Final exam Flashcards
what is one way that language change?
words broaden or narrow their meaning
What did the word “bimbo” start out as?
a term for babies
what did the word “starve” initially mean?
“Die” then became to mean “die from hunger” then just “suffer from hunger”
where did the word limelight come from?
It was a word referring to light being made from a burning lime, now it is an abstract noun
are words stored alphabetically?
no
Writing that drops down from one line and continues in a reverse order
boustrouphedon
what did writing first start off as?
pictures
using pictures as a unit to relay words
rebus device
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but __ sounds in the English language
44
what is the name of the sound that represents the ng combination in the English language
Engma
There are at least __ ways to spell “sh”
13
How does George Bernard Shaw say that “fish” could technically be spelled?
Ghoti
what is the job of the International Phonetic Association?
attempt to represent all the sounds spoken in the world’s languages
As a language develops, it tends to become more _____
regular
what are the two classes of verbs?
strong and weak
why don’t children make mistakes when changing statements into questions?
They are primed to learn to invert the highest auxiliary
_____ allow us to test the idea that people learn to transform sentences
Traces
Remnants of where words used to be in a sentence before a transformation
Traces
when children are learning speech and learn to leave out non-essential words
telegraphic speech
When someone points to an object and says its name, young children tend to assume that it is the whole object being referred to�
whole object constraint
Children tend to assume that words are basic level descriptors. That is, they assume dog versus animal�
taxonomic constraint
Tend to assume that if an object has a name, it is unlikely that a new name will refer to it�
mutually exclusive constraint
how do we know that humans come here ready to speak?
language is universal, has equal complexity, cerebral areas, throat modifications, linguistic biases
words that people who learn a language later in life have difficulty pronouncing�
Shibboleth
when adults are forced to learn a new language, they often develop modified forms of the language�
pidgin
_______has been emphasized as the real difference between humans and other animals�
verbal language
three features that seem to demarcate language from other types of communication�
arbitrary sign, generative grammar, refer to removed objects�
Ex:The sound cat doesn’t look like a cat, has no whiskers, doesn’t sound like cat, and the written form doesn’t resemble either�
Arbitrary sign
the rules that we use to assemble the words into a meaningful utterance�
syntax
two basic ways to define the grammar of a language�
inflected and distributed
represents the relationships among words by inflections (e.g., Latin, German)
�
inflected language
uses word order with a heavy emphasis on prepositions and auxiliary . Usually word order is more fixed
distributed language
What are Grice’s conversation maxims?
quantity, quality, relevance, manner
Make contribution as informative as required, but no more
�
quantity
Make contribution true �
quality
Make contribution relevant to ongoing conversation �
relevance
Be clear, avoid obscurity, ambiguity
manner
ekename
also name
the beginnings or endings of words often get shifted
rebracketing
one word will glom onto another word and become modified in such a way that one cannot reconstruct the original word
grammaticalization
Subject is briefly shown a letter string and asked if it is word (e.g., is ballet a word)
lexical decision task
Subjects are asked to fill in the missing letters to make a word (e.g., b-l-e-)
word fragment completion
Subjects are asked to add letters to make any word they wish (e.g., bal—)
word stem completion
western cultures tend to emphasize a ______ categorization
taxonomic
eastern cultures tend to emphasize a ______ categorization
thematic
the attempt to reconstruct the past using what we know about psychological processes
psychohistory
if we know how ___ changes occur then we can work backwards to get the original state of affairs by removing these changes
memory
