Linguistics Key Concepts: Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics & Sociolinguistics

Syntax

What is the structure and order of components within a sentence?

Agreement

What is the grammatical connection between two parts of a sentence?

Prescriptive approach

What approach to language describes what it should be like?

Descriptive approach

What approach to language describes what it is actually like?

Intransitive verb

What are verbs that don't have an object called?

Transitive verb

What are verbs that have a single object called?

Ditransitive verb

What are verbs that have two objects called?

Semantics

What is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences?

Hyponym

What is a word with a meaning that is included in the meaning of another word?

Metonymy

What is substituting the word for part of something for the whole thing called?

Collocation

What is the relationship between words that frequently occur together called?

Pragmatics (or Speaker Meaning)

What is meant by the speaker given the context of the utterance?

Deixis

What are words that 'point' via language and have a meaning determined by context?

Pragmatic markers

What are short expressions that indicate the speaker's attitude to the listener called?

Presupposition

What does a speaker assume is true or known by the listener?

Discourse analysis

What is the study of language beyond the sentence level called?

Turn

What is the unit of talk by one speaker, ended by the next speaker's unit of talk?

Adjacency pair

What is a conversational element with a first part and a second part called?

Tautology

What is an expression that seems to repeat an element with no apparent meaning?

Hedges

What are words or phrases used to indicate uncertainty in correctness or completeness?

Neurolinguistics

What is the study of the relationship between language and the brain called?

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

What phenomenon occurs when a speaker knows a word but feels it is eluding them?

Malapropism

What is a speech error in which one word is used instead of another with similar characteristics?

Caregiver speech

What is the manner in which adults tend to speak with children called?

Language acquisition

What is the gradual development of language ability through natural communication called?

Sign language

What is a language that uses the hands as articulators called?

Emblems

What are non-verbal signals that function like fixed phrases called?

Oralism

What teaching method is designed to teach deaf students to speak and read lips?

Accent

What aspects of pronunciation identify where a speaker is from?

Isogloss

What is the boundary between areas regarding a particular linguistic item called?

Code-switching

What is the practice of alternating between two or more languages in conversation called?

Linguistic prestige (or Social prestige)

What is the degree of esteem attached to certain languages or dialects called?

Idiolect

What is an individual way of speaking, a personal dialect called?

Register

What is the conventional way of using language appropriate in a specific context called?

Sociolinguistics

What field of linguistics studies the relationship between language and society?