Concepts of Linguistics

Question 1

Diachronic study of language

Answer 1

Studies language over time, i.e. the changes that can be observed in the course of the history of
a language

Question 2

Synchronic study of language

Answer 2

Studies language at a certain point of time

Synchronic study of language = abstraction, because language is always in transition

Question 3

Language Evolutionary System?

Answer 3

Language is an evolutionary ‘Complex Adaptive System’

Question 4

Special terms in evolutionary system:

Answer 4

New variant (mutation)
 Successful spread (replication)
 Competition between variants
 Layering (co-existence) or loss

Question 5

Descriptive

Answer 5

Describe neutrally how people speak/write (appropriate/inappropriate, formal/informal)

Question 6

Prescriptive

Answer 6

Tell people how to speak /write properly (Right/wrong, Good/bad, Well-formed/Ill-formed, Grammatical/ungrammatical)

Question 7

Langue (Competence)

Answer 7

Language system:
▪ the structure of an idealized language,
▪ it represents the mental knowledge that a
speaker has stored in his or her brain
▪ Interest in describing all elements of the
language system (sounds, words, sentences)
> structuralist

Question 8

Parole (Performance)

Answer 8

Language use by the individual:
▪ Utterances at a specific point in time
uttered/written by a specifc person
▪ speech event

Question 9

Signifier

Answer 9

A sign or sound used to represent an object/process/thought/… in the real world

Question 10

Signified

Answer 10

An object/process/thought/… in the real world that is described by a signifier