Test #1 Flashcards
Linguistics
the study of language, from its smallest particles to its largest elements
what are the building blocks of language
sounds, words, and sentences
pragmatics
language used in context, including rules of conversations and politeness conventions
sociolinguistics
how social factors (race, ethnicity, gender, class) influence language
neurolinguistics
language and the brain
psycholinguistics
how we acquire first (and second) languages, how we produce and understand sentences
computational linguistics
artificial languages and modeling natural languages for computer programming
historical linguistics
how language changes over time, relationships among languages
anthropological linguistics
language and culture
linguistic knowledge
the ability to speak (or sign) in a language and be understood by others who speak that language
arbitrariness
there is no logical connection between a word and its meaning
What does it mean to know a language-sounds
- knowledge of the sound system
- how sounds can be combined
- what sounds can begin or end a word
- which words could exist in english based just on sound combinations
what does it mean to know a language- words
- being able to identify strings of sounds as words
- most words in all languages are arbitrary connections of sound to meaning
what does it mean to know a language- sentences and non sentences
- language is more than a set of words
- the creative property of linguistic knowledge
- creation and understanding
- most sentences we use are new
What is the preferred word order for adjectives?
size, color, purpose
What is grammar?
The knowledge speakers have about the units and rules of their language
grammar vs mechanics vs usage
grammar - rules about how not to use a language
linguistic grammar- the mental rules about how to use language, usually learned in early childhood
mechanics - punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc
usage- choosing the “correct word” ex their vs there
descriptive grammar
attempts to describe how people actually use language in real life, all language is good
prescriptive grammar
attempts to prescribe what rules of language people should use to speak “properly”
