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The document discusses the concept of speech community in linguistics. A speech community refers to a group of people who share linguistic norms and expectations for language use. It can include people who interact directly or indirectly and do not need to be part of the same community. Examples of speech communities include all English speakers or speakers of different Englishes who do not share the same community.

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25 views

Language 1

The document discusses the concept of speech community in linguistics. A speech community refers to a group of people who share linguistic norms and expectations for language use. It can include people who interact directly or indirectly and do not need to be part of the same community. Examples of speech communities include all English speakers or speakers of different Englishes who do not share the same community.

Uploaded by

yasser.bouzana5
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language & Linguistics

Speech Community

What is Speech Community?

Language is social and individual possession, so the idea of speech community exists within group of
people sharing the same linguistic norms and expectation.

The term speech community is derived from the German Sprachgemeinschaft.

“A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations with
regard to how their language should be used”.

Certain ambiguities in defining the term Speech Community

There are certain ambiguities related to the term and its exact used. So the speech community involves
varying degrees of emphasis on;

1. Shared community membership

2. Shared linguistics communication

Speech Community & Groups in Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics studies language in the society and among groups of speakers, so a group has few
characteristics.

1. Group has at least two or more than two members.

2. People can be grouped together for social, religious, cultural, political, professional and
vocational purposes.

3. Belong to other groups and may or may not even meet face-to-face.

4. Organization of the group may be tight or loose.

Definitions of Speech Community

1. “All the people who use given language /dialect is called speech community (Lyons, 1970).”

1. “A speech community as a group of people who interact by means of speech’ (Bloomfield, 1933).”

2. “A speech community is any human aggregate characterized by


regular and frequent interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from
similar aggregates by significant differences in language usage (Gumperz, 1971).”

3. “Speech community is not defined by any marked agreement in the use of language elements, so
much as by participation in a set of shared norms. These norms may be observed in overt types of
evaluative behaviour and by the uniformity of abstract patterns of variation which are invariant with
respect to particular levels of usage (Labov, 1972).”

Characteristics of Speech Community

 Group of people using the same language, dialect, words and grammatical rules as standard.

 Share a specific set of norms for language use through living and interacting together.

 Face to face contact is not necessary.

 Speakers can be monolingual or multilingual but a group held together by frequency of social
interaction and set off from surroundings due to their linguistics norms.

Examples of Speech Communities

ü All English speakers in the world belong to the same speech community.

ü Speaking same language by the group does not mean belonging to the same community. For instance,
speakers of South Asian English in India and Pakistan shared a language with the British or American
English speakers without sharing their communities.

Conclusion

A speech community is a group of people sharing linguistics norms and values during the frequency of
interaction which can be direct or face to face or indirect without sharing the same community.

Course 4: Computational Linguistics


1. Definition:

 Computational linguistics leverages computational methods to analyze, understand, and process


human language.
 Essentially, it bridges the gap between linguistics and computer science, enabling computers to
interact with language in sophisticated ways.

2. Warren Weaver: The Founding Father

 In the 1940s, mathematician Warren Weaver proposed using computers to unlock the
complexities of language, laying the groundwork for this field.
 His visionary ideas propelled computational linguistics from theoretical concept to practical
reality.

3. Computational Linguistics: Cross-disciplinary Field

 This field draws upon diverse disciplines like linguistics, computer


science, statistics, mathematics, and cognitive science.
 This interdisciplinary approach fosters a multifaceted understanding of language, encompassing
its structure, meaning, and computational representation.

4. Applications of Computational Linguistics:


 Machine Translation: Automating the translation of text and speech across languages, like
Google Translate and other similar tools.
 Speech Recognition: Converting spoken language into text, enabling voice commands and virtual
assistants like Siri and Alexa.
 Text-to-Speech: Synthesizing natural-sounding speech from written text, enhancing accessibility
and fostering creative applications.
 Intelligent Search Engines: Understanding the complex nuances of search queries to deliver
relevant and informative results.
 Man-machine Interface: Designing intuitive and natural interfaces for human interaction with
technology, such as chatbots and virtual environments.

5. Machine Translation: Types and Process

Two main types exist:

 Rule-based: Employs linguistically-derived rules to analyze and translate texts, focusing on


grammatical structure and sentence patterns.
 Statistical: Leverages vast amounts of textual data to statistically model translation probabilities
and identify the most likely translations.

6. Rule-based Machine Translation Process (Briefly):

 Sentence segmentation: Dividing the input text into individual sentences.


 Morphological analysis: Breaking down words into their basic units (morphemes).
 Syntactic analysis: Determining the grammatical structure of the sentence.
 Semantic analysis: Extracting the intended meaning and context.
 Target language generation: Forming the translated sentence in the desired language.

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