Linguistics Exam 3

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Acquisition Mechanisms

5 Ways:

1. explicit instruction - based on some typical types of interaction with small children → “That’s a bird”

2. imitation - children learn language by imitating what they hear

3. analogy - children use their cognitive abilities to compare similar forms, recognize patterns, and make analogical extensions

4. reinforcement - children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when producing the correct forms of words

   1. correcting

5. Social interaction theory - children must interact with others using language in order to acquire it

   1. scaffolding

Analogy

children learn language by using their general cognitive abilities to compare similar forms, recognize patterns, and make analogical extensions

Basic Color Terms

• are applicable to a wide range of objects

• they consist of single words

• reliably used by most native speakers of the language (not specialized)

• similar across most languages

• some languages may have more than others

Child-Directed Speech

• slower than speech used with peers (longer pauses and slower tempo)

• higher pitch, with exaggerated intonational patterns

• simplified words

• shorter and simpler sentences

• frequent repetition

• focuses on the immediate environment

• focuses the child’s attention both verbally and with gestures

Correction

a type of the reinforcement acquisition mechanism:

• fixing what the child says so they understand the right way to say a word or sentence

Explicit Instruction

type of acquisition mechanism:

• refers to a teaching approach where language rules and structures are clearly explained to learners, rather than allowing them to infer those rules on their own through exposure and practice

Exposure

refers to the amount and type of contact a learner has with the language they are trying to learn. It’s essentially the input they receive—spoken or written—through listening, reading, conversation, media, etc.

First Language Acquisition

process of learning one’s native language (or languages) during infancy and childhood

Imitation

type of acquisition mechanism:

• refers to children leaning language by copying what they hear

Input

the examples of language that are used in the presence of the child and with the child

Lexicalization

refers to the process by which concepts, meanings, or ideas become encoded in the vocabulary (lexicon) of a language—essentially, when something becomes a word or fixed expression.

Linguistic Determinism

the idea that language dictates the way we think—that the structure and vocabulary of your language limit and shape your thoughts, perceptions, and worldview.

• strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Linguistic Relativity

the idea that the language you speak influences how you think, perceive, and experience the world, but it doesn’t completely determine your thoughts. It’s the more moderate, widely accepted version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

L1 Acquisition (First Language Acquisition)

is the process by which infants and young children naturally acquire their native language—the language(s) they are exposed to from birth.

• all children acquire language without being explicitly taught how to speak

Mentalese

refers to the encoding of thoughts without words

• “language of thought”

• concludes that the language we speak cannot determine our thinking

• contradicts a strong Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Over-Extend

when a child uses a word in a broader way than adults do. It’s a super common and natural part of early language development.

• using “moon” to refer to all round objects

Overgeneralization

especially in language acquisition—happens when a learner applies a language rule too broadly, using it in situations where it doesn't actually apply. It's super common in both L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) learning.

Reinforcement

children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or something similar when they produce correct forms and corrected when they produce wrong forms

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

theory in linguistics that suggests the language you speak influences—or even determines—how you think and perceive the world.

• linguistic determinism → strong version: language dictates thought and there is no thought outside of it

• linguistic relativity → weak version: there is thought outside of language, language just influences and shapes it

Scaffolding

as children develop the ability to speak, their caregivers provide conversational support for them

Social Interaction Theory

children must interact with others using language in order to acquire it

• language has an essential social component

Under-Extend

phenomenon in language acquisition, particularly in children's language development, where a child uses a word too narrowly—only applying it to a specific instance, rather than to all the instances the word could apply to.

• child might refer to only the family dog as “dog” and not other dogs

Actuation

refers to the process by which abstract linguistic changes (that have the potential to occur in a language) are actually realized or initiated in a specific community or population.

it’s the moment when a linguistic innovation or shift becomes part of the spoken language for the first time. This process helps explain how language change occurs over time in actual usage.

Analogy

type of acquisition mechanism:

• children learn language by using their general cognitive abilities to compare similar forms, recognize patterns, and make analogical extensions

Broadening/Extension

one of the two main paths of semantic change:

• process in linguistics where a word's meaning becomes more inclusive or expands over time. This means the word comes to be used for a wider range of things than it originally applied to.

Chain Shift

refers to a situation where a group of phonemes (speech sounds) undergo a systematic change in pronunciation across multiple sounds, and the change in one phoneme causes other phonemes to shift as well. Essentially, one sound change sets off a domino effect across a series of sounds.

• The Great Vowel Shift is an example of this

Cognates

words which have similar forms and meanings across languages because they descend from some common ancestor

Comparative Method

is a technique used to study and relate languages to reconstruct the historical development of languages and identify relationships between them. It involves looking at similar elements in related languages (such as sounds, words, or grammatical structures) to understand how those languages have evolved from a common ancestor language.

Danelaw

part of north England in which viking raiders who spoke Old Norse were allowed to settle in

Daughter Languages

Represents the branches from the parent language in the family tree model

• may themselves be a source for more of them

Degradation

within the category of narrowing, we can see words shift to a more negative meaning than what they originally had

• Middle English “silly” meant happy, innocent → Modern English “silly” means foolish, absurd

Diachronic/Historical Linguistics

the study of language change over time

Doublets

pairs of words with slightly different forms that are both of Germanic Origin

• one word represents the original Old English form and the other the form that was borrowed from Old Norse

  • Ex: Old English (shirt) : Old Norse (skirt)

Economy

refers to the idea that languages tend to use the least amount of effort in terms of structure, sounds, and processes while still maintaining clarity and communicative effectiveness. It reflects a preference for simplicity, efficiency, and minimizing complexity in linguistic systems.

Elevation

within the category of narrowing, we often see words shift to a more positive meaning than they originally had:

• Ex: Old English “cniht” meant boy, military follower → Modern English “knight”

Family Tree Model

we typically indicate the relationships among languages in a language family using this

• includes a parent language (proto-language) and daughter languages

Genetic Relationship

refers to the connections between languages that share a common ancestor. Languages that are ____ related belong to the same language family, evolving from a proto-language—a common ancestral language.

Imperfect Acquisition

refers to a situation where a language learner (often a child or a second-language learner) does not fully or correctly acquire all aspects of a language. This can occur during first language acquisition (L1) or second language acquisition (L2). It results in incomplete, incorrect, or non-standard language use.

Indo-European

one of the largest and most widely distributed language families in the world. It includes most of the languages spoken in Europe, as well as many languages in South Asia and parts of the Middle East. The family is believed to have originated from a common ancestor language, known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE), which was spoken around 4,000 to 6,000 years ago.

• contains English
  

Isolates

some languages can’t be shown to be definitively related to any other language

• Ex: Basque language

Language Contact

A source of change in language:

• languages frequently borrow words from other languages

  • common to borrow nouns

• function words or grammatical morphemes are rarely borrowed

Majority Principle

in a set of cognates, if a majority of forms have the same segment, that segment is more likely to represent the original sound

Modern English

the form of the English language spoken and written today. It has evolved significantly over the centuries from its Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Middle English roots, influenced by various languages and historical events.

Most Natural Development Principle

certain types of sound changes are very common, while changes in the opposite direction are extremely unlikely

1. Final vowels often disappear (vino → vin)

2. Voiceless sounds tend to become voiced in voiced environments, especially between vowels (muta → muda)

3. Stops tend to become fricatives, especially between vowels (ripa → riba → riva)

4. Consonants tend to become voiceless at the end of words (rizu → riz → ris)

Narrowing/Reduction

one of the two main paths of semantic change

• type of semantic change where a word’s meaning becomes more specific or limited than it originally was.

  • ex: meat used to mean any kind of food, now it means food from animals

Philologist

someone who studies ancient texts and their languages

Propagation

When a sound change begins in a specific word or group of words and then spreads to others. This is kind of like a phonetic "domino effect.

Proto-Indo-European

(PIE for short)

the hypothetical, reconstructed ancestor language of the Indo-European language family, which includes most languages spoken in Europe and many in South and Central Asia

• contains English
  

Proto-Language

original ancestor language from which the contemporary languages are descended

• reconstructed

Reduction in Effort

seen with the economy of language:

• making words easier to pronounce and deletion of sounds

Renewal

When an older or irregular grammatical form is replaced or reinforced by a newer, more regular or more transparent form.

wicked → meaning good now

Semantic Bleaching

when a word loses some or all of its original meaning over time and becomes more grammatical, weakened, or abstract in function.

• awful thing → awful lot of money

Standardization

• development of printing began this process by which a particular variety of a language is selected, codified, and promoted as the "standard" form — usually for use in education, government, media, and official communication.

Synchronic Linguistics

the study of language at a given point in time, without taking its history into account

Accent

differences in pronunciation

• everyone has this

Bilingual

ability to use two different languages proficiently

Construct

a kind of theoretical or abstract concept that we use to describe or explain aspects of language — especially when talking about mental representations or structures.

Cot-Caught Merger

when the vowels in words like "cot" /kɑt/ and "caught" /kɔt/ are pronounced the same — so they become homophones.

• If you have this merger, "cot" and "caught" sound exactly alike to you.
  If you don’t, you hear them as two distinct vowel sounds.

change in vowel sound [ɔ] → [ɑ]

Covert Prestige

the social value assigned to a non-standard language variety within a specific group, even though it may be seen as less prestigious by the broader society. Speakers use it to show identity, solidarity, or group membership.

• it has positive value among a certain group of speakers

Dependent Variable

language feature or behavior being measured or observed—it's what changes in response to different conditions. For example, it could be the use of a particular pronunciation, word choice, or syntactic structure that varies based on factors like age, gender, or context

• sociolinguistic variable, predicted variable

Dialect

term for language variety that is characteristic of a specific geographical area

Dialect Continuum

regional variation of language exists along a continuum rather than having sharp breaks between one dialect and another

Dialectology

the study of dialects

Diglossia

sociolinguistic situation where two distinct language varieties are used by the same speech community for different purposes. Typically, one variety (the High variety) is used in formal settings (e.g., education, media), while the other (Low variety) is used in everyday conversation.

• ex: classical arabic vs local arabic varieties

Endangered Languages

are languages at risk of falling out of use, typically because their speakers shift to more dominant languages

Independent Variable

the factor that is manipulated or categorized to observe its effect on a language feature (the dependent variable). Examples include age, gender, region, or formality level—basically, what might influence how language is used.

• social variable, predictor

Idiolect

an individual's unique way of speaking, shaped by personal experiences, social background, and linguistic exposure. It includes distinctive vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar patterns.

Isogloss

geographic boundary that separates areas with different linguistic features, such as pronunciation, word usage, or grammar. It helps map dialect differences across regions

• when referring to one word or language feature

Isogloss Bundle

happens when a number of the different isoglosses coincide

can be used to determine the boundaries between different dialects

a region where several isoglosses coincide, marking a significant dialect boundary. It often indicates a major linguistic shift between neighboring areas

Language Planning

refers to the development of policies regarding language usage

• ex: which languages are to be used in education system or by the government

  • how languages should be standardized

Language Variation

refers to the differences in how language is used across different contexts, speakers, or regions—it focuses on change and diversity in language use (e.g., variation in pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary).

• the differences

Language Variety

refers to a specific form of a language used by a group, such as a dialect, sociolect, idiolect, or register—it's a more stable category that describes types of language rather than the differences themselves.

• the distinct forms or types

Lexifier Language

the language that provides most of the vocabulary (lexicon) to a pidgin or creole. It's usually the language of the dominant or colonizing group in contact situations.

Minority Languages

a language spoken by a smaller group of people within a larger community, often in contrast to the dominant or official language(s) of the region

Mutual Intelligibility

speakers who can understand one another are speaking the same language, while those who can’t understand one another are speaking different languages

• common criteria to classify language varieties

Non-Rhotic

refers to a pronunciation pattern where the "r" sound is not pronounced in certain positions, typically at the end of syllables or words.

• This feature is common in varieties of English like British English (e.g., "car" pronounced as "cah").

Overt Prestige

refers to the social value given to a standard or widely accepted language variety, often associated with higher social status, education, and power.

• It is the form of language typically used in formal settings and is regarded as more prestigious by the broader society

Pidgin

a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between groups who do not share a common language.

• It combines elements of different languages and is typically used for practical purposes like trade.

• ____ have simplified grammar and vocabulary compared to the languages they draw from.

Pin-Pen Merger

[ɛ] → [ɪ] before a nasal consonant, so that (for example) pin and pen are both pronounced [pʰɪn]

Predicted Variable

refers to the outcome or dependent variable that is being estimated or forecasted in a study. It is the variable that researchers try to predict or explain based on the influence of other variables (independent variables).

• sociolinguistic variable, dependent variable

Social Marker

linguistic feature (such as pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar) that signals a speaker's social identity, such as their social class, ethnicity, gender, or regional background.

It reflects social characteristics and can help differentiate groups within a community

Social Variable

a factor that influences language use based on social characteristics, such as age, gender, social class, ethnicity, or education level. These variables help explain how and why people use language differently in various social contexts.

• independent variable, predictor

Sociolinguistics

the study of the relationship between language and society

(Socio)Linguistic Variable

a language feature (e.g., pronunciation, word choice, grammar) that varies systematically across different social groups or contexts. It can be influenced by factors like age, gender, social class, or region, and it reflects the relationship between language and society

• dependent variable, predicted variable

Sociolect

variety of language used by a particular social group, distinguished by factors such as social class, occupation, or ethnicity. It reflects the group's identity and can include specific vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation patterns

• social dialects

Speech Community

a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language

Speech Style

refers to the way in which a person speaks, which can vary based on factors like formality, context, and the relationship between the speaker and listener. It includes aspects such as tone, register, vocabulary, and speech rate, and can shift depending on the situation (e.g., casual vs. formal speech)

Style Shifting

phenomena according to Labov that there are no single-style speakers. Everyone changes the style of their speech, to a greater or lesser degree, according to the context