Rest of Meta Language Unit 2

Question 1

What is STANDARD ENGLISH or standardisation?

Answer 1

An idealised variety of English that constitutes a notional set of norms generally adopted by educated speakers of English.

Question 2

Codification

Answer 2

Noting rules and conventions suggesting a language needs to be organised in a systematic way.

Question 3

Prescriptivism

Answer 3

There are rules to a language which cannot and should not be broken

Question 4

Descriptivism

Answer 4

Recognises that there are rules to a language but does not really care if the rules are being broken. They understand that rules can be broken and it is okay based on situational context.

Question 5

Orthography

Answer 5

A set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.

Question 6

HOMONYM:

Answer 6

A word that is pronounced and spelled alike, but has different meanings (e.g. lie, train)

Question 7

HOMOPHONE:

Answer 7

sound the same but different meanings (e.g. ate/eight, one/won)

Question 8

HOMOGRAPH

Answer 8

written/spelled the same, different meanings and some different pronunciations

Question 9

Idiom

Answer 9

a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase.

Question 10

Idiom example

Answer 10

FIRE (as a noun) - denotes something burning, and connotations of this word include:
Pleasant heat/comfort, or
Destruction/danger.

Question 11

EUPHEMISM

Answer 11

word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant.

Question 12

DYSPHEMISM

Answer 12

an expression with connotations that are derogatory either about the subject matter or to the audience

Question 13

Pidgins

Answer 13

A makeshift language tends to happen when speakers who have different linguistic backgrounds come into contact with each other and need to talk.

Question 14

Creoles

Answer 14

a second-generation pidgin basically when a pidgin becomes people’s first language.

Question 15

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE:

Answer 15

Seeks to keep current levels of language use within the community or extend this use to more members of the community, even though a new ‘more powerful’ language is available.

Question 16

LANGUAGE SHIFT:

Answer 16

When the speech community moves to another language (or ‘abandons’ their own language), often due to the prestige afforded speakers of the language to which they are transitioning.

Question 17

LANGUAGE RECLAMATION:

Answer 17

Growing a language and bringing it back to a speech community (even from either extinction or the brink of extinction) - reverse decline; revive or revitalise.

Question 18

LANGUAGE DEATH:

Answer 18

When there are no speakers left to use the language. This happens when speakers move away from a language and don’t use it, therefore also not passing it on to the next generation. It could also be the result of a catastrophic event which wipes out its speakers.

Question 19

LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM:

Answer 19

Society is confined by language - that is, language can determine thought and culture. This theory is considered an absolute; so there has been a lot of criticism around it, as it doesn’t allow for examples where this is not the case. Therefore, this theory is often overlooked. It is controversial as it implies that language can be a restriction.

Question 20

LINGUISTIC RELATIVISM:

Answer 20

Language influences a person’s experience of the world, but does not determine it. Therefore, the world view of a speech community is influenced by language structure. This theory allows for the notion that humans, by their nature, are varied and not ‘wired’ in the same way. The brain does have commonality for all humans (think acquisition of language etc.), but processing differs (i.e. the environment you live in etc.)