English 211 Vocab Flashcards
linguistic competence
The unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.
linguistic performance
An individual’s use of a language, i.e. what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors.
Performance Error
An unintended deviation from the immanent rules of a language variety made by a second language learner.
Speech communication chain
The stages in speech communication whereby a message moves between the mind of the speaker and the mind of the listener.
Speech communication chain steps
- Linguistic level
- Physiological level
- Acoustic level
- Physiological level
- Linguistic level
Noise
When grammar or technical language is used that the receiver (the decoder) cannot understand, or cannot understand it clearly.
Lexicon
The complete set of meaningful units in a language.
Mental grammer
The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other speakers can understand.
Language variation
Regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used.
descriptive grammar
A set of rules about language based on how it is actually used.
evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)
- Majority of the world uses language.
- Language is older than writing.
- Language changes at a faster rate over time.
- Language is learned before writing.
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
- Writing is easier to lear.
- Speech requires performance.
- Writing is self-contained.
mode of communication
Delivery of written or spoken text, the organization of words into sentences and paragraphs and the development and coherence of words and ideas.
semanticity
The quality that a linguistic system has of being able to convey meanings, in particular by reference to the world of physical reality.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) (list)
- Mode of communication.
- Pragmatic Function.
- Interchangeability.
- Cultural Transmission.
- Arbitrariness.
- Discreteness.
- Displacement.
- Productivity.
interchangeability
The idea that humans can give and receive identical linguistic signals; humans are not limited in the types of messages they can say/hear.
cultural transmission
Generally regarded as one of the key characteristics distinguishing human language from animal communication.
arbitrariness
The absence of any natural or necessary connection between a word’s meaning and its sound or form.
linguistic sign
Any unit of language (morpheme, word, phrase, or sentence) used to designate objects or phenomena of reality.
convention
A principle or norm that has been adopted by a person or linguistic community about how to use, and therefore what the meaning is of, a specific term.Jul 4, 2014
nonarbitrariness
Subject to individual will or judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon one’s discretion.
iconic
One whose form resembles its meaning in some way.
onomatopoeia
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
conventionalized
Cause to become conventional.
