Chapter 4 Flashcards
Q: What is language?
A: The system of symbols we use to encode our experiences of the world and of another.
Q: What is linguistics?
A: The scientific study of language.
Q: What is a native speaker?
A: A person who has spoken a particular language since childhood.
Q: What is vocabulary?
A: The words used in a particular language or by members of a particular speech community.
Q: What is grammar?
A: A set of rules that describe the patterns of linguistic usage observed by members of a particular speech community.
Q: What is mana?
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”).
Q: What are Design features of language?
A: The characteristics of a language that, when taken together, differentiate it from other known animal communication systems.
Q: What are Phonemes?
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).
Q: What are morphemes?
A: The shortest meaning-bearing units in any language (e.g., /bↃI/ refers to a young male)
Q: What is linguistic competence?
A: Mastery of adult grammar.
Q: What is communicative competence?
A: Mastery of adult rules for socially and culturally appropriate speech.
Q: What is the linguistic relativity principle?
A: The assertion that language has the power to shape the way people see the world.
Q: What is phonology?
A: The study of the sounds (phones and phonemes) in a language.
Q: What is morphology?
A: The study of the smallest units of meaning (morphemes) in a language.
Q: What is syntax?
A: The study of sentence structure.
Q: What are semantics?
A: The study of meaning.
Q: What is a denotative meaning?
A: The formal meaning(s) of a word, as given in a dictionary.
Q: What is connotative meaning?
A: Additional meanings of a word that derive from the typical contexts in which they are used and rely on personal and cultural associations.
Q: What are pragmatics?
A: The study of language in the context of its use.
Q: What is discourse?
A: In speech a meaningful utterance or series of utterances united by a common theme.
Q: What is metalanguage?
A: Language used to talk about language.
Q: What is ethnopragmatics?
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.
Q: What is heteroglossia?
A: The coexistence of multiple varieties of a specific language
Q: What is pidgin?
A: A fairly simple language with no native speakers that develops in a single generation between members of communities that possess distinct native languages.
Q: What is creole?
A: A complex language with native speakers that has developed over one or more past generations from two or more distinct languages.
Q: What is language revitalization?
A: Attempts by linguists and activists to preserve or revive languages with few native speakers that appear to be on the verge of extinction.
Q: What is language ideology?
A: A system of beliefs about how language features relate to social features and what they reveal about the people who use them.
