Linguistics vocab terms Flashcards
linguistic competence
a speaker’s subconscious, intuitive knowledge of the rules of their language.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
linguistic performance
an individual’s use of a language, i.e. what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
performance error
The performance of a speaker may not be fault free, even though their competence is perfect.
Sahil Gupta slideshare
speech communication chain
The speech chain describes the stages in speech communication whereby a message moves between the mind of the speaker and the mind of the listener. Through the idea of the speech chain we see that information which is communicated linguistically to achieve some goal is encoded by the speaker into a sequence of articulatory gestures which generate sound, that sound is communicated to the listener, processed by the hearing mechanism into a neural signal that is interpreted to extract the meaning of the utterance and the intention of the communicative act.
UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
speech communication chain steps
The Speech Chain comprises the processes of: • speech production, • auditory feedback to the speaker, • speech transmission (through air or over an electronic communication system (to the listener), and • speech perception and understanding by the listener.
UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
noise
the variation among users of language. This can take place through shifts in spelling, grammar, or other aspects of language. Essentially, this is grammatical language that the hearer cannot understand—this can even happen with people who speak the same language.
What is linguistic noise? | Homework.Study.comhttps://study.com
lexicon
the complete set of meaningful units in a language.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
mental grammar
Mental grammar is the generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other speakers can understand. It is also known as competence grammar and linguistic competence
https://www.thoughtco.com/mental-grammar-term-
language variation
Everyone speaks at least one language, and probably most people in the world speak more than one. Even Americans, most of whom speak only English, usually know more than one dialect. Certainly no one talks exactly the same way at all times: You are unlikely to speak to your boss in the style (or vocabulary) that you’d use in talking to the idiot who just rammed your car from behind. All dialects start with the same system, and their partly independent histories leave different parts of the parent system intact. This gives rise to some of the most persistent myths about language, such as the claim that the people of Appalachia speak pure Elizabethan English. Non-Appalachians notice features of Shakespeare’s English that have been preserved in Appalachia but lost in (for instance) Standard English, but only Appalachian fans of Shakespeare would be likely to notice the features of Shakespeare’s English that have been preserved in Standard English but lost in the Appalachian dialect.
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/
descriptive grammar
lay out the grammatical elements and rules of a language as it is actually used.
https://guides.emich.edu/
evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)
- Writing must be taught
- language uses noises from your mouth and throat
3.?
4?
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
1.
2.
3.
prescriptive grammar
a set of norms or rules governing how a language should or should not be used rather than describing the ways in which a language is actually used.
https://www.thoughtco.com/
prescribe
Prescriptive grammar explains or rather prescribes rules on how a language should or ought to be used by the speakers. As a result, prescriptive grammar consists of a set of rules that teach the speaker the most accurate and the correct manner to use the language, highlighting what should be used and what should be avoided so that he can achieve that certain grammar and the language standard.
https://pediaa.com/
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) (list)
- Mode of Communication
- Semanticity
- Pragmatic Function
- interchangeability
- Cultural Transmission
- arbitrariness
- Discreteness
- Displacement
- Productivity
mode of communication
Modes of communication means interpersonal communication involving conversational speaking and listening or signed exchanges
lawinsider.com
semanticity
the quality that a linguistic system has of being able to convey meanings, in particular by reference to the world of physical reality.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
pragmatic function
the meaning a speaker wishes to convey to the person they are speaking to (the addressee). Now usually the meaning of the individual words will give the addressee the meaning that the speaker wants to give, but NOT always
interchangeability
capable of being put or used in the place of each other: interchangeable symbols. (of one thing) capable of replacing or changing places with something else: an interchangeable part.
dictionary.com
cultural transmission
the process through which cultural elements, in the form of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavioral scripts, are passed onto and taught to individuals and groups.
linkspringer.com
arbitrariness
refers to the fact that the meaning of linguistic signs is not predictable from its word form, nor is the word form dictated by its meaning/function. It is not possible to deduce the underlying meaning from its word form. Furthermore, there may be semantic change.
blogs.ntu.edu
linguistic sign
not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept and a sound pattern. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearer’s psychological impression of a sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses.
newlearningonline.com
convention
a principle or norm that has been adopted by a person or linguistic community about how to use, and therefore what the meaning is of, a specific term.
tandfonline.com
non-arbitrariness
the converse of arbitrariness, a relation between form and meaning such that aspects of a word’s meaning or grammatical function can be predicted from aspects of its form.
pure.mpg.de
iconic
a relationship of resemblance or similarity between the two aspects of a sign: its form and its meaning
oxforbibliographies.com
onomatopoeia
the connection, or symbolism, of a sound that is interpreted and reproduced within the context of a language, usually out of mimicry of a sound.
wikipedia.org
conventionalized
For certain meanings, there is a form that speakers expect to be used in the language community
cambridge.org
Sound Symbolism
the resemblance between sound and meaning
wikipedia.org
discreteness
means that the boundary between linguistic symbols is clear. Since the linguistic symbols are discrete, the chain of linguistic symbols can be segmented part by part until the smallest linguistic symbols are assigned
blogs.common.georgetown.edu
displacement
the capability of language to communicate about things that are not immediately present (spatially or temporally); i.e., things that are either not here or are not here now.
wikipedia.org
productivity
the degree to which speakers of a language use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation.
wikipedia.org
modality
a category of linguistic meaning having to do with the expression of possibility and necessity.
mit.edu
myths about signed languages (list 4)
Myth 1: Sign language is universal. …
Myth 2: The Deaf can understand your spoken language by lip reading. …
Myth 3: If you’re talking to a Deaf person, speak slowly so they can understand you. …
Myth 4: It’s effective to write notes back and forth to communicate with the Deaf.
blog.cyracom.com
differences between codes and languages (list 4)
1.
2.
3.
4.