Language Terms

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

the study of the sound system of a language

Question 2

Phoneme

Answer 2

the smallest sound made

Question 3

monophthong

Answer 3

vowel sound with one phoneme–bit or bee

Question 4

diphthong

Answer 4

complex speech sound or glide that begins with one vowel and gradually changes to another vowel within the same syllable

Question 5

stop

Answer 5

a consonant sound characterized by the momentary blocking (occlusion) of some part of the oral cavity.
(p, b, d, t, k, g)

Question 6

fricative

Answer 6

a consonant produced by forcing the breath steam through a narrow channel formed by two separate articulators in the vocal tract

Question 7

nasals

Answer 7

speech sound in which the airstream passes through the nose as a result of the lowering of the soft palate at the back of the mouth. (m, n, ng)

Question 8

liquids

Answer 8

a consonant sound in which the tongue produces a partial closure in the mouth, resulting in a resonant, vowel-like consonant such as (l, r)

Question 9

glides

Answer 9

speech sounds where the airstream is frictionless and is modified by the position of the tongue and the lips (w, j)

Question 10

grapheme

Answer 10

symbol that represents a phoneme. More than one grapheme can be used to represent a single phoneme. (Ex: s can be represented as s and c)

Question 11

consonant cluster

Answer 11

a group of consonants that appear together in a word without any vowels between them. Each letter in cluster is pronounced

Question 12

digraph

Answer 12

two letters blended to make one new sound (ph, sh, ch, th, oa, ea, gh)

Question 13

assimilation

Answer 13

refers to a phoneme being spoken differently when it is near another phoneme (example: cookies and cream- Cookies N Cream)

Question 14

linking sounds

Answer 14

linking words together so that they share sounds (So I = SoWI or do all=doWall)

Question 15

epenthesis

Answer 15

Adding one or more sounds to a word. I got to school =I go to eschool

Question 16

Fossilization

Answer 16

to become permanently established in the inter-language of a second language learner in a form that is deviant from the target language norm and that continues to appear in performance regardless of further exposure to the target language (example: Dat for that)

Question 17

Saturation Point

Answer 17

newly arrived second language learners can reach a saturation point of learning in the new language after 30-40 minutes of instruction. Students who have reached this saturation point will stop paying attention, act out in class, and become frustrated and discouraged.

Question 18

homonyms

Answer 18

word forms that have two or more meanings

Question 19

homographs

Answer 19

two or more words that have the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings. (Ex: read, stalk)

Question 20

homophones

Answer 20

two or more words that have the same pronunciation but different meaning and spelling (ex: would and wood)

Question 21

heteronyms

Answer 21

two or more words that have the same spelling but have a different pronunciation.

Question 22

minimal pairs

Answer 22

have one sound that is different (fair, pear)

Question 23

phoneme substitution

Answer 23

When the phoneme is not natural to ones phonology system or has not developed yet. We always use something in place of it. (ex: Rabbit will be Wabbitt)

Question 24

Morphology

Answer 24

Study of the structure of words and word formation

Question 25

morpheme

Answer 25

unit of meaning a and i are the smallest morpheme

Question 26

free morpheme

Answer 26

a word that can stand alone as its own word (care in careful)

Question 27

bound morpheme

Answer 27

have to have a root to have meaning

Question 28

inflectional morpheme

Answer 28

does not change the syntactic meaning of the word. (want, wanted)

Question 29

derivational morphemes

Answer 29

Units of meaning that can be attached to a word or root word that often change the syntactic classification of the word. (Unhappy/happy, teacher/teach)

Question 30

phonetics

Answer 30

use of sounds to make communication possible

Question 31

invented spelling-first stage

Answer 31

scribbling

Question 32

invented spelling-2nd stage

Answer 32

semiphonetic

Question 33

metalinguistic awareness

Answer 33

The ability to think about language and talk about it. Can explain the rules.

Question 34

predicative nominative

Answer 34

a word or group of words that completes a linking verb and renames the subject. (John was a policeman) Policeman is the PN

Question 35

predicative adjective

Answer 35

A predicate adjective is an adjective that follows a linking verb and modifies (i.e., describes) the subject of the linking verb. (The shoes were expensive) expensive is the PA

Question 36

gerunds

Answer 36

A verbal that ends in ing and functions as a noun

Question 37

infinitives

Answer 37

a verb proceeded by to

Question 38

nominalizaton

Answer 38

nouns that are created from adjectives (words that describe nouns) or verbs (action words). For example, “interference” is a nominalization of “interfere,” “decision” is a nominalization of “decide,” and “argument” is a nominalization of “argue.”

Question 39

collocation

Answer 39

a natural combination of words that are closely affiliated with each other. (pay attention, fast food, powerful engine)

Question 40

psycholinguistics

Answer 40

the study of how we develop, perceive, and produce a language

Question 41

paralinguistics

Answer 41

the study of nonlinguistic communication

Question 42

communicative competency

Answer 42

Canale and Swain: Grammatical Competence, Sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence

Question 43

discourse competence

Answer 43

Cohesion and coherence (ex: use of language that is appropriate for a given audience when giving a presentation)

Question 44

nativist theory

Answer 44

children are born with the capability to learn languages. Learn the rules of language with minimal support from parents

Question 45

transformational generative grammar

Answer 45

study of linguistics that considers grammar to be a system of rules that generate exactly those combinations of words which form grammatical sentences

Question 46

Universal Grammar

Answer 46

Chomsky-we all learn the rules of grammar around the same time. If we do not learn them during the critical period we probably will not learn them at all

Question 47

Behaviorist Language Learning

Answer 47

Skinner-claims that children enter the world as a tabula rasa and then are influenced by their environment

Question 48

Stephen Krashen

Answer 48

Developed monitor model to explain the conditions for second-language acquisition. Contains 5 hypotheses

Question 49

Monitor hypothesis

Answer 49

Learners exposed to formal language instruction develop an internal mechanism able to assess language and make corrections

Question 50

Comprehensible Input Hypothesis

Answer 50

For real acquisition to take place, the input must be a little bit above the current linguistic influence of L1

Question 51

BICS

Answer 51

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills

Question 52

CALP

Answer 52

Cognitive Academic Language Approach