Vocab & Terminology

Question 1

linguistic competence

Answer 1

“hidden” knowledge of language

Question 2

linguistic performance

Answer 2

the way people product and comprehend language

Question 3

performance error

Answer 3

when you use language, being unable to remember a word, mispronouncing something, or jumbling the words in a sentence

Question 4

speech communication chain

Answer 4

when you use language to communicate an idea from your mind to the mind of someone else

Question 5

speech communication chain steps

Answer 5

1. Think of what you want to communicate
2. Pick out words to express the idea
3. Put these words together in a certain order following rules
4. Figure out how to pronounce these words
5. Send the pronunciations to your vocal anatomy
6. Speak - send the sounds through the air
7. Perceive - listener hears the sounds
8. Decode - listener interprets sounds as language
9. Connect - listener receives communicated idea

Question 6

noise

Answer 6

interference in the chain of communication

Question 7

lexicon

Answer 7

the collection of all the words that you know: what functions they serve, what they refer to, how they are pronounced and how they are related to other words

Question 8

mental grammar

Answer 8

all the rules you know about your language

Question 9

language variation

Answer 9

the property of languages having different ways to express the same meanings in different contexts according to factors such as geography, social class, gender, etc.

Question 10

descriptive grammar

Answer 10

generalizations that describe what English speakers do

Ex: “the vowel sound in the word ‘suit’ is produced with rounded lips”

Question 11

evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)

Answer 11

1. Archeological evidence
2. Writing does not exist everywhere
3. Writing must be taught
4. Neurologist evidence
5. Writing can be edited

Question 12

reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)

Answer 12

1. Writing can be edited
2. Writing must be taught
3. Writing is more physically stable

Question 13

prescriptive grammar

Answer 13

the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” ways to use a language

Question 14

prescribe

Answer 14

rules that tell you how to speak or write, according to someone’s idea of what is “good” or “bad”

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) [list]

Answer 15

1. Mode of Communication
2. Semanticity
3. Pragmatic Function
4. Interchangeability
5. Cultural Transmission
6. Arbitrariness
7. Discreteness
8. Displacement
9. Productivity

Question 16

mode of communication

Answer 16

the means by which these messages are transmitted and rec’d

Question 17

semanticity

Answer 17

the property requiring that all signals in a communication system have a meaning or function

Question 18

pragmatic function

Answer 18

communication systems must have a pragmatic function; must serve some useful purpose

Question 19

interchangeability

Answer 19

the ability of individuals to both transmit and receive messages

Question 20

cultural transmission

Answer 20

aspects of language that we can acquire only through communicative interaction with other users of the system

Question 21

arbitrariness

Answer 21

meaning is not in any way predictable from the form; nor is the form dictated by the meaning

Question 22

linguistic sign

Answer 22

the combination of a form and a meaning; form + meaning = linguistic sign

Question 23

convention

Answer 23

tells you that a certain group of sounds goes with a particular meaning

Question 24

nonarbitrariness

Answer 24

where the form represents the meaning directly; said to be iconic

Question 25

iconic

Answer 25

“picture-like”

Question 26

onomatopoeia

Answer 26

words that are imitative of natural sounds or have meanings that are associated with such sounds of nature

Question 27

conventionalized

Answer 27

English speakers have arbitrarily conventionalized noise into a form
Ex: roosters “say” cock-a-doodle-doo

Question 28

sound symbolism

Answer 28

certain sounds occur in words not by virtue of being directly imitative of some sound but rather simply by being evocative of a particular meaning

Question 29

discreteness

Answer 29

the property of language (among other communication systems) that allows us to combine together discrete units in order to create larger communicative

Question 30

displacement

Answer 30

the ability of a language to communicate about things, actions and ideas that are not present in space or time while speakers are communicating

Question 31

productivity

Answer 31

language’s capacity for novel messages to be built up out of _ units

Question 32

modality

Answer 32

mode of communication; tells us how it is produced and how it is perceived

Question 33

myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 33

1. Myth that signed languages derive from spoken languages, rather than being languages in their own right.
2. Myth that signed languages don’t consist of words at all but rather involve signers using their hands to draw pictures in the air or act out what they are talking about
3. Myth that words in an signed language are completely iconic.
4. Myth that there is only one signed language used by deaf speakers all over the world.