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 is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.

Question 5

speech communication chain steps

Answer 5

1. Think 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 those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy.
6. Speak: Send the sound through the air.
7. Perceive: Listener hears those sounds.
8. Decode: Listener interprets sounds as language.
9. Connect: Listener receives communicated idea.

Question 6

noise

Answer 6

Interference in the communication chain.

Question 7

lexicon

Answer 7

A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form and meaning and their morphological and syntactic properties. As part of a descriptive, not mental, grammar, the lexicon is a representation of the mental lexicon, consisting of lexical entries that capture the relevant properties of lexical expressions (e.g., their form and syntactic category).

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 or group of speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of the language (performance).

Question 11

evidence that writing and language are not the same

Answer 11

Speech is a more basic form of writing. For example, writing must be taught. It does not exist everywhere and can be edited. Writing is more physically stable, and tends to last because of its physical medium and can be preserved for a very long time. Archaeological evidence indicates that writing is a later historical development than spoken language, and was only developed approximately 6,000 years ago in Sumer (modern day Iraq).

Question 12

reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech

Answer 12

Some people believe that the product of writing is usually more aptly worded and better organized. Writing must be taught and therefore is intimately associated with education and educated speech. Writing is also more physically stable than spoken language, as spoken language is simply sound waves traveling through air and therefore more transient. Writing appears in a physical form and is subject to last much longer.

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

Instruction on how one should write or speak, according to someone else’s idea of what is “good” or “bad”.

Question 15

mode of communication

Answer 15

Means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system.

Question 16

semanticity

Answer 16

Property of having signals that covey a meaning, shared by all communication systems.

Question 17

pragmatic function

Answer 17

The useful purpose of any given communication system.

Question 18

interchangeability

Answer 18

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 19

cultural transmission

Answer 19

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 20

arbitrariness

Answer 20

In relation to language, refers to the fact that a word’s

Question 21

linguistic sign

Answer 21

The combination of linguistic form and meaning.

Question 22

convention

Answer 22

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to to common practice. When an arbitrary relationship of a linguistic sign and its meaning is conventionalized, the linguistic sign bears a constant relationship only because people consistently use that linguistic sign to convey that meaning.

Question 23

nonarbitrariness

Answer 23

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

Question 24

iconic

Answer 24

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

Question 25

onomatopoeia

Answer 25

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

Question 26

conventionalized

Answer 26

Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to to common practice. When an arbitrary relationship of a linguistic sign and its meaning is conventionalized, the linguistic sign bears a constant relationship only because people consistently use that linguistic sign to convey that meaning.

Question 27

sound symbolism

Answer 27

Phenomenon by which certain sounds are evocative of a particular meaning.

Question 28

discreteness

Answer 28

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

Question 29

displacement

Answer 29

The property of some 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 30

productivity

Answer 30

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

Question 31

modality

Answer 31

A speaker’s or a writer’s attitude towards the world. A speaker or writer can express certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity and ability by using modal words and expressions.

Question 32

myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 32

1. Sign languages derive from spoken languages.
2. Signed languages don’t consist of words at all but rather involve signers using their hands to draw pictures in the air or to act out what they are talking about.
3. There is only one universal sign language.
4. Signed languages do not have any internal structure.

Question 33

differences between codes and languages (list 4)

Answer 33

1. Codes have no structure of its own and borrows the structure of an already establish language, whereas language has a structure of its own.
2. Codes do not have native speakers as they are artificial systems, whereas languages do.
3. True language is a much more efficient means of communicating than signed codes, as the rate of transmission of information is faster.
4. Word order between codes and languages differ.

Question 34

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

Answer 34

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