Module 1, Week 2 Vocabulary Flashcards
linguistic competence
Hidden knowledge of language
linguistic performance
The way one produces and comprehends language
performance error
Being unable to remember a word, mispronouncing a word, or jumbling words in a sentence.
speech communication chain
A way to communicate an idea from your mind to the mind of someone else.
speech communication chain steps
- Think of what is to be communicated
- Pick out words to express the idea
- Put these words together in a certain order following rules.
- Figure out how to pronounce these words.
- Send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy.
- Speak - Send those sounds through the air.
- Perceive - Listener hears the sounds
- Decode - Listener interprets sounds as language
- Connect - Listener receives communicated idea.
noise
Interference in the chain
lexicon
The collection of all words known.
mental grammar
The collection of all rules one knows in their head.
language variation
Occurs among speakers of different languages and dialect groups and even speakers of the same dialect. No two speakers have the same mental grammar.
descriptive grammar
A collection of generalizations
evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)
- Writing must be taught: Spoken language is acquired naturally while writing systems must be taught.
- Writing can be edited: Speech is usually more spontaneous.
- Writing does not exist everywhere that spoken language does. Many communities do not use written forms of language.
- Neurolinguistic evidence demonstrates the processing and production of written language is overlaid on the spoken language centers of the brain.
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
- Writing can be edited and product of writing is more aptly worded and organized.
- Writing must be taught and is more intimately associated with education and educated speech.
- Writing is more physically stable than spoken language.
prescriptive grammar
A set of rules about how language is based on how people think language should be used.
prescribe
How to speak or write according to someone’s ideas of what is good or bad.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) (list)
1 . mode of communication
- semanticity
- pragmatic function
- interchangeability
- cultural transmission
- arbitrariness
- discreteness
- displacement
- productivity
mode of communication
The means in which messages are transmitted and received.
semanticity
Properly requiring that all signals in a communication system have a meaning or function.
pragmatic function
Communication system must serve some useful purpose.
interchangeability
Refers to the ability of individuals to both transmit and receive messages.
cultural transmission
Aspects of languages that is acquired through communicative interaction with other users of the system.
arbitrariness
Words of a language represent a connection between a group of sounds or signs which give the word its form and meaning.
linguistic sign
Form and meaning
convention
A certain group of sounds goes with a particular meaning.
nonarbitrariness
The opposite of arbitrariness; there are some non arbitrary aspects of language
iconic
“picture-like”
onomatopoeia
Words that are imitative of natural sounds or have meanings that are associated with sounds of nature.
conventionalized
Different languages can have different onomatopoetic words for the same sounds.
sound symbolism
Certain sounds occur in words not by virtue of being directly imitative of some sound but rather simply being evocative of a particular meaning.
discreteness
The property of language that allows us to combine together discrete units in order to create larger communicative units.
displacement
Ability of a language to communicate about things, actions, and ideas that are not present in time or space while speakers are communicating.
productivity
Refers to a language’s capacity of novel messages to be built up out of discrete units.
modality
Mode of communication
myths about signed languages (list 4)
- Signed language vs manual code - Sign language is derived from spoken language, rather being languages in their own right.
- Signed language vs pantomime - Sign language does not have any internal structure.
- Signed language vs pantomime - Words in sign language are completely iconic.
- Universality of Sign languages - There is only one sign language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world.
differences between codes and languages (list 4)
- Code is an artificially constructed system representing a natural language with no structure of its own.
- Sign language are learned natively by both hearing and deaf people
- Sign language evolve naturally and independently of spoken language.
- Code is based on natural language rather than being a language themselves.
