Language and Environment Study Guide

Flashcards covering key concepts and vocabulary for the exam in Language and Environment.

Styles

Different ways in which language is used, influenced by context, audience, and purpose.

Dialects

Varieties of a language that are specific to a particular region or social group.

Sociolinguistics

The study of how language varies and changes in social contexts.

Diglossia

A situation in which two distinct varieties of a language are used in different social contexts.

Code-switching

The practice of alternating between two or more languages or dialects in conversation.

Language shift

A process by which a community of speakers shifts from using one language to another.

Language death

The complete cessation of use of a language by its community.

Bilingual education

Educational programs that use two languages as mediums of instruction.

Ethnolinguistic vitality

The likelihood that a language will be maintained or revitalized within a community.

Linguistic landscape

The visibility and salience of languages in public spaces.

Creolization

The process by which a creole language develops from a pidgin, becoming a fully developed language.

Pidginization

The process of creating a simplified form of speech that develops as a means of communication between speakers of different native languages.

Language planning

Deliberate efforts to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages.

National language

A language that has a unique legal status in a particular country, usually associated with the nation-state.

Acrolect

The highest sociolect in a creole continuum, closest to the prestige language.

Basilect

The lowest sociolect in a creole continuum, closest to the creole language.

Linguistic processing/ corpus planning

Efforts focused on creating or modifying a language to improve its standardization.

Prestige planning

Efforts aimed at increasing the status of a language or dialect.