Final Exam Flashcards
What is language?
A distinctive mental capacity of human beings. (unconsciously learned)
Language as a mental capacity
What is grammar?
The rules of a language.
Descriptive grammar
The patterns of grammaticality according to how people actually use language
Prescriptive grammar
Claim about how people ‘should’ use language, based on cultural authority
Macro language
English as a whole, averaging micro language
Micro language
The language inside of your brain
Universal Grammar
The idea that humans are born predisposed to expect certain properties from language. Babies are born with a blueprint!
Human language
Semanticity, Arbitrariness, Discreteness, Displacement, Productivity, & Duality of patterning.
Animal communication
the mutually beneficial production of a signal by a signaler resulting in a behavioral change in a receiver
Bilingualism
The state of fluency in two languages, comes with cognitive benefits. DOES NOT cause problems in children.
Codeswitching
The practice of alternating between two (or more) languages in the same stretch of discourse.
First language acquisition
a built-in program where kids are born ready to use language exposure to acquire linguistic signs, patterns, & rules.
Second language acquisition
Past the critical period, Transfer effects, no guarantee of success.
Aphasia
Any speech disorder resulting from brain damage.
Broca’s Aphasia
Speech disorder that has simplified structure, loss of function words. Also known as non-fluent or agrammatic aphasia.
Wernicke’s Aphasia
Speech disorder that is structurally similar to regular speech but the semantic content of the words is confused. Also known as fluent aphasia.
Areas of the brain
Broca’s area and Wernicke’s are both located in the left hemisphere.
How we study language and the brain
Lab studies, looking at brain injuries, etc.
What is phonetics
The science of speech sounds and signs
Articulatory phonetics
Studies how the articulatory apparatus produces speech or sign
Acoustic phonetics
studies the properties of the sound waves constituting speech sounds
Perceptual phonetics
studies how we hear, see, and perceive speech sounds or signs.
Transcription, IPA
The universal phonetic alphabet (IPA CHART)
Three parameters to describe consonants
Voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation
How we distinguish vowels
Height, frontness, rounding
Phoneme
A sound category in the mind of a speaker
Allophone
Different pronunciations of a phoneme which are chosen depending on the phonological environment
Minimal Pairs
When one phoneme is different in the same environment. Pat vs. Bat
Phonology
The study of sound patterns
Syllables (the rules)
A unit of sound – one ‘beat’ of rhythm
Phonological rules in our head
Memorized phonemic forms + allophonic rules
Phonological rules
An unconscious grammatical rule that determines part of the sound pattern of a language
Phonological environments
Where the sound occurs in a word and with respect to other sounds
Allophonic rules
express context dependent variation in the narrow phonetic transcription associated with a phonetic unit
Morpheme specific phonological rules
Phonological rule- a method for describing the way in which individuals sounds are produced in spoken languages
Tone
Pitch that is used to distinguish some words and morphemes from others
Sound patterns in language change
if we substitute one sound for another in a word there is a change of meaning and 2 different sounds represent different phonemes
Morphology
The study of word structure