Midterm 3

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

hierarchical arrangement of grammar phrases in a sentence

Question 2

Verbal behavior

Answer 2

how children acquire language: through adult modeling and reinforcement (operant conditioning - ABC)

Question 3

surface structure

Answer 3

what is seen or heard

Question 4

deep structure

Answer 4

-underlying representation (phrase structure rules and lexical terms)
-the relationships among the phrases sometimes matches the surface structure, sometimes not

Question 5

structural ambiguity

Answer 5

-when the sentence has different interpretations
-same surface structure, different deep structure

Examples:
I shot the elephant in my pajamas = I shot an elephant while wearing my pajamas
I shot the elephant in my pajamas = I shot an elephant who was wearing my pajamas

Question 6

main (independent) clauses

Answer 6

-contains a subject and verb and can stand alone as a complete idea

Examples:

• The students were perplexed.
• The students read the chapter.
• The students were perplexed, so they read the chapter.

Question 7

subordinate (dependent) clauses

Answer 7

-cannot stand by themselves, incomplete without main clause

Examples: The students, (who were perplexed), decided to read the chapter. (After they read the chapter), the students felt better.

Question 8

adverbial clauses

Answer 8

-start with a conjunction (e.g. after, when, because, although)
-function like adverbs that modify the verb of the main clause

Example:
(After they read the chapter), the students felt better

Question 9

relative clauses

Answer 9

-a dependent clause that starts with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, etc).
-typically functioning as adjectives

Example:
The students, (who were perplexed), decided to read the chapter.

Question 10

complementizer clauses

Answer 10

-a subordinate clause often introduced by “that” or as set of wh- words (what, when, whether)

Examples:
The students thought (that the professor was a little off her rocker.)

Question 11

syntactic movement

Answer 11

-transformational rules to convert the deep structure into a surface structure (a sentence that is ready to be spoken)

Example:
The teacher broke the projector → The projector was broken by the teacher.
(difference is the two nouns are flipped.)

Question 12

discourse

Answer 12

• Language beyond the unit of a sentence
• Connected speech or writing that is longer than a sentence (paragraphs, passages, etc)
• When spoken = someone’s story or conversational turn

Question 13

coherence

Answer 13

• The ability to be successfully interpreted and understood
• being logical and consistent
• Achieved through cohesive ties, inference, logical ordering of information

Question 14

cohesion

Answer 14

• Ideas logically flow from one to the other
• Links that we use when we connect an element to another element in the text (usually between sentences)

Examples:
Anaphora (David got into the car. He drove home.)
Ellipses (Have you been skiing? — Yes I have [been skiing])

Question 15

4 gricean maxims

Answer 15

quantity, quality, relation, manner

Question 16

quantity maxim

Answer 16

SUFFICIENT INFO - not too little, not too much

making sure you give enough information without going overboard or without giving too little detail

Question 17

quality maxim

Answer 17

RIGHT INFO - don’t say things you don’t have evidence for.

high quality statements, accuracy, making sure what you’re saying is actually true
- not many people violate this maxim (example: “that’s the biggest sandwich in the world” – prob not.)
OR when you mistake something as fact & someone calls you out

Question 18

relation maxim

Answer 18

your contributions should be relevant to the situation/conversation

Question 19

manner maxim

Answer 19

being clear, brief, and orderly

Question 20

deixis

Answer 20

words in our language that can’t be interpreted without context.

Question 21

deictic expressions

Answer 21

person (me, those idiots), spatial (here, there), temporal (tomorrow, next year)

Question 22

reference

Answer 22

The act of mentioning and alluding to identify something

Question 23

anaphora and cataphora

Answer 23

anaphora is referring back to a noun using a pronoun

cataphora is using a pronoun first before noun for dramatic effect

Question 24

presupposition

Answer 24

• What a speaker or a writer assumes the listener or reader knows.
• When we make an inference we presuppose information

Example: “We saw Shakespeare in London.” Background knowledge: Shakespeare wrote plays, he lived in the 1600s

Inference: They saw a play by Shakespeare being performed in London

Presupposition: They were in London.

Question 25

direct speech acts

Answer 25

The literal meaning of the sentence conveys the intended meaning

Question 26

indirect speech acts

Answer 26

The implication of the sentence. The ways in which people ask others to do things—but in indirect ways.

Example: You left the door open

Question 27

Standard American English (SAE)

Answer 27

• the way texts/articles are written
• not how we use the language colloquially (no one really speaks SAE)
• it’s not the language of ALL Americans– not very inclusive

Question 28

dialect

Answer 28

-variations in a language
-features of grammar, vocab, and pronunciation
-particular to a region or social group

Question 29

pidgins

Answer 29

-when groups of people who don’t have a common language come in contact, they create a contact language called pidgins

• structurally simple communication systems that arise when people who share no common language come into constant contact
• A “contact” language that developed for practical purposes, such as trading, by people who did not speak each other’s languages
• “first generation” of contact between two groups

Question 30

creoles

Answer 30

-when pidgins become the official language of a community

When pidgins develop beyond the contact language and become the first language of a community

Example language: Hawai’ian

“second/third generation” of contact between groups with grammar rules included

Question 31

sources of an ideolect

Answer 31

Personal dialect, social biases involved… influenced by the grammar and vocab you hear from your parents, from the community around you (geographical influence), etc…

Question 32

overt prestige

Answer 32

changing the speech style in terms of what is perceived to be of high social status (upward mobility)

change in direction of a form that is more frequent in those perceived to have higher social status

Question 33

covert prestige

Answer 33

speech style to sound like the group they want to be recognized with (group solidarity)

Question 34

formal speech style

Answer 34

When we pay careful attention to how we’re speaking. Sometimes called careful style.

Question 35

informal speech style

Answer 35

When we pay less attention to how we are speaking, also called casual style

(Line between speech styles is how well we know the person we’re talking to)

Question 36

register

Answer 36

-the speech style that we used depending on the context (e.g. talking in church - situational, talking to lawyers - occupational)

Conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific context

• How you put the words together
• Usually use a different register when you talk to older people (grandparents), than you use with siblings/friends

Question 37

jargon

Answer 37

• Specialized technical vocab (typically nouns) associated with a specific area of work or interest
• Used among professionals within a field

Question 38

slang

Answer 38

• Terms that are used instead of everyday words by certain speakers… colloquial speech
• Usually used by members of a group as part of group identity, usually younger speakers
• Subject to change