Linguistics Exam

Dr. Layman

How do we learn languages?

Innately

linguistic competence:

the unconscious knowledge a speaker has of thier language

linguistic performance:

production/comprehension of language

communication system:

info source » transmitter » signal » receiver » destination

noise:

interference in the communication system

What do you know when you know a language?

• which sounds are words

• how to make words

• the rules on how the sounds work as words

• how to breakdown words

phonetics:

the study of minimal units of language

phonology:

how sounds are contrastingly used across different languages

morphology:

how words are constructed with parts of words

sematic:

how to interpret meanings (with prior knowledge and body language)

pragmatics:

understanding/practicing the intention of a statement/language used

lexicon:

collection of all the words you know

mental grammar:

the rules associated with language

Is writing the better communication method?

NO!

What are the three types of grammar?

• mental 

• descriptive

• prescriptive

descriptive grammar:

how a linguist describes a language

prescriptive grammar:

what is considered as you “should do”

What are design features:

• mode of communication

• everything has meaning

• pragmatic/useful

• interchangeable

• cultural transmission/direct learning

• arbitrary

• discrete

• displacement

• productivity

form + meaning =

linguistic sign

arbitrary:

not predictable and not universal between all languages

non-arbitrary:

predictable; onomatopoeic

sound symbolism:

vocal inflection helping the receiver to understand your message

how many sounds does each language have to create words?

between 10 and 100

discreteness:

how we use small sound bites to make an infinite number of words

formal language:

computer languages

natural languages:

babble, naturally occuring and evolving

constructed language:

made by man

modality:

mode of communication

lexical categories:

parts of speech

morphosyntactic features:

features with relationship of morphology and syntax

open lexical categories:

nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.; new words can be added easily

closed lexical categories:

pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions; not easily added 

derivation:

makes more words from a root word; can change the lexical categories

affixes:

added pieces in a word

stem:

what affixes attach to

inflection:

makes different word forms, but NOT new words or changed categories

paradigm:

inflection-related forms of a root

lexeme:

abstract concept that a word represents (ex. do, does)

homophonous:

affixes that sound alike but have 2 different meanings or functions

free morphemes:

small, stand alone words

productive:

used often to create other words

content morphemes/words:

have more concrete meaning

function morphemes/words:

grammatical information

allomorphs:

concrete realizations of morphemes that occur in specific conditions

weak supplimation:

similar but irregular forms

strong supplition:

significantly different word forms but same meanings

compounding:

combining whole words not affixes to create words

hierarchical:

layers of words, how to systematically attach-affixes

ambiguous:

can be associated with multiple meanings

multimorphemic:

multiple morphemes

Syntax:

how sentences and other phrases can be constructed out of smaller pieces

linguistic expressions:

words and phrases

grammatical:

agrees with synaptic word agreements

grammaticality judgements:

native speakers reflection of mental grammar

syntactic constituent:

a group of words within a sentence that functions as a single, logical unit

syntactic categories:

set of expressions with similar syntactic properties

syntactic distributions:

expressions that can occur in almost all the same syntactic environments (ex. Fluffy, the cat)

What is the creation of different grammatical forms of words (ex. talk, talks, talked, talking) called?

inflectional form

the part of the word that carries the basic meaning

root

Any given affix usually wants the stems it attaches to

to belong to the same lexical category

What is the hidden knowledge that people have of their language?

linguistic competence

What is the aspect of language dealing with the physical properties of speech sounds called?

phonetics

What is the way a language builds phrases/sentences is its?

Syntax

A string of words is ungrammatical in a language if _____?

native speakers of the language do not say it, and judge it to be ungrammatical

What is the most common word order across the world’s languages?

SOV

Expressions that are grammatically required are called

arguments

A prepositional phrase (PP) consists of a prepositional phrase and a ?

Noun Phrase

spoken languages are

auditory-vocal

signed languages are

visual-gesture

Inflectional affixes are 

closed class; mostly functional words

Derivational affixes are

open class; mostly content words

Are syntax and meaning different?

YES!I

if a word or phrase is not an argument, what is it?

compliment

What are the three constituency tests?

1. Q & A

2. Clefting

3. Substitution