History/Linguistics Flashcards
Great Vowel Shift
(Late Middle English-Modern English) Vowel phonemes that approximated to the patterns we use today; changed the way long vowels were pronounced. Long vowels came to be pronounced with the tongue higher in the mouth and the letter āeā at the end of a word became silent.
Phonology
Sound patterns of words and phrases (grammar)
Old English
Northumbarian, Mercian, West Saxon (literary standard), and Kentish. Originally writen in runic characters but converted to Latin alphabet
Middle English
Change with Norman Conquest in 1066. New French influence; adoption of 10,000 French words (related to law).
Early Modern English
1500-1800 Influenced by Renaissance; introduction of inkhorn words by playwrights; Great Vowel Shift; printing of books helped create unity of language
Late Modern English
1800-now Expansion of English vocabulary due to Industrial Revolution and technologies. Globalization brought new words into English
Dialect
A variation of a language that is spoken by inhabitants of a particular geographic area. It can have its own grammar and vocabulary.
Pidgin
Contact language made up of two or more languages. Related to business contact with native peoples. Small vocab and simple grammar.
Creolization
When a simple code (like pidgin) continues to develop over time and acquires native speakers. New vocab is added to the code and it adopts new complicated linguistic principles until finally it has a complexity similar to other languages
Linguistics
Systematic study of language in order to find general principles and structure that link human languages
Morphology
Composition of words (grammar)
Syntax
Composition of sentences (grammar)
Phonetics
Properties of speech sounds and non-speech sounds
Semantics
Meaning of words
Pragmatics
Language usage in context
Sociolinguistics
Language and society
Grammar
Morphology, syntax, and phonology
Atomistic
Linguistic approach that thought of language as a collection of speech sounds, words, and grammatical endings. Revolutionized by Saussure who found Structuralism
Structuralism
Language as a system in which each element of sound and meaning is mainly defined by how it relates to other elements.
Generative Grammar
Founded by Chomsky. Emphasizes that people share an innate and universal set of linguistic structures, which accounts for why young children can learn a new language so easily. People have a genetic predisposition to language.
Universal Grammar
Developed by Chomsky. A set of principles that apply to all languages and are unconsciously accessible to every human language user. Includes the fundamental qualities shared by all languages. May be due to common aspects of human experience, common patterns of descent, or contact between cultures and the borrowing of languages.
Transformational Grammar
Languages as having a shared deep structure and a variable surface structure
