What is linguistics?

Question 1

What is linguistics?

Answer 1

the scientific study of language

-studies structure, variation, acquisition, biology, psychology, development

Question 2

What is the devine source theory?

Answer 2

the theory that language is nothing more than a gift from God.

Question 3

What is the natural sound source theory?

Answer 3

the theory that language was acquired through hearing sounds and associating them with the entities that created them (thousands of years ago)

Question 4

What is the genetic source theory?

Answer 4

the theory that theres something unique in human genetics that helps us learn language (innateness hypothesis)

Question 5

What are design features of language?

Answer 5

properties of human language that are not found in other forms of communication

Question 6

mode of communication (design feature)

Answer 6

language serves as a means by which messages can be sent/received

Question 7

semanticity (design feature)

Answer 7

all words or signs have a meaning or function

Question 8

pragmatic function (design feature)

Answer 8

language serves some useful purpose (to question, influence, direct, etc)

Question 9

interchangeability (design feature)

Answer 9

individuals can both receive and transmit messages

Question 10

cultural transmission (design feature)

Answer 10

acquired through interaction with other uses of the system

Question 11

arbitrariness (design feature)

Answer 11

the connection between form and meaning is typically unpredictable

Question 12

discreetness (design feature)

Answer 12

language can be broken down into smaller units
-exceptions: onomatopoeias, sound symbolism

Question 13

What is prescriptive grammar?

Answer 13

what we usually think of when we talk about grammar; list of rules; tells you how you should/shouldn’t speak; doesn’t always reflect how native speakers talk

Question 14

What is descriptive grammar?

Answer 14

describes what we are doing when talking to other natives; describes how we actually do speak; describes the linguistic competence of native speakers

Question 15

Mental grammar

Answer 15

unconscious linguistic competence of speakers

Question 16

grammaticality does not have to mean…

Answer 16

1. that sentence conforms to prescriptive rules 2. that it’s meaningful 3. that it’s truthful 4. that it’s understandable

Question 17

What is the goal of a field linguist?

Answer 17

to describe the language system of a speaker/group of speakers by observing linguistic performance

Question 18

What is linguistic competence?

Answer 18

competence/knowledge=what you know
-other factors can affect comprehension: physiological factors, psychological factors
-competence does not equal knowledge

Question 19

What is linguistic performance?

Answer 19

how you use what you know
-includes hearing, perception, speech, cognitive proccesses
-some speakers/writers perform better than others but all of us “know” the system governing our language even if most is unconscious
-competence does not equal performance

Question 20

What is morphology?

Answer 20

the study of word formation and word structure

Question 21

What are signs?

Answer 21

discreet unit of meaning; words are signs

Question 22

What is a conventional sign?

Answer 22

a sign that all members of a language community agree to use with a certain meaning

Question 23

What does it mean for words to be “free form”?

Answer 23

they can occur in isolation
ex. cat, cats, purr, purred
NOT words: -s, -ed

Question 24

What is a noun?

Answer 24

traditionally: person, place, or thing
-often the subject of a sentence
-can be replaced with other nouns

Question 25

What is a verb?

Answer 25

traditionally: action or state -can be replaced with "do so" ex. i eat > i do so i ate > i did so

Question 26

What is an adjective?

Answer 26

traditionally: describes a noun - a word or phrase naming "a property or attribute of an entity -can be replaced by other adjectives

Question 27

What is an adverb?

Answer 27

traditionally: describes a verb -word that modifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or word group -often describes the how/when/where -add -ly to an adjective to make it an adverb

Question 28

What is a morpheme?

Answer 28

smallest meaningful unit; cannot be further divided

Question 29

What is a morph?

Answer 29

the phonetic representation of a morpheme (how its said) -cats is /s/ -dogs is /z/ -houses is /ɪz/ all diff sounds of the same morpheme

Question 30

What is a free morpheme?

Answer 30

a morpheme that can stand alone with the specific meaning ex. book, table, stand, bag

Question 31

What is a bound morpheme?

Answer 31

doesn't have meaning when standing alone ex. re-, -ly, -en, un-

Question 32

What is a lexical morpheme?

Answer 32

carries most of the real-world meaning of a word (its the root) ex. /alex/ /sing/s the /cool/est /songs/

Question 33

What is a grammatical morpheme?

Answer 33

no real-world meaning on its own, used to construct a words grammatical meaning ex. alex sing/s/ the cool/est/ song/s/

Question 34

Simple words

Answer 34

contain one morpheme

Question 35

Complex words

Answer 35

contain more than one morpheme

Question 36

Compounding

Answer 36

putting two lexical morphemes/roots together ex. bluebird, birdbrain

Question 37

Affixing

Answer 37

sticking a grammatical morpheme to a root ex. portable, redo

Question 38

Derivational affixes

Answer 38

add onto existing words to make new ones

Question 39

Inflectional affixes

Answer 39

do a lot of grammar work; predictable meaning; doesn't change the grammatical category of the word

Question 40

Roots

Answer 40

break down into lexical categories

Question 41

Affixes

Answer 41

describe roots based on where they attach and how they function

Question 42

Content/Lexical roots (lexical categories)

Answer 42

gives most of the information and meaning -nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Question 43

Functional Roots (lexical categories)

Answer 43

needed for grammatical reasons; often hard to translate between languages -pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions

Question 44

Prefix

Answer 44

added at beginning of a word

Question 45

Infixes

Answer 45

added in the middle of a word -not very common in english

Question 46

Suffix

Answer 46

added at the end of a word

Question 47

N + al = ? (derivation)

Answer 47

ADJ

Question 48

ADJ + ity = ? (derivation)

Answer 48

Noun

Question 49

ADJ + -ize = ? (derivation)

Answer 49

Verb

Question 50

V + -ation = ? (derivation)

Answer 50

Noun

Question 51

un + ADJ = ? (derivation)

Answer 51

ADJ

Question 52

ADJ + ness = ? (derivation)

Answer 52

Noun

Question 53

Homomorphy

Answer 53

sometimes one sound of a morpheme can have more than one meaning ex. "un": reverse action OR "not" unlock vs unhappy

Question 54

Allomorphy

Answer 54

sometimes one meaning can have more than one form ex. irresponsible, illegal, inadequate

Question 55

Suppletion

Answer 55

one or more inflected forms that are phonetically dissimilar (don't sound the same) ex. I am, you are, he is

Question 56

Alternation

Answer 56

internal modification to a morpheme ex. man/men, give/gave, sink/sank

Question 57

Backformation

Answer 57

creating new words by removing real or supposed affixes