What is Language? Flashcards
Linguistic Competence
The linguistic environment in which an utterance is uttered: specifically, the discourse that has immediately preceded the utterance in question
Linguistic Performance
The observable use of language. The actualization of one’s linguistic competence.
Performance Error
Errors in language production or comprehension, including hesitations and slips of the tongue.
Speech Communication Chain
The process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination.
Speech Communication Chain Steps
Think of what you want to communicate > Pick the words to express the idea > Put these words together in a certain order following rules > Figure out how to pronounce these words > Send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy > Speak: Send the sounds through the air > Perceive: Listener hears the sounds > Decode: Listener interprets sounds as language > Connect: Listener receives communicated idea
Noise
Interference in the communication chain
Lexicon
A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties
Mental Grammar
The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistic units and rules of his native language.
Language Variation
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.
Descriptive Grammar
Objective description of a speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of language (performance)
Evidence that writing and language are not the same
- Writing does not exist everywhere
- Writing must be taught
- Writing can be edited
- Language is represented in a physical medium such as sound
Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech
list 3 reasons
Prescriptive Grammar
A set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” way to speak or write
Prescribe
prescribe rules about the use of language
Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language)
- Mode of Communication
- Semanticity
- Pragmatic Function
- Interchangeability
- Cultural Transmission
- Arbitrariness
- Discreteness
- Displacement
- Productivity
Mode of Communication
Means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system.
Semanticity
Property of having signals that convey a meaning, shared by all communication systems
Pragmatic Function
The useful purpose of any given communication systems
Interchangeability
The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and review messages
Cultural Transmission
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
Arbitrariness
Refers to the fact that a word’s meaning is not predicable from its linguistic form, not is its form dictated by its meaning
Linguistic Sign
The combination of a linguistic form and meaning.
Convention
Tells you that a certain group of sounds goes with a particular meaning
Nonarbitrariness
Direct correspondence between the physical properties of a form and the meaning that the form refers to
Iconic
A linguistic sign whose signifier actually resembles or imitates its referent in some direct way
Onomatopoeia
Iconic use of words that are imitative of sounds occurring in nature or that have meanings that are associated with such sounds
Conventionalized
Something that is established, commonly agreed upon, or operating in a certain way according to common practice
Sound Symbolism
Phenomenon by which certain sounds are evocative of a particular meaning
Discreteness
The property of communication systems by which complex messages may be built up out of smaller parts
Displacement
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
Productivity
The capacity of a communication system (unique to human language) for novel messages built out of discrete units to be produced and understood
Modality
mode of communication: means through which a message is transmitted for any given communication system
Myths about signed languages
- Derived from spoken languages
- British Sign Language and American Sign Language are related
- Manual codes for spoken languages do not exist
- Signed languages are merely codes for the languages spoken in the surrounding area
Difference between codes and languages
- A code is an artificially constructed system for representing a natural language
- Code has not structure of its own
- Code borrows its structure from the natural language it represents
- Manual codes use certain gestures to represent letters, morphemes, and words of a spoken language and follow the grammar of that spoken language
