Vocabulary and Terminology 1

Question 1

Linguistic competence

Answer 1

What we know when we know a language; the unconscious knowledge that a speaker has about her or his native language.

Question 2

Linguistic performance

Answer 2

The observable use of language.

Question 3

Performance error

Answer 3

Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue.

Question 4

Speech communication chain

Answer 4

The process through which information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.

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 there words together in a certain order following rules.
4. Figure out how to pronounce these words.
5. Send those 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.

Question 7

Lexicon

Answer 7

A mental repository of linguistics information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties.

Question 8

Mental grammar

Answer 8

The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistic units and rules of his native 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

Objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of a language based on their use of the language.

Question 11

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

Answer 11

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

Question 12

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

Answer 12

1. Writing encodes spoken language into a physically preservable form.
2. Writing is a three stage process.
3. All units of writing, whether letters of characters, are based on units of speech.

Question 13

Prescriptive grammar

Answer 13

A set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” way to speak or write.

Question 14

Prescribe

Answer 14

“prescriptive”

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. Displacement
8. Productivity

Question 16

Mode of communication

Answer 16

Refers to the means by which these messages are transmitted and received.

Question 17

Semanticity

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Pragmatic function

Answer 18

The useful purpose of any given communication system.

Question 19

Interchangeability

Answer 19

The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and review messages (as opposed to systems where some individuals can only send messages and others can only receive messages.)

Question 20

Cultural transmission

Answer 20

Property of a communication system referring to the fact that at least some aspects of it are learned through interaction with other users of the system.

Question 21

Arbitrariness

Answer 21

In relation to language, refers to the fact that a word’s meaning is not predictable from its linguistic form, nor it is its form dictated by its meaning.

Question 22

Linguistic sign

Answer 22

The combination of a linguistic form and meaning.

Question 23

Convention

Answer 23

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice.

Question 24

Nonarbitrariness

Answer 24

Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to.

Question 25

Iconic

Answer 25

Relationship between form and meaning such that the form of a word bears a resemblance to its meaning.

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Iconic use of words that are imitative of sounds occurring in nature or that have meanings that are associated with such sounds.

Question 27

Conventionalized

Answer 27

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice.

Question 28

Sound symbolism

Answer 28

Phenomenon by which certain are evocative of a particular meaning.

Question 29

Discreteness

Answer 29

The property of communication systems by which complex messages may be built up out of smaller parts.

Question 30

Displacement

Answer 30

The property of communication systems that allows them to be used to communicate about things, actions, and ideas that are not present at the place or time where communication is taking place.

Question 31

Productivity

Answer 31

The capacity of a communication system (unique to human language) for novel messages built out of discrete units to be produced and understood.

Question 32

Modality

Answer 32

Mode of communication.

Question 33

Myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 33

1. There is a myth that signed languages derive from spoken languages, rather than being languages in their own right.
2. Signed languages do not have any internal structure.
3. The words in signed language are completely iconic.
4. There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world.

Question 34

Differences between codes and languages (list 4)

Answer 34

1. A code has no structure of its own but instead borrows its structure from the natural language that it represents. Signed languages evolve naturally of spoken languages.
2. Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems, compared to languages.
3. Signed languages are learned natively by both hearing and deaf people all over the world.
4. Signed languages are structurally distinct from each other and from spoken languages.