Foundations of Linguistics Flashcards
What is sociolinguistics?
The study of the factors that lead to variation in language use, such as region, gender, class, ethnicity, age, occupation, or bilingual status.
What is dialect?
A language variation in one or more features of a language, such as spelling, pronunciation, or word choice.
What is sociolect?
A language variation shared by members of the same social class (e.g, working class Cockney vs. Received Pronunciation (RP) associated with the aristocracy)
What is the difference between dialect and language?
A dialect is a variation of a spoken language. It is intelligible to the larger language community. They naturally arise when a language is spread across a wide area. For political and cultural interests, two dialects (such as Indi and Urdu) can be perceived as too separate languages despite being mutually intelligible.
How does dialect affect language acquisition?
Differences in dialect may slow language comprehension and acquisition, but the overall effect is likely to be slight.
What is social language?
Social language is used in everyday communication. L2 learners will acquire social language rather quickly. It does not follow grammatical conventions - people often speak in phrases, use slang, repeat themselves, and use narrative strategies that favor expediency rather than economy or logic.
What is academic language?
Academic language is used in the classroom and workplace, and on standardized assessments. People are expected to speak in full sentences linked by grammatical transitions. AL typically requires specialized and higher-level vocabulary, and variety is expected instead of repetition.
Social language vs. academic language acquisition for ESL students
It isn’t uncommon for students to be fluent in social language. The students’ perceived mastery of social language lessens their motivation to improve academic language performance.
Different social functions of language: Informational, expressive, directive, aesthetic, and phatic.
Theory developed by Geoffrey Leach.
Informational - used to convey information. Accuracy and relevance is valued.
Expressive - convey feelings and attitudes.
Directive - convey orders or exert influence.
Aesthetic - language is used creatively artistically.
Phatic - used to sustain a social relationship, such as engaging in small talk with a stranger.
What are some various functions of language? (9 functions)
Communicate facts, thoughts, or opinions = language used to refer to something that exists in our minds.
Express emotions (often involuntarily, such as crying out in alarm).
Social function - ritualistic conversations (speaking to a neighbour to cement a social bond)
Record information for future use - written form.
Influence reality - J.L Austin called it Perlocutionary acts, such as christen a ship (I hereby christen…).
Facilitate thought and memory - talk to ourselves to overcome a mental block.
Express our personal or collective identity - join a cheer at a sports stadium.
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
Terms coined by Jim Cummins (educational psychologist)
BICS - Social language. Language used in everyday life
CALP - language used in formal settings.
Cummins highlighted the importance of keeping these two language as separate systems. An ESL student will typically become BICS proficient in 6 months, whereas CALP might take 10 years if even achieved. It’s natural for students to master the two competencies at different rates.
Functions of Academic Language
Used to describe, define, explain, compare, contrast, make predictions, and persuade.
ESL students will need focused instruction to develop these language skills. It needs to be expressly modeled, scaffolded, and reinforced through targeted practice.
World English
The term refers to 1) the spread of English as the global language of business and science and to 2) the existence of many regional and national English dialects. Stretches beyond US and UK English - such as South African and Indian dialects. Places where English speakers had colonial influence, as well as commercial and scientific influence spread among the educated and economic elite, and increasingly through the use of the Internet and cell phone platforms (social media, etc.)
What is diglossia? Common diglossia and extended diglossia.
The use of two different languages or two forms of one language by a single speech community. One form is usually considered the “high form” (taught in school, used in formal situations, associated with prestige, and has a written form). Low form often lacks written form. Individuals typically code switch between the forms depending on the social context. Example: Standard German and Swiss German.
Extended diglossia refers to a community which alternates between two separate languages depending on context (such as English and Spanish speaking communities)
What is accentedness? (meaning of the term and functional load)
The ELL’s pronunciation differs from a native speaker’s. Major factor in determining comprehensibility (both in terms of how it’s understood by others, and how well the non-native speaker understands what is being said).
Teachers should focus on instructing and correcting students on phonemes that impact comprehensibility. Functional load = to measure the importance of proper pronunciation of a phoneme for producing intelligible speech (such as using /b/ instead of /p/). Teachers should spend less time correcting the phonetic mistakes which carry low load (such as /s/ and /z/)
What is the theory of Language Codes? (Elaborated code and Restricted code)
Theory developed by Basil Bernstein.
A language code is the way language is used by a particular social group as an expression of social identity.
He suggested that language could be described as either consisting of elaborated code or restricted code.
Elaborated code = communication with strangers or people who do not share a common experience. They speak explicitly, at length, and with minimal colloquial or expressive language. Unpredictable interactions.
Restricted code = spoken among friends or members of shared community. Relies on implied meanings and references; communicating a lot with few words. Can only be performed by individuals with shared background knowledge and experiences. Predictable interactions and associated with the working class.
What are 5 strategies that should be used in a classroom with different native languages?
- Respect the native languages. Understand that it is important for social identity.
- Create a positive learning environment that recognizes their native languages.
- Ensure all students are treated equally - no native language has priority. - especially important during group work where cliques of language speakers might exclude others.
- Enforce rules about when the native language can be spoken.
- Involve parents in their students’ lessons to create continuities between home and classroom experience.
What is communicative competence?
developed by linguist Dell Hymes.
A language learner’s ability to communicate effectively in various social settings.
- how to speak or write
- what to say and to whom under different circumstances.
What are four components of communicative competence?
Linguistic competence - proficiency in grammar, vocabulary, and orthography (spelling system).
Sociolinguistic competence - understanding of how to vary language use depending on context or audience.
Discourse competence - knowledge of how to produce cohesive and coherent written and oral texts.
Strategic competence - the ability to avoid or repair communication breakdowns (paraphrasing, using gestures to overcome lack of useful vocabulary)
What does coherent texts or conversations refer to?
Coherence = connecting individual sentences in order to create coherent wholes. Small scale refers to word- or phrase-based connectors called cohesive devices (logical relations between sentences.. “In addition, .., Consequently, …). Used to illustrate effect, summary, or to establish a logical or temporal order (First, second). Furnish an example, or qualify and contrast.
What is the difference between Coherence and Cohesion?
Coherence = ideas, content belong together (e.g, in a paragraph or text as a whole. The text corresponds to logic or reality).
Cohesion = individual sentences are linked in ways that bring them together into a single whole (use of linking words, etc.).
What are the five cohesive devices?
Reference = A word in one sentence refers to a word in another (such as pronoun to its antecedent; The students… They)
Conjunction = a sentence begins with a word or phrase such as ‘however’ that ties to the previous sentence.
Substitution = A specific word is replaced with a general word in a subsequent sentence (I doubt he will study. But if he does, .. Instead of saying “But if he studies”)
Ellipses = leave out parts of a phrase previously used (I knew [that] something terrible had happened).
Descriptor = such as “Edison” being replaced with “the inventor”
How is language is differently in spoken vs. written form?
Spoken form = grammar is less fixed, phrases are the fundamental units of speech. Many repetitions, ellipses, and self-corrections. Relies heavily on slang and first-person pronouns.
Successful speech depends on paralanguage - nonverbal features of conversation (tone, gestures, facial expressions) for successful communcation.
Written form = planned, uses formal and complex grammatical structures, avoids repetitions, relies on orderly presentation and evidence in order to be persuasive. Written form is non-negotiable and can’t rely on paralanguage, and must therefore be comprehensive and complete.
What is Connected Speech? (Catenation, Elision, Assimilation, and Intrustion).
What challenges to ELLs encounter?
Refers to the way pronunciation of a word can be changed by the words around it.
Catenation = Joining of the last consonant sound of one word with the beginning vowel sound of the next (an apple - a napple)
Elision = a sound is left out of a word - often a sound in consonant clusters (sandwich - sanwich).
Assimilation = the blending of two sounds to create a new sound (don’t you - doan chu) when spoken rapidly.
Intrustion = the insertion of an unwritten sound into a phrase (do it - dewit)
Connected speech presents listening comprehension challenges for ELLs. ELLs who rely heavily on reading to learn English may use connected speech far too often when speaking, making it sound unnaturally formal or stilted).
What issues arise for ESL in written language?
They often write as they speak. They have far less exposure to English. Therefore, they often write in phrases than in sentences. Written features of language, such as presenting a thesis, present information and evidence in a logical order, need to be expressly taught.
What are the 4 main genres of academic writing? What are their features?
Expository writing = inform the reader by presenting information in an objective manner. Written in third-person, uses complex sentences, and often contains specialized vocabulary of an academic field.
Descriptive writing = Portray an event, place, or person. Usually with depth and detail. Adjectives and adverbs. Fiction, advertising, and journalism.
Persuasive writing = advance an argument or point of view. Thesis statement, presentation of evidence, restatement of thesis as a conclusion. Author may present opinions; subjective.
Narrative writing = tell a story, fictional or factual. Narrations usually in chronological order, literary devices (metaphors, etc.). Description and dialogue.
What is Phonetics?
The study of speech sounds in isolation.
Considers how individual speech sounds are produced and perceived and might ask which sounds are present in a given language.
What is Phonology? What are phonological rules?
The study of how speech sounds function in a context (syllable, word, a sentence, or a language as whole).
Studies how speech sounds are used to create larger units of meaning.
Phonological rules are the ways in which sounds change depending on where they occur and how often they are used in speech. For example, the deletion rule - unstressed vowel is often deleted in rapid speech, as when the /o/ in police is dropped and the word is pronounced as /pleas/
What are phonemes?
The speech sounds studied in both phonetics and phonology. Smallest unit of sound in a language that makes a difference in meaning.
English has 44 unique phonemes, arising from the 26 letters of the alphabet, used singly or in combination. Competent English speakers can distinguish between the phonemes and will understand how substituting one phoneme with another will result in a change of meaning (ball / mall / call)
What are graphemes and digraphs?
A way to represent phonemes (instead of using IPA). Individual letters or groups of letters that depict how a single sound is written in a single language.
/t/ can be written with a single t, or with two t’s as in better. English has two graphemes ‘t’ and ‘tt’ to represent the phoneme /t/.
Digraphs refer to any two letter grapheme, such as ‘tt’ or ‘ch’.
How can phonemes be classified in two different ways?
- Syllables with onset and rime.
The onset is the phoneme that occurs at the beginning of he syllable. In English, only consonants can be onsets. Syllables beginning with vowel sound has no onset.
The RIME is the vowel and any consonants that follow the onset. Every syllable has a rime.
Band - onset and rime. And - only a rime.
- Classify phonemes by their order in a ord.
The first phoneme - beginning phoneme. The last - end phoneme.
Middle phonemes - medial phonemes.
Teachers often promote phonetic awareness with this strategy (beginning readers) - teach the word ‘bet’ by highlighting the beginning ‘b’ and ending ‘t’ and medial ‘e’.
What is Positive Transfer?
When features of ELLs native language are similar to those in English (syntax, grammar rules, pronunciation, orthography). Reinforces the learning process
What are 4 difficulties with English spelling?
The English language has 26 letters, but 44 distinct phonemes, which complicates the learning process. There is no one-to-one correspondence between spelling and pronunciation. /k/ can be written in many ways, for example cat, kite, and lack.
Digraphs - combination of two or more letters to produce a unique phoneme, /ch/
Diphthongs - combination of two or more vowels in a single syllable often results in unpredictable sounds, such as chair which is pronounced with an /ur/ sound
Consonant clusters, such as wreck. /w/ is silent.
What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?
Created in 1888 and has been revised repeatedly since. Provides a standard system of symbols for all of the phonemes used in human languages. Uses many symbols derived from the Latin alphabet, but it includes symbols from other sources, such as the Greek alphabet and even the Icelandic alphabet.
How do you refer to a phoneme to distinguish it from a letter that might have a different sound in a different language?
Place the sound symbol within brackets [a] or slashes /a/.
How do linguists classify phonemes? Name 5 ways.
Classification depends on how the sounds are produced. Consonants and vowel sounds have different classification systems.
Consonants - three criteria
1. Location in the vocal tract - bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, alveopalatal, velar, and glottal
2. The manner in which they are produced - stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, approximants, and glides
3. Whether they are voiced or unvoiced
Vowels - two dimensions which refer to the position and movement of the tongue during utterance
1. High, mid, or low
2. Front, central, and back
What is a bilabial sound?
A sound formed by closing or nearly closing the lips, as in /b/ and /w/
What is a labiodental sound?
A sound formed between the lower lip and the upper middle teeth, such as /f/
What is an interdental sound?
A sound produced by putting the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, as in /th/ in then and think (voiced and unvoiced)
What is an alveolar sound?
A sound produced by placing the tip of the tongue at the hard ridge behind your top teeth, as in /t/ and /d/
What is an alveopalatal sound?
A sound produced when your tongue is placed between the area between your alveolar ridge and your hard palate, such as the /sh/ sound in should
What is a velar sound?
A sound produced when the back of the tongue is placed against the velum (soft palate; far back in the mouth), such as the /ng/ sound in /ring/ and /k/
What is a glottal sound?
A sound produced far down the throat, such as /h/. The tongue isn’t used in the production of a glottal sound. The vocal cords close rapidly.
Explain the different manners of consonant production: Stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, approximants and glides
Stops - sounds cannot be elongated and you can feel a puff of air, as in /p/
Nasals - air comes out of the nose, as in /n/
Fricatives - sounds can be elongated and air comes out of the mouth, as in /f/ and /s/
Affricates - sounds that are initiated with a stop and immediately followed by a fricative, as in /t/ and /sh/ in church
Approximants - sound can be elongated, but only a little bit of air comes out of the mouth, as in /y/ in yes and /w/ in war
Glides - sounds that glide into vowel sounds, such as the /wh/ in who
What’s the difference between a voiced and unvoiced sound?
A voiced sound will have the vocal cords vibrating, whereas an unvoiced sound does not make the vocal cords vibrate.
How are vowel sounds classified?
- High, mid, and low
- Front, central, and back
- All vowels are voiced
