File One Flashcards
Linguistic competence
What we know when we know a language; the unconscious knowledge that a speaker has about his/her native language.
Linguistic performance
The observable use of language. The actualization of one’s linguistic competence.
Performance error
Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue.
Speech communication chain
The process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.
Speech communication chain steps
- Think of what you want to communicate
- Pick out words to express the idea
- Put these words together in a certain order following rules
- Figure out how to pronounce these words
- Send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy
- Speak; send the sounds through the air
- Perceive: Listeners hear the sound
- Decode: Listener interprets sounds of language
- Connect; Listener receives communicated idea
Noise
Interference in the communication chain
Lexicon
A mental repository of linguistic information about words or other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties.
Mental grammar
The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about linguistic units and rules of his native language.
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.
Descriptive grammar
Objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of language(competence) based on their use of the language(performance).
Evidence that writing and language are not the same
- Writing can be edited
- Writing does not exist everywhere
- Writing must be taught
- Archeological evidence
Reasons some people believe that writing is superior to speech
- Writing can be edited
- Writing must be taught
- Writing is more physically stable
Prescriptive grammar
A set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” way to speak or write
Prescribe
Similarly to how a doctor prescribes medicine, speech is prescribed through what someone thinks is the “good” or “bad” ways to say/write things.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features
- Mode of communication
- Semanticity
- Pragmatic function
- Interchangeability
- Cultural transmission
- Arbitrariness
- Discreteness
- Displacement
- Productivity
Mode of communication
Means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system.
Semanticity
Property of having signals that convey a meaning, shared by all communication systems.
Pragmatic function
The useful purpose of any given communication system.
Interchangeability
The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and review messages.
Cultural transmission
Property of a communication system referring to the fact that at least some aspects of it are learned through interaction with other users of the system.
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.
Linguistic sign
The combination of a linguistic form and meaning
Convention
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.
Nonarbitrariness
Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to.
Iconic
Relationship between form and meaning such that the form of a word bears a resemblance to its meaning.
Onomatopoeia
Iconic use of words that are imitative of sounds occurring in nature or that have meanings that are associated with such sounds.
Conventionalized
Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice.
Sound symbolism
Phenomenon by which certain sounds are evocative of a particular meaning.
Discreteness
The property of communication systems by which complex messages may be built up out of smaller parts
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 communication is taking place.
Productivity
The capacity of a communication system for novel messages built out of discrete units to be produced and understood.
Modality
Means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system.
Myths about signed languages
- Signed language vs. manual codes- there is a myth that signed languages derive from spoken languages, rather than being languages in their own right.
- Sign language vs. pantomime- myth that states that sign languages don’t consist of words at all but rather involve signers using their hands in the air to draw pictures.
- Universality of Signed languages- myth stating that there is only one sign language used by the deaf around the world.
- Just because a person is deaf doesn’t automatically mean that sign language is their preferred method of communication.
Differences between codes and languages
- A code has no structure of its own
- Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems
- Manual codes for spoken languages do not exist
- Codes use gestures to represent letters, morphemes, and words of a spoken language.
