Week 1 & 2 : Ling 2301

What are the 8 inflectional morphemes?

-'s s (plural) s ( third person singular, present tense) ing ed en est er

What is an example of a single letter representing more than one sound

/x/. /ks/ /gz/ like in exam

How many morphemes does the word catapult have?

1

What are some of the problems involved in the one-to-one sound to-symbol correspondence in English orthography.

1.) A letter sometimes represents one sound, other times a different sound. 2.) A single letter represents more than one sound 3.) a letter represents no sound at all 4.) A sound sometimes is represented by one letter, other times a different letter 5.) A single sound is represented by more than one letter (a digraph)

What are the five myths about language?

1.) Children learn to speak through explicit teaching or memorization 2.) Animals have language just like humans 3.) Reading and writing are an essential part of language 4.) Some languages/dialects are more complex or better than others 5.) Languages deteriorate over time

Why is human language more unique compared to animals?

1.) Human language can be recursive by embedding one phrase or sentence into another. Ex: "she swallowed the spider to catch the fly, and I don't know why she swallowed the fly. 2.) Human lang. is creative and productive. Can make sentences and words that not has ever heard before. 3.) Human lang. is more abstract than animal in the sense that we can talk about past, future, and hypothetical events and entities. (displacement)

What are the three myths about linguistics?

1.) Linguists speak all the languages 2.) Linguists correct/criticize how people talk 3.) Linguistic/grammar rules include things like don't split infinitives, don't use ain't

Dialect survey

1.) the person's speech need to be a representation of the region's dialect 2.) Tend to be NORMS

how many morphemes does the word grandmother have?

2

how many morphemes does the word airsickness have?

3

how many morphemes does the word denationalize have?

4

What is a functional morpheme?

A functional morpheme are conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns, all the extra little parts in the sentece

What is language?

A language like English, French, Japanese etc . is an accumulation of all the unconscious rules in the brains of all the speakers who can understand each other.

Are some languages harder to learn than others?

All depends on what you know. Some languages that are straightforward in one area are difficult in others. For example a language with fewer sounds will usually have longer words.

Do languages get worse (deteriorate) over time?

All living languages change over time. We are constantly borrowing and that does not make it inferior or corrupt. They will simply get adapted into the system.

Do animals have language like humans do?

Animals can communicate ( bees communicate food and distance and dogs can recognize emotions and toys) but it is not on the level of human communication.

People who know two languages are known as what?

Bilingual. ( a member of a minority group grows up in one linguistic community but learns another language in order to take part in the larger dominant linguistic community.

Different spellings for this phoneme [k]

Candy, Kite, Queen

What is an example of a letter sometimes representing one sound, other times a different sound

Ceiling [s] , Carrot [k]

How do children learn to speak languages?

Children learn language just from exposure to it. They produce language baed on figuring out linguistic patterns. Children use a lot of irregular forms such as eated, foots even though they have only ever heard "went, ate , and feet" . Sometimes they will resist teaching of language.

Different spelling for [s]

Citing, Psychology

What is the name of the system used to transcribe words phonetically?

International Phonetic Alphabet

What is an accent?

It is restricted to the description of aspects of pronunciation that identify where an individual speaker is from (regionally or socially)

What is a morpheme?

It is the smallest unit of meaning

What is dialect?

It is used to describe features of grammar and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation

What is language?

Language is an arbitrary, conventionalized association between a symbol and a meaning (there is no necessary connection between the meaning of a word and how it is represented in a language.)

What is linguistics? What is a linguist? What do linguists do?

Linguists is the study of human language, as we actually speak it, both in terms of an individual language spoken by an indiv. person and what that tells us about language in general. Linguists analyze language how it exists not how some people wish exists. Linguists analyze the part of grammar that is automatic and generally subconscious. Linguists look @ the sounds of lang. and analyses the words based on their sounds.

_______ is generally how linguists distinguish languages from dialects, although in practice there are also social factors at play.

Mutual intelligibility.

What is the difference between language and dialects?

Mutual intelligibility. There will be general similarities that we can all understand each other and can thus be said to speak the same language. Dialects are more of a spoken vernacular. Example: Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible, they're spoken in different countries so people call them languages while Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible at all but are sometimes both referred to as Chinese.

what is the structural analysis of a basic English sentence

NP V NP

Does spelling reflect the whole language?

No because it misses important aspects like prosody ( the intonational pattern of a sentence or phrase).

What are NORMS (dialect survey)

Non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers

What is the relationship between writing and language?

Not all languages are written. Spoken and sign lang. (for young children) is acquired naturally without much effort while reading and writing can take years of teaching and effort. Writing is idiosyncratic and doesn't reflect everything about spoken language. Spelling is also always changing (complicated and inconsistent).

What is grammar?

Our Mental grammar is the system of unconscious rules and patterns behind how we speak. We are not formally taught mental grammar because we can understand words and sentences we have never heard before.

Different spelling for [f]

PHone , Fone, Phony, Funny

What is an example of a sound sometimes is represented by one letter, other times by a different letter.

PHone and Fone

For consonants, sounds can be described in three different ways (describing some kind of articulation)

Place of articulation, voicing, manner of articulation.

What is a derivational morpheme

Prefixes (unhappy), and suffixes (happiness).

What is an example of a letter representing no sound at all?

Psychology, Gnat

How many vowels are there in English?

Rough estimate of like 10-15

If we're talking about spoken language, words are made up of ___ , not letters.

Sounds

The most common worder order for Japanese is

Subject Object Verb

different spelling for [sh sign]

Sugar, Shine, staTion , Chef, Sean, Ocean, SpeCial, Tissue

What is an example of a single sound represented by more than one letter?

TH

What is an inflectional affix

They show if a word is singluar , plural, past tense or not There are only eight

Why are minimal pairs important?

They show that certain sounds contrast with one another

For vowels, sounds can be described by the position of the

Tongue?

T/F we all have an accent

True

The basic articulatory difference between vowels and consonants is

Vowels allow air to go through and there is a more open vocal tract.

What makes English and French different languages?

What makes these two different languages is the people who are able to understand each other. ( i think ? no se)

Are some languages more complex than others? Are some dialects better than others?

What seems "complicated" to us depends on what you already know. Example: if you speak a language that already has tone or cake marking , these concepts will be easy to you but if you have not been exposed to them then they will be difficult. Languages or dialects that people think of as "better" reflect a social (and often racist) judgement about who has power or who is considered more important, not anything intrinsic about the language itself.

A particular grouping of consonants and vowels together, the most basic example is just one consonant followed by one vowel. If a language allows two consonants together the beginning of a word, then its ______ permits ______________, as English does, for example in the word.

a consonant cluster?

When a number of isoglosses come together in this way, a more solid line, indicates what?

a dialect boundary

What is a lexical morpheme?

a lexical morpheme are the parts of the sentence that have meaning

What is a free morpheme?

a morpheme that can stand alone

Speakers who move back and forth across this border using different varieties with some ease may be described as what?

bidialectal

How do we do linguistic geography?

by investigating aspects of language variation based on where that language is used.

Regional variation actually exists along a _____ rather than having sharp breaks from one region to the next

dialect continuum.

What do dialect boundaries tend to obscure

dialect or language variety merges into another

What is a bound morpheme?

do not convey meaning by themselves, must be joined with free morphemes

different ways to pronounce <ea>

eat, heaven

different ways to pronounce <e>

elephant, peter, lemur,

different spelling for [aI] "eye" sound

eye, price, die , lie,

different sound for [i]

feet, leap,

different spelling for [u]

food, Buoy,

different ways to pronounce <g>

giraffe, good

<h>

hello, heaven

What are the functional morphemes in this sentence? When she walked into the room, the doctor asked me if I had a sore throat or an annoying cough.

into, the , the , if, a, or, an, she, I

What is a line across a map separating the two areas?

isogloss

What is the Standard Language?

it is the idealized variety because it has no specific region. It is largely used. This SL is associated with education, administrative etc.

What does the * represent in sentences like "bit the dog the man

it means that it is ungrammatical

<gh> pronounce

laugh, ghost, thorough

which one has a different vowel sound in : pen said death mess mean

mean

A pair of words that differ in just one sound, like bat and pat are called what?

minimal pairs

Diphthongs are

more than one vowel. like ei , ai, au , ou

which one has a different vowel sound in : sane paid eight lace must

must

<o>

oxygen, over,

what do they share [p] and [b]

place and manner

what features do these phonemes share: [z] and [s]

place and manner

What are the consequences of NORM?

resulting dialect description tends to be more accurate of a period well before the time of investigation.

what is constituent analysis

shows how small constituents go together to form larger consituents

Why are NORM speakers choosen the way they are??

speakers selected are less likely to have outside influences in speech

which one has a different vowel sound in : meat steak weak theme green

steak

What is dialectology

the study of dialects.

<ou>

though, sound, could, pour, rough, bought, soup, joust

What are the aims of the surveys taken?

to find a number of significant differences in the speech of these living in different areas and to be able to chart these areas (with isoglosses)

What feature do these phonemes share: [m] and [n]

voice and manner

<y>

yell, happy

different spelling for [z]

zebra,