Linguistics and Studying Language
What are the four key linguistic principles outlined in the textbook?
1. Language is governed by rules.
2. All languages are created equal.
3. Language changes.
4. Language varies.
What is standard language ideology?
A bias toward an abstracted, idealized, homogenous spoken language which is imposed and maintained by dominant bloc institutions and which names as its model the written language, but which is drawn primarily from the spoken language of a dominant group.
How are consonants diffentiated?
1. Place of articulation (where is airflow constriction occurring)
2. Manner of articulation how is airflow constriction occurring)
3. Voicing (voiced or voiceless)
What does status and solidarity mean in perceptual dialectology research? What paired terms do linguists ask to inquire about them?
Status: speakers who use standard language varieties considered to be prestigious throughout the community are rated higher for traits related to status, such as intelligence, ambition, and confidence.
Solidarity: Speakers of nonstandard dialects, while rated low for issues of status, are commonly given high ratings for traits associated with solidarity, such as depend- ability, sociability, and trustworthiness
Correct and pleasant (Think back to your draw-a-map task)
What is slang?
Informal vocabulary that sends social signals. Often ephemeral, often used to signal in-group membership.
What's the difference between phonetics and phonology?
Phonetics: the study and classification of the physical characteristics of speech (articulatory)
Phonology: The sound system of a language comprising the sounds that are considered distinct in a given language
Define grammar.
Grammar is the set of rules for how a language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers.
What is the difference between consonants and vowels?
Vowels are speech sounds produced with an open vocal tract.
Consonants are speech sounds produced with at least a partial obstruction somewhere in the vocal tract.
Explain linguistic security and insecurity.
Linguistic security: the feeling of comfort, confidence, and belonging in one's linguistic practices, where a speaker believes their language use is valid and accepted, free from discrimination or prejudice
Linguistic insecurity: the anxiety or self-consciousness speakers feel about their language use, driven by a belief that their speech or writing is inferior or doesn't conform to perceived societal standards
Define prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar. Generally, when people say grammar, which one are they referring to?
Prescriptive grammar: the rules of language that dictate a formal, standard usage
Descriptive grammar: the rules of naturally occurring speech
People usually mean prescriptive.
Linguists concern themselves with determining which structures in a language are grammatical and which are ungrammatical, rather than focusing on the aesthetic judgments of prescriptive grammar. In other words, linguists are interested in what native speakers do say, as opposed to prescriptivists, who are interested in dictating what speakers should or should not say.
What is the difference between an accent and a dialect?
An accent is the way in which speakers of a particular variety pronounce words and the rules that govern these pronunciations.
A dialect is a variety of language associated with a specific region or social group. Dialects are distinguished from one another by variations in their lexicon, phonology, morphology, and syntax.
What is a grammaticality judgement?
A grammaticality judgement is a speaker’s evaluation of whether a sentence is well-formed in their language.
When people produce speech that adheres to the rules of a particular language or dialect, we say they are following the grammar of that linguistic system. If an utterance follows these rules, it is grammatical; if it does not follow these rules, the utterance is ungrammatical.
Native-speaker competence and community practice are what determine grammar.
What is a minimal pair and why do we care?
A minimal pair is a pair of words that are identical except for one sound in the same position, and that difference changes the meaning. (determining if sounds are phonemes)
Being able to test whether two sounds are different phonemes are helpful for laying out a language's phonology, studying under-documented languages, and second-language learning + speech therapy.
What is matched-guise methodology?
The methodological twist was that while the judges believed they were listening to and evaluating different speakers, they were actually hearing a set of bilingual speakers, each reading the passage twice, once in French and once in English. Lambert’s hypothesis was that if the two readings of a single speaker were judged differently, and the only factor that differed between the readings was the language spoken, then the differences in the evaluations were really a reflection of the attitudes toward the languages themselves, not of the speakers.
True or False: Idiolect is best defined as an individual's variety of language that incorporates all of the dialects they've encountered of that one language.
An idiolect is an individual variety of language that incorporates all of the linguistic varieties—languages and dialects—that a person knows and uses. Idiolects are based on the native language, acquisition of other languages, personal characteristics and identities, physical characteristics, etc.
Language is an ___, _____, _________ system of sounds/signs for communication within a linguistic community. Fill in the gaps and explain each.
open, arbitrary, conventional.
Open: they allow speakers to adopt new forms, to avoid forms they consider obsolete, or to use old structures in new ways, for example, by creating or borrowing new words for novel concepts, by varying their pronunciation, or by expanding or limiting their range of meanings.
Arbitrary: there is no inherent link between sound and meaning
Conventional: it relies on speakers to agree (often unconsciously) on the relationship between a word and its meaning.
What does it mean for something to be a language authority? Give two examples of careers where individual people have language authority. For double points, name 5.
A language authority is a person, institution, or social system that is treated as having the legitimate right to say what counts as “proper,” “correct,” or “standard” language—and to make that judgment matter socially.
Examples: K-12 English teacher, citizenship officer (interviewing), news presenters, technical writers, lexicographer, copy editor, court translator, etc.
Native-speaker competence and community practice are what determine grammar; authority is about status, standardization, and policing.
Define the following terms: phone, phoneme, allophone, morpheme, lexicon, shibboleth
Phone: a distinct, produced speech sound. [t]
Phoneme: the smallest contrastive sound unit in a language (abstract category) ex. /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes because pat and bat have different meanings.
Allophone: different pronunciations of the same phoneme-- context-dependent pronunciation variant of a phoneme. ex. /t/ in top, butter, and water. (alveolar stop vs. flap)
Morpheme: The smallest meaning-bearing unit in a language. ex. (-s, bound), (cat, free), un-happy (derivational)
Lexicon: one's mental inventory of words + morphemes, also a language's set of lexical items. (Your lexicon as well as the English lexicon)
Shibboleth: A linguistic feature (a word, pronunciation, grammar choice, etc.) that acts as a social marker of group membership—used to identify insiders vs. outsiders (region, ethnicity, class, religion, etc.) Ex: (Appalachia), (Dacula, GA). (Houston Mill Rd), (Atlanta), (Macon), (Dahlonega)
We discussed an analogy for language change in the class+readings. What was the analogy, and what are 3 distinct reasons that it fits with language change?
A lava lamp. While we know that language will continue to change, 1. we do not know the exact direction or outcome of the change, but all forms are equally good. 2. Any living language is slowly changing, there is no ceasing unless a language dies (unplugged lava lamp). 3. Though things are lost, nothing is lost nor is nothing broken— only changed. 4. New structures form and break away, others become new things, etc. 5. Should be observed and enjoyed.
What are the four stages of standardization?
selection, codification, elaboration, acceptance
What are the 5 areas of linguistic analysis we've talked about in this class? Give a 1-2 word definition next to each.
For double points, do the same for orthography, etymology, and lexicography.
Syntax (sentence structure)
Semantics (meaning)
Morphology (word formation)
Phonology (sound system)
Phonetics (speech production)
Orthography (writing system)
Etymology (word origin)
Lexicography (compiling dictionaries)
Define grammatical. What does grammatically correct mean in the context of grammaticality?
Grammatical: adhering to the rules of a language/dialect; well-formed and accepted by native/fluent speakers.
In the phrase grammatically correct, the word correct implies a conforming to a prescriptive standard. Correctness isn't a real quality to grammaticality. If native/fluent speakers of a variety consider an utterance well-formed, then its grammatical.
Describe Tamasi's pile sort method: generally, what was the methodology and findings?
Methodology: Rather than marking dialect areas on a map, respondents sorted a deck of 50 cards, each bearing the name of a US state, into piles according to where they believed people speak similarly versus differently from one another. Not limited by geographic orientation, but couldn't subdivide states.
Findings: showed that folk perceptions of American dialects are not geographically cohesive, including the South which is typically most distinct (not the finding here). Wackier associations and connections between states, how much stuff goes into language attitudes/perceptions
Name one pro and one con of standardization.
Pro: Standardization eases communication. Language can vary to a point where dialects within that language become mutually unintelligible, and standardization helps keep communication consistent across a linguistic community. Governments, courts, education, etc. greatly benefit from standardization of English.
Con: Linguistic systems not selected as the standard are subsequently marked as nonstandard/ substandard, dialects that are equal in terms of their linguistic structure become unequal socially, pedagogically, and sometimes politically. Standardization creates a hierarchy in which nonstandard dialects occupy unequal societal prestige as they lack the weight of those social, political, and educational support structures behind it.