Sociolinguistics - General

Question 1

how a language is structured OR the knowledge that native speakers implicitly have about the structure of their own language (sound patterns, word formation rules, syntax rules)

Answer 1

grammar

Question 2

when political, historical, geographic etc. situations play a role in determining whether a group of people speak a dialect or a language

Answer 2

non-linguistic criteria

Question 3

changing from one language to another when speaking

Answer 3

codeswitching

Question 4

the gradual merging of one regional variety of a language into another

Answer 4

dialect continuum

Question 5

positive value placed upon a particular language or features of a language

Answer 5

language prestige

Question 6

a way of speaking that is either formal (careful) OR informal (casual)

Answer 6

speech style

Question 7

a line representing a set of isoglosses; used to separate one dialect area from another

Answer 7

dialect boundary

Question 8

language varieties contrast/differ most noticeably in this part of language

Answer 8

vocabulary

Question 9

making decisions about people based on the variety of language they speak

Answer 9

language profiling

Question 10

a social dialect with low prestige spoken by a lower-status group, with marked differences from the standard language

Answer 10

vernacular

Question 11

a line on a map separating two areas in which a particular linguistic feature is significantly different; they are used in the study of dialects

Answer 11

isogloss

Question 12

when language itself plays a role in determining whether a group of people speak a dialect or a language

Answer 12

linguistic criteria

Question 13

the variety of a language treated as the official language by a country and used in public broadcasting, publishing, and education

Answer 13

standard language

Question 14

a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation, or topic, characterized by the use of special jargon

Answer 14

register

Question 15

the ability to speak two dialects

Answer 15

bidialectism

Question 16

the specialized words or vocabulary used by people within a particular group

Answer 16

jargon

Question 17

the view that there is a right and a wrong way to speak a language and that there are certain correct forms that should be used

Answer 17

prescriptivism

Question 18

a continuum of mutually intelligible dialects

Answer 18

language

Question 19

any language variety associated with a particular region or social group; a dialect is a continuum of idiolects

Answer 19

dialect

Question 20

the personal dialect of an individual speaker

Answer 20

idiolect

Question 21

words or expressions typically used in informal communication

Answer 21

slang

Question 22

status based on social and economic characteristics such as income, job, level of education, and other factors

Answer 22

socioeconomic class

Question 23

a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort

Answer 23

mutual intelligibility

Question 24

the conscious or unconscious act of adjusting or changing from one style of speech to another (within one language)

Answer 24

style shifting

Question 25

negative value judgments made about a person based on the way he or she speaks, usually directed toward a speaker of a vernacular dialect

Answer 25

language prejudice

Question 26

a group of people who share language characteristics and ways of speaking

Answer 26

speech community

Question 27

the study of language focusing on the relationship between society and language; the study of language as it is used in social context

Answer 27

sociolinguistics

Question 28

a collection of maps of a certain area indicating the distribution of various phonological, morphological, lexical, or other features of the dialects of that area

Answer 28

dialect atlas

Question 29

aspects of pronunciation only that identify where a speaker is from, in contrast to dialect

Answer 29

accent

Question 30

a social dialect or a variety of a language that is strongly associated with one social group (e.g. working-class speech)

Answer 30

sociolect

Question 31

the variety of English spoken in the United States that is considered by most Americans to seem right

Answer 31

Mainstream/Standard American English

Question 32

language varieties associated with social factors, such as socioeconomic class, age, ethnic background, or sexual orientation

Answer 32

social dialects

Question 33

varieties of a language that exist in different geographical areas - often referred to by the general population as an accents or dialects

Answer 33

regional speech varieties

Question 34

the objective description of the way people actually speak without judgment about how they should speak

Answer 34

descriptivism

Question 35

the ability to speak two languages

Answer 35

bilingualism

Question 36

term used by linguists to refer to a language variety spoken by many African Americans

Answer 36

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Question 37

when the French conquered England & then ruled over it for ~ 200 years ; English became the language of the lower classes and French became the language of the upper classes ; MANY French/Latin based words entered English then

Answer 37

Battle of Hastings in 1066

Question 38

a language that develops when a pidgin language begins to be learned as a native language

Answer 38

creole

Question 39

1/3 of English's vocabulary comes from this language

Answer 39

French

Question 40

English's branch of the Indo-European Language Family

Answer 40

Germanic

Question 41

a massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English during the 15th to 18th centuries

Answer 41

Great Vowel Shift

Question 42

the language developed from the pidgin language created when workers flocked to Hawaiʻi to work on its sugar plantations in the 1700-1800’s

Answer 42

Hawaiian Creole English (HCE)

Question 43

this creole has elements from Hawaiian, American English, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean

Answer 43

Hawaiian Creole English (HCE)

Question 44

what HCE stands for

Answer 44

Hawaiian Creole English

Question 45

alteration over time in any component of a language, such as pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary

Answer 45

language change

Question 46

the disappearance of a language or language variety

Answer 46

language death

Question 47

a sign language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in Nicaragua from the late 70's to the present

Answer 47

Nicaraguan Sign Language

Question 48

a language that arises when speakers of different languages come into contact, have no language in common, and have an immediate need to communicate; this kind of language has no native speakers

Answer 48

pidgin

Question 49

we can figure out how this famous playwright's English sounded by his spelling, poetic rhythm, and the rhyming of his verse

Answer 49

Shakespeare