Linguistics Definitions for Exam

Accomodation

A form of style-shifting whereby on adjusts one’s speech in order to socially or conversationally position oneself in relation to the interlocutors or audience at hand

Adstrate

A language in a contact situation that is roughly socialy equal to another language and has about the same amount of prestige.

Accent

The phonological and phonetic details of a dialect

Bilingual mixed language

A language that results from the fusion of features from two other languages that are both spoken natively by a community

Code-switching

The use of different languages in the same speech exchange, the same utterance, or even in the same sentence

Convergence

The use of speech similar to that of one’s interlocutor in order to increase rapport

Covert prestige

The kind of a prestige that a dialect might carry in a smaller community, where speaking it may signal the speaker’s in-group status

Creole

A language that descends from a pidgin but that has full exspresiveness and is spoken as a native language by some

Dialect

The variety of speech used by a region or social group of speakers.

Dialect