LING 1600 Midterm 1

Phonetics

the production and perception of sounds

Phonology

the distribution of sounds

Morphology

the structure of words from morphemes

Syntax

the structure of phrases and sentences from words

Semantics

the encoding of meaning in language

Pragmatics

the use of language in context

The behavior emerges before it is necessary

Linguistic behavior emerges in infancy before it is arguably useful for survival

The behavior's appearance is not the result of a conscious decision.

One cannot chose not to acquire a native/mother tongue

The behavior's emergence is not triggered by external events (though the surrounding environment must be sufficiently "rich" for it develop adequately)

Every child exhibits linguistic behavior at a very early stage, regardless of input from parents

Direct teaching and intensive practice have relatively little effect

Attempts to accelerate the process of language acquisition generally fail

There is a regular sequence of milestones as the behavior develops, and these can usually be correlated with age and other aspects of development.

The process of language acquisition is marked by a series of points correlated with age where certain grammatical features and rules are acquired on a schedule

There is likely to be a "Critical period" for the acquisition of the behavior.

Also known as a “maturational window”; a window of opportunity during brain development during which an organism must be exposed to certain kinds of environmental stimuli in order for that behavior to develop normally

T/F: deaf individuals can acquire a sign language as an L1 if exposed to one

True

T/F: signed languages are similar to spoken languages in every respect of design features and capacity

True

T/F: signed languages are a code

False

Linguistic Competence

the unconscious knowledge that a speaker has about their native language

Linguistic Performance

the way people produce and comprehend language

Relationship between linguistic competence and performance

Linguists use linguistic performance as a basis for making hypotheses and drawing conclusions about linguistic competence

Parts of linguistic competence

Lexicon and mental grammar

Lexicon

the collection of all the words that one knows: their function, references, pronunciation, and relations

Mental Grammar

the rules that one knows about a language

Grammar

a language system, consisting of all the elements and rules (about phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics) that make up a language

Rule

a statement of some pattern that occurs in language

Descriptive Grammars

how people actually use language in daily conversations

Prescriptive Grammars

the socially embedded notion of the “correct” or “proper” ways to use a language

Mode of Communication

the means by which these messages are transmitted and received

Semanticity

the property requiring that all signals in a communication system have a meaning or a function

Pragmatic Function

communication systems must serve some useful purpose

Interchangeability

the ability of individuals to both transmit and receive messages

Cultural Transmission

there are aspects of language that are only acquired through communicative interaction with other users of the system

Arbitrariness

the words of a language represent a connection between a group of sounds or signs — giving the word its form and meaning

Linguistic Sign

Form + Meaning

Counterexamples to arbitrariness

onomatopoeia and sound symbolism

Discreteness

The property of language that allows for the combination of discrete units in order to create larger communicative units

Displacement

the ability of a language to communicate about things, actions, and ideas that are not present in space or time while speakers are communicating

Productivity

a language’s capacity for novel messages to be built up out of discrete units

Natural languages

languages that have evolved naturally in a speech community

Constructed languages

a language that has been specifically invented by a human and that may or may not imitate all the properties of a natural language

Modality

how a language is produced and perceived

Auditory-Vocal

languages that are perceived via hearing and produced via speech; spoken languages

Visual-Gestural

languages that are perceived visually and produced via hand and arm movements, facial expressions, and head movements; signed lanauges

Code

an artificially constructed system for representing a natural language; it has no structure of its own but instead borrows its structure from the natural language that it represents

T/F: BSL and ASL are unrelated

True

T/F: Manual codes for spoken languages do exist

True

T/F: signed languages are manual codes

False

T/F: Writing is considered a more basic form of language

False

T/F: The choice between auditory-vocal and visual-gestural modalities depends in any given circumstance on both physical and social parameters

True

Communication Chain

the process through which information is communicated, consisting of an information source, transmitter, signal, receiver, and destination

T/F: Writing does not exist everywhere; in fact, around 50% of all languages are unwritten

True

T/F: Some languages are more logical than others

False

Articulatory Phonetics

the study of the production of speech sounds

Acoustic Phonetics

the study of the transmission and the physical properties of speech sounds

Auditory Phonetics

the study of the perception of speech sounds

Methods to investigate articulatory phonetics

x-ray photography, palatography, cinematography

Methods to investigate acoustic phonetics

sound spectrograph

Methods to investigate auditory phonetics

MRI and CT scan, impressionistic phonetic transcription

Co-articulation

the influence of one sound on a neighboring sound

Segments

the discrete units of the speech stream, composed of consonants and vowels

Consonants

produced with a constriction somewhere in the vocal tract, where airflow is blocked

Vowels

produced with at most a slight narrowing and still allows for free air flow through the oral cavity

Syllable

unit of speech, broken down into an onset and a rhyme

Onset

consonants that occur before the rhyme within the syllable

Rhyme

the vowel and any consonants that come after it (the segments that match in words that are said to rhyme); composed of a nucleus and coda

Nucleus

vocalic part of a rhyme, relating to the vowel

Coda

relating to any final consonants

Monothongs

simple vowels, composed of a single configuration of the vocal tract

Diphthongs

complex vowels, composed of a sequence of two different configurations acting as the nucleus to a single syllable

Articulation

the motion or positioning of some part of the vocal tract with respect to some other part of the vocal tract in the production of a speech sound

larynx

contains the vocal folds/cords and the glottis, located in the throat at the Adam’s apple at the top of the trachea

Vocal tract

sits above the larynx, composed of the oral and nasal cavities

Subglottal system

located below the larynx

T/F: English speech sounds are produced when exhaling through the oral or nasal cavity, or both

True

glottis

the opening between the vocal folds/cords

Voiced sounds

sounds made with the vocal folds vibrating

Voiceless sounds

sounds made without the vibration of the vocal folds

Place of articulation

where in the vocal tract the constriction is made (bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal)

Bilabial

made by bringing both lips close together (p, b, m, w, w)

Labiodental

made with the lower lip against the upper front teeth (f, v)

Interdental

made with the tip of the tongue protruding between the front teeth (both “th” sounds)

Alveolar

made with the tongue tip at or near the front of the upper alveolar ridge (t, d, s, z, n, l, ɾ, ɹ)

Post-alveolar

made with the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge at the front of the hard palate (ʃ, Z, tf, dZ)

Palatal

made with the body of the tongue near the center of the hard palate (j)

Velar

made witht he back part of the tongue body raised near the velum behind the hard plate (k, g, ng)

Glottal

made when air is constricted at the larynx (h, ?)

Manner of articulation

how the airstream is constricted or modified in the vocal tract in order to produce the sound, depending on the degree of close of the articulators (stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, approximants, liquids, retroflex, glides)

Stop

made by obstructing the airstream completely in the oral cavity, aka plosives (p, b, t, d, k, g, ?)

Fricative

made by forming a nearly complete obstruction of the vocal tract; can be held (f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h)

Affricate

made by briefly stopping the airstream completely and then releasing the articulators slightly so that frication noice is produced; can’t be held (dʒ, tʃ)

Nasal

produced by relaxing the velum and lowering it, thus opening the nasal passage to the vocal tract (m, n, ŋ)

Approximants

involve the constriction of the vocal tract, where the constrictions aren’t narrow enough to block the vocal tract; broken down into liquids and glides

Liquids

formed with slightly more constriction than glides, and their quality changes depending on where they occur in a word (l, r)

Glide

made with only a slight closure of the articulators (so they are fairly close to vowel sounds), and they require some movement (or “gliding”) of the articulators during production (w, j)

Retroflex

curling the tip of the tongue back behind the alveolar ridge (r)

ŋ (engma)

ng in singing

ʌ (wedge)

u in bud

l

l in let

r

r in row

j

y in yet

w

w in wise

w (with the dot)

w in whale