TEXT: Intro to SL Glossary 1 (A-D)

Question 1

accommodation

Answer 1

a way of speaking, often identified with a region or social group; refers to pronunciation only.

Compare with dialect and variety

Question 2

achievement gap

Answer 2

the disparity in academic performance between different groups of students (often defined by racial or ethnic group membership), usually measured in terms of the dropout rate or standardized test scores

Question 3

acquisition planning

Answer 3

language planning which focuses on the teaching and learning of a language

Question 5

act sequence

Answer 5

in ethnography of communication research, the term used to refer to the linguistic form and content of the communicative event

Question 6

actuation problem

Answer 6

the reason(s) why language changes occurs when and how it does

Question 7

adjacency pair

Answer 7

a term used in discourse analysis to refer to a single stimulus-response sequence (e.g., a question and an answer, a greeting and another greeting, etc.)

Question 8

affricate

Answer 8

a sound which combines a stop with a fricative (e.g., the ‘ch’ sound in English)

Question 9

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Answer 9

a variety of US English that is associated with African American speakers and has certain nonstandard features

See creole origin and Anglicist hypothesis

Question 10

Afrogenesis hypothesis

Answer 10

a hypothesis about the origins of creole languages which suggests that Portuguese-based pidgins which developed in Africa are the basis of most creole languages

Question 11

age-grading

Answer 11

the idea that some aspects of language use change over time within the speech of an individual; that is, they may use a particular feature when younger and then not use this feature when they reach adulthood

Question 12

/ai/ monophthongization

Answer 12

the pronunciation of the diphthong /ai/ (found in words like ‘pie’ or the pronoun ‘I’) without the glide (i.e., /a/)

Question 13

allophone, allophonic variation

Answer 13

an allophone is a phonetic realization of a phoneme; allophonic variation is different phonetic realizations which do not change meaning in a particular language (e.g., [p] and [p^h] (i.e., aspirated and unaspirated /p/) in English)

Question 14

Anglicist hypothesis

Answer 14

the idea that AAVE grew up in the context of many different English dialects in contact

Question 15

apparent time

Answer 15

a construct used in SL studies which is based on the idea that a speaker’s core linguistic features do not change over time, thus comparing the speech of different age groups at a given point in time shows language change

Question 16

applied

Answer 16

the use of theories, methods, and findings to address issues and solve problems having to do with language in society

the term ‘applied linguistics’ is used in some cases to refer to language teaching in particular, but may also be used to refer to other domains of application, for instance, language policy or translation

Question 17

arbitrary, arbitrariness

Answer 17

a feature of language; the relationship between linguistic form and meaning is random

Question 18

audience design

Answer 18

an approach to studying language variation based on the idea that speakers orient their speech based on their audience

Question 19

awareness program

Answer 19

a type of educational program for children whose home variety is not the variety used in mainstream education; makes use of the home variety of the children for some tasks and also incorporates learning about the social process through which a particular variety becomes the standard and language of education

Question 20

axiom of categoricity

Answer 20

the idea that a speaker always (i.e., categorically) uses certain linguistic features

Compare with variation

Question 21

backchanneling

Answer 21

the responses interlocuters make to indicate they are listening; includes minimal responses such as ‘mhm’ or ‘uhuh’, phrases such as ‘oh’, ‘okay’, or ‘I see’, and nonverbal cues such as nodding or gaze

Question 22

banal nationalism

Answer 22

See nationalism

Question 23

basilect

Answer 23

a term used in creole linguistics to refer to the variety of a creole language most remote from the prestigious superstrate

Compare acrolect and mesolect

Question 24

bilingual mode

Answer 24

when a speaker of two languages has both languages activated for use

Question 25

change from above

Answer 25

language change that comes from above the level of consciousness, usually because speakers want to sound like a higher-status group; appears in more formal speech first

Question 26

change from below

Answer 26

language change that occurs without speakers being aware of it; appears in the vernacular first

Question 27

chronotope

Answer 27

how language represents or indexes a particular time and space

Question 28

cisgender, cisnormativity

Answer 28

used to refer to people whose sex category is perceived as matching their gender Compare with *transgender*

Question 29

citizen sociolinguistics

Answer 29

the engagement of non-professional linguistics in linguistic research

Question 30

closing

Answer 30

a term used in *discourse analysis* to describe the turns which end a conversation

Question 31

code

Answer 31

a word used in SL to mean a variety of a language; it is intentionally neutral and does not specify if the variety is a particular dialect (e.g., 'Cockney') or a broader category (e.g., English) Compare with *language*, *dialect*, *register*, *genre*, and *style*

Question 32

codeswitching

Answer 32

a term used to describe the use of two or more varieties, or codes, in an interaction See *code*, *multilingual discourse*

Question 33

codeswitching constraints

Answer 33

rules which govern the structure of codeswitching

Question 34

collective identity

Answer 34

identification of long-standing, socially established groups Compare with *personal identity* and *group identity*

Question 35

collocation

Answer 35

words which occur together; often, part of a corpus of linguistics analysis

Question 36

common ground

Answer 36

a factor in a relationship which focuses on similarities in background and experience among speakers

Question 37

commonsense knowledge

Answer 37

understanding of everyday life which allows people to operate in and understand the world around them; relies on a static idea of social reality

Question 38

communicative competence

Answer 38

the ability to produce and understand utterances which are socially appropriate in particular contexts Contrasts with *competence*

Question 39

communicative event

Answer 39

a sequence of related turns in communication

Question 40

community of practice

Answer 40

a group defined according to interaction around a common endeavor; although speakers may have different linguistic repertoires and backgrounds, common linguistic practices emerge through regular interaction

Question 41

competence

Answer 41

a person's unconscious knowledge of the grammatical rules of a language Contrasts with *performance* and *communicative competence*

Question 42

constative utterance

Answer 42

an utterance which is a descriptive statement which can be said to be either true or false

Question 43

constitutive rules

Answer 43

rules which are necessary to make something what it is, that is, constitute it

Question 44

construction of social identities

Answer 44

the concept of social identities as not being fixed attributes of the self but as things which emerge out of linguistics (and other social) behavior See also *social constructionist*

Question 45

contact languages

Answer 45

a general term used to describe languages which have developed in multilingual contexts; includes *pidgins*, *creoles*, and *mixed languages*

Question 46

contextualization

Answer 46

signals (verbal and nonverbal) which help interlocutors to process and interpret the utterances in a conversation

Question 47

convergence

Answer 47

modifying one's speech so that in resembles that of interlocutors

Question 48

conversation analysis (CA)

Answer 48

a particular method of *discourse analysis* which studies conversational structure and coherence, based on *ethnomethodology*

Question 49

conversational overlap

Answer 49

when more than one speaker is talking at the same time in a conversation; may be cooperative or an attempt to interrupt

Question 50

cooperative principle

Answer 50

from Gricean pragmatics; the principle that participants in a conversation are assumed to be trying to communicate

Question 51

copula (see also *zero copula*)

Answer 51

the verb -to be-

Question 52

corpus linguistics

Answer 52

the study of language in real-world texts comprising large, electronically readable corpora, which are analyzed using computerized analytical tools

Question 53

corpus planning

Answer 53

a type of *language planning* which involves the selection and codification of language norms

Question 54

correlational studies

Answer 54

research which shows a relationship between a particular *social variable* (e.g., age) and the use of a particular *linguistic variable* (e.g., the lexical item 'ice box'); it does not imply a causal relationship

Question 55

cosmopolitan

Answer 55

drawing on different cultural influences

Question 56

covert prestige

Answer 56

prestige (of a linguistic variety or form) which is derived from its importance in ingroup interaction; this variety or form does not have prestige in the wider society

Question 57

CRAAVE

Answer 57

stands for Cross-Race African American Vernacular English, AAVE, which is used by non-African Americans who have picked up some features of this dialect See *crossing*

Question 58

creole (language)

Answer 58

a type of contact language, usually assumed to be elaborated and nativized Compare with *pidgin* and *mixed language*

Question 59

creole continuum

Answer 59

a construct which is based on the idea that a creole language contains a spectrum of varieties from those most similar to the *superstrate* language to those quite different from it See *basilect*, *mesolect*, and *acrolect*

Question 60

creole formation

Answer 60

the process of the development of a creole language

Question 61

creole origin

Answer 61

a term used in discussion of the development of AAVE to refer to the theory that a plantation creole developed in the Southern US during times of slavery, and features of contemporary AAVE can be traced back to this creole language

Question 62

critical analysis

Answer 62

an analysis that seeks to find underlying ideologies in social practices, particularly those that mask and naturalize the reproduction of inequalities

Question 63

critical discourse analysis (CDA), critical discourse studies

Answer 63

an approach to *discourse analysis* which seeks to discover how inequalities are encoded in and reproduced through language use

Question 64

critical SL

Answer 64

the branch of SL that examines how language functions in society to reproduce ideologies, particularly those related to social inequalities

Question 65

crossing

Answer 65

use of a variety associated with a group in which the speaker is not considered a member See also CRAAVE

Question 66

cultural borrowings

Answer 66

loanwords which are brought into a language because they denote new concepts or items entering the culture

Question 67

culturally transmitted

Answer 67

a property of language; it is learned from other people, and is not innate (although the ability to learn language is innate)

Question 68

culture

Answer 68

knowledge about how a society works, its values and practices

Question 69

Cyrillic script

Answer 69

an alphabetic writing system; currently used for Russian, among other languages of Europe and Asia

Question 70

decontextualization

Answer 70

a term used in *discourse analysis* to describe taking language use out of its original context See also *recontextualization*

Question 71

decreolization

Answer 71

a concept from creole linguistics which describes a situation in which the standard language which provided the superstrate for the creole language begins to exert influence on the creole, making it become more like the standard; this concept is criticized by some scholars

Question 72

deficit model

Answer 72

used to refer to work on language and gender which portrays women's language as deficient in comparison with men's language

Question 73

dense social network

Answer 73

a *social network* in which the people who have ties to ego also have ties to each other Compare with *loose social network*

Question 74

dependent variable

Answer 74

See under *variable*

Question 75

descriptive

Answer 75

a systematic analysis of the structure of language as it is spoken in a particular group Compare with *prescriptive*

Question 76

Devanagari script

Answer 76

an alphabetic writing system; currently used to write Hindi and Sanskrit, among other languages of India

Question 77

diachronic (linguistics)

Answer 77

the study of languages from a historical perspective

Question 78

dialect

Answer 78

the term used to refer to a particular way of speaking a language which is associated with a particular region or social group

Question 79

dialect atlas

Answer 79

collections of maps showing regional patterns of language use

Question 80

dialect boundary

Answer 80

a bundle of *isoglosses*; the border between two varieties of a language

Question 81

dialect continuum

Answer 81

gradual change of language over space; while the varieties at either end of the continuum may not be mutually intelligible, the adjacent varieties are

Question 82

dialect geography

Answer 82

the study of regional dialects

Question 83

dialect mixture

Answer 83

a variety which has features associated with distinct regional dialects

Question 84

dialogical

Answer 84

involving a dialogue or exchange

Question 85

difference (or two cultures) approach

Answer 85

in the study of language and gender, an approach which focuses on men and women as members of different subcultures, with differences in how they use language

Question 86

diffusion

Answer 86

the spread of a linguistic feature through a language, region, or period of time

Question 87

diglossia

Answer 87

the use of two languages (in the original definition, two dialects of the same language) with strict separation by domains

Question 88

diphthong

Answer 88

a vowel which is comprised by two sounds within one syllable

Question 89

Discourse(s)

Answer 89

language use combined with other social practices which produce and reproduce social categories and their values

Question 90

discourse analysis

Answer 90

a term used to describe a wide range of approaches to the study of texts and conversation, some of which are sociolinguistic in nature See *conversation analysis* and *critical discourse analysis*

Question 91

discreteness

Answer 91

a property of language, meaning that it is made up out of discrete units which can be combined to form larger units: e.g., sounds form morphemes, morphemes form words, words form sentences

Question 92

displacement

Answer 92

a property of language; humans can communicate about things in the past and future, and hypotheticals

Question 93

dispreferred responses

Answer 93

a term used in *discourse analysis* to describe responses to speech acts which are not the unmarked or hoped-for reply; for instance, the refusal of a request

Question 94

divergence

Answer 94

adjusting one's language use to make it less like that of the interlocutors

Question 95

divergence hyptohesis

Answer 95

the hypothesis that AAVE is become less like dialects of American English spoken by White speakers in the same regions

Question 96

domain

Answer 96

a concept which refers to language use as determined by topic, setting, and speakers; often used to the discuss the choice of a particular variety of language

Question 97

dominance approach

Answer 97

an approach to the study of language and gender which is based on the idea that men's dominant position in society is reflected and reproduced in conversation