Average Process
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Define synchronic linguistics:
Viewing of a language at a particular state at some given point in time (present-day english)
What 7 aspects characterise a human language?
1. Productivity - being able to produce virtually endless numbers of new words/phrases (to 'google' something)
2. Displacement - having a sense of past and future and being able to communicate about it
3. Creativity and Flexibility - Human language more creative and more flexible (jokes/lies/poetry/sarcasm)
4. Stimulus freedom - humans have the ability to say anything they want in any context
5. Arbitrariness - words and their meaning have no natural connection (eagle/Igel, Gift in ger/eng)
6. Vocal tract - only humans possess and organ complex enough to produce human language
7. The need for learning - humans brought up in isolation never learn languages
2. Displacement - having a sense of past and future and being able to communicate about it
3. Creativity and Flexibility - Human language more creative and more flexible (jokes/lies/poetry/sarcasm)
4. Stimulus freedom - humans have the ability to say anything they want in any context
5. Arbitrariness - words and their meaning have no natural connection (eagle/Igel, Gift in ger/eng)
6. Vocal tract - only humans possess and organ complex enough to produce human language
7. The need for learning - humans brought up in isolation never learn languages
What are the three branches of phonetics and what to they entail?
1. Articulatory: How/where are speech sounds produced?
2. Acoustic: Examination of length, frequency and pitch of sounds
3. Auditory: What happens inside the ears/brain when speech sounds are finally received?
2. Acoustic: Examination of length, frequency and pitch of sounds
3. Auditory: What happens inside the ears/brain when speech sounds are finally received?
What are the 4 manners of articulation?
1. stops: airstream is stopped and let go abruptly (p/t/k)
2. Fricatives: airstream is almost blocked and escapes through a narrow opening (f/s)
3. Nasals: airstream escapes through the nose (m/n)
4. Approximants: one articulator approaches another (tongue to alveolar ridge --> L)
2. Fricatives: airstream is almost blocked and escapes through a narrow opening (f/s)
3. Nasals: airstream escapes through the nose (m/n)
4. Approximants: one articulator approaches another (tongue to alveolar ridge --> L)
What are the 5 places of articulation?
1. bilabials: both lips (m)
2. Labiodentals: lower lip, upper teeth (f)
3. dentals: tongue, teeth (th)
4. alveolars: tongue, alveolar ridge (d)
5. velars: tongue to velum (g)
2. Labiodentals: lower lip, upper teeth (f)
3. dentals: tongue, teeth (th)
4. alveolars: tongue, alveolar ridge (d)
5. velars: tongue to velum (g)
The speech sounds within a language
What is phonology concerned with?
What is a Phoneme?
The smallest (distinctive) unit that distinguishes meaning
e.g.: bit/pit
e.g.: bit/pit
What are Allophones?
Variations of a phoneme that do not distinguish meaning ( dance - BE/AE)
What are minimal pairs?
Pairs of words that only differ in one Phoneme (pat/fat, tape/tale...)
What is Morphology concerned with?
The form of words.
What are Morphemes?
The smallest units that carry meanings
What is the difference between 'free' and 'bound' morphemes?
Free: can stand alone (cat,tree...)
Bound: Cannot stand alone, need to be attached to another free form (-ed, re-, -s)
Bound: Cannot stand alone, need to be attached to another free form (-ed, re-, -s)
What are bound morphemes also called? How are the 4 types called
Affixes
1. Prefix
2. Infix (non-existent in standard english)
3. Suffix
4. Circumfix (non-existent in standard english)
1. Prefix
2. Infix (non-existent in standard english)
3. Suffix
4. Circumfix (non-existent in standard english)
What is an Allomorph? give examples.
The variation of a morpheme
e.g.: walk --> walked / go --> went
kid --> kids / child --> children
e.g.: walk --> walked / go --> went
kid --> kids / child --> children
What is Inflectional Morphology?
Not concerned with the creation of words, but with grammatical variations of existing words.
What is Word Formation concerned with?
How we form new words in a language.
What is the difference between Derivation and Compounding?
Derivation is the combination of one free and one or several bound morphemes, while compounding is created by combining two or more free morphemes
What are the 3 types of compounds?
1. Endocentric: an instance of the thing/state denoted by the last constituent (Blackboard)
2. Exocentric: doesn't refer to an entity by either constituent (Bigfoot/Skinhead)
3. Copulative: refer to the entity denoted by the whole compound (singer-songwriter)
2. Exocentric: doesn't refer to an entity by either constituent (Bigfoot/Skinhead)
3. Copulative: refer to the entity denoted by the whole compound (singer-songwriter)
What is coinage?
The invention of new words (Tempo, Aspirin)
What is conversion?
The change in the function of a word --> when a noun is used as a verb (must, paper)
What is Acronymy?
Acronyms that turned into words (LASER/NATO/RADAR)
What is Backformation?
A word of one type is used to form another word of a different type (donate-donation, baby-babysit...)
What is Blending?
Taking the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of another word (Smog- Smoke&Fog)
What is Clipping?
A word of more than one syllable that is shortened (Ad(vertisement))
What is borrowing?
Taking words from another language (Wanderlust, Rucksack)
What are Semantics concerned with?
The study of meanings
What is the difference between Lexical-, Sentence- and Pragmatic Semantics?
Lexical Semantics are concerned with the meaning of words, sentence semantics with the meaning of sentences and pragmatic semantics with the meaning in context.
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
Denotation is the class of things to which a word refers, connotation is the association people have with this word (dove-peace)
What is the 'range of application'?
The stylistic and grammatical circumstances under which words are used.
What is the lexical field?
Words in our lexical field are semantically related/related in meaning
What is Synonymy? Are there any true Synonyms?
Synonyms are words with the exact same meaning, but they are extremely rare in any language (Trisomy 21/Down's Syndrome)
What is an Antonym?
The opposite meaning of a word (hot/cold)
What is the difference between Hyponymy and Hyperonomy?
Hyponymy is a subordinate relationship, Hyperonomy is a superordinate relationship
What are Homonyms and what ate the 2 types?
Words that look and sound the same but have a different meaning (bat/bat)
1. Homophones; sound the same but are spelled differently (meat/meet)
2. Homographs; written the same but pronounced differently (lead)
1. Homophones; sound the same but are spelled differently (meat/meet)
2. Homographs; written the same but pronounced differently (lead)
What is Polysemy?
A word that has one pronunciation/spelling but different meanings (foot)
What is a metaphor?
The extension of the literal sense of words (dove-peace)
What is the politeness theory?
The speaker's intention to mitigate face threats (maintaining one's image)
What is a 'face threatening' act?
Act, which damages one's public image (insult, physical violence...)
Besides the politeness theory, what are other topics within pragmatics?
Humor, speech-act-theory and Conversational Implicature (co-operative principal)
What is 'Grice's Maxime'?
The idea that speakers shape their utterances to be understood by their listeners, with 4 underlying rules
1. quality - truthfulness
2. quantity - provide as much information as needed
3. relevance - should relate to the purpose of the conversation
4. manner - avoiding ambiguity, clear expression
1. quality - truthfulness
2. quantity - provide as much information as needed
3. relevance - should relate to the purpose of the conversation
4. manner - avoiding ambiguity, clear expression
What is a sentence?
A grammatical unit that is composed of one or more clauses (consisting of at least one subject and one predicate)
What is 'acceptability' in syntax?
A grammatically correct sentence that makes no sense regardless.
What are Coordinate/compound sentences?
Consist of two or more clauses, joined by words like 'and'
What are Sociolinguistics?
The study of the connection between language and society, concerned with the variation in language
What is the difference between a dialect and an accent?
Dialect: regional language variation on level of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary
Accent: a regional language variation on the level of pronunciation
Accent: a regional language variation on the level of pronunciation
What is special about the cockney dialect?
the rhyming slang
Where is Brummie/Scouse/Geordie spoken?
Brummie - Birmingham, Scouse - Liverpool, Geordie - Birmingham
Aside from pronunciation, what differs America from the UK?
AE is more homogenous
What is 'AE morphology'?
the tendency to use nouns as verbs (to feature...)
What is the Lingua Franca?
A language both parties speak
What is a pidgin?
derived by mixing various features of 2 or more languages, vocabulary and grammar are limited
What is a creole? Give an example
More elaborate pidgin, grammar and vocabulary developed over course of generations
e.g.: afrikaans
e.g.: afrikaans
What is AAVE and how was it popularized?
Black English Vernacular, popularized through rap/hiphop
What do applied linguistics try to find solutions to?
language related real-life problems
What does language acquisition go hand in hand with?
learning grammar
What do scientists mean by the LAD?
The language acquisition device we develop as children, which gets weaker with age
What are the three stages of learning to speak in young children?
1. Single words and phrases (1. birthday)
2. 2-word phrases, verb and subjective (2. birthday)
3. Longer utterances lacking in granmar (after 2. birthday)
2. 2-word phrases, verb and subjective (2. birthday)
3. Longer utterances lacking in granmar (after 2. birthday)
What is aphasia? What are the 2 types?
disorder in the ability to process or produce spoken language
Broca's aphasia: comprehension not impaired
Wernicke's aphasia: comprehension and speech impaired
Broca's aphasia: comprehension not impaired
Wernicke's aphasia: comprehension and speech impaired
When does the Old English Period begin?
449 A.D.
What are Germanic tribes that invaded England?
Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Frsians
What are the 7 Kingdoms called?
Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Kent, Northumbria, East Angles and Mercia
Which English king managed to defeat the Vikings?
Alfred the Great
What are the linguistic influences on OE?
French, latin, scandi languages
What differences are there between OE and MDE?
Freer word order in OE
cases and genders of nouns
strong or weak verbs (irregular/grammatical),
absence of French vocabulary
cases and genders of nouns
strong or weak verbs (irregular/grammatical),
absence of French vocabulary
When did the Middle English period begin?
1066-1450
What were the 3 languages spoken in the ME period?
latin,french,english
How did ME develop?
reduction of inflections
borrowing of french words (~10k)
increasingly fixed word order
borrowing of french words (~10k)
increasingly fixed word order
What is the most important piece of literature in ME?
The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
What is the GVS?
Great vowel shift
Long vowels were raised or turned into Diphthongs (Zwielaute)
Long vowels were raised or turned into Diphthongs (Zwielaute)
Who was the most important author of the ME Period?
William Shakespeare
When did the Modern English Period begin?
~1800
What happened in the MDE Period?
Scientific vocabulary, AE became dominant variety of the language, colonial english became 'new englishes'