ENG 211 Flashcards
Linguistic Competence
The capacity of an organization and its personnel to communicate effectively and convey information in a manner that is easy to understand.
Linguistic Performance
what we can measure to determine a speaker’s linguistic competence
Performance Error
the performance of a speaker may not be fault free even though his or her competence is perfect
Speech Communication Chain
the transition of information from the speaker through connecting medium to a listener
Speech Communication Chain Steps
1.) Sender has a thought
2.) Selection of words
3.) Following rules
4.) Nerves impulses
5.) Muscles movement
6.) Sound waves
Noise
Anything that interferes with the communication process between a speaker and an audience
Lexicon
A person’s mental dictionary, including their words, their functions, how to produce them and how they relate to other words.
Mental Grammar
a language system; all the elements and rules that make up a language
Language Variation
No two speakers of the same language have the same mental grammar but they both can still understand each other
Descriptive Grammar
Contains the rules that someone has deduced based on observing speakers’ linguistic performance
Evidence that writing and language are NOT the same
Writing tends to be more complex and intricate while language has longer sentence and many subordinate clauses.
Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech
Writing is usually more durable or permanent. When we speak, our words live for a few moments only.
Prescriptive Grammar
these rules derive from the socially embedded notion that there is a “correct” way to use language
Prescribe
to order or direct the use of something
Charles Hockett’s 9 design features
1.) Mode of communication
2.) semanticity
3.) pragmatic function
4.) interchangeability
5.) cultural transmission
6.) arbitrariness
7.) discreteness
8.) displacement
9.) productivity
