LING 2320 exam #1

competence

the perfect grammar in your head

performance

what actually comes out of your mouth

descriptive grammar

what people actually say

prescriptive grammar

what is prescribed as “correct” by some authority

modes of communication

vocal-auditory, visual, tactile, chemical

interchangeability

any user can both transmit and receive messages

semanticity

the signals in any communication system have stable meaning

pragmatic function

all communication serves some purpose

arbitrariness

the form of the signal is not logically related to its meaning

iconicity

when there is a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning

displacement

the ability to talk about objects, entities, and events that are removed in time and space from the speech event

productivity

the ability to produce and understand any number of messages that have never been expressed before and that may express novel ideas

discreteness

the property of having complex messages that are built up out of smaller parts

cultural transmission

language must be taught

phonemes

the minimal units used to create with language

segmentals

consonants, vowels, liquids, and glides

suprasegmentals

rhythm, intonation, stress, etc.

larynx

where the vocal folds and glottis are located

epiglottis

upper part of the larynx that covers the trachea when you swallow

glottis

the space between the vocal folds

consonants

produced with a constriction somewhere in the vocal tract

vowels

at most only a slight narrowing; allow air to move freely through the oral cavity

monophthongs

simple vowels, composed of a single configuration of the vocal tract

diphthongs

single “vowels”, but composed of a sequence of two different vocal tract configurations

glides

sounds pronounced with little obstruction but require some movement of the articulators

liquids

some obstruction of airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real constriction or friction

bilabial

both lips close together

labiodental

lower lip against the upper front teeth

interdental

tip of the tongue protruding between the front teeth

alveolar

tongue tip at or near the front of the upper alveolar ridge

postalveolar

front of the tongue just behind the alveolar ridge

palatal

body of the tongue raised near the center of the hard palate

velar

body of the tongue approaching or touching the soft palate

glottal

air constricted at the glottis

fricative

forms a nearly complete obstruction of the vocal tract; the air escapes through a very small opening causing frication

nasal

produced by relaxing the velum and lowering it, causing the nasal passage to open

flap/tap

complete obstruction of the oral cavity, but faster than in a stop

stops/plosives

completely cuts off the airflow through the mouth before releasing it

rhythm

the tune of a language

stress-timed

syllables pronounced differently depending on where they fall in the sentence or word

syllable-timed

syllables are pronounced for roughly the same amount of time

mora-timed

similar to syllable timed, but CVV structures take longer to say than CV structures

intonation

the variation in pitch when someone is speaking

stress

the auditory prominence of a vowel or syllable

length

duration of a particular sound

phonetics

the study of how all human sounds are produced

phonology

the study of the sound constraints in one language

natural class

a group of sounds in a language that share one or more distinctive features

phonemic inventory

a language’s complete set of sounds and suprasegmentals

phones

individual sounds in a language

phonemes

phones that are meaningful in a language

minimal pairs

two words with different meanings that differ by only one sound

allophones

variants of a phoneme based on the environment it occurs in

contrastive distribution

when two sounds occur in the same phonetic environment and when using one vs. the other changes the meaning of the word (allophones of different phonemes)

complementary distribution

sounds that do not occur in the same phonetic environment and do not produce a different meaning (allophones of the same phonemes)

free variation

sounds occur in the same environment, but using one instead of the other does not produce a different meaning (allophones of the same phonemes)

sibilants

[s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ]

labials

[p, b, m, w, w̥, f, v]

obstruents

stops, fricatives, affricates

sonorants

nasals, liquids, glides, vowels

assimilation

causes a sound to become more like a neighboring sound with respect to some phonetic property

dissimilation

causes two close or adjacent sounds to become less similar with respect to some property

insertion

causes a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to the phonetic form of a word

deletion

eliminates from the phonetic form a sound that was present at the phonemic level

metathesis

changes the order of sounds to make words easier to pronounce or understand

strengthening

causes sounds to become stronger

weakening (lenition)

causes sounds to become weaker