This section contains a blog of journal entries I wrote during my Language Theory class taught by Dr. Cindy Nahrwold. Our class textbook  was Victoria Fromkin's An Introduction to Language, which I refer to in my blog posts. The posts demonstrate how I meet the program objective of understanding the history and major theories of my profession; knowing how the rules of my craft were shaped and how they are changing.

 

Though we studied tough, complex subjects in Language Theory, Dr. Nahrwold made everything not only interesting, but also easy to understand. She showed us how to apply what we learned to everyday life. Each week as I worked on a journal entry, I was able to take what seemed like a foreign concept at first and apply it to something real that I had experienced. A lot of the concepts I learned in this class could be applied to concepts I had learned in my Spanish classes. I enjoyed making that connection, and this made the material more tangible and relatable.

 

One of the most unique subjects I learned from this class was language patterns in Chapter 3. I liked looking at the structures of other languages. When I first looked at the exercises, I remember thinking that there was no way I could analyze a language like Swahili or Zulu. But once I started to focus, I was able to detect the patterns, even though I couldn’t translate what was being said.

 

The hardest chapter was about syntax. I appreciate the importance of syntax and know that it plays a significant role in understanding a language, but I hated doing sentence structure trees. However, the trees we studied helped me to diagram sentences more clearly and in-depth than what I was taught in middle school. 

 

I will always remember the class period that we talked about slang words. We had so much fun!  It’s not every day that a student gets to spend an hour in class looking around on Urban Dictionary. I think this was a neat experience for everyone in the class because everyone’s background and age is different. It was also cool to see how slang from the past can either change meanings or die out and come back later. This is what helps to keep languages alive. I was also able to take away one important idea from this class — Black English is not “Ebonics.” This idea helped me to embrace the roots of my Black culture a little more and understand that Black English is not inferior to American Standard English.

 

Language Theory is a class I would recommend to anyone studying Technical Writing. Though some of the subject matter was challenging, the class made me more conscious of my words and sentences. Because of this, I will be a better writer and editor. I think it’s important to understand the history behind the language and words we are writing. And Language Theory gives a foundation that many other rhetoric, writing, and English classes don’t teach. I am able to walk away from this class with so much knowledge and understanding of language that I did not have before.

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Baby Talk

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