Vocabulary and Terminology 1

Question 1

linguistic competence

Answer 1

a speaker’s subconscious, intuitive knowledge of the rules of their language.

Question 2

linguistic performance

Answer 2

an individual’s use of a language, i.e. what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors.

Question 3

performance error

Answer 3

errors made when distracted, tired, or hurried.

Question 4

speech communication chain

Answer 4

how we exchange information with each other using auditory/oral and visual methods to communicate.

Question 5

speech communication chain steps

Answer 5

a thought is developed and formed into words, then phrasing is chosen. After that, the brain makes our body form speech, then our nerves and muscles comply creating the sound of speech.

Question 6

noise

Answer 6

the influence on effective communication that affects the way conversation is understood.

Question 7

lexicon

Answer 7

both the vocabulary of a language and the total stock of words and word elements that carry meaning.

Question 8

mental grammar

Answer 8

the system that all speakers of a language have in mind when they successfully communicate. this includes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Question 9

language variation

Answer 9

regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used; words have more than one meaning.

Question 10

descriptive grammar

Answer 10

objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used by a speech community.

Question 11

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

Answer 11

1. speech is spontaneous where writing is planned.
2. speech is made for listening and is conversational. writing is more informative.
3. writing is inherently complex and often contains many ideas in each sentence while speech tends to be more simple and much more straightforward.
4. writing does not come naturally the way speech does and needs to be taught extensively to reach the same level of understanding we have with speech.

Question 12

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

Answer 12

1. there are no distracting interruptions in writing so you can think more clearly about what you want to say.
2. writing is more formal and so it lends itself well to the notion of superior use of the language.
3. you don’t have to “perform” the language like you do when speaking.

Question 13

prescriptive grammar

Answer 13

the establishment of rules defining preferred or correct usage of language.

Question 14

prescribe

Answer 14

to recommend something that is beneficial to the rules of a language.

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 written or spoken words used in communicating.

Question 17

semanticity

Answer 17

the property of language that allows it to represent events, ideas, actions, and objects symbolically, thereby endowing it with the capacity to communicate meaning.

Question 18

pragmatic function

Answer 18

the intention behind the words spoken as given by the speaker. this does not always align with the independent meanings of the words used.

Question 19

interchangeability

Answer 19

the human ability to hear or see messages and reproduce them without being limited by which type of message is being conveyed.

Question 20

cultural transmission

Answer 20

the process through which cultural elements, in the form of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavioral scripts, are passed onto and taught to individuals and groups.

Question 21

arbitrariness

Answer 21

the absence of any natural or necessary connection between a word’s meaning and its sound or form.

Question 22

linguistic sign

Answer 22

any unit of language (morpheme, word, phrase, or sentence) used to designate objects or phenomena of reality. an example being the word book. the word book is a signifier that brings to mind the signified concept of what a book is.

Question 23

convention

Answer 23

a principle or norm that has been adopted by a person or linguistic community about how to use, and therefore what the meaning is of, a specific term.

Question 24

non-arbitrariness

Answer 24

in linguistics, the meaning or usage of a word or phrase that is not subject to individual determination.

Question 25

iconic

Answer 25

an example of a sign whose form resembles its meaning in some way. A common example in the modern world would be an emoji used to express emotion.

Question 26

onomatopoeia

Answer 26

the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.

Question 27

conventionalized

Answer 27

mutually coordinated and matched communicative knowledge and practices.

Question 28

sound symbolism

Answer 28

the idea that vocal sounds or phonemes carry meaning in and of themselves.

Question 29

discreteness

Answer 29

the fact that human language is composed of sets of distinct sounds.

Question 30

displacement

Answer 30

the capability of language to communicate about things that are not immediately present (spatially or temporally); i.e., things that are either not here or are not here now.

Question 31

productivity

Answer 31

the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word-formation.

Question 32

modality

Answer 32

the phenomenon whereby language is used to discuss possible situations.

Question 33

myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 33

1. sign language isn’t a real language.
2. there is only one sign language.
3. all deaf people use sign language.
4. signing harms the ability to learn speech.

Question 34

differences between codes and languages (list 4)

Answer 34

1. codes have no alphabet or vocabulary.
2. codes have no morphology.
3. codes can’t evolve the way languages do with consideration for improvisation or errors.
4. there is no code counterpart for spoken language, which contains things like volume, tone, and body language expression.