Foundations of Linguistics Flashcards
What is linguistics?
The science of language
What is the scientific method?
Developing and testing hypotheses
What does language do?
Distinguishes humans from animals
What does it mean to know a language?
To speak and be understood by others who know that language
What are most native speakers not aware of?
Their underlying knowledge of language
What do native speakers of a language know? (2)
- the language’s sound system
2. how sound correlates to meaning
What is arbitrary in terms of language?
The connection between meaning and sound
What is an exception to the arbitrariness of language?
Onomatopoeia
What part of language means you can combine words and phrases into never-before-heard sentence? Who coined this phrase?
Creative aspect. Noam Chomsky
What are Hockett’s 7 characteristics of language?
Duality of pattern; productivity; arbitrariness; interchangeability; specialisation; displacement & cultural transition
What is duality of pattern?
The ability to create meaningful words from non-meaningful sounds
What is productivity?
The ability to create new speech
What is interchangeability?
The ability to give and receive linguistic signals
What is cultural transition?
The ability to teach and be taught language
What is an example of animal communication that displays displacement?
The bee ‘waggle dance’
What is the language faculty?
The ability to learn language
What is one theory of why only humans have the language faculty?
Evolution
Who suggested natural selection has modified a once basic language faculty into a unique one?
Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch
What did Jackendoff suggest (in terms of the link between evolution and the language faculty?)
That those who have a developed language faculty have an adaptive advantage over those who don’t
Why is animal communication not considered language?
It does not possess all of the descriptors of human language.
What is one language descriptor that Prairie Dog language possesses?
Arbitrariness
What is one language descriptor that Prairie Dog language does not posses?
Displacement
What is I-language?
The language system within an individual’s brain
What does sui-generis mean?
One of its kind
What do descriptive linguistics look at and why are they criticised by Chomsky?
They look at how language is used, but fail to take into account the underlying rules and UG that humans have
What kind of system is I-language?
A computational system
What kind of science did Isac & Reiss suggest linguistics could be?
A cognitive science
Define intensional.
providing a formula/description that characterises the members of the set
Define extensional.
listing all the members in a set
Give an example of a grammatical rule in English that (most) natives are not aware of
The subjunctive
What does Saussure claim that words are?
Signs
What two things does the ‘sign’ contain according to Saussure?
The signifier (sounds/images) and the signified (concepts/meanings)
How does Saussure divide language?
langue and parole
Define langue.
the internal system of language
Define parole.
the oral communication of language
How does Chomsky divide language?
I-language and e-language
What are performance and competence?
Chomsky: performance = the actual utterance; competence = understanding language (innate). Poor performance does not mean poor competence!
