Intro to Language and Linguistics: Week 1

Flashcards encompassing key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on language and linguistics.

Linguistics

The scientific study of language and its structure.

Universal Grammar

An innate set of grammatical principles shared by all humans.

Phonetics

The study of the sounds of human speech.

Phonology

The study of the sound patterns in languages.

Morphology

The study of the structure and form of words in a language.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language.

Pragmatics

The study of how context influences the interpretation of meaning.

Competence vs Performance

Competence is an individual's knowledge of language rules, while performance is the actual use of language in real situations.

Displacement

The ability to discuss events that are not present in time or space.

Arbitrariness

The absence of a logical connection between linguistic signs and their meanings.

Dual function of speech organs

Speech organs serve both survival and communication functions.

Onomatopoeia

Words that phonetically imitate the sounds they describe.

Iconicity

A relationship of resemblance or similarity between a sign's form and its meaning.

Generativity/Productivity

The ability to produce and understand an infinite number of new sentences.

Traditional Transmission

The way languages are socially learned and passed down through generations.

Learnability

The capacity of humans to acquire language naturally.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning.

Lexical ambiguity

When a word has multiple meanings or interpretations.

Morphological ambiguity

When a word's structure provides more than one interpretation.