1. 1 Bridging the gap Richard Hudson Giessen 2008

2. 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. 3 Norms in education Education goes beyond natural learning. It extends a childs natural repertoire. –5,000 words at age 5, growing @ 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. 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. 5 The problem Communities are important, and so are their markers: –pronunciation details –entire languages But these markers prevent communication.

6. 6 The solution Education in: tolerance expanded repertoire communication strategies