Chapter 1: Introduction

Question 0

deaf sign language

Answer 0

A language used by deaf people in which the lexical and grammatical units are represented by manus, gestures and other body movements.

Question 1

arbitrariness

Answer 1

The property of linguistic signs whereby there is no intrinsic or necessary relation between the signifier (form) and signified (meaning).

Question 2

displacement

Answer 2

A design feature of language that refers to the fact that language can be used in reference to things that are not present in the immediate situation by the speaker.

Question 3

duality or duality of patterning

Answer 3

A design feature of language referring to the simultaneous organization of language on both the level of form and the level of meaning.

Question 4

icon, iconic sign

Answer 4

A sign in which the form bears some resemblance to the meaning, for example, the manual gesture for ‘two.’

Question 5

paradigmatic relation

Answer 5

A relation between a linguistic unit and other units that can occur in the same position in a construction, for example, /p/ and /b/ are in paradigmatic opposition in English (though /p/ and /ae/ are not since they can’t occur in the same position in a syllable).

Question 6

productivity

Answer 6

A design feature of language referring to the ability of speakers to make new meanings by putting together linguistic elements in new ways to form novel expressions.

Question 7

reflexivity

Answer 7

A design feature of language referring to the property that it can be used to talk about itself.

Question 8

sign

Answer 8

A fundamental item made up of two inherent components, a form (sometimes called signifier) and a meaning (also called signified).

Question 9

structuralism

Answer 9

Any approach to linguistics that focuses on the interrelatedness of linguistic units, the ways they form structures and systems of oppositions.

Question 10

symbol, symbolic sign

Answer 10

A sign in which the association between the form and meaning is not motivated.

Question 11

syntagmatic relation

Answer 11

A relation between linguistic items that are present in an utterance.

Question 12

phonetics

Answer 12

The scientific study of speech sounds.

Question 13

phonology

Answer 13

The sound system of a language, including the inventory of phonemes and their paradigmatic and syntagmatic patterning; also the study of the sound systems of languages.

Question 14

morphology

Answer 14

The branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words.

Question 15

syntax

Answer 15

The study of the formation of sentences in a language.

Question 16

semantics

Answer 16

The study of the linguistic meanings of morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, and grammatical relations. Semantic meaning is encoded in linguistic signs.

Question 17

pragmatics

Answer 17

The study of meaning that is inferred from what is said rather than encoded.

Question 18

psycholinguistics

Answer 18

The branch of linguistics concerned with the mental process involved in production and comprehension of speech, and in the acquisition of language.

Question 19

neurolinguistics

Answer 19

The study of the neurobiology of language. It is concerned with the brain functions underlying speech and the acquisition of language.

Question 20

language universal

Answer 20

A property that holds of all or most human languages.

Question 21

historical linguistics

Answer 21

The branch of linguistics that studies how languages change over time.

Question 22

sociolinguistics

Answer 22

The field that studies language in its social context.

Question 23

discourse analysis

Answer 23

The study of the structures and regularities in discourse.

Question 24

conversation analysis

Answer 24

The field of linguistics that studies the structure of conversations, for example, the way turn-taking is organized.

Question 25

evolutionary linguistics

Answer 25

An area of linguistics concerned with the origins and development of human language.

Question 26

form

Answer 26

The perceivable aspect of the linguistic sign, for example, the form of a lexical sign is its representation in phonemes.

Question 27

meaning

Answer 27

The idea that is conveyed by a sentence or utterance, its context.

Question 28

onomatopoeia

Answer 28

Where the phonetic form of a word is suggestive of the meaning, for example, meow, woof.

Question 29

alphabetic, alphabetic writing

Answer 29

A system of writing that uses a set of symbols each ideally representing a phonemic segment.

Question 30

logographic writing system

Answer 30

A system of writing in which each symbol represents a word or morpheme, for example, the system of Chinese characters.

Question 31

formal grammar, formal linguistics

Answer 31

One of the two major divisions of linguistic theory, the formal approach places focus on language as an algebraic system made up of symbols manipulated according to the rules. Formal theories tend to see meaning as peripheral, and do not normally recognize the linguistic sign as a fundamental unit.

Question 32

functional grammar, functional linguistics

Answer 32

One of the two major divisions of linguistic theory, the functional approach focuses on language as it is used. Meaning occupied a central place in functional linguistics; in extreme varieties, form is marginalized or even may have no place.

Question 33

descriptive linguistics

Answer 33

The sort of linguistics that aims to describe the facts of a language as it is actually spoken as distinct from how speakers believe it ought to be spoken.

Question 34

speech act

Answer 34

The action a speaker accomplishes in using an utterance in a particular context, for example, it’s cold could be used as a request for the hearer to turn on the heater.