finegan chapter 1

Question 1

creolization

Answer 1

process through which a pidgin language develops into a full blown language

Question 2

fundamental function of every language system

Answer 2

to link meaning and expression; to provide verbal expression for thought and feeling and for that expression to be comprehensible to others

Question 3

expression

Answer 3

words, phrases, and sentences, including intonation and stress

Question 4

meaning

Answer 4

the senses and referents of those elements of expression

Question 5

context

Answer 5

the social situation in which expression is uttered; includes what has been expressed earlier in that situation and any shared knowledge between speaker and hearer

Question 6

signs

Answer 6

indicators of something else

Question 7

nonarbitrary signs

Answer 7

EX: smoke of fire, clouds of rain

Question 8

arbitrary signs

Answer 8

no casual or inherent connection exists between the sign and what it signifies; EX: traffic lights, railroad crossing indicators, wedding rings, national flags

Question 9

representational signs

Answer 9

signs that are basically arbitrary but partly iconic

Question 10

representational language

Answer 10

aka iconic language; expression that in any fashion mimics or directly suggests its content

Question 11

grammatical competence

Answer 11

the mental capacity that enables speakers to form grammatical sentences; enables speakers to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences they haven’t heard before; the language user’s unconscious/implicit knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation, sentence structure, and meaning

Question 12

discreteness hallmark

Answer 12

words are made up of separate elemental sounds

Question 13

duality hallmark

Answer 13

two-level analysis of meaningless elements combined into meaningful ones

Question 14

displacement hallmark

Answer 14

human languages are capable of representing things and events that are not present but are spatially or temporally distant

Question 15

recursion

Answer 15

property of incorporating structures within similar linguistic structures

Question 16

communicative competence

Answer 16

the capacity to use language appropriately; the implicit knowledge that underlies the appropriate use of grammatical competence in communicative situations

Question 17

oral communication

Answer 17

relying on the use of speech and hearing organs; primary mode of human language

Question 18

writing

Answer 18

a visual representation; secondary mode of linguistic communication

Question 19

signing

Answer 19

a visual or tactile representation; the use of visible gestures to communicate

Question 20

pictograms

Answer 20

can be understood by speakers of any language because they are a direct nonlinguistic symbolization

Question 21

linguistics

Answer 21

the systematic inquiry into human language, its structure and uses and the relationship between them and its development through history and its acquisition by children and adults

Question 22

grammar

Answer 22

the structural patterns of speech sounds, words, sentence formation, and meaning

Question 23

pragmatics

Answer 23

the relationship between expression and meaning & context and interpretation