Folk linguistics consists of statements, beliefs, or practices concerning language which are based on uninformed speculation rather than the

scientific method The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientifi ...

. Folk linguistics sometimes arises when scientific conclusions about language come off as counterintuitive to native speakers. However, folk linguistics is also often motivated by

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

Examples

Jackendoff (2003) cites the following statements as typical examples of folk-linguistic beliefs. * Claim: "Parents teach their children to talk". Adults assume that children either learn language directly from their parents or via simple

imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...

. ** On the contrary, research in child

language acquisition Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language (in other words, gain the ability to be aware of language and to understand it), as well as to produce and use words and sentences to ...

shows that a child acquires language more automatically, through a systematic pattern rarely noticed by adults. Although interaction with parents, adults and other children is crucial, it is actually very difficult to "correct" a child. Instead most children are able to learn to speak native languages (including those of their peers of the same age) through a process called "acquisition". Any

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistics ...

s noticed by a parent are often self-corrected by the child weeks or months later. * Claim: "Children will get confused if they try to speak more than one language". Many parents are afraid a child cannot sort out input from multiple languages. ** In reality, children can easily become

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...

if they are exposed to more than one language. There may be a period of confusion, but most children are able to segregate many distinct grammars. * Claim: "There is a proper, correct English". Speakers generally value an educated form of the language, often its written form, and that other

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

al/spoken forms are considered structurally inferior or "sloppy", and speakers of these forms are often regarded as "stupid, lazy, sloppy, hick" or other pejorative terms. ** However, linguists generally agree that vernacular varieties such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) have the same grammatical complexity as standard forms of English. Folk linguistic beliefs view these lects as inferior, and as a result speakers of non-standard forms often suffer forms of

linguistic discrimination Linguistic discrimination (also called glottophobia, linguicism and languagism) is unfair treatment of people which is based on their use of language and the characteristics of their speech, including their first language, their accent, the p ...

. * Claim: "The modern language is going downhill". Purists opine that changes in the spoken language (e.g. new words, innovations in grammar, new pronunciation patterns) are detrimental rather than just change. ** In fact, living languages are not static. Their evolution is not just a modern phenomenon. Other beliefs may include: * A belief that a language's grammar can negatively influence and restrict how people think. This is also known as the strong Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Although some linguists do advocate a form of this, many linguists reject this as being too simplistic. For instance, just because a language does not formally distinguish "he" vs. "she" in their personal pronouns does not mean that speakers do not distinguish and treat men and women differently. Similarly, just because English lacks a formal

hodiernal tense A hodiernal tense ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical tense for the current day. (''Hodie'' or ''hodierno die'' is Latin for 'today'.) Hodiernal tenses refer to events of today (in an absolute tense system) or of the day under consideration (in a re ...

does not mean that English speakers cannot distinguish events which occur "today" versus those on another day. * Examples of

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

such as interpreting ''

asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified in ...

'' as "sparrow-grass". These are cases where speakers deduce an incorrect word origin. Another folk etymology is the assumption that the New York place name '' Fishkill'' (on

Fishkill Creek Fishkill Creek (also Fish Kill, from the Dutch ''vis kille'', for "fish creek") is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataT ...

) means a place to kill fish. In reality, '' -kill'' is from a Dutch word meaning "creek" (found also in river names such as Schuylkill, Pennsylvania and Wallkill, New Jersey). However, the folk etymology caused animal rights groups such as

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, a ...

to lobby that the town should be renamed.

Notes

a. Ray Jackendoff, b.
Linguistic Purism in Germany - Folk Linguistics
via the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

References

External links

Ask a Linguist with FAQs
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904062321/http://www.linguistlist.org/ask-ling/ , date=2016-09-04 - linguists' answers to questions based on folk linguistic beliefs * PBS
Language Prejudice & Myth: "They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City"

Linguistics Misconceptions Pseudo-scholarship Pseudolinguistics Scientific folklore

Examples

See also

Notes

References

External links