What is Language
How many languages are spoken in the world today?
6000-7000
The study of sounds in a language is called
Phonology
What ability related to language do babies begin to lose at about six months?
Hearing sounds that are not in their environment
Language is important not only for communication, but also for
Thinking
The video in Module 2 "Ten surprising ways to offend people in other countries" shows examples of which form of communication?
Kinesics or body language. Broader term, paralanguage
Which language is spoken in the most countries today?
English
Morphology is
combinations of sounds that have meaning
Can babies learn more than one language from birth?
Yes
"We see the world through the categories of our language" is an academic observation called
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Meaning of words can be changed by the way they are spoken. This is called
Tone and character of voice
Which language is spoken by the most people in the world today?
Mandarin Chinese
How words are combined to make sense is called
Syntax
The best time to learn a second language is
Early childhood
Native Northwest Canadian populations have 13 terms for snow, while Southern Californians have only 2. How does this support the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
The environment in which the Canadians live is snowy and cold, so snow is highly relevant to them, reflected in their language. Californians' scarce experience snow is reflected in their language.
What does "proxemics" mean in the field of communication?
Study of interaction distances and culturally defined uses of space
There are no primitive languages but technologically advanced cultures generally develop larger...
Vocabularies
Grammar consists of
morphology and syntax
"I'm going to the FIU Green Libreria" is an example of
Linguistic interference: "libreria" is "bookstore" in Spanish. "Library" is "biblioteca"
While having only 2 words for snow, Southern Californians have a multitude of terms for an activity that Northwest Canadians would not understand. What is the activity?
Surfing
Power and position
Switching quickly back and forth between dialects or languages is called
diglossia or code-switching
For which language is word order particularly important?
English
When a child learning English says "I eated the ice cream", it is an example of
Over-simplification of grammar
Classifications can be affected by perceptions related to gender. Describe one such classification.
Women have more terms related to color than men.
Suspending one's ethnocentric judgments in order to understand and appreciate another culture is called
Cultural relativity