Linguistics Lecture Notes

Flashcards for Linguistics Lecture Review

Linguistics

The scientific study of language.

Philology

The humanistic study of language, including its history and literature.

Philosophy of Language

Branch of philosophy that studies the nature, origin, and use of language.

Trivium

The medieval University Curriculum derived from antiquity: rhetoric, grammar, and logic.

Rhetoric

The study of the use of language to instruct and persuade; modes of expression or oratory.

Grammar

The study of language and meaning, including composition, reading, and interpretation.

Logic/Dialectic

Study of language and knowledge; includes syllogism.

Communication

The process of conveying information, ideas, or feelings through language or other means.

Syntactics

Studying the structure of language.

Semantics

Studying meaning in language.

Pragmatics

Studying how language is used in context.

Symbolic Communication

Communication that uses symbols to represent or stand for something else.

Verbal Communication

Communication that uses spoken or written words.

Paralanguage

Non-verbal elements of communication such as accents, volume, and handwriting.

Langue

The abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system

Parole

Is language as it is actually used by people in communications.

Phonemes

Units of sound that make a difference in meaning.

Morphemes

Units of language that have meaning, such as vocabulary, prefixes, and suffixes.

Syntax

Rules for combining units of language; grammar.

Idiolect

An individual's own personal dialect.

Semantic Environment

The context in which language is used.

Linguistic Relativism

The idea that language affects or determines the way we view the world.

Terministic Screens

Language serves as filters that direct thinking and perception.

Metaphor

Comparison between unlike things.

Metonymy

Substitutes one term for another based on contiguity or association.

Synecdoche

The part stands for the whole.

Signal

Directly connected to what it represents with a casual/natural relationship.

Symbol

No direct connection to what it represents, arbitrary and conventional relationship.

Discursive Symbols

Language, mathematics; relies on definitions and propositional statements.

Presentational Symbols

Images, art, perception; does not rely on definitions or propositional statements.

Codes

Digital codes are arbitrary with 1-to-1 correspondence like language and math while analogic codes are based on resemblance and similarity.

Semiotics/Semiology

The science of signs.

Time-binding

Ability to pass down knowledge through generations.

Abstracting

To take one thing out of another.

Operationalism

Operational definitions or concrete specification of procedures.

Multiordinality

The same word can stand for different levels of abstracting.

Paradigm Shift

A fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions. Scientific revolution.

Aristotelian Logic

A=A (Law of Identity), Either A=B or A does not equal B (Law of Excluded Middle), Not A=B and A does not equal B (Law of Non-Contradiction).

Non-Aristotelian Principles

A is not A (Non-Identity), A is not all A (Non-Allness), Self-Reflexiveness.

Elementalism

Breaking things down, however they cannot be broken down in reality.

Extensional Devices

Indexing, dating, hyphens, quotation marks, plurals etc. that add detail and nuance.

Fact

Statements that can be determined true or false based on the available evidence.

Proposition

Well-formed statements in propositional logic that are true or false.

The Relational View

Understanding phenomena in terms of relationships and systems, not isolated elements.

Culture as Symbol System

Culture viewed as a system of signs and symbols that create meaning.