File 1 - Module One, Week 2: What is Language? Flashcards
linguistic competence
“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.)
linguistic performance
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.
performance error
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).
speech communication chain
The process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.
speech communication steps
- 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.
lexicon
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).
lexicon
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).
language variation
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.
language variation
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.
descriptive grammar
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.
evidence that writing and language are not the same
- 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.
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech
- Writing can be edited. 2. Writing must be taught. 3. Writing is more physically stable than the spoken language.
convention
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.
prescribe
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.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) – list
- Mode of Communication 2. Semanticity 3. Pragmatic Function 4. Interchangeability 5. Cultural Transmission 6. Arbitrariness 7. Discreteness 8. Displacement 9. Productivity
mode of communications
Means through which a message is transmitted and received for any given communication system. (See also Design Features.)
semanticity
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.
interchangeability
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.)
arbitrariness
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.
linguistic sign
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).
convention
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.
nonarbitrariness
Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to. (See also Arbitrary.)
onomatopoeia
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.
displacement
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.
