Exam One Flashcards
Introduction, Phonology, Writing, and Language Families
What is language?
a systematic and conventional means of human communication [interaction] by way of vocal sounds; may also include written symbols
What are the 8 hierarchical units of language?
Phone, Phonemes, Morphemes, Words, Phrase, Clause, Sentence, Discourse
What is a phone?
Every sound humans can produce through the use of the vocal tract
What is the study of phones called?
Phonology
What is the study of phonemes called?
Phonemics (the study of the sounds of a given language as significantly contrastive members of a system)
What is a phoneme?
smallest recognizable unit of sound
What are the two types of allophones of a phoneme?
Free variation (“Economics”)
Complementary Distribution (“Cat”, “Car”, “Cop”)
What are morphemes?
the smallest meaningful unit of sounds
What is the study of morphemes called?
Morphology
What are the two classification types of morphemes?
Structural Types (How they look)
Functional Types (What they do)
What are the structural types of morphemes?
Free morphemes (Those that can stand on their own; i.e. word, stem of word)
Bound morphemes (affixes, prefixes, suffixes, infixes)
What are the functional types of morphemes?
Derivational morphemes (One that changes the meaning or lexical category of a word)
Inflectional morphemes (Marks number, gender, case, tense [verbs], degree [adj.])
What are two key words to do with words?
Lexicon
Semantics
What are the internal reasons for change in language?
Economy (the law of least effort), analogy, imperfect learning, unknown
What are the external reasons for change in language?
Major historical events, especially foreign contact
What is phonological change?
Loss of long vowels, loss of the vowel in the final unstressed syllable, introduction of new sounds (look in notes)
What is phonemic/graphemic change?
Look in notes
What is morphological change?
Loss of many inflectional suffixes, dative and accusative case
What is lexical change?
Loss: “weorthan” (to become)
Functional shift (conversion)
What are the different types of semantic change?
- generalization/narrowing
- Amelioration/perjoration
- strengthening/weakening
- abstraction/concretization
- shift in denotation
- shift in connotation
What is generalization/narrowing?
Gen: “Bread” to mean “food” in general
Narr: “heofon” (heaven) restricted strictly with the religious context after the introduction of “sky”
What is amelioration/pejoration?
A: Pretty in OE meant “tricky, sly, wily; ‘wicked’”
P: Crafty in OE meant “skillful, strong, learned”
What is strengthening/weakening?
S: “drown” came from the same root as “drink”
W: “Awesome”
What is abstraction/concretization?
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”
