper
"Sharon Begley's main point in this article is that "the human brain is wired for gestural communication" just as it is for spoken language, from a nativist perspective. She draws on examples from apes who have learned signed languages, deaf-mute children who have invented their own languages in the absence of an established sign language, and the fact that blind people gesture at the same rate as sighted people. She cites studies of wild bonobos who use symbolic gesture to communicate with each other, and deaf children who created a signed language with more complex grammatical structures than the spoken language in their environment."

Tags:ape, asl, australopithecine, bonobo, chimpanzee, communication, gestural, sign, symbolic

Abstract
This paper examines the globalization of culture and how the American popular culture shapes it. It investigates how economic dominance, communications technologies, social and political events influence global mass media. The paper also describes the role of the English language in creating a single world culture.

From the Paper
"When we look at the dominant form of culture that characterizes our society today, it is often referred to as "globalization." But to many, this idea of a unified world is characterized by the concept of "Americanization." To a large extent, the shared culture around the world is becoming more and more influenced by American culture. There are many reasons for this, but primarily these are the result of the economic dominance of that nation, the development of global systems of communication, and the spread of English as the new international language. The following paper will address all of these issues in order to fully understand the reasons why the United States has a stranglehold on the global market in mass culture."

Tags:americanization, globalization

Abstract
The paper discusses Pinker's ideas expressed in his book "The Language Instinct", and explains the position of those who oppose his theory of language instinct and advocate a more or less behaviorist position in which nothing is "innate" in the mind.