Terms: Basic Concepts Flashcards
the scientific study of language
Linguistics
____________________about language describe how language is used, reporting observations objectively, without any judgements about them → “this is what people say and write”
Descriptive statements
_________________ about language make judgments about language correctness. → “this is what people should say and write. This is good and that is bad.”
Prescriptive statements
description of the structure of (a) language(s).
Grammar
The set of words in a language and our knowledge about these words.
Lexicon
the science dealing with the physical and physiological character of sounds, how sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived.
Phonetics
the science dealing with the sound system of (a) specific language(s).
Phonology
the smallest building block that can change the meaning of a word.
Phoneme
the science dealing with the structure of words, how words consist of smaller parts – morphemes – each one contributing some specific meaning.
Morphology
the smallest building blocks that carry meaning.
Morpheme
the science dealing with how words are put together into larger chunks: phrases, clauses, sentences, and texts.
Syntax
Morphology + Syntax; it’s often difficult to tell exactly where to draw the borderline between them, and therefore it may be more convenient to treat them together.
Morphosyntax
the science dealing with the meaning of words and utterances.
Semantics
the science dealing with the use of words and utterances in a social context, i.e. IRL situations. (We often don’t say exactly what we mean, e.g., Do you know what time it is?)
Pragmatics
two (or more) sounds that differ slightly, but are used in a specific language as if they were the same sound, with no change in meaning
Allophones
traditionally also called parts of speech, are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs…
Word-classes
A _____ usually constitutes the central part of a clause. (The children made their lunches.). ______ are (usually) accompanied by one or more nouns (SVO). Some are obligatory, and some are optional
Verbs
a verb that forms the past and the past participle by assuming -d or -ed: I acted, I ruled, I loved, I defended.
Regular verb
a verb that does not form the past and the past participle by assuming -d or -ed: see -> saw -> seen; go -> went -> gone; do -> did -> done
Irregular verb
a verb that can use both regular and irregular forms: thrive -> thrived/throve -> thrived/thriven
Redundant verb
- might be inflected for singular/plural, definite/indefinite…
- might belong to a gender class or some other kind of noun class
- generally used as subject or object or adverbial complement
- generally denotes living beings, objects, and abstract ideas
- might be preceded by a determine
Nouns
- tends to appear next to a noun
- might be inflected so that it agrees with the noun (meaning that it has the same gender, number, definiteness)
- tends to express definiteness, possession, uniqueness, quantity…
Determiner
something known
Definite
something new or unknown
Indefinite
Does the word inflect? What different forms does it have?
Form
How is it used? What is its sentence function? What is its position?
Function
What kind of meaning does it convey?
Meaning
a countable amount: singular (1), plural (1+), dual (2)
Number
changes an existing word to a different syntactic category with no change in its form. Aka zero derivation
Conversion
changes an existing word to a different syntactic category with a change in its form. For example, affixation
Derivation
the modification of a word’s form to indicate grammatical information
Inflection
a small bound morpheme that is not in a word class category
Affixes
Added before a root or stem
Prefix
Added after a root or stem
Suffix
affixes that occur within another morpheme or root
Added into the middle of a root or stem
Infix
affixes that simultaneously occur on either side of another morpheme or root
Circumfix
the core of a word, carries the meaning
Root
In many languages, nouns are accompanied by a marker that indicates masculine, feminine, neutral, etc. For example, German has three genders since nouns require either der, die, or das.
Gender
a basic form of a word that an affix is added to.
Base form (aka stem)
a form of the verb that is typically used together with another verb in many languages, e.g. I can read. Not all languages have an infinitive, and use expressions like ‘I can that I read’, instead
Infinitive
a word that can stand alone
Free morpheme
a morpheme that must be attached to a root or base
Bound morpheme
variants of a morpheme
Allomorph
all or part of the base is doubled
Reduplication
a morpheme is replaced by an entirely different morpheme
Suppletion
grammatical category (past, present, future) that provides information about the time of an event’s occurrence.
Tense
the properties of an event or situation denoted by the verb phrase (context)
Aspect
verbs that help indicate that an action is ongoing or complete such as, continue to dance; stop driving.
Aspectual verbs
