KM Study Guide II Flashcards
assimilationist teaching
teaching that expects people to give up their native languages and to become speakers of the majority language of the country
allophone
alternative pronunciations of phonemes in a particular language that never affect the meaning
creole
a new language created when children acquire their parents’ pidgin language as their first language, for example Hawaiian creole and Guyanese creole
critical period hypothesis (CPH)
the claim that human beings are only capable of learning language between the age of 2 years and the early teens
decoding versus codebreaking
processing language to get the ‘message’ versus processing language to get the ‘rules’
dialect
a particular variety of a language spoken by a group united by region, class etc. It is usually seen nowadays as a matter of different vocabulary or grammar rather than of accent.
diphthong
a type of vowel produced by moving the tongue as it is produced from one position towards another, for example in English /fear and / low. It may correspond to one or two written letters.
dyslexia
Children with developmental dyslexia have problems with reading but not usually with other areas of development
élite bilingualism
either the choice by parents of bringing up children through two languages, or societies in which members of a ruling group speak a second language
fricatives
A type of consonant in which the air escapes through a narrow gap created between lips, teeth and tongue, as in /f/ fine, /s/ sign, /v/ vine, etc
glottal stop
a speech sound made by closing the vocal cords and then releasing them, as in a cough
immersion teaching
teaching the whole curriculum through the second language
intonation
the change of pitch used in the sound system of language, i.e. John? versus John! Sometimes intonation refers specifically to the use of change of pitch to show attitude
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
Internationally agreed phonetic alphabet for writing down the sounds of languages in a consistent fashion
larynx
voice box or Adam’s apple, which vibrates when voiced phonemes are spoken
linguistic imperialism
means by which a ‘Centre’ country dominates ‘Periphery’ countries by making them use its language
mental lexicon
speakers of a language store all the words they know in a mental dictionary or ‘lexicon’ containing many thousands of items
Minimalist Program(me)
the current version of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory, as yet only partially developed, which tries to reduce grammar to the minimum possible principles
morpheme
the smallest unit in the grammar that is either a word in its own right (free morpheme) cook or part of a word cooks (bound morpheme ‘-s’).
morphology
the study of how sounds make meaning
multilingualism
countries where more than one language is used for everyday purposes
nasals
consonants created by blocking the mouth with the tongue or lips, lowering the soft palate (velum), and allowing the air to come out through the nose, as in English /m/ mouse.
parsing
the process through which the mind works out the grammatical structure and meaning of the sentence
phonetics
The sub-discipline of linguistics that studies the production and perception of the speech sounds themselves is called phonetics and contrasts with phonology.
phonology
the study of sound units (e.g.: consonant and vowel sounds; dialects)
phrase structure
links all the parts together in a structure like that of a family tree. Example: The Noun Phrase Sidney Bechet combines with the Verb Phrase played the soprano, to get the sentence: Sidney Bechet played the soprano.
pidgin
created by speakers of two different languages for communicating with each other
plosive
A speech sound made by blocking the air-stream completely with the tongue or lips, allowing the air to burst out after a brief moment, as in English /t/ tea or /b/ bee
pragmatics
large language practices (eg: apologizing, refusing; how we use different language when negotiating a transaction at a bank and buying fruit at a store)
pragmatic competence
Chomsky’s term for the speaker’s ability to use language for a range of public and private functions, including communication
prescriptive grammar
grammar that ‘prescribes’ what people should say rather than ‘describes’ what they do say
semantics
word/sentence meaning (e.g.: the subtle difference in meaning between the verbs “need” and “want”)
structural grammar
teaching term for grammar concerned with how words go into phrases, phrases into sentences
structure-dependency
a restriction on movement in human languages that makes it depend on the structure of the sentence, rather than on its linear order. A principle of Universal Grammar.
submersion teaching
extreme sink-or-swim form of assimilationist teaching in which minority language children are simply put in majority language classes
syntax
how we use grammar to structure sentences (e.g.: parts of speech, sentence types)
tone
Usually tone means a unit of pitch change for a given language, English having about seven tones. Sometimes tone is used to contrast a tone language where tones are used to show vocabulary differences such as Chinese and an intonation language where tones show attitudes.
Universal Grammar
Sometimes Universal Grammar refers to the aspects of language that all languages have in common. In the Chomskyan sense Universal Grammar refers to the language faculty built in to the human mind, seen as consisting of principles such as structure-dependency .
Phoneme
a unit of sound Linguists represent speech sounds between two forward slashes: /s/ This is the sound equivalent of “ssssssss.”
Allophones
different phonemes (but with the same meaning) For example, all three of the alternate sounds for the letter “s” (below) mean the same thing: plural. /s/ (as in cats) /z/ (as in cars) /es/ as in churches So we say that the phonemes /s/, /z/, and /es/ are allophones.
Diphthongs
two sounds heard when you say them (eg: /oi/ in boy and /ow/ in cow)
Aspiration
an explosion of air caused by a combination of phonemes eg: /pit/ (sounds like p – h – i – t) (vs: spit - the p is not aspirated)
Assimilation
in rapid speech, many words sound different than in slow speech. Assimilation is concerned with one sound becoming phonetically similar to an adjacent sound. One type is regressive assimilation, where a sound is influenced by the sound which follows it. Another type is called progressive: where a sound takes on characteristics from a sound which precedes it.
Flapping (a kind of assimilation)
a process by which rapid speech affects the phonemes we hear (one letter seems to become another) eg: Say butter slow: /buter/ Say butter fast: /buder/ (The voiceless /t/ becomes a voiced /d/ in rapid speech – This is the most commonly assimilated sound.) More examples: water, rotting, putting – the /t/ is assimilated into the flapped /d/
Deletion
in rapid speech, we sometimes delete entire phonemes eg: Wednesday is pronounced /wensday/ (This accounts for many of the odd spellings found in English and difficulties in learning how to spell.)
Epenthesis:
the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. There are two types: excrescence (if the sound added is a consonant) and anaptyxis (if the sound added is a vowel). eg: /sumpthing/ /warmpth/ lenkth/ /athelete/
Metathesis:
phonemes are “swapped” eg: /aks/ (I need to aks you a question; “comfterble” for comfortable.) Many languages have words that show this phenomenon. The process of metathesis has altered the shape of many familiar words in the English language.
Morphology
the study of the smallest units of meaning.
For example: /s/ functions as a phoneme and morpheme It makes words plural (cats) and possessive (Chris’s) so it has meaning.
How many morphemes are in the word “elephants”? 2 morphemes: elephant (1) and s (2)
Free Morphemes:
are stand-alone words (run, cat, Chris)
Bound Morphemes:
are attached to words (suffixes, derivations –tion,- ize,-al, and root words). They cannot stand alone and have meaning.
Affixes
are either prefixes or suffixes (they’re a type of bound morpheme)
Root words
are all bound morphemes – cannot stand alone and mean anything eg: the root word “ann” from the Latin, meaning “year” and “tele” from the Greek, meaning “to send”
Communicative Competence
our knowledge of the appropriate use of language in a variety of social genres – we acquire it through experience eg: using the word sweetie during a job interview reveals one’s communicative incompetence
Sociolinguistics
study of variation within a culture and between cultures eg: doing business in Japan vs. US: “We’ll think about it” in the US means just that, but in Japan it means NO.
Idiolects
individual speakers’ verbal tics (uh-huh, or repeating phrases)
Sociolects
language variations used by subcultures, speech communities - functions to reveal who is an insider
eg: teen talk (phat, bling-bling, shnizle)
eg: jargon (workplace terminology)
Hypercorrection
in immigrant communities, second generation corrects their parents’ misuse of language
Example:
1) In NJ, many immigrant groups lacked the sound /er/ so they pronounced girl as /goil/.
2) Their children noticed something was wrong with this pronunciation and dropped /goil/ from their vocabulary, using girl instead.
3) But they hypercorrected their parents’ misuse of the /oi/ sound. This resulted in the second generation pronouncing anything with /oi/ in it as /er/.
Result: generation one: girl = goil, third = thoid generation two (hypercorrection): girl = girl, oil = erl, toilet = terlet
Linguistic Relativity
Does one’s language limit or broaden their experience of life?
The Whorf Hypothesis (1956)
Linguistic Relativity: Does one’s language limit or broaden their experience of life?
Yes, it does. eg: Because Inuits have several hundred words for snow they have a broader and better appreciation of their world.
Descriptive Linguistics
Linguistic Relativity: Does one’s language limit or broaden their experience of life?
is the counterargument: says that although one’s vocabulary may be limited, it can grow and expand through experience – Therefore, all language varieties are equal.
Phonetics
the study of sounds made in the production of human language.
Articulatory Phonetics
studies how sounds are produced in the vocal tract.
Acoustic Phonetics
studies sound waves produced by human language (e.g. voice identification technologies)
Difference
Phonetics involves the concept of difference.
Difference between the representation of sounds and letters
In English, as in many languages, there is often a difference between how sounds are spoken and how they are represented in writing.
A sound is represented by a letter in brackets or forward slashes. For example, [b] /b/stands for the “buh” sound made by the letter “b”. The sound at the end of the word “cats” is represented as [z].
Homophones
words that are pronounced alike but spelled differently.
Examples include: there/their/they're bear/bare led/lead to/two/too