1. THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES OF
MTB-MLE
EL 104- LANGUAGE PROGRAM & POLICIES IN
MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES

2. Language and Identity: Sociological and
Cultural Perspectives of Language
Language is considered one of the elements of culture. It is the system of words
or signs that a particular group of people uses to express thoughts and feelings with
each other; hence, if you do not belong to the same group or culture you do not speak
the same language.
What is language?
Language is the primary tool used in the communication process. This connotes
sharing one's thoughts, emotions, and knowledge with others using a certain code
(culture) and symbols (language) that must be learned and shared between
communicators.

3. What are the linguistic elements of language?
Languages in the world share the same elements, with an exception
of a few which do not have yet a written orthography.
1. Phonology: (fuh-nol-uh-jee) (n.) - the sound system of a language.
2. Morphology: (mawr-fol-uh-jee) (n.) - the study of the structure of
words.
3. Syntax: (sin-taks) (n.) - the study of the structure of sentences.
4. Semantics: (si-man-tiks) (n.) - the study of meaning in language.
5. Pragmatics: (prag-mat-iks) (n.) - the appropriate use of language
in different contexts.

4. Why is language culture-based?
For the listener to understand what a speaker
intends, the speaker should have something definite in
mind. If an idea or impression is vague in the speaker's
mind, the resulting message will be confused and
ambiguous. Understanding is the core of meaning and is a
two-way process; that is, the speaker 'is responsible for
representing the idea clearly, and the listener is
responsible for trying to understand it accurately.
Meanings are ultimately determined by people, not by
words.

5. What is the language environment?
According to Neil Postman, who
writes about language and education, the
language environment is made up of four
elements: (1) people, (2) their purpose,
(3) the rules of communication by which
they achieve their purpose, and (4) the
actual talk used in the situation.

6. Appropriate Language. For any society to function it must have some
sort of understanding about which words are inappropriate. As children grow
up, they try out the new words they hear and, from the reactions of the adults
around them, learn the words they should and shouldn't use.
 Sometimes you have to refer to something for which it would be impolite
to use the direct word. To do this you use a euphemism - an inoffensive
word or phrase that is substituted for other words that might be perceived
as unpleasant.
• Sometimes government agencies, business, or other institutions create
euphemisms to either cover up the truth or make the truth more palatable.
When euphemisms are created by government or institutions, they are
often referred to as doublespeak. Often doublespeak is used to further evil
ends.
What is the language environment?

7. Specialization. Most language
environments have words that are specialized
and are used only in those environments. If your
plumber tells you that your toilet needs a new
sleeve gasket, you probably won't know what
that means. You would understand if the
plumber told you that the toilet needs a new seal
at the bottom to keep the water from leaking out
onto the floor.
What is the language environment?

8. What are styles, roles, and group members in communication?
Like language environment, verbal style is often connected with the roles you
play. Let us look at other factors that contribute to differences in language style.
Gender
Age
Social Status
Religion

9. What are Cognates?
Cognates (from the Latin cognatus which means blood relative) are words
descended from a common ancestor (Amengual, 2011; Crystal 1987); same origin or
related by borrowing, or of the same descent (Webster); descended from the same
original language; of the same linguistic family; coming naturally from the same
root, or representing the same original word, with differences due to subsequent
separate phonetic development; words that are orthographically and semantically
similar in two languages because of a shared etymology (Oxford English
Dictionary).

10. Cognates can be classified into two: true cognates and false cognates.
 True cognates are words that share similar meaning or spelling in two or
more languages.
Tagalog Cebuano I Waray
bahay balay balay
bigas
-
bugas
-
bugas
ulo ulo ulo
tao tawo tawo

11. False cognates, on the other hand, are pairs of words in the same or different languages a word in a
language that looks or sounds similar to a word in another language but means something different
(McMillian Dictionary). That is they, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in
fact they are unrelated. Let us consider the following false cognates below. Analyze why they are
considered to be false cognates.
Lexicon Area/Context Function Meaning
Science noun
A process in which a doctor cuts into someone's body in order to
remove or repair damaged or diseased part.
Social Science noun
A usually small business or organization; an activity of a business
or organization.
Any of various mathematical or logical processes (as addition,
operation Mathematics noun subtraction, multiplication, division) of deriving one entity from
others according to a rule.
Science noun
The part of a plant that grows underground, gets water and
minerals from the ground, and holds the plant in place.
Social Science noun One or more progenitors (ancestors) of a group of descendants-
Root usually used in plural
Mathematics noun A quantity taken an indicated number of times as an equal factor.
English noun The base form of the word.

12. The Philippines was a colony of Spain for 333 years
and this means that Spanish has a great influence over our
languages especially on our vocabulary. Also, the country
was under American regime for almost 48 years and this
means that American English has influence over our
language as well. Only through understanding the cognates
of our languages in the Philippines will we better create a
language policy that addresses the needs of these
languages. Such policy must be drawn with grass roots and
not from what few elitists say because language is not just a
tool for communication but a tool for understanding,
preserving, and intellectualizing Philippine languages.