language science unit 1 exam!

communication

the process of sending and receiving information

communication

• involves lang. and/or speech

• verbal or non-verbal

• oral or written

communication

Requires someone to conceive & express a concept for a communication partner to decode and understand

language

systems of arbitrary, established symbols & rule-governed structures used for communication (changes over time)

language

• System of conventional spoken or written symbols used for communication

• a shared system of symbols; conventional (specific, systematic, role-governed- code based)

• tool for human cognition

speech

oral expression/production of language

phonetics

the study of the characteristics of speech sounds

acoustic phonetics

the study of the physical properties of speech as sound waves

articulatory phonetics

the study of how speech sounds are produced

auditory phonetics

the study of the perception of speech sounds by the ear, also called “perceptual phonetics”

phonology

the study of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages

orthography

the spelling system of a language

alphabetic principle

the understanding that words are composed of letters & letters represent sounds (ex. D-O-G and C-A-T)

alphabet (alphabetic writing)

a way of writing in which one symbol represents one sound segment

phonics

Instructional method focusing on letter-sound association

• Phoneme-grapheme correspondence

morphology

the analysis of the structure of words

morphology

Study of the minimal units of meaning in language, called morphemes

allophone

one of a closely related set of speech sounds or phones

allomorphs

one of a closely related set of morphs

allomorphs

Different surface forms of the same morpheme

allomorphs

phonological variations for a specific morpheme that do not change the meaning of the morpheme

allomorphs

• Example: plural -s pronounced [s], [z], [əz].

allomorphs

Includes irregular plurals: ox/oxen, mouse/mice, criterion/criteria, foot/feet, women/women.

grapheme

 a letter or number of letters that represent a sound (phoneme) in a word

graphemes

• approximately 70 letters or letter combos in English to symbolize phonemes

• the smallest units in a writing system capable of causing a contrast in meaning (cat-bat)

• other graphemes include various marks of punctuation <.>, <;>, etc. and symbols: @, &, and #

• May signal whole words or word parts; Numbers such as <1>, <2>

one; three

graphemes:

• Digraphs: can be composed of more than ___ letter

• Trigraphs: ____ letters

phoneme

the smallest meaning-distinguishing sound unit in the abstract representation of the sounds of a language

morpheme

a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

free morpheme

types of morphemes:

• can stand alone

lexical (open class) and functional (closed class)

what are the types of free morphemes?

lexical (open class)

types of free morphemes:

• nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

lexical (open class)

• Carry content

• We can add new ____ morphemes to the language rather easily, so they are treated as an “open” class of words.

functional (closed class)

types of free morphemes:

• pronouns (it, me), prepositions (on, near, for), articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, or, because)

functional (closed class)

• Closed class of words that specify relations between words

• Bc we almost never add new functional morphemes to the language, they are described as a “closed” class of words.

bound morphemes

types of morphemes:

• must attach to words

derivational and inflectional

what are the types of bound morphemes?

derivational

types of morphemes:

• create new words or change grammatical category

  • e.g., color -> colorful, happy -> unhappy, bake -> baker

derivational

• e.g., color → colorful, happy → unhappy, bake → baker.

• Bake (verb) -> bake + -er (noun) -> baker + -s (plural)

• For ex, the addition of -ment changes the verb encourage to the noun encouragement. The noun class can become the verb classify by the addition of -ify.

derivational

Addition of affixes (prefixes or suffixes)

derivational

• ____ morphemes can be suffixes like -ment and -ify & also prefixes, such as re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-.

inflectional

types of morphemes:

• mark grammatical function without creating new words

• Only 8 in Modern English: 

  • Plural (-s), possessive (-’s), comparative (-er), superlative (-est), present tense (-s), past tense (-ed), past participle (-en), present participle (-ing)

inflectional

• Can ONLY be a suffix

inflectional

• Used to show if a word is plural or singular, past tense or not, & if it is a comparative or possessive form.

• Girl = girl’s shoes 

• Only 8 in Modern English:

  • Plural (-s), Possessive (-’s), Comparative (-er), Superlative (-est),

  • Present tense (-s), Past tense (-ed), Past participle (-en), Present participle (-ing).

  • PLU = plural noun (-s) - ex. Boys

  • POSS = possessive noun (‘s) - ex. Boy’s

  • COMP = comparative adj. (-er) - ex. Older

  • SUP = superlative adj. (-est) - ex. Oldest

  • PRES = present verb (-s) - ex. Walks

  • PAST = past verb (-ed) - ex. Walked

  • PAST PART = past participle verb (-en) - ex. Driven

  • PRES PART = present participle verb (-ing) - ex. Driving

mass communication

types of communication:

• large audiences (TV, media, etc.)

interpersonal communication

types of communication:

• between individuals

intrapersonal communication

types of communication:

• self-talk, internal dialogue

purposes

• _____ of communication: 

  • Regulatory - gives direction

  • Instrumental - asking for something; requesting something

  • Interactional - interact/converse w/others; social int., conversation

  • Personal - express a state of mind or feeling

  • Heuristic - explore, learn, & discover things

  • Imaginative - tell stories and role play

  • Informative - share knowledge in objective way

formulation; transmission; reception; comprehension

• Process of communication: 

  • _____ (creating the message)

  • _____ (sending the message)

  • _____ (receiving input)

  • _____ (interpreting & understanding)

respiration

• Speech production: 

  • _____: lungs, diaphragm, trachea

    • Airflow generated from lungs & related structures

phonation

Speech production: 

• _____: larynx

  • Vocal cords vibrate to produce sound

resonance

Speech production: 

• _____: pharynx, oral cavity, nasal cavity

  • Sound modified to produce unique vocal quality

articulation

Speech production: 

• _____: lips, tongue, teeth, palate, jaw

  • Sound shaped & modified to form words

iconic

• Types of gestures:

  • _____: reflection of meaning of what is said; tracing a square in the air with a finger

beat

• Types of gestures:

  • ____: short, quick movements of hands or fingers that go along w/rhythm of talk; emphasizes part of what is being said

deictic

types of gestures:

• ____: pointing; gesture & speech act combine to reference something existing in shared memory

iconic

• Ex. a woman was moving her forearm up and down, with a closed hand, as if holding a weapon, while saying and she chased him out again. The message, with weapon (an umbrella), was created via speech and gesture combined.

deictics

We can use _____ in the current context, as when we use a hand to indicate a table (with a cake on it) and ask someone Would you like some cake?. We can also use the same gesture and the same table (with cake no longer on it) when we later say That cake was delicious. In this case, the gesture and the speech combine to accomplish reference to something that only exists in shared memory rather than in the current physical space.

beats

These gestures accompany the rhythm of talk and are often used to emphasize parts of what is being said or to mark a change from describing events in a story to commenting on those events. As with other gestures, these hand movements accompany speech, but are not typically used as a way of speaking.

• When hand movements are used in order to “speak,” we can describe them as part of a sign language.

reflexivity

• talk about language using language

  • a special property of human language that allows language to be used to think and talk about language itself

reflexivity

this is an example of which language property?

• “I wish he wouldn’t use so many technical terms”

displacement

• refer to things/events not present in immediate environment (ex. A future vacation)

  • a property of language that allows users to talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment

false

true/false: animals are capable of using displacement (Ex. barking about the future)

• exception: honeybees

displacement

allows us to talk about things and places (e.g. angels, fairies, Santa Claus, Superman, heaven, hell) whose existence we cannot even be sure of.

arbitrariness

• words (language) are not iconic; sound/word form has no direct link to meaning; graphic depiction is not directly related to the word

  • a property of language describing the fact that there is no natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning

arbitrariness

which property of language:

• It is generally the case that there is no “natural” connection between a linguistic form and its meaning; the connection is quite arbitrary. We can’t just look at the Arabic word & from its shape determine that it has a natural & obvious meaning any more than we can with its English translation form dog. The linguistic form has no natural or “iconic” relationship with that hairy four-legged barking object out in the world.

productivity

• ability to create new words/phrases (e.g. “selfie”)

  • (or “creativity” or “open-ended-ness”): a property of language that allows users to create new expressions

true (productivity)

true/false: the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite.

fixed reference

This lack of productivity in animal communication. Each signal in the communication system of other creatures seems to be fixed in terms of relating to a particular occasion or purpose. This is particularly true of scent based signaling, as in the pheromones (a chemical substance) released by insects such as female moths as they try to contact a mate. It’s a case of one scent, one meaning.

false

true/false: we inherit language as we do eye color

cultural transmission

• language learned socially, not inherited biologically, human language is passed from one generation to the next

  • the process whereby knowledge of a language is passed from one generation to the next

duality/discreteness

• language works at two levels simultaneously - (distinct) sounds + (distinct) meaning

  • a property of language whereby linguistic forms have two simultaneous levels of sound production and meaning, also called “double articulation”

duality/discreteness

When we speak, we have a physical level at which we produce individual sounds, like n, band i. As individual sounds, none of these discrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. In a combination such as bin, we have another level with a meaning that is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have distinct sounds, &, at another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality of levels is one of the most economical features of human language because with a limited set of sounds we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) that are distinct in meaning

duality/discreteness

Among other creatures, each communicative signal appears to be a single fixed form that cannot be broken down into separate parts. Although your dog may be able to produce woof (“I’m happy to see you”), it does not seem to do so on the basis of a distinct level of production combining the separate elements of w + oo + f. If the dog was operating with the double level (i.e. duality), then we might expect to hear different combinations with different meanings, such as oowf (“I’m hungry”) and foow (“I’m really bored”).

form; content; use

• Bloom & Lahey model of 3 domains of language (Model of interrelated lang. Skills; 1978)

  • ____ (syntax, morphology, phonology): word order, word endings, speech

  • _____ (semantics): word meanings, the way word meanings link together, sequencing

  • _____ (pragmatics): Conversation, social rules, matching language to the situation

phonology

the study of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages

morphology

the analysis of the structure of words

syntax

the analysis of the structure of phrases and sentences

semantics

the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences

pragmatics

the study of speaker meaning and how more is communicated than is said

phonetics

Study of the characteristics of speech sounds or study of the physical properties of speech sounds

consonants

• 3 features:

1. Voicing: voiceless and voiced sounds (Vocal fold vibration)

2. Place: where does constriction of airflow occur (oral cavity & nasal cavity)

3. Manner: how the airstream is affected

   • Use the following sequence: Place - manner - voice; /b/ is a voiced bilabial stop

vowels

• NO constriction of airflow in the vocal tract

• Based on 3 factors: 

1. Elevation of tongue (height)

   • Low vowels (tongue is lowered); Mid (tongue is straight); High (tongue in raised position)

2. Part of tongue (backness)

   • Front vowels - front portion of tongue; Central - middle portion of tongue; Back - back portion

3. Roundedness (are lips rounded?)

diphthong

• Combination of 2 vowel sounds; Tongue moves from one vowel to the next

  • /aʊ/ - loud, sound, cow; /oʊ/ - boat, sew; /aI/ - ice, mile, buy; /ɔɪ/ - boy, boil

neologism

brand-new words; creation of a new word  (e.g., Google, cyberspace, Hoover, freelance, fashionista)

etymology

study of word origins & history of words (uni-/mono- + cycle → unicycle; mono/Greek, uni/Latin)

borrowing

taking words from other languages (pretzel – German, shampoo – Hindi, jewel - French)

compounding

join words into one (bookcase, baseball, doorknob)

blending

Merge parts of words; combo of two separate forms to produce a single new term (brunch, smog).

• Beginning of one word joined to end of the other word

clipping

shortening of a multisyllabic word to one syllable(gasoline → gas, vaccine → vax).

backformation

create verbs from nouns; noun to verb conversion (television → televise, bulldozer → bulldoze, choreography -> choreograph).

conversion

shift word class; change in word function (“glue” [noun] → “glue the paper” [verb])

coinage

invention or use of a new word or brand-based (Kleenex, Advil)

eponym

coinage:

• from people/places (Teddy bear, Hoover)

acronym

coinage:

• pronounce initials as a word (NASA, MADD).

initialism

coinage:

• pronounce initials individually; taking initial letters & creating a new sequence of letters (ATM, PIN, OMG).

derivation (aka affixes)

• most common, adding prefixes/suffixes to base words.

  • Prefix example: un-healthy.

  • Suffix example: happy → happier

phonology

Study of sound patterns & systems in a language; Mental representation of sounds rather than physical articulation of sounds

allophone

one of a closely related set o/speech sounds or phones

allophone

• Variants of phonemes don’t cause meaning changes

  • Ex. [t] sound in tar, star, writer, butter, eighth

  • Occur due to position & phonetic characterizes of neighboring sounds

allophone

• True t sound ([t]) (ex. Attach, Pretend, italic)

• Quick d sound ([ɾ]) (ex. Daughter, Computer, writer)

• glottal stop (ʔ) (ex. Kitten, Certain, Fitness, mitten)

• omitted t sound (ex. Center, Gentle, Advantage, Prints, Acts, accepts)