1 Bridging the gap Richard Hudson Giessen 2008

2 Norms in linguistics Closely tied to group membership Requires a great deal of inefficient detail: –irregular verbs –fine phonetic detail –stylistic homonyms –distinct languages in multilingual communities Conflicts with communication across group boundaries

3 Norms in education Education goes beyond natural learning. It extends a childs natural repertoire. –5,000 words at age 5, 1K per year, so projected to 18,000 at 18 –but education produces 50,000 at age 18 Linguists are highly educated, so no linguist speaks a natural language!

4 Norms in culture Culture distinguishes many different communities –a multidimensional social space Each one may have its own linguistic markers BUT: communities must communicate Community markers make communication harder.

5 The problem Communities are important, and so are their markers: –pronunciation details –entire languages But these markers prevent communication.

6 The solution Education in: tolerance expanded repertoire communication strategies