9. Language Flashcards
What are 2 necessary characteristics of a natural language
- it is regular (governed by a system of rules called grammar)
- it is productive (infinite combinations of things can be expressed)
In addition to being regular and productive, what are 2 other characteristics of human language
- arbitrariness
- no semblance between word and what it refers to - discreteness
- system can be subdivided into recognizable parts (sentence, word)
(3) Generative -> slides
- can state, write, or sing something that no one has done before
Explain phonemes vs morphemes
Sounds vs. smallest meaningful units
What is phonology
Study of how phonemes can be combined in a language
What is morphology
identifying the meaningful units in a language
what is syntax vs semantics
structure vs meaning
What is the study of pragmatics
How listeners and speakers each contribute to the conversation and what assumptions they make
- social rules of language
- includes etiquette conventions
What is linguistic competence vs linguistic performance
Competence: underlying linguistic knowledge that lets us understand and produce the language
- not always evident bc of nervousness, tiredness etc
Linguistic performance only reflects linguistic competence in completely ideal situations
What are 2 things that make consonants more complicated
- differences in place of articulation
- where the obstruction in airflow occurs
- vs. vowels, no obstruction - differences in manner of articulation
- how the airflow is obstructed
What diagram depicts the various constituents of a syntactic sentence
a tree diagram
What is the use of tree diagrams
can explain why some changes are valid and others arent
- preposing
What is preposing
taking a certain part of the sentence and moving it to the front
- usually for emphasis
What are phrase structure/rewrite rules
rules in the grammar
etc.
S -> NP VP
What might understanding the semantics of a sentence mean
it is the understanding of meaning in language
for a sentence it means:
- understanding each word
- understanding the truth conditions
what is a directive
instructions to the listener
etc. “close that door”
what is a commissive
the speaker is committing to some later action
etc. “I promise to read a book”
what is an expressive
describes the psychological state
etc. “i apologize for eating the last piece of pie”
what are declarations
where the utterance itself is the action
etc. “you’re fired”
“I promise to read a book” is what kind of speech act
commissive
“you’re fired” is what kind of speech act
declarative
“i apologize for eating the last piece of pie” is what kind of speech act
expressive
“close that door” is what kind of speech act
directive
according to george miller, what are 2 fundamental problems that speech perception should solve
- speech is continuous
- a single phoneme sounds different depending on the context
What did Lisker and Abramson show about how we understand speech
they played ba or pa by altering the b/p sound and found that it was only distinguished when they fell across a certain boundary
we pay attention to some parts (meaningful) in speech and ignore others
