Foundations of Linguistics Flashcards
made up to 2 forms (words, phrases, sentences) that differ in meaning, containing the same number of sound segments, & display only one phonetic difference, which occurs at the same place in the form (cat & pat)
Minimal Pair
overall pitch of an utterance, sometimes represented by a line drawn over the utterance that traces the change in pitch
Intonation Contour
different intonation contours change the syntactic function of sentences that are otherwise the same
Intonation Language
In English, a change in pitch contour of a sentence has a syntactic function & a semantic function. Ex- His name is Harry- Can be a question, statement, explanation, etc
Pitch Contour
pitch difference in the same string of phones will change the meaning of that string
Tone Language
specific change in pitch that functions in tonal languages to distinguish words that are made up of the same segments
Tone
bound morphemes that change the meaning or lexical category of a word.
Derivational Morphemes
Honorary-
honor is a free morpheme with a definable morpheme
but -ARY would be hard to define. Its function is clear. It changes the noun HONOR into the adjective HONORARY
Free Morpheme
bound morphemes that do not change the essential meaning or lexical category of a word. They change the grammatical functions (other than the lexical category).
Inflectional Morpheme
set of rules a person uses to form units of language larger than words. The term syntax also refers to the study of those rules.
Syntax
Acquiring a language involves learning how sentences are constructed & how sentences are related to each other.
A predictable combination of words. Ex- we can say heavy rain, but not strong rain b/c it does not sound right. Can be made up of any kinds of words such as verbs, nouns, adverbs & adjectives
Collocation
Words that have similar meanings & share the same semantic properties
Synonyms
Words that sound the same but differ in meaning & spelling
Homophones
Utterances in which there is a contradiction between the meaning of the parts of the utterance & the entire utterance. EX- kick the bucket, buy the far, bite the big one, sleep with the fishes
Idioms
Study of the sound system of a language; what sounds are in a language & what the rules are for combining those sounds into larger units. Also refer to the study of the sounds systems of all language, including universal rules of sound.
Phonology
Study of the structure & classification of words & the units that make up words
Morphology
Smallest units of meaning. This means that ___ cannot be broken down further & remain meaningful.
EX- “cat” cannot be broken down further into other smaller meaningful units for which the separate parts equal the meaning of the original word “cat”
Morphemes
Study of rules of meaning; the systems by which we derive meaning from a message.
Study of meaning of linguistic expressions, such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses & sentences.
Meaning of expressions divorced from the context in which these utterances are produced & from various characteristics of the sender or receiver of the message.
Semantics