Vocabulary and Terminology Flashcards
Linguistic Competence
The unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.
Linguistic Performance
Ability to produce and comprehend sentences in a language.
Performance Error
Errors made by learners when they are tired or hurried
Speech Communication Chain
The process by which we exchange info, using auditory/oral method to communicate, or when a message moves between the mind of the speaker and the mind of the listener.
Speech Communication Chain Steps
- Speech production
- Auditory feedback to the speaker
- Speech transmission (through air or over an electronic communication system (to the listener)
- Speech perception and understanding by the listener.
Noise
An unwanted or unpleasant sound that causes a disturbance.
Lexicon
The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.
Mental Grammar
Generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other speakers can understand. It is also known as competence grammar and linguistic competence.
Language Variation
Also known as linguistic variation, it refers to regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used.
Descriptive Grammar
A set of rules about language based on how it is actually used - there’s no right or wrong language.
Evidence that writing and language are not the same (list 4 reasons)
- Writers can make use of punctuation, headings, layout, colours and other graphical effects in their written texts. Language uses timing, tone, volume, and timbre to add emotional context.
- Writing is usually permanent and written texts cannot usually be changed once they have been printed/written out. Language is usually transient, unless recorded, and speakers can correct themselves and change their utterances as they go along.
- A written text can communicate across time and space for as long as the particular language and writing system is still understood. language is usually used for immediate interactions.
- Written language tends to be more complex and intricate than speech with longer sentences and many subordinate clauses. Languages tends to be full of repetitions, incomplete sentences, corrections and interruptions
Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech (list 3 reasons)
- When you write, you can make anything happen.
- You’re going to sound more organized when you put something in writing.
- Writing is a great permanent way to remember things.
Mode of communication
The way communication is expressed.
Semanticity
The quality that a linguistic system has of being able to convey meanings, in particular by reference to the world of physical reality.
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
Interchangeability
Able to be used in place of one another. An example of interchangeable are the words dinner and supper.
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 quality of being determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle. It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint.
Linguistic Sign
Any unit of language (morpheme, word, phrase, or sentence) used to designate objects or phenomena of reality. Linguistic signs are bilateral; they consist of a signifier, made up of speech sounds (more precisely, phonemes), and a signified, created by the linguistic sign’s sense content.
Convention
A common way of showing something in art or writing:
Non-arbitrariness
Not based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
Iconic
Widely recognized and well-established
Onomatopoeia
The formation of a word, such as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. Also, the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect.
Conventionalized
Using artistic forms and conventions to create effects; not natural or spontaneous
Sound Symbolism
The apparent association between particular sound sequences and particular meanings in speech. Also known as sound-meaningfulness and phonetic symbolism.
Discreteness
The state or quality of being discrete, separated or distinct.
Displacement
The change in position of an object - implied that an object has been moved.
Productivity
The state of being able to create at high quality and quick speed.
Modality
A particular way of doing or experiencing something:
Myths about signed languages (list 4)
- There is only one sign language
- Sign languages are not real languages
- All deaf people sign
- Signing hinders learning speech
Differences between codes and languages (list 4)
- With languages, you can communicate your ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs - you cannot do this with codes.
- Codes are artificial creations, while languages are developed naturally.
- Codes can’t evolve and develop the same way human languages can.
- While languages are much defined by the physical attributes of human bodies, codes are not.
Prescriptive Grammar
The traditional approach of grammar that tells people how to use the English language, what forms they should utilize, and what functions they should serve.
Prescribe
To tell someone what they must have or do, or to make a rule of something.
Pragmatic function
The study of how context contributes to meaning.
