Introducing English Linguistics

Self-study activities
1. Match the country in the left-hand column with the primary status of
English in that country listed in the right-hand column.
(1) Germany
a. native language
(2) Australia
b. second language
(3) Ireland
c. foreign language
(4) Singapore
(5) Japan
(6) United States
(7) England
(8) Finland
2. Go to the entry for the English language in the Ethnologue (www.ethno-
logue.com(show_language.asp?code=eng) (accessed June 3, 2008) and
find a country in which English is a second or foreign language. Click the
link for the country and (1) explain why English is a second or a foreign
language in the country; (2) make a note of how many people in the
country speak English vs. native languages other than English; and (3)
record any other information you find that seems relevant to the status of
English in the country.
3. One way to study the historical and cultural influences on a language is to
research place names, or toponyms, which often provide interesting infor-
mation not just on the people who settled a region and the languages
they spoke but on the history or the area, even features of its geography
(e.g. whether it has mountains or rivers). A number of dictionaries and ref-
erence guides provide information on place names, including J. Everett-
Heath’s The Concise Dictionary of World Place Names (Oxford University
Press, 2005) or V. Watts et al.’s The Cambridge Dictionary of English
Place-Names (Cambridge University Press, 2004). In addition, you can go
to the main page of Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) and
type in the place name to find information as well. Select a place name in
any English-speaking country and record (1) the etymology of the place
name (the language on which it is based and its date of origin, however
approximate), (2) whether any other place names preceded the place
name you chose, and (3) what the name literally means. Does it describe
a particular group of people who originally populated the area? Does it
provide any geographical information about the area? Note any additional
information you find too.
4. What role does cognate vocabulary play in grouping languages into lan-
guage families?
5. Explain how English and Mandarin Chinese are typologically similar but
genetically different?
6. In what respects does English have characteristics of both a fusional and
isolating language?
7. Are borrowings into a language a consequence of an internal or external
influence on a language?
8. In many of his writings, John Simon laments that English is in decline.
Does this mean that English is undergoing the process of language
death?

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