Vocabulary and Terminology

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 by learners when they are tired or hurried. Normally, this type of error is not serious and can be overcome with little effort by the learner.

Question 4

speech communication chain

Answer 4

a concept that describes the process of communication from the moment a thought forms in a speaker’s mind to when it is understood by the listener

Question 5

speech communication chain steps

Answer 5

thought formation, language processing, sound production, transmission, hearing, and comprehension

Question 6

noise

Answer 6

the variation among users of language

Question 7

lexicon

Answer 7

the collection of words used by certain languages, professions or hobbies

Question 8

mental grammar

Answer 8

the system that all speakers of a language have in their minds, which allows them to understand each other

Question 9

language variation

Answer 9

regional, social, or contextual. differences in the ways that a particular language is used

Question 10

descriptive grammar

Answer 10

lay out the grammatical elements and rules of a language as it is actually used

Question 11

evidence that writing and language are not the same

Answer 11

1. Writing does not exist everywhere that spoken language does.
2. Writing can be edited before it is shared with others in most cases, while speech is usually much more spontaneous.
3. Archaeological evidence indicates that writing is a later historical development than spoken language.
4. Writing is taught, and spoken language is acquired naturally.

Question 12

reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech

Answer 12

1. Writing can be edited, therefore, the product of writing is usually more aptly worded and better organized, containing fewer errors, hesitations, pauses, filler words, false starts, and incomplete sentences than are found in speech
2. Writing is taught and is intimately associated with education and educated speech.
3. Writing is more physically stable than spoken language, as spoken language is basically only sounds waves and is not preserved the same

Question 13

prescriptive grammar

Answer 13

a set of rules about language based on how people think language should be used

Question 14

prescribe

Answer 14

is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features

Answer 15

Mode of communication, semanticity, pragmatic function, interchangeability, cultural transmission, arbitrariness, discreteness, displacement, and productivity

Question 16

mode of communication

Answer 16

a means of communicating. A medium is the channel or system through which communications are conveyed

Question 17

semanticity

Answer 17

the use of arbitrary or nonarbitrary signals to transmit meaningful messages

Question 18

pragmatic function

Answer 18

the meaning a speaker wishes to convey to the person they are speaking to (the addressee)

Question 19

interchangeability

Answer 19

the idea that humans can give and receive identical linguistic signals

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 meaning of linguistic signs is not predictable from its word form, nor is the word form dictated by its meaning/function

Question 22

linguistic sign

Answer 22

made of two elements: the signifier, signal, or the sound pattern, and the signified, signification, or concepts

Question 23

convention

Answer 23

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

Question 24

non-arbitrariness

Answer 24

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

Question 25

iconic

Answer 25

The relationship between form and meaning; the form of a word bears a resemblance to its meaning

Question 26

onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Iconic uses 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 sounds 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 pieces

Question 30

displacement

Answer 30

The ability of a language to communicate about things, actions, and ideas that are not present in space or time while the speakers are communicating

Question 31

productivity

Answer 31

A language’s capacity for novel messages to be built up out of discrete units

Question 32

modality

Answer 32

Mode of communication; tells us how language is produced and how it is perceived

Question 33

myths about signed languages

Answer 33

1. Signed languages derive from spoken language, rather than being their own languages
2. Signed languages do not consist of words at all, but instead involve signers using their hands to draw pictures in the air or to act out what they are talking about
3. Signed languages do not have any internal structure
4. There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world

Question 34

differences between codes and languages

Answer 34

1. A code has no structure of its own so it borrows its structure from the natural language that it represents, whereas signed languages are structurally distinct from each other and from spoken languages
2. Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems, but languages do
3. A code is artificially constructed for representing a natural language, but signed languages evolve naturally and independently of spoken languages
4. Signed codes are not as efficient as true language, whether it is signed or spoken because its average seconds-per-preposition rate is much higher