Vocabulary and Terminology 1 Flashcards
linguistic competence
a speaker’s subconscious, intuitive knowledge of the rules of their language.
linguistic performance
an individual’s use of a language, i.e. what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors.
performance error
errors made when distracted, tired, or hurried.
speech communication chain
how we exchange information with each other using auditory/oral and visual methods to communicate.
speech communication chain steps
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.
noise
the influence on effective communication that affects the way conversation is understood.
lexicon
both the vocabulary of a language and the total stock of words and word elements that carry meaning.
mental grammar
the system that all speakers of a language have in mind when they successfully communicate. this includes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
language variation
regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used; words have more than one meaning.
descriptive grammar
objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used by a speech community.
evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)
- speech is spontaneous where writing is planned.
- speech is made for listening and is conversational. writing is more informative.
- writing is inherently complex and often contains many ideas in each sentence while speech tends to be more simple and much more straightforward.
- 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.
reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
- there are no distracting interruptions in writing so you can think more clearly about what you want to say.
- writing is more formal and so it lends itself well to the notion of superior use of the language.
- you don’t have to “perform” the language like you do when speaking.
prescriptive grammar
the establishment of rules defining preferred or correct usage of language.
prescribe
to recommend something that is beneficial to the rules of a language.
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language) (list)
- mode of communication
- semanticity
- pragmatic function
- interchangeability
- cultural transmission
- arbitrariness
- discreteness
- displacement
- productivity
mode of communication
the written or spoken words used in communicating.
semanticity
the property of language that allows it to represent events, ideas, actions, and objects symbolically, thereby endowing it with the capacity to communicate meaning.
pragmatic function
the intention behind the words spoken as given by the speaker. this does not always align with the independent meanings of the words used.
interchangeability
the human ability to hear or see messages and reproduce them without being limited by which type of message is being conveyed.
cultural transmission
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.
arbitrariness
the absence of any natural or necessary connection between a word’s meaning and its sound or form.
linguistic sign
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.
convention
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.
non-arbitrariness
in linguistics, the meaning or usage of a word or phrase that is not subject to individual determination.
iconic
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.
onomatopoeia
the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.
conventionalized
mutually coordinated and matched communicative knowledge and practices.
sound symbolism
the idea that vocal sounds or phonemes carry meaning in and of themselves.
discreteness
the fact that human language is composed of sets of distinct sounds.
displacement
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.
productivity
the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word-formation.
modality
the phenomenon whereby language is used to discuss possible situations.
myths about signed languages (list 4)
- sign language isn’t a real language.
- there is only one sign language.
- all deaf people use sign language.
- signing harms the ability to learn speech.
differences between codes and languages (list 4)
- codes have no alphabet or vocabulary.
- codes have no morphology.
- codes can’t evolve the way languages do with consideration for improvisation or errors.
- there is no code counterpart for spoken language, which contains things like volume, tone, and body language expression.
