INTRODUCTION - Concepts and Traditions

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the introductory concepts and major research paradigms of 20th-century English linguistics.

Linguistics

The scientific discipline concerned with the study of language and languages, either by themselves or in comparison.

Language

The vehicle for the expression or exchange of thoughts, concepts, information, feelings, attitudes, etc.

Lingua franca

A universal traffic language allowing communication across all languages and cultural boundaries.

Synchronic

An approach that describes the state of a language at a particular point or period in time, similar to a snapshot.

Diachronic

An approach that documents linguistic change through time by comparing successive language states.

Descriptive

A linguistic approach that gives a neutral description of actual language use.

Prescriptive

A normative approach that formulates rules for correct language use.

Empirical

Linguistic analysis based on authentic data, such as large machine-readable corpora.

Introspective

Research based on the intuitions of linguists concerning what is and what is not possible in a language.

Structuralism

A research tradition founded by Ferdinand de Saussure that views language as a closed system where all elements are linked.

Langue

Saussure's term for the abstract, systematic regularities of a language shared by a speech community.

Parole

Saussure's term for the concrete use of language by an individual speaker.

Paradigmatic relations

Relations of choice or interchangeability on the vertical axis within a linguistic system.

Syntagmatic relations

Relations of chain or combination on the horizontal axis within a linguistic system.

Signifier (signifiant)

The level of expression in a linguistic sign, typically a sound or sound sequence.

Signified (signifié)

The level of meaning in a linguistic sign, representing a concept.

Arbitrariness

The lack of a motivated link between the signified and the signifier in a linguistic sign.

Symbol

A type of sign, such as a linguistic sign, characterized by an arbitrary relationship between form and meaning.

Index

A sign characterized by an existential or physical effect-cause relationship, such as smoke indicating fire.

Icon

A sign characterized by a relationship of similarity between the sign and what it stands for.

Diagrammatic iconicity

An abstract relationship of similarity, such as the order of a list reflecting a chronological sequence of events.

Semiotics

The science of linguistic and non-linguistic signalling systems and signing processes.

Generative linguistics

A paradigm initiated by Noam Chomsky focusing on describing syntactic structures via a finite inventory of rules.

Competence

The entire unconscious mental knowledge an ideal native speaker has of their language.

Performance

The actual production and processing of language in concrete use.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Chomsky's postulated innate genetic mechanism that enables humans to learn language.

Universal Grammar (UG)

The invariable, highly abstract innate properties and principles of the language acquisition device common to all humans.

Substantive universals

Universally available grammatical categories like nouns and verbs necessary for analyzing language.

Formal universals

Constraints concerning the form that the rules of a grammar can take, such as structure-dependency.

Functionalism

A research tradition exploring how communicative goals and tasks motivate the choice of linguistic constructions.

Organon model

Karl Bühler's model distinguishing three tasks of communication: referential, expressive, and appellative functions.

Phatic function

A language function focused on establishing social relations, such as small talk.

Metalingual function

A language function used for talking about language itself.

Poetic function

A function of language centered on how a message is formulated or its aesthetic qualities.

Complexity principle

The iconic principle stating that more cognitively complex states result in more structurally complex coding.

Iconic distance principle

The principle stating that meanings more tightly related cognitively are coded by constructions that are more tightly interwoven.

Poverty of stimulus

The formalist argument that children's linguistic input is too impoverished or fragmented to explain language acquisition without innate knowledge.