linguistics Flashcards
Phonology
ASL and English
Smallest units of a language that don’t have meaning.
Spoken = sounds
ASL = 5 parameters
2 goals of linguistics?
Describe language and explain why language are the way they are
5 parameters
Handshape Movement Orientation Location Non manual markers
Morphology
Smallest unit of language that have meaning
Syntax
How words combine to form utterances
Semantics and pragmatics
Meaning and social functions of utterances
Discourse Analysis
Analyzes language production in various situations such as lectures, convos, etc
Language acquisition
Analyzes how children acquire native language
Second language acquisition
Analyze how children and adults acquire language after acquiring native language.
Sociolinguistics
Study of how languages are used in different groups
Psychololinguistics
Study of how the brain acquires and process language.
Linguistics
Study of language
Animals vs humans in language and communication
Animals use a communication system. Don’t have language
Humans use both communication system and language
Language and communication system have in common (4 things)
Have meaningful symbols and signals
Symbols organized by rules and used systematically
Symbols arbitrary or iconic
Members of community share same communication system
Type of symbol
Sounds c a t form cat or traffic light
Symbol consist of __ and __
Consist of form and meaning
Arbitrary symbol
Symbols Connection between form and meaning don’t make sense
Iconic symbol
Symbols form resembles meaning
Linguistic symbol example in both English and ASL.
Cat bears no resemblance to meaning in English but in ASL the sign resemble cats whiskers
Why language unique? 7 things
Productive: infinite number of messages
Can add new symbols: like Internet
Can discuss complex topics: fish can’t
Symbols can be broken down into smaller parts: cats to cat
Symbol can have multiple meanings: like bat
All users can send and receive messages
Children acquire language by interacting with others
Language users can learn other variants of same language
Stokoe
First to identify the parts that make up ASL signs
Stokoe names location as
Tab
Stokoe named movement as
Sig
Stokoe named handshape as
Fez
Transcribe
Use symbols to represent ASL signs
Glossing
Choose word from another language to represent an ASL sign
Translating
Create grammatical English sentences with same meaning as ASL sentence
Problem with Stokoes system
Not specific enough cuz it doesn’t include palm orientation and not have detail for handshape or location.
Theory proposes that signs are simultaneously produced weren’t divisible into segments. Would make it different than spoken languages
Liddell and Johnson
Signs made of movements and hold like consonants and vowels in spoken language and can be divided into individual parts and produced sequentially.
Inventory of sounds
Language chooses from list a smaller set of sounds to use
Phonotactics
How sounds are organized into words
ASL phonological rules (3)
Not use all possible handshapes movement orientations or locations that are possible to use
Limited set of inventory for them
Has own system of rules for how they are organized
Symmetry condition
If both hands move in ASL sign they must have same handshape and must move in same or opposite directions
Dominance condition
If two hands have different handshapes the weak hand must have one of basic handshapes
Hold deletion
Phonological process where holds between movements are eliminated when signs occur in sequence
Movement epenthesis
Phonological process in which a movement segment is added between the last segment of one sign and the first segment of the next
Metathesis
Phonological process in which parts of segments of a sign can change places
Assimilation
Phonological process of Taking on the characteristics of other segments
Phonemes
Smallest unit of language
Inventory
Unique set of phonemes
4 phonological processes
Movement epenthesis
Hold deletion
Metathesis
Assimilation
2 rules of ASL (conditions)
Symmetry
Dominance
Morphology
Smallest meaningful units in language
2 kinds of morphology
Derivational
Inflectional
Derivational morphology ( include example of ASL and English)
New word derived from another word that creates a new unit in language
ASL : sit - chair
English : teach - teacher
Inflectional morphology ( also provide example in ASL and English)
Process of adding grammatical info to units that already exist
ASL : sit - sit for a long time
English : walk - walks
2 types of morphemes
Free
Bound
Free morpheme
Can stand alone
House dog
Bound morpheme
Can’t stand alone and must attach to another morpheme
-s -ed
7 ways ASL creates new signs
Verb become noun Lexicalized fingerspelling Loan signs Compounds Classifieds Numeral incorporation Aspect
Verb to noun
Fly - airplane
Sit - chair
Compounds
Creating new words by taking two existing words ( free morphemes) and putting them together
English : blackboard
ASL : think + marry= believe
3 rules for creating ASL compounds
1st contact rule: 1st or only contact is kept
Single sequence rule: repeated movement is eliminated
Weak hand anticipation: weak hand anticipates second sign
Lexicalized fingerspelling (3 things)
Represent written symbols of written English with ASL signs
Fast and processed as whole sign
Gloss is preceded by #
7 changes in lexicalization process
Deletion of signs #yes
Handshape change #car
Movement added # back
Orientation change #back
Reduplication of movement #ha
2nd hand added #what
Additional grammatical info #back
Loan signs
Language borrows word or sign from another language
English: taco fend shui karaoke
ASL : Japan Italy china
Numeral incorporation
Composed of 2 bound morphemes
Numeral handshape
Location orientation movement and NMS
Why are numeral incorporation morphemes?
They have meaning as bound morphemes. As a phonological parameter they have no meaning
Why are numeral incorporation bound morphemes?
The two morpheme can’t be separated or produces individually.
Verb types
Plain
Directional/indicating
Reciprocal verbs
Locative verbs
Depicting
Transitive and intransitivePlain verbs
Produced in specific location that can’t be altered without changing meaning
Me laugh
Indicating/ directional verbs
Move toward specific people things or locations adding info about subject and object
Me say no to her
Reciprocal and locative verbs
Type of directional verbs
Reciprocal is used in situations whew subject and object are simultaneously giving and receiving the action
Understand each other
Locative show location where action takes place
Throw, show
Space we sign in can either be…
Articulatory: just a phoneme
Meaningful: a bound morpheme
Depicting verbs
Show where something is in space, what it looks like or movements actions
For ASL classifieds consist of two morphemes:
Handshape and orientation
Location movement and NMS
Classifiers (6)
Used in different situations
Help add perspective to story
Have different kind of scope
Divided into two bound morphemes
Handshape and orientation (root) and
Movement and location (cluster)How ASL derives bound from verbs with examples
Based on movement of signs
Fly (verb) and airplane (noun) show same handshape location and orientation but movement different
How English derives nouns from verbs
Verbs based on differences in stress on vowels in word
Project
Continually aspect
Study and sit
Regularly aspect
Go and sick
For a prolonged period aspect
Cry and ask
Over and over aspect
Look at and work
In a hurry aspect
Sew and write
Sign that can be used in one aspect but not another
Read
Transitive verbs
Followed by an object
Intransitive verbs
Can’t be followed by an object
