Linguistics Terms Flash Cards

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arbitariness

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a fundamental property of human language whereby there is no intrinsic relationship between the form of a word (how it sounds) and its meaning

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*framing/frame

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a superordinate message that communicates how utterances are meant and what speakers think they are doing when they speak in a given context

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*conversational rituals

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the sequence of utterances that speakers in a given culture expect coversation to follow

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phone

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sound, the smallest sound possible

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acoustic phonetics

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study of the physical characteristics of sound waves

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*languaculture

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a term used to express the inseparability of language and culture

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*Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis

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The hypothesis argues that the nature of a particular language influences the habitual thought of its speakers. Different patterns of language yield different patterns of thought. This idea challenges the possibility of representing the world perfectly with language, because it acknowledges that the mechanisms of ANY language affect its users. The hypothesis emerged in many formulations, some weak and some strong.

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contextualization cues

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the paralinguistic and prosodic features that signal how the words spoken are to be interpreted

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cooperative overlap

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two speakers talking at once in a conversation where the second speaker talks along in order to show enthusiastic listenership, not to interrupt

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minimal pair

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two distinct words that differ only in a single sound in the same position, such as "fat" and "bat"

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phoneme

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one of the contrastive sounds of a language - a label for a group of sounds that are perceived by the speaker to be the same; two different phonemes are represented by minimal pairs

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allophone

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a contextually determined variant pronounciation of a phoneme; when the two phonemes are perceived as different because their distribution is predictable and noncontrastive

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articulatory phonetics

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study of how the vocal tract produces speech sounds

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IPA

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International Phonetic Alphabet: a lettering system devised to describe the sounds of any language, as any one language's alphabet cannot adequately describe the range of sounds in another language

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place of articulation

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the area of the vocal tract at which a constriction is made

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manner of articulation

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the type of constriction that is made for a speech sound - stop, fricative, affricate, approximant, vowel

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sonorant

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a speech sound that is made audible by resonance of air in the vocal tract, rather than by obstruction of airflow - vowels, glides, nasals and some liquids

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obstruent

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a speech sound that is made audible by obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract - oral stops, fricatives, affricates

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stress

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a prominence relation between syllables. certain syllables may be longer, louder, higher-pitched and more clearly articulated than those around them

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stop

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a manner of articulation in which the flow of air from the lungs is interrupted by the closing of the vocal tract (at some point of articulation)

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fricative

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manner of articulation in which the articulators are brought close together but not closed completely, so that the stream of air that is forced between them becomes turbulent and noisy
[s] [z] [f] [v]

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affricate

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a sound that is comprised of a sequence of stop plus fricative
EG: 'ch' [tS]

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approximant

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a speech sound in which the articulators narrow the vocal tract, but not so much that a fricative noise is created
[l] [r]

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dialect

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1. One of several distinguishable varieties, generally (but not always) mutualy intelligible, of a language. A dialect has features on all levels of language, including lexical, phonological, morphosyntactic, and pragmatice
2. A linguistic variety without standardization or published literature

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jargon

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a set of lexical terms associated with a particular sphere of activity, such as a profession or hobby, for example, computer jargon or sports jargon

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slang

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lexical items that carry non-neutral connotations and are typically considered to be short-lived

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ebonics

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African American English (AAE). A language variety, part of English or related to English, with its own grammatical structure, that has been developed by communities of people of African descent

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accent

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pronounciation, especially associated with a particular regional or social group

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morpheme

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the smallest meaningful unit of language. words are made up of one or more morphemes, EG: the word roses is made up of two morphemes: the lexeme rose and the plural suffix

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allomorph

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a variant pronounciation of a morpheme that appears in a particular conditioning environment, EG: the english negative morpheme in- in worlds like inescapable, impossible, incapable

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prefix

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an affix that precedes the base to which it is bound.EG: un- in the word "unhappy"

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suffix

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an affix that follows the base to which it is bound. EG: -ness inthe word "happiness"

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infix

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a type of affix that appears inside the base to which its applied. EG Tagalog past-tense infiation: tulong "help" -> t-um-ulong "helped"

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circumfix

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a type of affix that surrounds a base (appearing as both a prefix and a suffix) EG: the german past-participle from ge-t in the word "ge-zeigt" "shown"

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comparative method

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a method employed in the reconstruction of a protolanguage from a comparison and analysis of cognates

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cognate

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words in two or more sister languages which are descended from a common word in the parent language

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*language family

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a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. As with human biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics

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*Indoeuropean

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Our branch of language which encompasses Western languages such as the Germanic and Romantic languages

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cooing

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1 vowel-like sounds of very young infants which are generally interpreted as signs of pleasure and playfulness

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babbling

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2 prelinguistic vocal behavior produced by infants beginning at about four months of age; typically consists of simple syllables (EG mama) and later by sequences of different syllables (EG mabada)

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holophrastic stage

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3 the stage of linguistic development in which children produce one-word utterances to carry the meaning of what an adult would express in a longer sentence

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telegraphic speech

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4 speech in which function words are absent, common in the early stages of child language development

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overextension

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the child's use of a word to cover more referents than an adult would; EG referring to all four-legged creatures as 'dogs'

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underextension

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the child's use of a word to cover less referents than would an adult; EG using only the word 'dog' to refer to the family dog but not other dogs

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overgeneralization

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misapplying a rule to an exceptional case, EG 'goed' instead of 'went'

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*behaviorism

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In linguistics, the idea that language is a behavior, just like any other. it is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement. as the child imitates his parents, the parents can reinforce the child's correct word usage and punish (through negative reinforcement: looking away, not saying anything) to the "non-target" utterances. Utterances eventually shape to norm of his particular speech community

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*nativism

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the notion that language is an innate capacity, not the result of general learning mechanisms. All children learn language rapidly and easily, whereas adults can struggle to learn a second language. LAD, poverty of stimulus. The linguistic input that children receive is not rich enough to support the extraction of complex linguistic generalizations - children must by necessity be endowed with an innate knowledge of linguistic rules that guide the language acquisition process.

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*connectionism

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sensitivity to distributional patterns in the input are sufficient for at least some aspects of language acquisitions, including syntax. Children can make associations based on regularities they detect in the input. (Take EG, the way children can overgeneralize past tense endings: he goed, he holded). For overgeneralization to occur, there must be some kind of deduced rule present.

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*social interactionism

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importance is placed on interactions between language learner and the caregiver. Minimal import of LAD, emphasis on LASS (language acquisition support system). Caregivers talk to child in short, simple sentences with a higher pitch and exaggerated intonation, as well as sentences focused on the objects and events in the child's immediate environment. Repetition, imitation. Also: recasts - correct reformulations of the child's original, ungrammatical utterances

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universal grammar

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UG: the set of principles that determine the properties of the natural grammars of all languages, which which human children appear to be born and which is thought to guide children's acquisition of their native languages. This same as language organ in its inital state, except abstract principles are emphasized more than biology.

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language acquisition device

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LAD: the proposed innate area of the brain that is dedicated to language and which makes language acquisition possible

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subject

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The subject of a sentence. the S node in a sentence.

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predicate

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the verb phrase of a sentence

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head (of a phrase)

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1. A key 'word' (lexical item) from which a phrase of the same category is projected
2. The part of a derived word (especially in compounds) that constitutes the superordinate semantica cateorgy or determines the lexical category (or both) of the overall word, EG a 'shortlist' is a kind of list whose meaning is narrowed by the lexeme 'short' (vs. a 'waiting list', a 'black list', a 'hitlist') and the noun category of 'list' determines the overall category of the entire compound (vs. the adjective category of 'short') thus 'list' is the head of the compound

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ambiguity

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a word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has multiple meanings

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homophone

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two, to, too/ they're, there, their

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poverty of stimulus

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the point that input alone is inadequate to support a child's language-learning endeavor. Although a child can hear slips of the tongue, false starts, incomplete sentences, the child can learn to create complex sentences and create a complex grammar schema

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case

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a grammatical categor marked on nounes and pronouns that indicates their role in a sentence such as subject, direct object, or indirect object, or in relation to another noun, as EG its possessor. Case marking appears on pronouns in English - distinguishing EG the forms I, me, and my

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agent

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the subject of a sentence in the manner that it is the thing doing the action in the sentence

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patient

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the direct object or thing that receives the action in a sentence

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discourse

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language used above the sentence (text) and beyond the sentence (context). EG environment, context, implications, connotations. Every word and syllabe of an essay goes towards the over meaning and point of the essay but one single words means nothing.

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context

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the linguistic or social environment in which a word, phrase, or sentence is produced

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*pragmatics

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the field of linguistics which studies meaning in certain contexts of use

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semantics

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the field of linguistics which studies literal meaning; the study of those aspects of meaning which are determined within the linguistic system

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syntax

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the rule-governed combination of words into phrases and sentences

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implicature

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speaker's meaning which comes about because of the cooperative principle. implying.

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presupposition

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Understanding the context and therefore knowing what they're saying and what to say in response. A proposition which a speaker must take for granted if what she says is to be appropriate in the context of use.

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speech act

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an action performed by one person using language. It can be labeled by a noun that names the act. The speaker intends to communicate with act and that intention is recognized by the recipient. EG greeting, request, warning

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*metalinguistic awareness

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conscious awareness of the characteristics of the language itself and how it works