LING 102 Test 1 - Studying

What is generality?

• A property of language

• All languages have grammar or “systemic organization”

What is parity?

• A property of language

• All grammars are “equal”

What is universality?

• Property of language

• All grammars are alike in some ways

• For example consonants and vowels

What is mutability?

• A property of language

• All languages change over time

• For example: Old English vs middle English vs modern English (Shakespeare vs now)

What is inaccessibility?

• Property of language

• Grammar is subconscious

What is the difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammar?

• Prescriptive grammar - how people should or should not speak

• Descriptive grammar - how people do speak

What is an example of prescriptive grammar?

• No double negatives

• Never end a sentence with a preposition

What is a speech community?

A group of people who share a set of conventions for language use mutually intelligible

What is sociolinguistic marker?

A sociolinguistic marker is a linguistic feature that indicates the social background of a speaker, such as their social class, ethnicity, or gender. It is salient, meaningful and prominent.

What are some examples of sociolinguistic markers?

• pronunciation patterns

• word choice (In Canada we say things like, loonie, pop, toque…)

• grammatical structures

What is a sociolinguistic indicator?

A sociolinguistic indicator is a linguistic feature that reflects a social characteristic of a speaker, but these indicators do not have a socially evaluative meaning. It is not salient, you are less aware or may not be able to tell a difference

What is an example of sociolinguistic indicator?

• What is the difference between:

• I’m going to leave

• I’m leaving

• I’m gonna leave

• I’mma leave

What is a variable? (provide and example)

Two or more ways of saying something

• For example: the <th> sound in brother

What is a variant? (provide examples)

Each possible realization

• For example: Brother, brudder, bruvver, bro’er

What are the 2 ways variation is conditioned?

Linguistic and social factors constraints

Provide an example of linguistic and social factors constraints

• Variable: the deletion of <r> in some parts of the English speaking world (New York, Boston, etc…)

• Variants: r, r-drop

• Social factors: deletion is more common among less-educated speakers

• Linguistic: deletion is more common before a consonant than at the end of a word

What is probabilistic?

• A concept referring to the likelihood or chance of a certain event or behavior occurring.

• In linguistics, it can relate to how language variation is not absolute but often follows patterns of probability based on different linguistic or social factors.

• Speakers might not use it all of the time

What is the difference between standard and non-standard language?

• Standard = Official, formal and prestigious

• Non-standard = everything else (slang or pronunciation)

What is standard and non-standard language influenced by?

• Social factors (age, gender, class, education)

• Linguistic factors (context or phonetic environment)

• Multi-factorial (several factors come together to affect choice)

• Quantitative (we can count the outcome of probabilistic constraints)

What is dialect leveling?

• The reduction of differences between neighbouring dialects

• Geographically close varieties tend to become grammatically or structurally closer to one another

What is a localism?

A word, phrase, pronunciation, or manner of speaking that is peculiar to one locality

What is the effect of isolation on language? (Physical, Linguistic and social)

• Physical: Geographically distant form everyone

• Linguistic: cut off from other groups speaking mutually intelligible languages

• Social: Socio-cultural reasons prevent communication with other speakers

Explain the newfoundland isolation case study.

• Because it’s an island, it’s distant from mainland Canada, especially populated areas

• settled mostly from southwestern England and southeastern Ireland

• An example: boy in newfoundland English sound like bye

  • Diphthong merger

  • Interdental-alveolar merger

  • “After” perfective sense (I’m after doing it = I have just done it

What is shibboleth?

When the pronunciation of a single word becomes a setreotype for a speech community

• Example: Canadian english - eh, aboot

Explain the Quebec French isolation case study.

• In 1534 Jacques Cartier explores St. Lawrence

• In 1763 France cedes all but St. Pierre er Miquelon to great britain

• 255 years of linguistic isolation

• Didn’t participate in sound changes of France

  • France: moi [wa], Quebec: moé [oe]

  • Lots of lexical differences

Explain the African Nova Scotia English isolation case study.

• After the war of 1812, African Americans who has fought for the British settles in the Maritimes

• Some communities remained separate because of limited road and transportation + segregation

  • copula deletion: HE gunna go, He happy

  • Verbal -s marking: I goes

What is dialect levelling?

Dialects in contact move towards each other (towards a middle ground)

What is code switching?

• Common with people who are bilingual

• Switching between languages when speaking

• Sometimes stigmatized

• Common in highly proficient bilinguals

  • I guess que ça arrive

What are the 4 distinction within a community?

• Social class / socio-economic status

• Ethinicity

• Gender

• Style and situation

Explain the social class distinction in a community.

• Often in regards to income, education and occupation

• Higher social class correlates with greater use of prestige (and standard) variants

• Some societies have rigid rules for speakers of different status groups

Explain the ethnicity distinction in a community.

• Different ethnic groups often speak differently

  • Double negatives in AAE

  • No double negative in standard english

Explain the gender distinction in a community.

• Men are more affected by covert prestige (more masculine to defy the public norm)

  • More dominant, more factual than supportive in conversation

• Women are more in tune with new standard forms (pressure from above

• Women are socially at a disadvantage, so try to improve their situation through the use of powerful variety

  • More supportive, less dominant, better at turn taking

What is hypercorrection?

• Compensatory overuse of a variant because of its prestige

• Sign of linguistic insecurity

  • who & whom

What does IPA stand for?

International phonetic alphabet

What’s the difference between transcription and translation?

• Transcription = to change a message from one modality to another

• Translation = to change a message from one language to another

What do the lungs do in sound production?

Pump air through the rest of the vocal tract

What does the larynx do in sound production?

Cartilagenous structure that contains vocal folds

What do the vocal folds do in sound production?

Thin sheets of muscle that act as a valve

What is the glottis?

The opening between vocal folds

What is voicing?

As air goes through the larynx, the state of vocal cords affects the quality of sound

What are the places of articulation? (7)

• Lips

• Alveolar ridge

• Palate

• Velum

• Uvula

• Pharynx

• Glottis

What are the 2 articulators?

Tongue and lips

What’s the role of the nasal cavity in sound production?

Velopharyngeal port opens to allow resonance in nasal cavity

What are the sources of sound?

Lungs and Larynx

What are the filters of sound?

The oral cavity, nasal cavity and pharynx

What is pulmonic egressive?

It involves speech produced by the air leaving the lungs

What is a natural class? And what are some examples?

• Natural classes = groupings of sounds by phonetic features

  • Consonants & vowels

  • Voiced and unvoiced

What are suprasegmentals?

• Suprasegmentals are features of speech that extend over more than one segment of sound (such as phonemes).

• They include elements like intonation, tone, stress, and length which help convey meaning in spoken language.

What is pitch?

Perception of frequency (how high or low a sound is)

What is tone?

Differences in pitch that signals differences in meaning at the word level

What intonation?

Pitch movement that conveys broad meaning above the level if word, more part of sentence

What are the two types of intonation patterns in English?

• Terminal contour

  • Falling intonation

  • End of a statement

• Non-terminal contour

  • Rising intonation

  • List, turn talking questions

What is length?

The duration of a segment can be lengthened

• In italian (fato vs fatto)

What is stress?

• The prominence of a pronunciation, it’s a combination of pitch, loudness and length

• Transcribed using either a vertical line before the stressed syllable or an acute accent over the stressed vowel

**TRICK: the voice your mom uses to call you to dinner (diplomaaaatic, caaaaanada, banaaaaaana)

What is free stress and fixed stress languages?

• Fixed = the position if the stress is predictable

• Free = the position of the stress is not predictable. It must be learned for each word.

What are processes?

Sequences of segments involve complex muscular movements, the segments are not produced independently

• Examples:

  • bank - Velopharyngeal port opened early for [ŋ]

  • key - [k] articulated more forward in the mouth

What is assimilation?

• A process where adjacent sounds become more alike in articulatory terms

  • Assimilation for place of articulation: a sound takes om the same place of articulation as an adjacent sound

  • Assimilation for manner of articulation: a sound takes on the same manner of articulation as as an adjacent sound

  • Assimilation for voicing: a sound changes to match the voicing of an adjacent sound

What is the difference between progressive and regressive assimilation?

• Progressive: a sound affects a following sound

• Regressive: a sound affects a preceding sound

What is dissimilation?

A process were adjacent sounds become less alike in articulatory terms

• Ex: colonel, pronounced like kernel

What is haplology?

A subtype of dissimilation where the entire similar syllable is deleted

• Ex: library - [ laɪbɹi ]

What is deletion?

A process where a sound is removed or deleted (common in rapid speech)

• I will [aɪwɪl] vs I’ll [aɪl]

What is epenthesis?

A process where a sound is inserted within an existing string of segments

• Ex: in Japanese: McDonalds — makudonarudo

• Ex: in Hawaiian: Merry Christmas — mele kalikimaka

What is metathesis?

A process that reorders a sequence of sounds

• Ex: ask vs aks

• Ex: animal vs aminal

• Usually children say this

• Spoonerisms: Can I so you to another sheet (Can I show you to another seat)

What is vowel reduction?

A process where a full vowel is reduced, typically unstressed, to a schwa

• Ex: compete — competition

• Ex: phone — phonetic