Language and Culture Flashcards

Flashcards about language and culture.

Arbitrariness

A feature of human language where there is no obvious connection between a symbol and its referent; the meaning cannot be guessed.

Bipedalism

Habitually walking on two feet. This evolutionary development freed up forelimbs for other activities and started a chain of anatomical adaptations that allowed the development of language.

Broca's Area

An area in the left frontal lobe of the brain near the temple, specifically dedicated to the processing of language.

Culture

An integrated system of mental elements, the behaviors motivated by those elements, the material items created by those behaviors, shared by the members of the society, 100 percent learned, based on symbolic systems (most importantly language), humankind's most important adaptive mechanism, and dynamic and constantly changing.

Descriptive Linguistics

The study of the structures of language, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Dialect

A subordinate variety of a language, often assumed to be mutually intelligible with other dialects of the same language, though this is not always the case.

Displacement

The ability to communicate about things that are outside of the here and now, such as the future, past, or fictional places.

Duality of Patterning

Two levels of combination in language. First, meaningless discrete sounds (phonemes) are combined to form words/morphemes. Second, morphemes are recombined to form longer messages (phrases/sentences).

Gesture-Call System

A non-verbal communication system used by great apes and other primates (including humans) that combines sound, body language, scent, facial expression, and touch.

Historical Linguistics

The study of how languages change over time.

Kinesics

The study of all forms of human body language.

Language Universals

Characteristics shared by all human languages, such as the use of language to communicate, constant change, systematic and rule-driven nature, symbolic systems, basic word order, nouns & verbs, discrete sounds, and duality of patterning.

Larynx

The voice box, containing the vocal folds that produce the voice.

Lexicon

The vocabulary of a language.

Morpheme

A minimal unit of meaning in a language. It can be unbound (stand alone) or bound (must be attached to another morpheme).

Paralanguage

Characteristics of speech beyond the actual words spoken, such as pitch, loudness, and tempo.

Pharynx

The throat cavity, which functions as a resonating and amplifying chamber for speech sounds.

Phoneme

A minimal unit of sound that can make a difference in meaning if substituted for another sound in a word.

Phonology

The study of the sounds of language.

Pragmatics

The study of the social and cultural aspects of meaning and how the context of an interaction affects it.

Proxemics

The study of the social use of space, specifically the distance an individual tries to maintain around himself in interactions with others.

Semantics

The study of the meanings of words and other morphemes, as well as how the meanings of phrases and sentences derive from them.

Syntax

The rules by which a language combines morphemes into larger units like phrases and sentences.

Universal Grammar (UG)

A theory proposed by Noam Chomsky suggesting that all languages share a basic template embedded in our genes.

Wernicke's Area

An area in the temporal lobe of the brain just behind the left ear, specifically dedicated to the processing of language.