Chapter 4

Question 1

Q: What is language?

Answer 1

A: The system of symbols we use to encode our experiences of the world and of another.

Question 2

Q: What is linguistics?

Answer 2

A: The scientific study of language.

Question 3

Q: What is a native speaker?

Answer 3

A: A person who has spoken a particular language since childhood.

Question 4

Q: What is vocabulary?

Answer 4

A: The words used in a particular language or by members of a particular speech community.

Question 5

Q: What is grammar?

Answer 5

A: A set of rules that describe the patterns of linguistic usage observed by members of a particular speech community.

Question 6

Q: What is mana?

Answer 6

A: From Austronesian languages; it denotes a supernatural power of force that can be embodied in a person or an object (e.g., “may the force be with you”).

Question 7

Q: What are Design features of language?

Answer 7

A: The characteristics of a language that, when taken together, differentiate it from other known animal communication systems.

Question 8

Q: What are Phonemes?

Answer 8

A: Basic units of distinct sound that are characteristic of a language and that come together to form words (e.g., /b/ and / ↃI/ in boy).

Question 9

Q: What are morphemes?

Answer 9

A: The shortest meaning-bearing units in any language (e.g., /bↃI/ refers to a young male)

Question 10

Q: What is linguistic competence?

Answer 10

A: Mastery of adult grammar.

Question 11

Q: What is communicative competence?

Answer 11

A: Mastery of adult rules for socially and culturally appropriate speech.

Question 12

Q: What is the linguistic relativity principle?

Answer 12

A: The assertion that language has the power to shape the way people see the world.

Question 13

Q: What is phonology?

Answer 13

A: The study of the sounds (phones and phonemes) in a language.

Question 14

Q: What is morphology?

Answer 14

A: The study of the smallest units of meaning (morphemes) in a language.

Question 15

Q: What is syntax?

Answer 15

A: The study of sentence structure.

Question 16

Q: What are semantics?

Answer 16

A: The study of meaning.

Question 17

Q: What is a denotative meaning?

Answer 17

A: The formal meaning(s) of a word, as given in a dictionary.

Question 18

Q: What is connotative meaning?

Answer 18

A: Additional meanings of a word that derive from the typical contexts in which they are used and rely on personal and cultural associations.

Question 19

Q: What are pragmatics?

Answer 19

A: The study of language in the context of its use.

Question 20

Q: What is discourse?

Answer 20

A: In speech a meaningful utterance or series of utterances united by a common theme.

Question 21

Q: What is metalanguage?

Answer 21

A: Language used to talk about language.

Question 22

Q: What is ethnopragmatics?

Answer 22

A: The study of language use in a specific culture, grounded in an ethnographic approach, with close attention to the relationships among language, communication, and social interaction.

Question 23

Q: What is heteroglossia?

Answer 23

A: The coexistence of multiple varieties of a specific language

Question 24

Q: What is pidgin?

Answer 24

A: A fairly simple language with no native speakers that develops in a single generation between members of communities that possess distinct native languages.

Question 25

Q: What is creole?

Answer 25

A: A complex language with native speakers that has developed over one or more past generations from two or more distinct languages.

Question 26

Q: What is language revitalization?

Answer 26

A: Attempts by linguists and activists to preserve or revive languages with few native speakers that appear to be on the verge of extinction.

Question 27

Q: What is language ideology?

Answer 27

A: A system of beliefs about how language features relate to social features and what they reveal about the people who use them.