When learning a language, we are basically flipping switches and trying to figure out the correct combination to get the correct lighting for our "room.” Because of this, when learning a language similar to the one you start with, you can get close to the lighting needed for your “room” faster.
According to the
Universal Grammar hypothesis,
we are born with our brain
full of switches and
we flip them either on or off
during our childhood
when we start acquiring our
native language.
Have you ever been in a large auditorium with an intricate light switchboard? Ever watched the teacher flip multiple switches, trying to turn on or off a specific light; spending quite a bit of class time before either giving up or asking for help?
Contrastive Analysis is a hypothesis that is based off of the idea that language is a habit.
When learning a new language, these habits are
then adapted for the new language being learned. This transformation of habit is similar to what is referred to as “Transfer.”
Transfer is the idea that
when one learns a language,
we compare it to other languages we have acquired
or are also in the process of learning.
When we compare the languages or habits
we start to transfer over ideas and rules
from one to another.
Sometimes this can be very obvious,
but in others it's virtually impossible to tell,
since transfer has an equal chance of
being negative or positive.
Positive transfer is normally invisible transfer,
since it can be hard to tell
if you are using a term because
it is the correct way to use it,
or if you are “transferring” a term,
and it just happened to be correct.
Prator hypothesizes that there are six levels of difficulty for learning a language.
First is Level 0, which is when there is no rule or concept contrast between the two languages.
For example, in Japanese, the word for dog is “inu” 犬.
The word transfers over with the exact same meaning—犬 and dog both refer to small and large canines of all shapes and sizes, and there is no difference on use of the word.
However,
this isn’t the same of all words in Japanese,
for example, “ashi” 足 means “leg”
but at the same time, it means “foot.”
The word is used to refer to both items,
and which part you are referring to is insinuated in the context.
Thus the concept of the word English word “leg” is different in Japanese,
because the concept includes the idea
of the feet along with the legs.
“足” is an example of the second level of difficulty, known as Level 1.
Level 1 is commonly called Coalescence and it is when multiple terms in one’s first language is combined into single term in the target language
The next level of difficulty is Level 2,
Underdifferentiation.
It's when an idea is absent in one’s first language,
but appears in the second language.
An example of this is the English use of pluralization.
For example, “there is a cat” and “there are cats.” are both ねこがいます in Japanese.
Level 3 is Reinterpretation,
When something in one's first language
is used differently in the target language.
In Japanese, the word for green is みどり,
but みどり is actually interpreted
as a shade of blue.
Thus, a green traffic light is commonly referred to as a blue one (あお)
Overdifferentiation is what we call Level 4.
In this level, the target language has a rule or concept
that does not exist in the learner's first language.
Youkai (妖怪) in Japanese is an example of this.
It’s a subcategory under the mythical creature category.
In English, we have gods, monsters, demons, and ghosts. Most people would agree that
ghost are not monsters or demons.
As mentioned above,
we don't have a specific category combining them together in English.
Yokai includes ghost, monsters, and demons, along with some other mythical creatures, but doesn't include all types.
The last Level, number 5, is called split.
This is when an item in your first language
becomes two in your second.
In English, we use the word “love” to mean many things.
For example, “I love my family,” “I love my husband,” and “I love my book.”
In Japanese, the different types of love use different words.
“愛,” like in “だなさまが愛してます”
is romantic and cannot be used
when referring to your family or an object.
“大好き” is how one would refer to an object, like
“私の本が大好きです"
(I love my husband)
(I love my book)
In case you don’t know, language is
always changing, and if two speaking
communities of the same language don’t speak
to each other for very long time, they will eventually
become unintelligible to each other, creating two new distinct
languages based off of the original language. A Language Family Tree is the documentation of how one language has transformed
into other languages. So English, Scot, Rangpuri, Nepali, etc
were all once the same language, which is referred to as "Indo-European.”
Aren't Some Languages Harder to Learn Than Others?
Assuming that those of you on this site are English monolingual speakers, the languages easiest for you to learn are those on the Indo-European tree. With “scots” being the easiest and Rangpuri, Nepali, and Punjabi being the hardest (of the easiest languages for you to learn). Japanese, the language I’m learning, is not related to English at all, which makes it a harder language to learn.
Sort of. Theoretically, the closer a language is related to your native language, the easier it is to learn it. This is because similar languages tend to use similar markers, sentence structures and can even have some of the same words. The act of bringing over your native language's aspects into a language you are learning is called “Transfer” and depending on how close a language is, the easier it is to just transfer over stuff you know rather than basically having to figure out what to do from scratch.
