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
Study of the effect of context on meaning
Pragmatics
SEMANTICS:
“Your dog is barking.”–
The referent is a particular “dog” & the referent of “your” is a particular person whose dog is being referenced
Similar words in 2 or more different languages that were derived from a similar root language & may have similar meanings.
EX- school in English & escuela in Spanish; student in English & estudiante in Spanish
Cognates
Study of the effect of context on meaning
Pragmatics
SEMANTICS
“A dog is a good pet for a family with children.”–
The referent “dog” is the concept of a typical dog. The mental image that the typical English speaker has in mind when the word “dog” is spoken.
The extended meaning of a word or phrase that, in context, clarifies the referent.
Sense
“Dr. Cox is our resident archeologist.”
“Dr. Cox” & the phrase “our resident archeologist” refers to the same person; therefore they have the same concrete referent.
But the SENSE of each phrase is different. Its not like saying, “Dr. Cox is Dr. Cox.” or “Our resident archeologist is our resident archeologist.”
“He is the teacher of the class.”
The words “he, teacher & class” in this sentence have concrete referents. The words “is, the, of” have no referent & conjure up no mental image.
Their meaning, or rather their usage, tells us about the relationship of one word to another.
Personal pronouns have concrete referents when they are used in a sentence.
But those personal pronouns are SHIFTING REFERENTS, which are different for each speaker & each sentence.
Information in an utterance about the social identify of a speaker. Tells us more about the information about the speaker than the referent
Social Meaning
People often consciously & deliberately consider the social meaning of their speech when they change from on manner of speaking to another, according to their circumstances, in order to give an appropriate impression.
Code Switching
Conveys the emotions of the speaker
Affective Meaning
a misunderstanding in communication that happens between interlocutors. due to problems in the use of language, especially by foreign language speakers.
Pragmatic Failure
The cultural expectations that guide people when they are conversing
Maxims of Conversation
The basis for the maxims of conversations & assumes that each person is trying in good faith to communicate & understand
Cooperative Principle
The speaker will say neither more nor less than is required
Maxim of Quantity
The speaker will say only what he or she believes to be the truth
Maxim of Quality
The speaker will say only what is appropriate for the topic
Maxim of Relevance
The speaker will be brief, concise, & clear
Maxim of Manner
the study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional, class, and occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism.
Sociolinguistics
Systemic differences in the way different groups of people speak the same language.
Differences in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, & pramatics
Dialects
Cited as criterion to test whether 2 language varieties are dialects of the same language; how test does not always work.
Political status rather than ___ may play the deciding role in distinguishing language from dialect.
Mutual Intelligibility
the dialect of a particular social class.
Sociolects
English is the primary language of the country such as in Australia, Canada, US, UK.
English spread largely because of a migration of English speakers. Settlement developed its own national variety.
Inner Circle
English serves as a second language in a multilingual country such as Singapore, India & Philippines.
Spread occurred largely as a result of colonization by English speaking nations.
Outer Circle
English is studies as a foreign language such as in China, Japan, & Korea.
Largely as a result of foreign language learning within the country
Expanding Circle
The knowledge which underlies people’s ability to use language appropriately.
Learning to speak appropriately in a range of contexts is important if one wants to avoid giving offence, reducing everyone to hysterical laughter, or embarrassing others
Sociolinguistic Competence
Well formed sentence is one in which the sequence of words conforms to the syntactic knowledge (rules) of native speakers of a language
Grammatical Competence
Process of discovering rules of discourse
Discourse Analysis
A series of connected utterances, such as conversations, story, lecture, or any other communication event
Discourse
Using techniques to overcome language gaps; plan & assess the effectiveness of communication; achieve conversational & written fluency; modify text for audience & purpose
Strategic Competence
