Chapter 1

Question 1

Linguistic Competence

Answer 1

What we know when we know a language; the unconscious knowledge that a speaker has about his or her native knowledge.

Question 2

Linguistic Performance

Answer 2

The observable use of language. The actualization of one’s linguistic competence.

Question 3

Performance Error

Answer 3

Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue

Question 4

Speech Communication Chain Steps

Answer 4

1. Think of what you want to communicate
2. pick out words to express the idea.
3. Put these words together in a certain order following rules
4. Figure out how to pronounce these words
5. send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy
6. Speak: send the sounds through the air.
7. Perceive: listener hears the sounds
8. Decode: Listener interprets sounds as language
9. Connect: Listener receives communicated idea

Question 5

Speech Communication Chain

Answer 5

When we use language as our communication system, one person acts as the information source and the transmitter, sending a signal to another person, who acts as a receiver and the destination.

Question 6

Noise

Answer 6

Interference in the communication chain

Question 7

Lexicon

Answer 7

The vocabulary of a person, language or branch of knowledge or other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological and syntactic properties.

Question 8

Mental Grammar

Answer 8

The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistic units and rules of this native language.

Question 9

Language Variation

Answer 9

The property of languages having different ways to express the same meanings in different contexts according to factors such as geography, social class, gender etc.

Question 10

Descriptive Grammar

Answer 10

Objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of language (performance)

Question 11

Evidence that writing and language are not the same

Answer 11

1. Archaeological Evidence
2. Writing does not exist everywhere
3. Writing must be taught
4. Neurolinguistic Evidence

Question 12

Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech

Answer 12

1. Writing is more physically stable, speech consist of mainly sound waves. Writing on the other hand, can be preserved for a very long time.
2. Writing can be edited, so the end product is usually better organized and has fewer mistakes unlike speech
3. Writing must be taught, and therefore intimately associated with education and educated speech.

Question 13

semanticity

Answer 13

Property of having signals that convey a meaning, shared by all communication systems

Question 14

Prescribe

Answer 14

Prescriptive rules tell you how to speak or write, according to someones idea of what is “good” or “bad”

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features

Answer 15

1. Mode of communication
2. Semanticity
3. Pragmatic Function
4. Interchangeability
5. Cultural Transmission
6. Arbitrariness
7. Discreteness
8. Displacement
9. Productivity

Question 16

mode of communication

Answer 16

Means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system

Question 17

arbitrariness

Answer 17

In relation to language, refers to the fact that a word’s meanings is not predictable from its linguistic form, nor is its form dictated by its meaning.

Question 18

Linguistic Sign

Answer 18

The combination of a linguistic form and meaning.

Question 19

convention

Answer 19

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice.

Question 20

nonarbitrairness

Answer 20

direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to

Question 21

iconic

Answer 21

relationship between form and meaning such that the form of word bears a resemblance to its meaning

Question 22

onomatopoeia

Answer 22

iconic use of words that are imitative sounds occurring in nature or that have meanings that are associated with such sounds.

Question 23

sound symbolism

Answer 23

phenomenon by which certain sounds are evocative of a particular meaning.

Question 24

Discreteness

Answer 24

The property of communication systems by which complex messages may be built up out of smaller parts.

Question 25

displacement

Answer 25

The property of some communication systems that allows them to be used to communicate about things, actions and ideas that are not present at the place or time where communication is taking place.

Question 26

productivity

Answer 26

The capacity of a communication system (unique to human language) for novel messages built out of discrete units to be produced and understood.

Question 27

modality

Answer 27

a mode of communication. A language’s modality tells us two things: how it is produced and how it is perceived

Question 28

myths about signed languages (4)

Answer 28

1. Signed Languages derived from spoken languages rather than being languages in their own right
2. Signed Languages do not have any internal structure
3. Signed Languages do not consist of words at all but rather involve signers using their hands to draw pictures in the air or to act out what they are talking about
4. There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world

Question 29

differences between codes and languages (4)

Answer 29

1. A code is an artificially constructed system of representing a natural language
2. A code is used for certain gestures to represent letters, morphemes, and words of spoken language and follow the grammar of that spoken language
3. manual codes are based on natural languages rather than being languages themselves
4. Signed languages evolve naturally and independently of spoken languages

Question 30

Convention

Answer 30

Conventionalizing a noise in such form. The form is not an exact copy of that natural noise.

Question 31

Prescriptive Grammar

Answer 31

A set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion to the “correct” or “proper” way to speak or write