English Linguistics Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on English Linguistics lecture notes.

English Linguistics

Study of the English language, applying linguistic principles.

Linguistics

Scientific study of language.

Applied Linguistics

Language policy, language teaching.

Sociolinguistics

Speech variations among different groups.

Descriptivism

Describes actual speech, not how people should speak.

Prescriptivism

Rules for educated speech (not the focus of theoretical linguists).

External Language View

Language exists externally, ‘out there’ in the world (e.g., books, sound waves).

Internal Language View

Language exists in mental states, ‘in your head’ and it’s only an abstraction of behavior.

Chomskyan Linguistics

Noam Chomsky's linguistic approach, focusing on mentalist aspects of language.

Native Speaker Judgments

Assessments of grammatical sentences made by native speakers.

Phonetics

The study of speech sounds in all spoken human languages.

Acoustic Phonetics

Physical properties of sounds.

Auditory Phonetics

Perception/recognition of sounds by human ear.

Articulatory Phonetics

Production of sounds via vocal apparatus.

Phoneticians

Document language-specific phonetic inventories.

Variationists/Socio-phoneticians

Describe/explain language variation/change (social factors).

Speech gestures

Controlled movements specific to each sound.

Passive Articulators

Parts that do not move during speech production.

Active Articulators

Parts that move to produce sounds.

Phones

Separate sounds (segments).

Phonemes

Realizations of our language-specific phonemic inventory.

Sound Segments

Words segmented into discrete sounds.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Alphabet designed such that one symbol = one segment.

Phonation

Vocal folds produce sound; air restricted/blocked.

Vocal tract

Nasal and oral cavities.

Airstream Process

Power for speech.

Phonation Process

Vocal folds convert energy to sound.

Articulatory Process

Movements of tongue and lips.

Oro-nasal Process

Airstream direction through mouth/nose.

Velum

Soft palate.

Vocal folds

Stretch across larynx, regulate voice.

Vowels

Free air flow, shaped by articulators

Consonants

Obstruction/complete stop of airflow

Voicing

Voiced vs. Voiceless sounds

Bilabial

Close your lips, [p b m w]

Labiodental

Bottom lip against teeth, [f v]

Dental

Against the teeth, [θ ð]

Alveolar

Behind teeth, [t d s z n l r]

Post-alveolar

Just behind alveolar, [ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ]

Palatal

Against the hard palate, [j]

Velar

Against the soft palate, k g ŋ w

Glottal

Constricting the glottis (not with tongue), [h ʔ]

Stops

Complete obstruction, burst sound.

Nasal stops ‘nasals’

Airstream is stopped in oral cavity, velum is lowered and air goes out through the nose.

Fricatives

Partial obstruction, turbulent airflow

Affricates

Combination of plosive/fricative.

Approximants

Close proximity of articulators, minimal obstruction.

Tap

Brief touch.

Glottal stop

Airstream is blocked by the glottis (opening between vocal folds).

Height and openness

Tongue height.

Cardinal vowel

A vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low.

Monophthong

A vowel sound in which the tongue stays in one position during articulation.

Backness

Tongue advancement in your mouth.

Front vowels

Highest area of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth.

Back vowels

Highest area of the tongue is in the back part of the mouth.

Roundedness

Rounding of your lips.

Unrounded

Spread lips produce unrounded sounds.

Rounded

Pursed lips produce rounded sounds.

Tenseness

The ‘tenseness’ or ‘relaxedness’ of the tongue.

tense / lax vowels

Tense / lax vowels

Diphthong

A change from one vowel quality to another

Sonorants

‘Singable’ sounds (can sustain a note on them).

Obstruents

Significant obstruction to the airflow.

Sonority Scale

Sonorants are more sonorous than obstruents

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

Alphabetic system of phonetic notation; standard written representation for sounds.

Phonetics

Science of speech sounds.

Phonology

Study of sound system in a language.

Phoneme

Basic unit of a language’s phonology.

Phones

Realised instances of phonemes.

Allophones

Possible spoken sounds (phones) of a phoneme.

Phonetic transcription

Describes articulation differences, specific articulations.

Phonemic transcription

Explains allophone distribution, distinctiveness between sounds.

Broad transcription

Simplest set of sounds.

Narrow transcription

More phonetic detail, allophonic differences.

Distribution

Positions it can occupy in an uttered word.

Aspirated

Sound produced with an extra puff of air

Complementary Distribution

The mutual exclusiveness of a pair of sounds in a certain phonetic environment.

Contrastive Distribution

If two sounds are in contrastive distribution, they are different phonemes.

Phonological analysis

Speaker's model of phoneme realisation and distribution.

Phonological rules

Changes one phonological representation into another.

Free Variation

Neither contrastive nor complementary distribution.

Neutralisation

Highlights the dynamic nature of phonemic contrasts, which depend on their phonological environment.

Expletive Infixation

Expletives inserted before a stressed syllable

Syllables

Stressed units for metre in poetry.

Syllables = Vowels

Number of syllables corresponds to number of vowels

Syllabic Consonants

Schwa can disappear in unstressed syllables.

Nucleus (N)

Syllable must have a nucleus

Onset (O)

Syllable can have an onset

Coda (Co)

Syllable can have a coda

Rhyme (R)

Nucleus + coda.

Phonological word

Collection of syllables

Phonotactics

Possible/impossible sequences of sounds in a language.

Phonotactic constraints

Constraints on syllable shape.

SONORITY SEQUENCING PRINCIPLE (SPP)

Closer to nucleus = more sonorous sound.

Sonority

Relative loudness in relation to syllable structure.

Morphology

Study of shapes/forms of words.

Syntax

Study of phrases and sentences.

Semantics

Study of literal meaning of phrases/sentences.

Pragmatics

Study of meaning in context of discourse.

Written Word

Smallest continuous unit in writing, sequence of letters containing no space