Linguistics: Midterm 1 (Engl 290, Prof. Battenburg)

Front 1

linguistics

Back 1

the scientific study of language

descriptive, not prescriptive

Front 2

articulatory phonetics

Back 2

how sounds are formed

Front 3

phonology

Back 3

study of sound patterns within a specific language (theoretical linguistics)

Front 4

morphology

Back 4

smallest unit of meaning within a word (theoretical linguistics)

Front 5

syntax

Back 5

how words form phrases and phrases form sentences (theoretical linguistics)

Front 6

semantics

Back 6

meaning of a word within the sentence's boundary (theoretical linguistics)

Front 7

pragmatics

Back 7

how context influences or determines the meaning of an utterance (theoretical linguistics)

Front 8

applied linguistics

Back 8

historical linguistics

sociolinguistics

child language acquisition

second language acquisition

animal communication

computers + language

Front 9

universals of language

Back 9

1. all languages change over time

2. where humans exist, language exists

3. all languages are rule governed

4. all languages have vowels + consonants, concepts of male/female, concepts of animate/inanimate, nouns, adjectives, verbs (or adverbs)

Front 10

sound symbolism

Back 10

pronunciation of a word suggests its meaning (not so much in English)

Front 11

2 types of rules in English

Back 11

1. prescriptive: always/never do this (can be broken), more academic language

2. descriptive: tell you what English speakers actually do (cannot be broken)

Front 12

competence vs. performance

Back 12

abstract, can't be heard, perfect in native speakers, mental knowledge

vs.

contains mistakes, slips of the tongue, physical

Front 13

synchronic vs. diachronic

Back 13

study at one point of time

vs.

comparative study

Front 14

speech vs. writing

Back 14

primary, more widespread, easier to acquire, older origin, sound

vs.

secondary, rehearsed, less spontaneous, symbol

Front 15

vowels

Back 15

relatively little obstruction/interruption in oral cavity; voiced

Front 16

Place of Articulation

(Consonants)

Back 16

bilabial: use of 2 lips

labiodental: lips + teeth

interdental: tongue between teeth

alveolar: tongue touches alveolar ridge

palatal: tongue touches palatal region

velar: back of mouth

glottal: space between vocal chords

Front 17

Manner of Articulation

(Consonants)

Back 17

stop: air comes out, then stops

fricative: air escapes through a small passage, producing friction

affricate: a stop, followed by a fricative

nasal: air escapes both nasal and oral cavities

retroflex/lateral liquid: can be vowel-like

glide: movement of tongue and jaw, also vowel-like

Front 18

VOWELS

Back 18

1. tongue height

- high, mid, or low

2. tongue advancement

3. muscular tension

- tense or lax

4. rounding

- rounded or unrounded (lip shape)

Front 19

dipthongs

Back 19

vowel followed by a glide

ay (I)

aw (ow)

oy (oi)

Front 20

Supra or Non-Segmental Features

Back 20

tone

juncture - where word boundaries begin and end (white rye/why try)

stress - subject (n) vs. subject (v)

length

Front 21

phonology

vs.

phonetics

Back 21

the study of sound patterns within a specific language

vs.

the study of sound in all languages

Front 22

phonemes

Back 22

1. contrast in meaning

2. abstract + theoretical unit

3. not actually heard or uttered

4. form basis of alphabet

ex: hit + hid /t/ and /d/ one sound differentiates

Front 23

allophones

Back 23

1. derived or variant forms of a phoneme

2. actually heard and uttered

3. predictable, based on phonetic environment

complementary distribution: where you expect to find certain allophones

Front 24

phonotactics

Back 24

the sound sequences that are permissible or not, rule governed

ex. consonant triplet [s] * [k] [p] [t] * [y] [r] [w] [l]

(voiceless stops)

Front 25

phonological processes are used to:

Back 25

1. make sound sequences easier to pronounce

2. make sound sequences easier to perceive

3. adjust timing in language to make it more regulated

Front 26

optional phonological processes

Back 26

- change in syllable structure (police - plees)

- deletion (family - famly)

- dissimilation...two sounds becoming less

similar (sixth - sikst)

- flap (butter - budder)

- palatalization (did you - didja)

- insertion (warmth - warmpth)

- metathesis (ax - aks)

Front 27

obligatory phonological processes

Back 27

- aspiration

- assimilation: plural & past tense marker -s, -ed

ex. chill-chilled (voiced), hop, hopt (voiceless)

- place: negation (im vs. in)

- manner: tune...u is nasalized in preparation of nasal n

- vowel lengthening (coat vs. code) lengthened when vowel precedes voiced consonant

Front 28

morphology

Back 28

the study of the internal structure of words and the rules that form them

Front 29

morpheme

Back 29

smallest unit of meaning

Front 30

open (content) words

vs.

closed (function) words

Back 30

nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives

vs.

articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns

Front 31

bound

vs.

free

Back 31

cannot exist in isolation

vs.

can exist in isolation/stand alone

Front 32

inflectional morphemes rules

Back 32

8 in English language, all suffixes

1. if you add an IM, it doesn't change part of speech or meaning

2. IMs follow derivational suffixes

3. IMs are very productive

4. IMs deal with the syntactic + semantic relationship between words in a sentence

Front 33

list of inflectional morphemes

Back 33

-s (plural) only time 2 IM in

-s (possesive) a row = plural + poss

-s (3rd, singular)

-ed (past tense)

-en/ed (past participle)

-ing (progressive)

-er (comparative)

-est (superlative)

Front 34

derivational morphemes

Back 34

1. DMs may change the part of speech and tend to change the meaning more significantly

2. DMs precede inflectional morphemes

3. DMs not nearly as productive as IMs

4. DMs deal with semantic relationship w/i word

Front 35

Word Formation Processes

Back 35

1. word coinage

2. compounds

3. acronyms (NATO, NASCAR, RADAR)

4. initials

5. back formation (new word comes about by dropping an affix; peddler; to peddle)

6. clipping (doc for doctor, ad for advertisement)

7. blending (brunch, smog)

Front 36

suppletion

Back 36

exceptions to the rule

(ox - oxen, goose - geese, tear - tore, go - went)

* words that are higher frequency = more irregular

Front 37

allomorphs

Back 37

derived/variant forms of a morpheme

morphemes that have an alternate form (-es, -ed)

Front 38

syntactic (structural)

vs.

semantic (lexical)

ambiguity

Back 38

how you parse sentence

vs.

word that has more than one meaning

Front 39

constituents (phrases)

noun phrase

verb phrase

preposition phrase

Back 39

phrase tests:

1. pro-form...pronoun

2. isolation tests

3. intrusion (between phrases, not within)

4. movement (reorder phrases)

Front 40

Transformational Generative Grammar

Back 40

what people can say

Front 41

Phrase Structure Rules

(what makes up phrase or constituent)

Back 41

S = NP + VP

NP = (det) (Adj. P) N (PP)

VP = V (NP) (NP) (PP) (Adj. P) (S)

PP = P NP

Adj. P = Adj.

Front 42

deep structure

Back 42

basic underlying meaning generated from phrase or structure rules

(if one sentence is syntactically ambiguous, it must have two D-S) "They fought over the bar"

Front 43

Transformations

Back 43

1. negation

2. yes-no questions

3. particle movement

4. WH questions

do insertion