Linguistics 2 Midterm Flashcards
What is an idiolect?
The unique way of speaking of an individual.
What is a dialect?
A variety of a language spoken by a group of people, differing systematically in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
What is a regional dialect?
A dialect associated with a specific geographic area.
What is a social dialect?
A dialect associated with a particular social group (e.g., socioeconomic class, ethnicity).
What is mutual intelligibility?
The ability of speakers of different dialects to understand each other.
What is an isogloss?
A boundary line on a dialect map marking the limits of a linguistic feature.
What is a dialect continuum?
A gradual merging of dialects across regions without clear boundaries.
What is a standard dialect?
The prestige dialect used in formal contexts.
What is a prestige dialect?
A dialect considered socially superior or more correct.
What is hypercorrection?
Over-application of a perceived ‘correct’ linguistic rule, often due to social pressure.
What is an accent?
Pronunciation features that convey information about a speaker’s regional or social background.
What is r-drop (r-deletion)?
A phonological rule omitting /r/ in certain positions (e.g., ‘cah’ for ‘car’).
What is consonant cluster reduction?
Simplifying groups of consonants (e.g., ‘pas’ for ‘past’).
What is neutralization?
Loss of contrast between phonemes in specific contexts (e.g., ‘pin’ and ‘pen’ sounding identical).
What is diphthong reduction?
Simplifying a diphthong to a single vowel (e.g., ‘boil’ → [bɔ]).
What is habitual ‘be’?
In AAE, the use of uninflected ‘be’ to indicate habitual actions (e.g., ‘He be happy’ = ‘He is always happy’).
What is multiple negation?
Grammatical use of double negatives (e.g., ‘He don’t know nothing’).
What is codeswitching?
Alternating between two languages/dialects within a sentence or discourse.
What is borrowing?
Incorporating words from another language, adapting them to native phonology/morphology.
What is bidialectalism?
Fluency in two dialects, often a home dialect and a standard dialect.
What is a lingua franca?
A common language used for communication between speakers of different native languages (e.g., English globally).
What is a pidgin?
A simplified contact language with no native speakers, used for limited communication.
What is a creole?
A pidgin that has evolved into a native language with full grammatical complexity.
What is pidginization?
The process of creating a pidgin through simplification and reduced domains of use.
What is creolization?
The expansion of a pidgin into a full-fledged language with native speakers.
What is a superstrate (lexifier) language?
The dominant language contributing most vocabulary to a pidgin/creole.
What is a substrate language?
The native languages influencing a pidgin/creole’s grammar/pronunciation but not as influencially as the superstrate language.
What is genderlect?
Gender-specific speech patterns (e.g., differences in politeness markers between men/women).
What are taboo words?
Forbidden terms related to sex, bodily functions, or religion (e.g., profanity).
What is a euphemism?
A mild or indirect term replacing a taboo or harsh one (e.g., ‘passed away’ for ‘died’).
What is slang?
Informal, playful, or ephemeral vocabulary (e.g., ‘ghost’ meaning to ignore someone).
What is jargon/argot?
Specialized vocabulary used by a profession or social group
What is phonics?
A reading method emphasizing sound-letter correspondences.
What is the whole-word approach?
Teaching reading by memorizing entire words.
What is the whole-language approach?
Teaching reading through context and literature, minimizing phonics.
What is bilingual education?
Instruction in two languages, often to support minority-language students.
What is sheltered English immersion (SEI)?
English-only instruction for non-native speakers.
What is manually coded English (MCE)?
A signing system representing English grammar on the hands (not ASL).
What is Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN)?
A creole sign language developed naturally by deaf children.
What is language purism?
The belief that one dialect/language is inherently superior.
What is language policy?
Government decisions on official languages or educational standards.
What is Dialect Levelling?
A movement toward greater uniformity and less variation among dialects.
What forms a Dialect Area?
The concentrations defined by different word usages and varying pronounciations among other linguistic differences.
someone who has become a bilingual later than childhood
late/achieved bilingual
someone who has acquired two languages early in childhood
early/ascribed/simultaneous bilingual
someone who understands a second language, in either its spoken or written form, or both, but does not necessarily speak or write it
receptive/semi/asymmetrical bilingual
someone whose second language is added at some stage after the first has begun to develop
successive bilingual
someone who begins to feel some difficulty in either understanding or expressing him or herself with ease, due to lack of use
Recessive/dormant Bilingual
someone who is bilingual in two distinct languages which have a similar or equal status
Balanced/Horizontal Bilingual
someone who is bilingual in a nonstandard language or a dialect and an unrelated standard language
Diagonal Bilingual
someone whose two languages are learned in distinctively separate contexts
Coordinate Bilingual
someone who conceals their knowledge of a given language due to an attitudinal disposition
Covert Bilingual
someone with greater proficiency in one of his or her languages and uses it significantly more than the other language(s)
Dominant bilingual
someone who is bilingual in a standard language and a distinct but related language or dialect
Vertical Bilingual
someone whose two languages are learned at the same time, often in the same context
Compound Bilingual
