Chapter 10: Language in Society

Question 1

idiolect*

Answer 1

An individual’s way of speaking, reflecting that person’s grammar.

Question 2

dialect*

Answer 2

A variety of a language whose grammar differs in systematic ways from other varieties. Differences may be lexical, phonological, syntactic, and semantic. See regional dialect, social dialect, prestige dialect.

Question 3

Standard American English (SAE)*

Answer 3

An idealized dialect of English that some prescriptive

grammarians consider the proper form of English.

Question 4

African American English (AAE)*

Answer 4

Dialects of English spoken by some Americans of African descent, or by any person raised from infancy in a place where AAE is spoken. See Ebonics.

Question 5

codeswitching*

Answer 5

The movement back and forth between two languages or dialects within the same sentence or discourse.

Question 6

register*

Answer 6

A stylistic variant of a language appropriate to a particular social setting. Also called style.

Question 7

jargon*

Answer 7

Special words peculiar to the members of a profession or group, e.g., glottis for phoneticians. See argot. Also, the nonsense words sometimes used by Wernicke’s aphasics.

Question 8

slang

Answer 8

Words and phrases used in casual speech, often invented and spread by close-knit social or age groups, and fast-changing.