Linguistics: Vocabulary Module 1

Question 1

Linguistic Competence

Answer 1

The term linguistic competence refers to the unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.

Question 2

Linguistic Performance

Answer 2

Linguistic performance is the ability to produce and comprehend sentences in a language.

Question 3

Performance Error

Answer 3

Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue

Question 4

Speech Communication Chain

Answer 4

The process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.

Question 5

Speech Communication Chain Steps

Answer 5

1. Think of what you want to communicate
2. Pick out words to express the idea
3. Put these words together in a certain order following rules
4. Figure out how to pronounce these words
5. Send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy
6. Speak: send the sounds through the air
7. Perceive: listener hears the sounds
8. Decode: listener interprets sounds as language
9. Connect: listener receives communicated idea

Question 6

Noise

Answer 6

Any disturbance that interferes with the transmission of a message

Question 7

Lexicon

Answer 7

A dictionary of a language; the special vocabulary of a person, group, or subject; a compendium.

Question 8

Mental Grammar

Answer 8

The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistic units and rules of his native language.

Question 9

Language Variation

Answer 9

The property of languages having different ways to express the same meanings in different contexts according to factors such as geography, social class, gender, etc.

Question 10

Descriptive Grammar

Answer 10

A type of grammar that is more concerned with how language is actually used rather than the rules of grammar that might be taught in school.”How you DO speak”

Question 11

Evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)

Answer 11

1. Writing is a mode of language. (Refer to Mode of communication)
2. Writing is the ability to record language.
3. Language is the ability to understand the written text.
4. There are many different ways to express a language, writing, speaking, drawing, etc. but writing does not make a language.

Question 12

Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)

Answer 12

1. writing is often more logical than speaking.
   2.Writing is the perfect medium when you’re trying to communicate with a person who is non-verbal.
   3.one of the main benefits of being a good writer is that the better you get at it, the more your speaking skills will improve.

Question 13

Prescriptive Grammar

Answer 13

A set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” way to speak or write. “How you OUGT to say it”

Question 14

Prescribe

Answer 14

To order as a rule or course to be followed; to order for medical purposes

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language)

Answer 15

1. Vocal-Auditory Channel
2. Broadcast Transmission and directional reception
3. Rapid Fading
4. Interchangeability
5. Total Feedback
6. Specialization
7. Semanticity
8. Arbitrariness
9. Discreetness

Question 16

Mode of Communication

Answer 16

The mode is the medium of communication, which divides fundamentally into speech and writing.

Question 17

Semanticity

Answer 17

The quality of language in which words are used as symbols for objects, events, or ideas

Question 18

Pragmatic Function

Answer 18

The useful purpose of any given communication system

Question 19

Interchangeability

Answer 19

The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and review messages

Question 20

Cultural Transmission

Answer 20

The way people come to learn the values, beliefs, and social norms of their culture

Question 21

Arbitrariness

Answer 21

In relation to language, refers to the fact that a word’s meaning is not predictable from its linguistic form, nor is its form dictated by its meaning

Question 22

Linguistic Sign

Answer 22

Combination of form and meaning

Question 23

Convention

Answer 23

Practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device

Question 24

Non-arbitrariness

Answer 24

Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to.

Question 25

Iconic

Answer 25

Term that describes the memory of images

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Question 27

Conventionalized

Answer 27

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice. When an arbitrary relationship of a linguistic sign and its meaning is conventionalized, the linguistic sign bears a constant relationship only because people consistently use that linguistic sign to convey that meaning.

Question 28

Sound Symbolism

Answer 28

The process by which the way a word sounds influences our assumptions about what it describes and attributes such as size.

Question 29

Discreteness

Answer 29

The property of language that allows us to combine together discrete units in order to create larger communicative units.

Question 30

Displacement

Answer 30

The capability of language to communicate about things that are not immediately present; i.e., things that are either not here or are not here now.

Question 31

Productivity

Answer 31

Is the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation.

Question 32

Modality

Answer 32

The phenomenon whereby language is used to discuss possible situations

Question 33

Myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 33

Myth 1: There is only one sign language
Myth 2: Sign languages are not real languages
Myth 3: All deaf people sign
Myth 4: Signing hinders learning speech

Question 34

Differences between codes and languages (list 4)

Answer 34

1. Codes are an element of language †
2. Codes are the literal text, while language refers to the the way the code is to be used for a specific culture.
3. Code is specific and systematic while language is arbitrary.
4. Codes and languages change based on culture, however, the interpretations of the codes often have related definitions across all cultures and languages.