Vocab & Terms Flashcards
linguistic competence
A speakers subconscious, intuitive knowledge of the rules of their language.
linguistic performance
Production of actual sentences in use in relation-life situations; an individual’s use of a language.
performance error
unintended deviation from the immanent rules of a language
speech communication chain
A concept that describes the process communication from the moment a thought forms in a speaker’s mind to when it is understood by the listener.
speech communication chain steps
- Thought formation
- Language processing
- Sound production
- Transmission
- Hearing
- Comprehension
noise
The variation among users of language; grammatical language that the hearer cannot understand.
lexicon
the complete set of meaningful units in a language
mental grammar
the system that all speakers of a language have in their minds, which allows them to understand each other
language variation
the difference in the way things are said within a single language
descriptive grammar
lays out the grammatical elements and rules of a language as it is actually used
evidence that writing and language are not the same (List 4 reasons)
- Writing doesn’t exist for all languages
- Language is developed while writing is learned
- Writing was historically developed after human language
- Writing is more permanent, less easily changed, as well as usually more formal and structured.
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
- Writing can be, and has been, preserved for generations.
- Writing is easier to organize than speech.
- Writing can be edited.
prescriptive grammar
A set of rules defining the norms or preferred usage of how a language should or should not be used.
prescribe
The establishment of rules defining preferred usage of a language.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for communication system to be considered a language) (list)
- Mode of Communication
- Semanticity
- Pragmatic Function
- Interchangeability
- Cultural Transmission
- Arbitrariness
- Discreteness
- Displacement
- Productivity
mode of communication
means of communicating; written or spoken words
semanticity
property of language that permits it to present actions, ideas, and events to provide meanings for communication
pragmatic function
The implied and inferred meaning a speaker wishes to convey to the person they are speaking to.
interchangeability
humans can give and receive identical linguistic signals
cultural transmission
the process whereby language is passed on from one generation to the next in a community
arbitrariness
the meaning of linguistic signs is not predicable from its word form, nor is the word for dictated by its meaning/function
linguistic sign
assigns meaning to things so that people can communicate. Made up of two elements: signifier and the signified.
convention
a principle or norm that has been adopted by a person or linguistic community about how to use, and therefore what the meaning of, a specific term.
non-arbitrariness
a relation between form and meaning such that aspects of a word’s meaning or grammatical function can be predicted from aspects of its form
