Semester 1 Terminology

Question 1

accent

Answer 1

The way words are pronounced or spoken in a particular social or geographical
space.

Question 2

accidental gap

Answer 2

A word or form that is structurally or grammatically acceptable in a given
language, but which has no meaning assigned to it.

Question 3

accusative case

Answer 3

The grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb

Question 4

adjective

Answer 4

A describing word which qualifies a noun.

Question 5

adjunct

Answer 5

An optional unit of language that provides additional information about the
sentence.

Question 6

adverb

Answer 6

A unit that modifies a verb; expressing manner, place, time, or degree.

Question 7

affix

Answer 7

A unit added to the base of a word, with the aim of modifying meaning or
creating a new word. Types of affixes include prefixes, suffixes, infixes and
circumfixes.

Question 8

analogy

Answer 8

The use of one form as an exemplar by which other forms can be similarly
constructed.

Question 9

anomia

Answer 9

A form of aphasia in which patients have word-finding difficulties.

Question 10

antonym

Answer 10

A word that has the opposite meaning of another.

Question 11

aphasia

Answer 11

An impairment resulting from damage to parts of the brain containing language,
which causes an inability to produce or comprehend spoken and written
language.

Question 12

arbitrary

Answer 12

The property of language, including sign language, whereby there is no natural
or intrinsic relationship between the way a word is pronounced (or signed) and
its meaning.

Question 13

argument

Answer 13

The various nouns that occur with a verb.

Question 14

articulation

Answer 14

The formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech.

Question 15

assimilation

Answer 15

A phonological process that changes feature values of segments to make them
more similar.

Question 16

attributive

Answer 16

When a word precedes the word that it modifies.

Question 17

babbling

Answer 17

A stage in first language acquisition when a baby produces consonant and vowel
sounds that precede the first words.

Question 18

baby talk (syn.
motherese, parentese,
child-directed speech)

Answer 18

Infant-directed speech which is characterised by intonation and pitch that is
different from typical adult speech.

Question 19

behaviourism

Answer 19

A systematic approach which assumes that all behaviors are either reflexes
produced by a response to certain stimuli in the environment, or a consequence
of that individual’s history, together with the individual’s current motivational
state and controlling stimuli.

Question 20

bilingualism

Answer 20

A situation in which people are able to communicate effectively through two
languages.

Question 21

binary

Answer 21

A system where options/choices are available in a set of two.

Question 22

bottom-up signage

Answer 22

Locally produced signage which usually involves modest economic investment.

Question 23

Braille

Answer 23

A tactile writing system used by people who are blind or visually impaired.

Question 24

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 24

A language disorder, usually resulting from damage to Broca’s area, in which
the patient has difficulty with certain aspects of syntax, especially functional
categories.

Question 25

case

Answer 25

A characteristic of nouns and pronouns, and in some languages articles and adjectives, determined by the function in the sentence, and generally indicated by the morphological form of the word.

Question 26

child-directed speech (syn. motherese, parentese, baby talk)

Answer 26

Infant-directed speech which is characterised by intonation and pitch that is different from typical adult speech.

Question 27

clause

Answer 27

A unit of grammatical organisation consisting of a subject and a predicate.

Question 28

code

Answer 28

A medium through which signs are created.

Question 29

code-mixing

Answer 29

The use of alternate language codes within a single sentence or clause.

Question 30

code-switching

Answer 30

The use of alternate language codes using larger units of language.

Question 31

cognition

Answer 31

Psychological processes involved in acquisition and understanding of knowledge, formation of beliefs and attitudes, and decision making and problem solving.

Question 32

communicative event

Answer 32

Hymes’ term for an activity which uses language within a communicative situation.

Question 33

communicative situation

Answer 33

Hymes’ term for the total context within which the communication occurs.

Question 34

complement

Answer 34

The constituents in a phrase other than the head that complement the meaning of the phrase.

Question 35

compound sentence

Answer 35

A sentence containing two or more independent clauses.

Question 36

compounding

Answer 36

A word formation process through which a new word is formed from a combination of two or more existing words which usually appear as free roots.

Question 37

concord

Answer 37

The grammatical agreement between nouns and verbs in sentences.

Question 38

conjunction

Answer 38

A word that joins words or groups of words.

Question 39

connotation

Answer 39

The stylistic and emotive meanings associated with a word.

Question 40

constituent

Answer 40

A word or a group of words that function(s) as a single unit.

Question 41

content word

Answer 41

Words that have a lexical meaning.

Question 42

context

Answer 42

The specific circumstances and constraints that comprise a setting for an event, statement or idea

Question 43

converse antonyms (syn. relational antonyms)

Answer 43

Words that have an opposite relationship in a specific context, and from different points of view.

Question 44

cooing

Answer 44

A stage in first language acquisition when a baby produces vowel-like sounds in response to pleasant stimuli.

Question 45

corpus

Answer 45

A collection of authentic or naturally occurring texts that are compiled electronically.

Question 46

creole

Answer 46

A language variety which has similar origins to a pidgin, but which has expanded and extended for use across a wide range of socio-economic functions.

Question 47

critical period

Answer 47

A timespan after which it may become difficult to acquire a language.

Question 48

decode

Answer 48

The process whereby a receiver assigns meaning to the different words and signs in a message in order to make sense of it.

Question 49

denotation

Answer 49

The literal or “dictionary” definition of a word.

Question 50

derivation

Answer 50

The creation of new words from existing words by attaching an affix.

Question 51

descriptive grammar

Answer 51

A description or model of the mental grammar, including the units, structures, and rules. The descriptive grammar is an explicit statement of what speakers know about their language

Question 52

determiner

Answer 52

A word like the/this/that which is typically used to modify a noun, but which has no descriptive content of its own.

Question 53

diachronic (syn. historical (linguistics))

Answer 53

The study of how a phenomenon (e.g. language) has evolved and changed over time.

Question 54

dialect

Answer 54

A variety of language that has its own distinctive grammatical forms, vocabulary choices and pronunciation.

Question 55

dominate

Answer 55

In a phrase structure tree, when a continuous downward path can be traced from a node A to a node B, then A dominates B.

Question 56

dysgraphia

Answer 56

A deficiency in the ability to write.

Question 57

dyslexia

Answer 57

A cover term for the various types of reading impairments.

Question 58

echo question

Answer 58

A question that repeats segments of what someone has just said.

Question 59

encoding

Answer 59

The process whereby a sender selects and combines words and signs into a message.