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History of the English Language > Exam One > Flashcards

Exam One Flashcards

Introduction, Phonology, Writing, and Language Families

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1
Q

What is language?

A

a systematic and conventional means of human communication [interaction] by way of vocal sounds; may also include written symbols

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2
Q

What are the 8 hierarchical units of language?

A

Phone, Phonemes, Morphemes, Words, Phrase, Clause, Sentence, Discourse

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3
Q

What is a phone?

A

Every sound humans can produce through the use of the vocal tract

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4
Q

What is the study of phones called?

A

Phonology

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5
Q

What is the study of phonemes called?

A

Phonemics (the study of the sounds of a given language as significantly contrastive members of a system)

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6
Q

What is a phoneme?

A

smallest recognizable unit of sound

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7
Q

What are the two types of allophones of a phoneme?

A

Free variation (“Economics”)
Complementary Distribution (“Cat”, “Car”, “Cop”)

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8
Q

What are morphemes?

A

the smallest meaningful unit of sounds

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9
Q

What is the study of morphemes called?

A

Morphology

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10
Q

What are the two classification types of morphemes?

A

Structural Types (How they look)
Functional Types (What they do)

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11
Q

What are the structural types of morphemes?

A

Free morphemes (Those that can stand on their own; i.e. word, stem of word)
Bound morphemes (affixes, prefixes, suffixes, infixes)

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12
Q

What are the functional types of morphemes?

A

Derivational morphemes (One that changes the meaning or lexical category of a word)
Inflectional morphemes (Marks number, gender, case, tense [verbs], degree [adj.])

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13
Q

What are two key words to do with words?

A

Lexicon
Semantics

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14
Q

What are the internal reasons for change in language?

A

Economy (the law of least effort), analogy, imperfect learning, unknown

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15
Q

What are the external reasons for change in language?

A

Major historical events, especially foreign contact

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16
Q

What is phonological change?

A

Loss of long vowels, loss of the vowel in the final unstressed syllable, introduction of new sounds (look in notes)

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17
Q

What is phonemic/graphemic change?

A

Look in notes

18
Q

What is morphological change?

A

Loss of many inflectional suffixes, dative and accusative case

19
Q

What is lexical change?

A

Loss: “weorthan” (to become)
Functional shift (conversion)

20
Q

What are the different types of semantic change?

A
  1. generalization/narrowing
  2. Amelioration/perjoration
  3. strengthening/weakening
  4. abstraction/concretization
  5. shift in denotation
  6. shift in connotation
21
Q

What is generalization/narrowing?

A

Gen: “Bread” to mean “food” in general
Narr: “heofon” (heaven) restricted strictly with the religious context after the introduction of “sky”

22
Q

What is amelioration/pejoration?

A

A: Pretty in OE meant “tricky, sly, wily; ‘wicked’”
P: Crafty in OE meant “skillful, strong, learned”

23
Q

What is strengthening/weakening?

A

S: “drown” came from the same root as “drink”
W: “Awesome”

24
Q

What is abstraction/concretization?

A

A: OE “haepen” meant a “dweller on the heath” but now means an “irreligious person”
C: “meat” in EMnE meant “food” but now it means “animal flesh”

25
Q

What is a shift in denotation?

A

OE “clud” meant “rock, hill” but now means “cloud” / “Nice” used to mean “foolish, stupid, wanton” but now means “pleasant”

26
Q

What is a shift in connotation?

A

“wyrm” in OE meant any long/slithery creature inc. dragons; PDE “worm” has connotation of smallness

27
Q

What is syntactic change?

A

In English, word order is stable (SVO)
Subject–Verb–Object

28
Q

What are the historical periods of the English language?

A

Old English (OE): 450-1100AD
Middle English (ME): 1100- 1500AD
Early Modern English (EMnE): 1500-1800AD
Present Day English (PDE): 1800AD-Present

29
Q

Phonetics Descriptions

A
  1. Voicing (The resonants are always voiced–you don’t have to specify their voicing)
  2. Point of Articulation
  3. Manner of Articulation
30
Q

What are resonants?

A

Nasals, lateral and retroflex approximants, and semivowels

31
Q

What are the points of articulation?

A

Bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal, velar, glottal

32
Q

Bilabial

A

two lips

33
Q

Labiodental

A

teeth +lips

34
Q

Interdental

A

tongue between teeth

35
Q

Alveolar

A

air concentrated on the alveolar ridge

36
Q

Alveopalatal

A

air concentrated behind the alveolar ridge

37
Q

Palatal

A

air concentrated on hard palate

38
Q

Velar

A

all the way back towards the velum

39
Q

Glottal

A

way down in the epiglottis

40
Q
A

History of the English Language (1 decks)

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