Language Flashcards
What are linguistics?
The study of language structure, variation and change
e.g. Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics
What are psycholiguistics?
The psychology of our language as it interacts with the human mind. Perception (speech, reading) and production (speaking, writing, signing)
How does linguistics work?
- From elementary sounds (e.g., phonemes) to words (e.g., morphology)
- Then combination of words (e.g., syntax)
- Then meanings (semantics) and beyond (pragmatics)
- Various types/levels of ambiguity
What is Iconicity?
resemblance between form and meaning
What is systematicity?
any statistical regularity between phonological structure and meaning
What are the two ways to represent sound patterns in speech (Phonology)?
Phonemes and phonetics
What are phonemes?
smallest unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another
e.g. lips, slip, spill, pills, and lisp comprise the “same sounds” in different orders
What are phonetics?
the physical properties of speech sounds and how they are produced and perceived in different contexts
What is prosody?
the tune and rhythm of speech
- Speech properties typically at a level above that of the individual phoneme/segment (i.e., syllables) and in sequences of words (phrases).
- At the phonetic level, prosody is characterised by: vocal pitch (fundamental frequency), loudness (acoustic intensity) & rhythm (phoneme and syllable duration) ——– Conveys attitude, emotion, sarcasm, etc
What is morphology?
word structure and formation
What are the types of morphology?
The “free” morpheme
“Bound” morpheme
What is The “free” morpheme?
comprises one meaning.
- It can stand alone as a single word.
What is The “Bound” morpheme?
can be derivational or inflectional
· Derivational morphemes can be prefixes and suffixes, e.g. “re-” charge “-able”
· Inflectional morphemes are suffixes, e.g., plural “-s” and regular past tense “-ed”
What is syntax?
The system of rules specifying how words are combined in sentences
is the english rule for syntax?
Subject-Verb-Object
What are semantics?
How word and sentence level meanings are expressed in languages
- Influenced by morphology, syntax and phonology
- Monosemy refers to a word form that has only one meaning (or sense)
What is lexical ambiguity in semantics?
○ A homonymis associated with two or more unrelated senses, e.g., “coach” = “bus” or “sports instructor”
○ Polysemy refers to a single word form being associated with two or several related senses, e.g., “the mouth of the river” (a metaphorical relationship)
○ A homophoneis a word that is pronounced similarly to another word but differs in meaning, e.g., “flower” and “flour”