Foundations of Language Study Guide Flashcards
What is language
the cognitive process by which we formulate ideas and thoughts
What is Syntax?
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in language
What is Semantics?
the study of meaning in language, including words, phrases, and sentence structure
What is Morphology?
the study of the internal structure
What is Phonology?
branch of liguistics that deals with systems of sounds within language or between different languages
What is pragmantics?
the use of language, code switching, interpreting, and following conversational rules
What is Reference?
the entity or thing a word refers to in reality
What is Reflexivity?
humans can use language to talk and think about language
What is Displacement?
humans can talk about things that are not in the immediate time and place or things that do not exist at all
What is cultural transmission?
humans are not born with an instinctual language, but learn it from other humans
What is arbitrariness?
language involves arbitrary symbols that stand for an idea, event, or object
What is productivity?
Humans can create infinite words and sentences
Why is semantics ambiguous and difficult to study?
- words can have different suffixes
- words can be combined into different compound words
- words can have literal and figuritve meanings
- words can have similar meaning with differenc connotations
- words can have different registers
What is Referent?
the specific object/entity in a given context
What is homonyms?
Same word different meaning
Polysemy
one word with several meanings and share the same origin
hypernyms
a general term
-hyper means above
hyponyms (subordinate)
-hypo means below
a word or phrase whose semantic field is more specific than its hypernym
Synonyms
the same
Antonyms
words that have opposite meaning
Gradable antonym
opposite ends of a continium
ex: hot/cold
binary (non-gradable)
either dead/ alive
Converse (reversive) antonyms
describe relationship from opposite prespectives
example: above/below, send/receive
Figurative Language
different devices to express figurative meaning
Verbal Irony
implying the opposite of what is said
Examples of Figurative Language
sarcasm, jocularity, understatement, and hyperbole
Analyzing metaphors
topic: subject of the metaphor
vehicle: the topic is being compared to
Metonymy
a word of phrase is substituted for another that is closely associated with it
ex: he drank the whole bottle
slang
informal language use
idioms
metaphors that have become fixated: a saying or expression
“its raining cats and dogs”
proverbs
statements that express the collective beliefs, values and wisdom of a society and are usually culturally specific
“Every cloud has a silver lining”
What type of Vocabulary would you find in Tier 1?
Everday, conversational vocabulary
example: sad, eat, red, phone etc.
What type of Vocabulary would you find in Tier 2?
general academic vocabulary
ex: elderely, rule, foundation, fine, energy, analyze
What type of vocabular would you find in Tier 3?
Domain specific vocabulary
ex: molecule, aorta, thesis, anaphoric
What is the Agent?
the noun or what performs the action if there isnt an action, then the role would be experiencer
What is the action?
the verb of the sentence
What is the instrument?
what the agent uses to perform an action
What is the experiencer?
if you feel, know, or experience something
