week 5

Question 1

phoneme

Answer 1

units of sound defined by distinctive features

• distinctive features: characteristics of sound whose value changes the meaning of a word in a given language

Question 2

minimal pairs (sets)

Answer 2

pairs of words where one sound - phoneme makes a difference in meaning

sin/sing thin/thing thy/thigh beet/peat/teat/meet/cheat

context not necessary to distinguish meanings

Question 3

homophones

Answer 3

2 words with different meanings that sound the same

pair/pear to/two/too meat/meet

these pairs won’t help you figure out a language’s sounds

Question 4

distinctive features vs. non-contrastive features

Question 5

aspiration

Answer 5

not contrastive in English

Question 6

allophones

Answer 6

differently produced sounds that are alternative pronunciations the same phoneme - p/spin

Question 7

McGurk effect

Question 8

being deaf vs. being Deaf

Answer 8

being deaf: physical condition
being Deaf: cultural identity -

Question 9

ASL based on French Sign Language, British

Question 10

Thomas Gallaudet and laurent clerc

Question 11

discreteness in signing

Answer 11

hand positioning and movement (establish boundaries in range of possible gestures)

Question 12

DEZ

Answer 12

designator, hand shape

Question 13

TAB

Answer 13

tabula, location relative to body

Question 14

SIG

Answer 14

signation, hand motion

Question 15

ORI

Answer 15

palm orientation

Question 16

NMGS

Answer 16

non-manual grammatical signals; facial expressions, head and body movements

Question 17

iconicity and symbolism in sign languages

Question 18

morphology

Answer 18

study of word structure - how phonemes are combined into words/word-parts that have referential meaning

Question 19

suprasegmental features

Answer 19

features that can span more than one segment of language; features present in both oral and signed languages

in speech: intonation, stress, rhythm, pitch, loudness

in sign: speed, force of movement, rhythm, body orientation, facial expression

Question 20

intonation as a segmental feature vs. suprasegmental feature

Question 21

free and bound morphemes

Answer 21

smallest unit with referential meaning

free: can stand alone : sun, happy, eleven, later

bound: can’t stand alone
prefixes - un- de- semi-
suffixes -ist -tive -ness

Question 22

roots and affixes

Question 23

allomorphs

Answer 23

diff manifestations of same morpheme

-il im- in-
meaning not
illegitimate, improper

Question 24

isolating vs. agglutinating languages

Answer 24

isolating: low ratio of morphemes per word, meanings conveyed by separate unbound morphemes

agglutinating: high ratio of morphemes per word, meanings built onto words through affixes - glue

Question 25

syntax/grammar

Question 26

prescriptive grammar vs. descriptive grammar

Answer 26

prescriptive: one standard is correct and grammatical it is determined by institutions and authorities

natural/cognitive: various rules exist in naturally occurring language that we know about from observation/descriptive studies

Question 27

universal grammar, cognitive, generative

Answer 27

cognitive/generative: explaining underlying rules by which sentences are generated

Question 28

noam Chomsky

Answer 28

argued for innate grammar
universal patterns in the order of acquisition of grammar

Question 29

evidence for universal grammar

Answer 29

grid/blueprint all humans are born with, encoded in DNA, how we are wired “cognitive grammar”

parameters to be set, based on cues heard from spoken language

Question 30

implications of universal grammar theory

Answer 30

no primitive language, a;; natural languages are grammatical

Question 31

ungrammaticality according to linguistics versus social politics

Answer 31

deficient

Question 32

double negation as a grammatical option