| Start: instructions | Introduction: What is language? |
| Language & the Brain: How do we produce and process language? |
| Language & the World: How diverse are the world's languages? |
| Language & Society: How does language reflect our identities? |
| The Ecology of Language: How is language a living system? |
| Language & Culture: How does language reflect human culture? |
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Language touches every aspect of human society and culture--some say that culture could not exist without language, and that language is the very essence of our humanity. But there are many popular ideas about language that are not exactly based on fact. While we are all expert users of language, we don't always give much thought to the concept of language itself. Being an expert user doesn't always result in expertise about the thing we are using--most of us can drive a car, for example, but this doesn't mean we understand how cars work. So what do you know about language? Instructions This website contains forty web-based polls on common language myths and truths designed to get you thinking about language. For many of the statements, the answer is not easy and may even be debatable. Go with what you know or your intuition. There is no score or record. After choosing an answer, you will see the results of everyone who's taken the poll (answer each question only once!). Click on more information to see a brief explanation of the answer (if you want to read this information for a hint, you can go to this page before taking the poll). You can also visit some other websites about the topic--remember to think critically about those sites--who is the author and what is their expertise? DBEYR = don't believe everything you read. About the Website This website was designed by Jon Reinhardt for Linguistics 001: The Study of Language at Penn State University. Unless otherwise noted, the content is copyright the Penn State Program in Linguistics and Applied Language Studies and the Schreyer Institute. |
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