Wk2- Vocabulary & 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

In order to act either as the source and transmitter or as a receiver and the destination, you must know a lot about your language. Communication chain relates to language.

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, Lexicon is a list of morphemes in a language.

Question 8

Mental Grammar

Answer 8

The mental representation of grammar. The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistics 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

Objectives description of a speaker’s or a group of speaker’s knowledge of a language (competence) based on their use of the language (performance).

Question 11

Evidence that writing and language are not the same.

Answer 11

1. Writing doesn’t exist everywhere but spoken language does.
2. Writing must be taught and can be edited.
3. Archeological evidence indicates that writing is later developed
4. Neurolinguistic evidence, spoken language involved several distinct areas of the brain while writing uses these areas and others as well.

Question 12

Reasons some people believe writing to be superior to speech.

Answer 12

1. Writing can be edited.
2. Writing must be taught.
3. Writing is more physically stable than spoken language.

Question 13

Prescriptive Grammar

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Prescribe

Answer 14

Rules that mold spoken and written language.

Question 15

Charles Hockett’s nine design features (necessary for a communication system to be considered a language)

Answer 15

1. Mode of Communication
2. Semanticity
3. Pragmatic Function
4. Interchangeability
5. Cultural Transmission
6. Arbitrariness
7. Discreteness
8. Displacement
9. Producivity

Question 16

Mode of Communication

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Semanticity

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Pragmatic Function

Answer 18

The useful purpose of any given communication system.

Question 19

Interchangeability

Answer 19

The property of a communication system by which all individuals have the ability to both transmit and review messages.

Question 20

Cultural Transmission

Answer 20

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 21

Arbitrariness

Answer 21

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 22

Linguistic Sign

Answer 22

The combination of a linguistic form and meaning.

Question 23

Convention

Answer 23

Something that is established or operating in a certain way according to the common practice.

Question 24

Nonarbitrariness

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Iconic

Answer 25

A relationship between form and meaning such that the form of a word bears a resemblance to its meaning.

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Iconic use 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

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 28

Sound Symbolism

Answer 28

A 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 parts.

Question 30

Displacement

Answer 30

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 31

Productivity

Answer 31

The capacity of a communication system for novel messages built out of discrete units to be produced and understood.

Question 32

Modality

Answer 32

A mode of communication, every language must have modality.

Question 33

Myths about Signed Languages

Answer 33

1. There is a myth that signed languages derive from spoken languages, rather than being languages in their own right.
2. Another myth is that signed language are manual codes, but that is equally incorrect,
3. Signed language doesn’t consist of words at all but rather involve signers using their hands to draw pictures in the air.
4. The misconception is that signed languages do not have any internal structure.

Question 34

Differences between Codes & Languages

Answer 34

1. Codes have no structure of its own, where language has structure.
2. Languages conform to rules like semantics and syntax.
3. Specification of a coding language is usually much stricter and clearer than that of a natural language.
4. Codes never have native speakers because they are artificial systems and languages do have native speakers.