SPPA 210 Unit 1: Language, Culture, and Syntax

ASHA Definition of Language

A complex, dynamic system of conventional symbols used for thought and communication.

Bloom & Lahey: Form

The language domain encompassing phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Bloom & Lahey: Content

The language domain encompassing semantics (meaning).

Bloom & Lahey: Use

The language domain encompassing pragmatics (social communication).

Phonology

The sound system of a language and its governing rules.

Semantics

The study of the meaning of words and sentences.

Morphology

The study of how words are constructed from smaller meaningful units.

Syntax

The rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences.

Pragmatics

The rules governing the appropriate use of language in social contexts.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in a language.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning in a language.

Descriptive Grammar

Describes how speakers actually use language in practice.

Prescriptive Grammar

Dictates explicit rules about how language "should" be spoken or written.

Teaching Grammar

Grammar rules used to instruct individuals learning a new language.

Property of Language: Arbitrary Code

The relationship between a linguistic symbol and its meaning is arbitrary.

Constituent

A component word or phrase unit within a sentence structure.

Language Form vs. Function

Form is structural category (NP/VP); function is grammatical role (subject/predicate).

Generative/Creative Property of Language

Speakers produce and understand infinite novel sentences using finite structural rules.

Language Register

Variation in formality based on social context and audience.

Dialect vs. Language Distinction

Dialects are mutually intelligible; distinct languages are not mutually intelligible.

Dialect

A systematic language variety spoken by a specific regional or social group.

Genderlect

Language variation pattern associated with gender groups.

Idiolect

An individual person's unique way of speaking.

Standard Dialect

The variety spoken by socially powerful groups, reflecting societal power, not linguistic superiority.

Subject (Syntactic Function)

The noun phrase constituent indicating the doer or topic of the sentence.

Predicate (Syntactic Function)

The verb phrase constituent stating what the subject does or experiences.

Basic Sentence (S) Phrase Structure

A standard sentence consists of a Noun Phrase (NP) and a Verb Phrase (VP).

Mental Lexicon

A speaker's mental dictionary containing words and their meanings.

Why This Matters for SLPs

Understanding language and cultural variation is critical for SLPs and audiologists to accurately assess and treat language disorders; non-minority clinicians may be unaware of clients' frustrations tied to their cultural/linguistic background (Kenney & Shah, 2011).

Sources of Variation in Language

Language varies due to region, stylistic factors (setting, activity), and social factors (ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, profession).

Accent-Based Discrimination

Accents are associated with listener stereotypes about a speaker's job competence, personality, and socioeconomic status, leading to real-life discrimination in hiring, school performance, and housing (Kenney & Shah, 2011).

"A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."

Max Weinreich's quote meaning that which dialect becomes accepted as "standard" is a matter of social/political power, not linguistic superiority.

Clinical Takeaway on Cultural Differences

Individuals who follow the rules of their own language community are speaking correctly by that system; our own expectations about "polite" or "correct" behavior are invisible to us but not universal.

Rule-Governed Behavior

All levels of language (words, phrases, sentences) are constructed according to systematic rules, not randomly — e.g., why "unhappy" is a word but "happyun" isn't, or why "the bird" is correct but "bird the" is not.

Universal Characteristics of Human Language

Features shared by all human languages: phonemes, combining sounds into meaningful words, categories of words (nouns, verbs, etc.), rules for combining words into sentences, and ways of forming questions, commands, and negatives.

Language Is Hierarchical

Language can be built up or broken down through nested levels: sentences → clauses → phrases → words → morphemes.