Introduction to Linguistics II – Comprehensive Review

Question-and-Answer flashcards covering key concepts across semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, acquisition, sociolinguistics, and more from the lecture notes.

What does the field of semantics study?

The systematic ways in which languages structure meaning, focusing on word and sentence meaning while abstracting away from context.

In the semiotic triangle by Ogden & Richards (1923), what relationship is missing?

There is no direct relationship between the linguistic symbol (word) and the referent in the real world.

What is ‘reference’ in semantics?

A concrete act of a linguistic expression pointing to a specific person, object, event, or state in the real world.

How is ‘sense’ different from ‘reference’?

Sense is the descriptive meaning of a word independent of context, referent, or situation.

What is meant by the ‘extension’ of a term?

The set of all possible objects a linguistic expression can refer to.

Define ‘intension’.

The characteristic features that determine the sense of a linguistic term.

What is ‘denotation’?

The constant, basic, referential meaning of a linguistic expression.

What is ‘connotation’?

Additional, context-specific, affective or social meaning associated with an expression.

What does lexical semantics investigate?

The meaning of individual words and their interrelations.

What are synonyms?

Two or more words that share the same core meaning but may differ in social or affective nuance (e.g., clever / smart).

Define hyponymy with an example.

A reference-inclusion relation where one word (apple) is a kind of another (fruit).

What is meronymy?

A part/whole relationship between words, such as finger and hand.

Distinguish gradable and non-gradable antonyms.

Gradable antonyms form opposite ends of a scale (large/small); non-gradable antonyms are mutually exclusive (dead/alive).

What is ‘converseness’ in sense relations?

A reciprocal relationship expressing the same relation from opposite perspectives (husband/wife).

What is ‘reverseness’?

Opposition between directional verbs, often of motion (open/shut).

Define homonymy.

A single form (spoken and/or written) with unrelated meanings.

What is a homograph?

Words with the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings (tear V / tear N).

What is a homophone?

Words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings (knight/night).

How does polysemy differ from homonymy?

Polysemy involves a single word with multiple related meanings; homonymy involves unrelated meanings.

What is metaphorical extension?

Using a word beyond its primary meaning to describe similar referents (eye of a needle).

What does componential analysis do?

Describes word meaning as a bundle of binary semantic features to differentiate lexical field members.

What does sentence semantics study?

Meaning relations within and across sentences.

What are paradigmatic relations?

Vertical relations among lexical items of the same category that can substitute for each other.

Define syntagmatic relations.

Relations between words co-occurring in a sentence that influence word choice (buy a book).

State the Principle of Compositionality.

The meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts and their syntactic arrangement.

What is a thematic role?

A label for how an argument’s referent participates in the situation described by a predicate.

Give the definition of the AGENT role.

The responsible initiator of an action (Peter injured Harry: Peter = AGENT).

What is the PATIENT role?

The entity undergoing the effect of an action (Harry in Peter injured Harry).

Define ‘experiencer’.

The entity experiencing a psychological or physical state (Mrs. Miller was cold).

What construction expresses ‘X causes Y to go somewhere’?

The caused-motion construction (NP V NP PP).

What is entailment?

A logical inclusion where truth of p guarantees truth of q (Someone murdered JFK ⇒ JFK is dead).

Define presupposition and its key property.

Background assumption that remains constant under negation, creating a truth-value gap.

What does cognitive semantics emphasize?

Meaning as rooted in human cognition and conceptualization.

What is Prototype Theory?

The idea that category membership is graded with prototypical and marginal members, showing fuzzy boundaries.

Differentiate formal and functional approaches to grammar in one point.

Formal: autonomous syntax module; Functional: grammar must reference meaning and cognitive principles.

Explain a conceptual metaphor with ‘prices rise/fall’.

Source domain: verticality (up/down); target domain: quantity (more/less).

What is spatial metaphor?

Using spatial orientation terms to discuss physical or psychological states (feeling up/down).

How do English and French differ in motion-verb conflation patterns?

English verbs conflate motion + manner (run); French conflate motion + path (monter).

Define pragmatics.

Study of the relationship between language and its users’ intentions, including context.

What is linguistic context?

The surrounding discourse—a connected series of utterances.

Name three types of deixis.

Spatial (here/there), temporal (yesterday), personal (me/you).

State Grice’s Cooperative Principle.

‘Make your contribution appropriate to the conversation.’

List Grice’s four conversational maxims.

Quality, Quantity, Relevance, Manner.

What is meant by ‘flouting’ a maxim?

Intentional, obvious violation to prompt the listener to infer an implicature.

Define conversational implicature.

Extra meaning inferred by the hearer when a maxim is flouted, using contextual knowledge.

What are the three levels of speech acts?

Locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary acts.

Differentiate direct and indirect speech acts.

Direct: form matches function (Where is the key?); Indirect: form differs from function (Can you shut the window?).

What is ‘face’ in politeness theory?

An individual’s self-image; positive face (desire for approval) and negative face (desire for autonomy).

Define diachronic linguistics.

The study of language change over time by comparing different stages.

What time span does Old English cover approximately?

~449 to ~1100 CE.

What major phonological change affected long vowels between ME and EMdE?

The Great Vowel Shift.

What is assimilation in phonological change?

Adjacent segments become more similar to simplify articulation (slǣpde → slǣpte).

What is epenthesis?

Insertion of a sound into a word (simle → simble).

Define metathesis.

Reordering of segments (wæps → wæsp).

What is a merger in phonology?

Two phonemes collapse into one, reducing the phoneme inventory (th-fronting).

Distinguish superstratum, adstratum, and substratum borrowing.

Superstratum: dominant → non-dominant; Adstratum: bidirectional between equals; Substratum: non-dominant → dominant.

What is semantic broadening?

A word’s meaning becomes more general (hound ‘any dog’ → hunting dog).

Define amelioration with an example.

Meaning becomes more positive (knight: ‘boy’ → noble title).

What is grammaticalisation?

Process where lexical items develop grammatical functions (ge-līċ → -ly).

Explain lexical diffusion.

Gradual spread of a change through the lexicon word by word.

Name the two main methods for studying first language acquisition.

Naturalistic observation and experimentation.

What is the vocabulary spurt?

Rapid increase in word learning after the first 50 words, around 18 months.

Describe overextension in child language.

Using a word with a broader meaning than adults do (calling all animals ‘dog’).

What is U-shaped development in morphology?

Children go from correct irregulars (feet) → overgeneralised forms (foots) → correct forms again.

List Brown’s order of English morpheme acquisition (first three).

1 ‑ing, 2 plural ‑s, 3 possessive ‑’s.

At what stage do children typically begin combining words?

Two-word stage (around 1.5–2 years).

What is the critical period hypothesis?

Language must be acquired before puberty for full proficiency; ability declines from ~age 6.

Define interlanguage.

A learner’s systematic, dynamic linguistic system influenced by L1 and L2.

What is positive transfer in SLA?

Using an L1 structure in L2 where it is appropriate, aiding learning.

State one universal L2 morpheme order finding.

Progressive ‑ing is typically acquired first across learner groups.

Explain the verb-movement parameter with English and French.

English [-verb movement] keeps verbs low; French [+verb movement] raises tensed verbs to T.

What does the Full Transfer Full Access hypothesis claim?

Initial L2 grammar equals L1 parameter settings but can be fully restructured with access to UG.

What do psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics respectively study?

Psycholinguistics: mental processes in language use; Neurolinguistics: brain representation and processing of language.

Name a behavioural method with high temporal resolution.

Lexical decision task.

Which ERP component is associated with semantic anomalies?

N400.

What characterises Broca’s aphasia?

Non-fluent, agrammatic speech with difficulty producing phonemes and function words.

What is a garden-path sentence?

A sentence that lures the parser toward an incorrect structure, requiring reanalysis (e.g., “The horse raced past the barn fell”).

Define sociolinguistics in one sentence.

The study of the relationship between language and society, including variation and change.

How does a dialect differ from an accent?

Dialect varies in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation; accent varies only in pronunciation.

What is an isogloss?

A geographic line marking the boundary of a particular linguistic feature.

Explain code-switching.

Alternating between two languages or varieties within or across sentences in discourse.

Differentiate pidgin and creole.

Pidgin: simplified contact language with no native speakers; Creole: fully developed language that becomes native to a community.

What are the three major language classification types?

Genetic, areal, and typological classification.

Give one example of an isolating language.

Thai (each meaningful element is a separate word).

What is an agglutinating language?

A language where words contain clearly segmentable morphemes, each with one function (Turkish).

State the six common basic word orders.

SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS, OSV.

What is a non-implicational absolute universal?

A structural feature found in every language with no exceptions (e.g., all languages distinguish word, phrase, clause).

Explain the Markedness Differential Hypothesis in typology.

Less marked (more common, simpler) structures are easier to acquire and more universal than marked ones.

How can phonological universals be explained?

By perceptual and articulatory factors that make certain sounds preferred across languages.