Linguistics Midterm

Language

A system of communication governed by shared rules; a collection of mutually intelligible dialects

Dialect

A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary

Variety

A neutral term for a version of a language; equivalent to dialect but without implying a hierarchy

Idiolect

An individual’s unique way of speaking, encompassing personal grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation

Mutual Intelligibility

The degree to which speakers of different varieties can understand each other

Structural Similarity

How alike languages are in sound systems, vocabulary, and structure

Living Language

A language currently used by native speakers

Extinct Language

A language with no proficient native speakers

Endangered Language

A language at risk of becoming extinct because it is not being learned by children

EGIDS Scale

A 0–10 scale that measures a language’s vitality and level of endangerment

Factors Promoting Vitality

Legal status, social prestige, positive attitudes, use in many contexts, and intergenerational transmission

Language Loss Impact

Extinction erases oral history, cultural practices, and traditional knowledge

Language Revitalization

Includes documentation, education, granting official status, and producing literature

Descriptivism

The approach that describes how people actually use language without judgment

Prescriptivism

The approach that assigns value or correctness to certain ways of speaking or writing

Normative Statement

A judgmental claim about how language “should” be used (e.g., “You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition.”)

Descriptive Statement

A neutral observation of how language is used (e.g., “People often end sentences with prepositions.”)

Prestige Variety

A socially favored variety, often associated with high status or education

Low Prestige Variety

A variety viewed as less desirable, often spoken by marginalized groups

Standard Variety

A codified prestige dialect used in official or educational contexts

Vernacular Variety

A home or community dialect; often unwritten and low prestige

Codification

The process of developing and standardizing rules for spelling, grammar, and pronunciation

Design Features

Properties that define human language, such as productivity, arbitrariness, displacement, and duality of patterning

Productivity

The ability to produce and understand novel utterances

Arbitrariness

The lack of inherent connection between sound and meaning

Displacement

The ability to talk about things not present in space or time

Duality of Patterning

The combination of meaningless sounds to create meaningful units (morphemes/words)

Morphology

The study of the internal structure of words

Morpheme

The smallest meaning-bearing unit in a language

Word

A standalone linguistic unit that can function independently in a sentence

Root

The morpheme carrying the core meaning of a word

Affix

A bound morpheme attached to a root (prefix, suffix, infix, or circumfix)

Free Morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word

Bound Morpheme

A morpheme that must attach to another morpheme

Concatenative Morphology

Combines elements linearly (prefix + root + suffix)

Non-concatenative Morphology

Involves internal change, reduplication, or pattern variation

Inflection

Changes a word’s grammatical form without creating a new word (e.g., “walk” → “walked”)

Derivation

Forms a new word with a new meaning or part of speech (e.g., “happy” → “happiness”)

Productivity (Morphology)

The degree to which a morphological rule can be used to create new words

Hierarchical Structure

Morphemes combine in a nested, rule-governed order within a word

Phonetics

The study of the physical production and perception of speech sounds

Articulatory Phonetics

Focuses on how speech sounds are made using the vocal tract

Acoustic Phonetics

Analyzes sound waves of speech

Vocal Folds

Membranes that vibrate to produce voicing

Voiced Sound

Produced with vocal fold vibration (e.g., /z/)

Voiceless Sound

Produced without vocal fold vibration (e.g., /s/)

Consonant

A sound made with a constriction in the vocal tract

Vowel

A sound made with an open vocal tract

Place of Articulation

Where the airflow is constricted in the vocal tract

Manner of Articulation

How airflow is modified during sound production

Tongue Height

High, mid, or low tongue position (for vowels)

Tongue Backness

Front, central, or back tongue placement

Lip Rounding

Whether lips are rounded (as in “boot”) or unrounded (as in “beet”)

Tenseness

Degree of muscular tension in vowel articulation

Monophthong

A single, steady-state vowel sound

Diphthong

A vowel that glides between two tongue positions

Oral Sound

Air passes only through the mouth

Nasal Sound

Air passes through the nose as well as the mouth

Syllable

A unit centered around a vowel sound

Nucleus

The vowel of a syllable

Onset

Consonants before the vowel

Coda

Consonants after the vowel

Stress

The emphasis placed on a syllable

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

A universal system for representing sounds precisely with symbols

Phonology

The study of how sounds function and are mentally organized in languages

Phonemic Principle

Each language has a finite set of phonemes that make up its morphemes

Phoneme

A mental category for sounds that create meaning contrasts

Allophone

A physical realization of a phoneme; variant that does not change meaning

Phonemic Inventory

The set of all phonemes in a language

Phonetic Inventory

The set of all sounds physically produced (allophones)

Phonotactics

The rules for how sounds can combine in a language

Alternation

When a sound changes depending on its phonetic environment

Phonological Rule

A formal statement describing predictable sound changes or alternations

Contrast

A difference between sounds that creates a change in meaning (e.g., “pat” vs “bat”)

Minimal Pair

Two words differing by one sound in the same position, showing contrast

Complementary Distribution

When two sounds never occur in the same environment; allophones of the same phoneme

Contrastive Distribution

When two sounds occur in the same environment and change meaning; different phonemes

Environment

The specific context in which a sound appears

Distribution

The set of environments where a sound occurs

Phonological Analysis

The process of determining whether sounds are allophones or separate phonemes

Aspiration

A burst of air after voiceless stops (e.g., [pʰ] in “pat”)

Vowel Length Rule

Short vowels appear before voiceless consonants; long vowels before voiced consonants

Sign Language

A natural human language that uses manual signs, facial expressions, and body movements instead of sound

American Sign Language (ASL)

A natural language with its own grammar, lexicon, and phonology; not derived from English

Sign Language Phonology

Includes parameters like handshape, movement, location, palm orientation, and facial expression

Deafness Facts

Deafness can be congenital or acquired; sign languages arise naturally in Deaf communities

Origins of Sign Languages

Many arose independently (e.g., ASL from French Sign Language + local sign systems)

Sign Language & Modality

Visual-gestural modality contrasts with spoken language’s auditory-vocal modality

Sign Language Endangerment

Some local sign languages are endangered due to dominance of national sign languages or oralism