Vocabulary and Terminology

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. The actualization of one’s linguistic competence.

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

Communication chain: 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 of 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 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 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 a part of a descriptive, not mental, grammar, the lexicon is the 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 a group of speakers’ knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of the language (performance).

Question 11

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

Answer 11

1.Writing must be taught (spoken language is acquired naturally) 2.Writing does not exist everywhere that spoken language does 3.Writing can be edited (speech is usually much more spontaneous) 4.Archeological evidence indicates that writing is a later historical development than spoken language

Question 12

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

Answer 12

1.Writing can be edited (while speech is spontaneous) 2.Writing must be taught (and is therefore intimately associated with education and educated speech) 3.Writing is more physically stable than spoken language (and tends to last)

Question 13

Mode of communication

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Prescribe

Answer 14

Prescriptive rules: tell you how you “should” speak or write, according to someone’s idea of what is “good” or “bad.”

Question 15

Pragmatic function

Answer 15

The useful purpose of any given communication system.

Question 16

Interchangeability

Answer 16

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 17

Cultural transmission

Answer 17

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 18

Arbitrariness

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Linguistic sign

Answer 19

The combination of a linguistic form and meaning.

Question 20

Convention

Answer 20

Conventionalized: something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according 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 21

Nonarbitrariness

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Iconic

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Onomatopoeia

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Conventionalized

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Sound symbolism

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Discreteness

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Displacement

Answer 27

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 28

Productivity

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Modality

Answer 29

Mode of communication: means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system.

Question 30

Myths about signed languages (list 4)

Answer 30

1.They derive from spoken languages 2.They do not have any internal structure 3.The words in a signed language are completely iconic 4.There is only one signed language that is used by deaf speakers all over the world

Question 31

Differences between codes and languages (list 4)

Answer 31

1.Codes have no structure of their own but instead borrows its structure from the natural language that it represents (signed languages evolve naturally and independently of spoken languages) 2.Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems 3.Manual codes for spoken languages exist 4.The rate of transmission of information for language is more efficient than that of signed codes

Question 32

Semanticity

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Prescriptive grammar

Answer 33

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

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