Curzan and Adams Chapter 1 Flashcards
metathesis
a systematic process of sound change; involves the reversal, or switching places, of two sounds
human language
a conventional system of signs that allows for the creative communication of meaning
signifier
the linguistic form; the string of sounds
signified
the concept to which the signifier refers (be that a real-world object or an abstract idea)
linguistic sign
the relationship of the signifier and the signified; a meaningful word
langue
the underlying abstract system of language; the signs and their relationships to one another both in the lexicon and combined into sentences
parole
actual speech that speakers produce
linguistic competence
a speaker’s knowledge of the grammatical rules that govern his or her language; the mental rules that explain our ability to construct grammatical utterances
linguistic performance
a speaker’s realization of grammatical rules in his or her speech
recursion
the capacity of language to embed an infinite number of elements into its grammatical structures
grammatical (linguistic)
all language constructions that conform to the systematic rules of a language and are, therefore, comprehensible to another speaker of the language
grammatical (general)
sentences that conform to rules in grammar or usage books for how we should write
grammar (linguistic)
the structure and rules governing a language at the level of sound, word formation, syntax, and semantics
linguistics
the principled study of language as a system
phonology
the study of sound systems and sound change, usually within a particular language
phonetics
the description and classification of sounds more generally and the study of their production and perception
morphology
the study of how words form
semantics
the study of meaning, the relationship between linguistic signs and the things or ideas they represent
syntax
the structure of phrases, clauses, and sentences
pragmatics/discourse analysis
explain how we manage to communicate with language
stylistics
the study of language as it is used in written contexts, usually literary, but including courtroom rhetoric, political speeches, journalism, poetry, novels, and graffiti
sociolinguistics
the study of language in use more generally, including the study of language variation by region or by socioeconomic status, gender, race, age, or other category
applied linguistics
encompasses all applications of linguistic theory to real world problems including areas such as language policy, language education, language acquisition and loss, speech pathology, lexicography, and discourse analysis
historical linguistics
study of processes of language change and their results
diachronically
historically
synchronically
present
psycholinguistics
the ways in which we acquire and understand language
theory of mind
understanding of our own and others’ full range of mental states, including beliefs, desires, and intentions
displacement
the ability to project forward and backward in time
reflexes
word descended from an etymon
cognates
words or languages that are related to each other through a shared ancestor word or language
etymon
parent word from a parent language; ancestor of reflexes
Grimm’s law
the observation that certain Indo-European consonants (mainly stops) undergo regular changes in the Germanic languages that are not seen in non-Germanic languages such as Greek or Latin
proto-language
a language for which we have no written evidence, but which we can infer from comparison of its descendents and development of the laws according to which its sounds and word-forms changed
internal factors
those inherent to the structure, especially the sound structure of the language
social factors
those that depend on the behavior of speech communities
cognitive factors
those that depend on our comprehension of the language and on our mind’s language processes
