Linguistics Midterm Study

Linguistics

The study of language

Language*

A structured system of communication, defined by Hockett's 9 design features

Mode of communication*

The channel through which language is produced and perceived (e.g., vocal-auditory for spoken language)

Semanticity*

Specific signals (words/symbols) in a language can be matched with specific meanings

Pragmatic function*

Language is used to accomplish real goals, such as communicating needs or building social bonds

Interchangeability*

Any speaker of a language can both send and receive the same messages — you can say what you hear and understand what you say

Cultural transmission*

Language is passed down and learned from other speakers/generations rather than being purely innate

Arbitrariness

There is no natural or inherent connection between a linguistic sign (word) and its meaning

Onomatopoeia

A sub-type/exception to arbitrariness — words that imitate natural sounds (e.g., "buzz," "meow")

Discreteness*

Language is built from small, distinct, recombinable units (like sounds or words) rather than a continuous signal

Displacement*

Language can refer to things not present in time or space — the past, the future, hypothetical or imaginary things

Productivity*

Language allows speakers to create and understand a limitless number of new, never-before-heard sentences

Linguistic competence

A speaker's unconscious, internalized knowledge of their language's rules and structure

Lexicon (as part of competence)*

The mental dictionary of words and their meanings that a speaker knows

Mental grammar (as part of competence)*

The internalized system of rules a speaker uses to form and understand sentences

Linguistic performance

The actual, real-world use of language in speaking or writing, including errors, slips, and hesitations

Descriptive grammar

A set of rules based on how speakers actually use a language in practice

Prescriptive grammar

A set of rules that dictate how language "should" be used, often based on tradition or formality

Phonetics

The study of the physical production, acoustic properties, and perception of speech sounds

Phonology

The study of how sounds are organized and function within a particular language

Morphology

The study of the internal structure and formation of words

Syntax

The study of how words combine to form phrases and sentences (sentence structure)

Semantics

The study of meaning in language

Pragmatics

The study of how context influences the interpretation of meaning in language

Phonetics (consonants)*

The study of speech sounds as physical entities, including how they are articulated

Manner of articulation

Describes how the airstream is constricted or modified in the vocal tract to produce a sound

Stop

A consonant made by completely blocking the airstream in the vocal tract, then releasing it

Fricative

A consonant made by forcing air through a narrow constriction, creating turbulent/friction noise

Affricate

A complex sound that begins as a stop and releases into a fricative

Nasal

A consonant made by lowering the velum so air flows through the nasal cavity

Approximant

A consonant made with articulators close together but not narrow enough to cause friction; includes liquids and glides

Liquids (type of approximant)*

Approximant consonants (like /l/ and /r/) made with a relatively open vocal tract and smooth, fluid airflow

Glides (type of approximant)*

Approximant consonants (like /j/ and /w/) that function like fast vowels and transition into the next sound

Flap

A consonant made by briefly striking one articulator against another (e.g., the "tt" sound in "butter")

Place of articulation*

Describes where in the vocal tract the airstream is constricted to produce a consonant

Bilabial

Consonants made with both lips (e.g., p, b, m, w)

Labiodental

Consonants made with the bottom lip against the upper teeth (e.g., f, v)

Interdental

Consonants made with the tongue between the teeth (e.g., θ as in "thin," ð as in "this")

Alveolar

Consonants made with the tongue at the alveolar ridge (e.g., t, d, s, z, n, l)

Post-alveolar

Consonants made just behind the alveolar ridge (e.g., ʃ as in "ship," ʒ as in "measure")

Palatal

Consonants made with the tongue body near the hard palate (e.g., j as in "yes")

Velar

Consonants made with the tongue body against the soft palate/velum (e.g., k, g, ŋ)

Glottal

Consonants made at the glottis/vocal folds (e.g., glottal stop, h)

Monophthong

A simple vowel produced with the tongue staying in roughly one steady position

Diphthong

A complex, two-part vowel where the tongue glides from one position to another within the same syllable

Tongue height

Describes vowel articulation based on raising or lowering the tongue

Tongue advancement

Describes vowel articulation based on advancing (fronting) or retracting (backing) the tongue

Lip rounding

Describes whether the lips are rounded or not rounded during a vowel

Tense/lax

Describes whether a vowel is produced with a tense or lax tongue gesture

Segmental features

Individual, discrete speech sounds — includes place of articulation, manner of articulation, consonants, and tongue height/advancement/lip rounding/tenseness of vowels

Suprasegmental features

Features that "ride on top of" other segmental features, affecting syllables or larger stretches of speech — includes length, intonation, tone, and stress

Length (suprasegmental)

How long a sound is held relative to other sounds

Intonation (suprasegmental)

The use of pitch accents and phrase tones across an utterance to convey meaning

Tone (suprasegmental)

The use of pitch to distinguish word meaning

Stress (suprasegmental)

The relative emphasis (loudness/length) given to a syllable compared to others

Aspiration

A puff of air released after certain voiceless stops, such as the /p/, /t/, /k/ at the start of a stressed syllable

Allophone (Chapter 1 intro)*

A variant pronunciation of a phoneme, determined by its phonetic environment, that does not change word meaning

Disyllable*

A word made up of two syllables

Phonetics (vs. phonology)

The study of speech sounds as physical entities/articulation

Phonology

The study of how sounds are organized within a language and how they interact with each other

Phonotactic constraints

Restrictions on the possible combinations of sounds allowed in a language

Consonant clusters (phonotactic constraint)*

Sequences of consonants allowed (or not allowed) together in a language, governed by its phonotactic rules

Syllables (phonotactic constraint)*

The allowed internal structure of syllables (which sounds can start/end them) in a given language

Foreign accent

Applying the phonotactic constraints of one's native language while speaking another language

Phoneme

The form in which we store sounds in the mind; the smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning

Allophone

The physical reality of phonetic segments as actually pronounced in everyday speech

Contrastive distribution

When two sounds occur in the same environment and changing one for the other changes the word's entire meaning (e.g., cat/bat/rat)

Complementary distribution

When two sounds never occur in the same environment and are never contrastive — they're allophones of the same phoneme

Free variation

When two sounds can occur in the same environment but swapping them makes no difference in meaning

Minimal pair

Two words that differ by only one sound in the same position, where that difference changes meaning

Assimilation

A sound changes to become more similar to a neighboring sound

Insertion

Adding a sound that was not present in the underlying form

Deletion

Removing a sound that would otherwise be pronounced

Strengthening (Aspiration)

A phonological process where a sound becomes more forceful — e.g., aspiration of voiceless stops

Weakening (Flapping)

A phonological process where a sound becomes less forceful/more reduced — e.g., flapping of /t/ or /d/ between vowels

Morphology

Subfield of linguistics studying the internal structure of words; "the grammar of words"

Morpheme

The minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function in a language (also known as a root/stem)

Free morpheme

A morpheme that can stand by itself as a single word

Bound morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone and must attach to another morpheme (e.g., de-, un-, -ly, -ist, -ed, -s)

Prefix (type of bound morpheme)*

A bound morpheme attached to the beginning of a word

Suffix (type of bound morpheme)*

A bound morpheme attached to the end of a word

Content morpheme (lexicon morpheme)

A morpheme that carries the main meaning/content of a word (e.g., "work")

Function morpheme (grammatical morpheme)

A morpheme that expresses grammatical relationships (e.g., "on," "about," "to," "we")

Derivational morpheme

A morpheme that creates new words, often changing word class/meaning (e.g., -ism, -ize, -al)

Inflectional morpheme

A morpheme that marks the grammatical function of a word without creating a new word (e.g., -s, -ing, -er)

Morphological description*

The process of analyzing and describing the structure of words in terms of their morphemes

Morph

The actual spoken/physical form that realizes a morpheme

Allomorph

A variant form of the same morpheme (e.g., past tense markers like -ed/-t/-∅, or plural markers like -s/-es/-en)

Derivation (word formation)

Creating a new word by adding an affix that often changes its word class (e.g., happy → happiness)

Borrowing

Adopting a word from another language into one's own

Compounding

Combining two free morphemes/words to create a new word (e.g., "notebook")

Blending

Combining parts of two words into a new word (e.g., "smog" from smoke + fog)

Clipping

Shortening a longer word by removing one or more syllables (e.g., "gym" from gymnasium)

Backformation

Creating a new word by removing what looks like an affix from an existing word (e.g., "edit" from "editor")

Conversion

Changing a word's grammatical category without adding any affix (e.g., using "google" as a verb)

Coinage

Inventing a completely new word from scratch, not derived from existing morphemes (e.g., "Kleenex")

Abbreviation

Shortening a word or phrase, including acronyms and initialisms, to its basic letters/sounds

Which sounds are Bilabial?

/p/, /b/, /m/, /ʍ/ (as in "wh-"), /w/ — e.g. "pat," "bat," "mat," "witch," "wet"

Which sounds are Labiodental?

/f/, /v/ — e.g. "fan," "van"

Which sounds are Interdental?

/θ/, /ð/ — e.g. "thin" (θ), "this" (ð)