File 1 - Module One, Week 2: What is Language?

Question 1

linguistic competence

Answer 1

“Hidden” knowledge that is stored in your mind. A person’s unseen potential to speak a language. What we know when we know a language; the unconscious knowledge that a speaker has about his or her native language. (See also Linguistic Performance.)

Question 2

linguistic performance

Answer 2

The way a person produces and comprehends language. A person’s observable realization of that potential to speak a language. The observable use of language. The actualization of one’s linguistic competence. Your linguistic performance is revealed in your speech.

Question 3

performance error

Answer 3

Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue. (See also Linguistic Performance.) Being unable to remember a word, mispronouncing something, or jumbling the words in a sentence. Sometimes an apparent reason (distracted), other times there is no apparent reason at all, you simply make a mistake. Nonetheless, you still have your linguistic competence. (Think: walking and tripping).

Question 4

speech communication chain

Answer 4

The process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.

Question 5

speech communication steps

Answer 5

1. Think of what you want to communicate. 2. Pick out words to express the idea. 3. Put these words together in a certain order following rules. 4. Figure out how to pronounce these words. 5. Send these pronunciations to your vocal anatomy. 6,. Speak: Send the sounds through the air. 7. Perceive: Listener hears the sounds. 8. Decode: Listener interprets sounds as language. 9. Connect: Listener receives communicated ideas.

Question 6

lexicon

Answer 6

A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties. As a part of a descriptive, not mental, grammar, the lexicon is the representation of the mental lexicon, consisting of lexical entries that capture the relevant properties of lexical expressions (e.g. their form and syntactic category).

Question 7

lexicon

Answer 7

A collection of the words that you know, what functions they serve, what they refer to, how they are pronounced and how they are related to other words. A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties. As a part of a descriptive, not mental, grammar, the lexicon is the representation of the mental lexicon, consisting of lexical entries that capture the relevant properties of lexical expressions (e.g. their form and syntactic category).

Question 8

language variation

Answer 8

The property of languages having different ways to express the same meanings in different contexts according to factors such as geography, social class, gender, etc.

Question 9

language variation

Answer 9

The property of languages having different ways to express the same meanings in different contexts according to factors such as geography, social class, gender, etc. – No two speakers have exactly the same mental grammar, and therefore no two speakers will find exactly the same set of sentences well formed. They are similar enough to understand one another most of the time.

Question 10

descriptive grammar

Answer 10

Objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of the language (performance). (See also Prescriptive Grammar.) Descriptive rules are simply descriptions of what happens, not guidelines for what ought to happen.

Question 11

evidence that writing and language are not the same

Answer 11

1. Archeological evidence indicates that writing is a later historical development than spoken language. 2. Writing does not exist everywhere, but spoken language does. 3. Writing must be taught. 4. Neurolinguistic evidence (studies of the brain “in action” during language use). 5. Writing can be edited.

Question 12

reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech

Answer 12

1. Writing can be edited. 2. Writing must be taught. 3. Writing is more physically stable than the spoken language.

Question 13

convention

Answer 13

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice. When an arbitrary relationship of a linguistic sign and its meaning is conventionalized, the linguistic sign bears a constant relationship only because people consistently use that linguistic sign to convey that meaning.

Question 14

prescribe

Answer 14

State authoritatively or as a rule that (an action or procedure) should be carried out. Rules that mold spoken and written English to some norm.

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) – list

Answer 15

1. Mode of Communication 2. Semanticity 3. Pragmatic Function 4. Interchangeability 5. Cultural Transmission 6. Arbitrariness 7. Discreteness 8. Displacement 9. Productivity

Question 16

mode of communications

Answer 16

Means through which a message is transmitted and received for any given communication system. (See also Design Features.)

Question 17

semanticity

Answer 17

Property of having signals that convey a meaning, shared by all communication systems. (See also Design Features.) “Pizza,” verses the word with the /p/ sound.

Question 18

interchangeability

Answer 18

The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and receive messages (as opposed to systems where some individuals can only send messages and others can only receive messages.)

Question 19

arbitrariness

Answer 19

In relation to language, refers to the fact that a word’s meaning is not predictable from its linguistic form, nor is its form dictated by its meaning. (See also Design Features and Nonarbitrariness.) The norm in language.

Question 20

linguistic sign

Answer 20

The combination of a linguistic form and meaning. (See also Linguistic Expression.) The connection between form and meaning is typically arbitrary (the meaning isn’t predictable from the form; nor is the form dictated by the meaning).

Question 21

convention

Answer 21

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice. When an arbitrary relationship of a linguistic sign and its meaning is conventionalized, the linguistic sign bears a constant relationship only because people consistently use that linguistic sign to convey that meaning. – Tells you that a certain group of sounds goes with a particular meaning.

Question 22

nonarbitrariness

Answer 22

Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to. (See also Arbitrary.)

Question 23

onomatopoeia

Answer 23

Iconic use of words that are imitative of sounds occurring in nature or that have meanings that are associated with such sounds. Bow-wow for dog, splat for rotten tomato hitting wall, burble for rushing noise or running water Meaning is strongly suggested by the sound of the word.

Question 24

displacement

Answer 24

The property of some communication systems that allows them to be used to communicate about things, actions, and ideas that are not present at the place or time where communications is taking place. (See also Design Features.) – Talk about red when we don’t see it; talk about a friend in another state, a class we had last year.

Question 25

modality

Answer 25

A mode of communication. Modality tells us how it is produced and how it is perceived. [See Auditory-Vocal Language (Language with a spoken modality - produced with the voice and interpreted auditorially, also called aural-oral) and Visual-Gestural Language (Language with a signed modality - produced with gestures of the hands, arms and face and interpreted visually.)]

Question 26

myths about signed languages

Answer 26

1. Signed languages derive from spoken languages and aren’t a language of their own. 2. Signed languages don’t consist of words or internal structure. 3. Words in a signed language are completely iconic. Signers use their hands to draw pictures in the air or act out what they are talking about. 4. There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world.

Question 27

myths about signed languages

Answer 27

1. Signed languages derive from spoken languages and aren’t a language of their own. 2. Signed languages don’t consist of words or internal structure. 3. Words in a signed language are completely iconic or pantomime. Signers use their hands to draw pictures in the air or act out what they are talking about. 4. There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world.

Question 28

differences between codes and languages

Answer 28

1. A code is an artificially constructed system for representing a natural language. 2. A code has no structure of its own but instead borrows its structure from the natural language that it represents. 3. Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems. 4. True language, whether spoken or signed, is a more efficient means of communication than signed codes. 5. Manual codes are based on natural languages rather than being languages themselves, and do not share any of the properties of language that linguists study.