Linguistics Exam 1, Part 1

Front 1

What is linguistics? What does it deal with?

Back 1

The study of human language; human nature, nature vs nurture

Front 2

What the nature vs nurture argument?

Back 2

That people have a predisposition to learning language in general

Front 3

Why do we know that we don't store sentencecs in our memory?

Back 3

language is unboud, and any human can express and comprehend an infintely large number of sentences.

Front 4

What is the formula for language?

Back 4

words + rules = sentences= language

Front 5

What is universal grammar?

Back 5

rules/patterns that aren't language-specific.

Front 6

What are common to all languages? (3)

Back 6

1- particular lexical catergories (nouns, verbs, etc), 2- constraints on types/forms of rules and principles, 3- mechanisms for creating new structures

Front 7

What is mental grammar?

Back 7

the system of rules stored in the mind of a speaker that generates the words and sentences of that speaker's langauge

Front 8

What is the linguist's grammar?

Back 8

a system of rules that the linguist constructs as a model of the speaker's knowledge of language

Front 9

What is the goal of linguists?

Back 9

to build a model of the speaker's knowledge of language usage.

Front 10

How do linguists achieve this goal?

Back 10

1- examine date, 2- make generalizations, 3- make hypotheses to explain observed generalization, 4- test predictions of the hypotheses against more date, 5- build theory

Front 11

What is descriptive grammar?

Back 11

model/ descriptive of the unconcious rules

Front 12

What is prescriptive grammar?

Back 12

arbitrary/ explicit rules set up by society

Front 13

What does the way children learn language imply?

Back 13

That they have a genetic predisposition for language, human brain has an especially determined specialization for language

Front 14

What is mental grammar composed of

Back 14

innate (u.g.) + learned (spec. lang)

Front 15

What is the innateness hypo?

Back 15

the human brain contains a genetically determined predisposition for language.

Front 16

What is the argument for innateness? (4)

Back 16

1- uniformity throughout the species, 2- species specificity, 3- critical period, 4- povery of the stimular (children create grammar beyond what they have evidence for)

Front 17

Why do we think language is its own module? (3)

Back 17

1- lang undergoes selective breakdown, 2- langauge is processed differentl, 3- lang has its own timetable of development

Front 18

What is phonetics?

Back 18

the study of the physical properties of speech sounds?

Front 19

What is phonology?

Back 19

the study of the mental representation of speech sounds

Front 20

What does "articulatory" mean?

Back 20

how sounds are produced in the vocal tracts

Front 21

How are consonant sounds created?

Back 21

obstruction of airflow in vocal tract

Front 22

How are vowel sounds created?

Back 22

w/ little or no obstruction of airflow

Front 23

What are the features of consonants? (3)

Back 23

1- place of articulation, 2- voicing, 3- manner of articulation

Front 24

What are the features of vowels? (4)

Back 24

1- raising/lower the body of the tongue, 2- advance/retract body of tongue, 3- tense/lax, 4- round/unround lips

Front 25

What symbol do we use in discussing mental representation of phoneme?

Back 25

/c/

Front 26

What is a linguistic environment?

Back 26

the phonological context of a sound

Front 27

What are the steps to finding the inventory of phonemes?

Back 27

1- look for minimal pair, 2- look for a pattern in no min pairs, show environment 3- find generalization, 4- make rules

Front 28

When will there be no minimal pairs?

Back 28

if there are two allophones of the smae phoneme

Front 29

When will there minimal pairs?

Back 29

if there are two phones of different phonemes

Front 30

What is a phoneme?

Back 30

the abstract representation of a sounds, and the way the sounds is stored in a word in a mutual lexicon

Front 31

What is a phone?

Back 31

how sound is actually produced in a given environment

Front 32

What is an allophone?

Back 32

member of a set of phones, which are all variants.

Front 33

What are characteristics of phones of separate phonemes? (3)

Back 33

1- will be minimal pairs, 2- will be in overlapping distribution, 3- not predictable by rule

Front 34

What are characteristics of allophones of the same phoneme? (3)

Back 34

1- no minimal pairs, 2- in complementary distribution, 3- predictable by rule

Front 35

What are the types of rules? (4)

Back 35

1- assimilation (changing a sound to match features of neighboring sound), 2- dissimilation (make sounds less like neighbording sound for clarification), 3- deletion (removing segment in pronunciation), 4- insertion (adding something extra)