Chapter 10

insertions of sounds

(e.g., "mischievious" instead of "mischievous" or "drownded" instead of "drowned)

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

-The linguistic-relativity hypothesis -states that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language. -The hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.

Pinker's Theory of Indirect Speech

1. Plausible deniability 2. Relationship negotiation 3. Language as a digital medium of indirect as well as direct communication

5 speech acts

1. Representative 2. Directive 3. Commissive 4. Expressive 5. Declaration (also termed performative)

Commissive

A commitment by the speaker to engage in some future course of action. Promises, pledges, contracts, guarantees, assurances, and the like all constitute commissives.

Representative

A speech act by which a person conveys a belief that a given proposition is true. The speaker can use various sources of information to support the given belief. But the statement is nothing more, nor less, than a statement of belief. Qualifiers can be added to show the speaker's degree of certainty.

Declaration (also termed performative)

A speech act by which the very act of making a statement brings about an intended new state of affairs

Expressive

A statement regarding the speaker's psychological state.

Directive

An attempt by a speaker to get a listener to do something, such as supplying the answer to a question. Sometimes a directive is quite indirect. For example, almost any sentence structured as a question probably is serving a directive function. Any attempt to elicit as- sistance of any kind, however indirect, falls into this category.

additive bilingualism

a second language is acquired in addition to a relatively well-developed first language

Speech acts

address the question of what you can accomplish with speech and fall into five basic categories, based on the purpose of the acts

linguistic universals

characteristic patterns across all languages of various cultures—and relativity

subtractive bilingualism

elements of a second language replace elements of the first language

anomaly view of metaphor

emphasizes the dissimilarity between the tenor and the vehicle

standard dialect

having higher status than non-standard ones

comparison view

highlights the importance of the comparison. underscores the comparative similarities and analogical relationship between the tenor and the vehicle. As applied to the metaphor, "Abused children are walking time bombs," the comparison view underscores the similarity between the elements: their potential for explosion.

domain-interaction view

integrates aspects of each of the preceding views. It suggests that a metaphor is more than a comparison and more than an anomaly

Similes

introduce the words like or as into a comparison between items (e.g., The child was as quiet as a mouse).

dialect

is a regional variety of a language distinguished by features such as vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation

Metaphors

juxtapose two nouns in a way that positively asserts their similarities, while not disconfirming their dissimilarities

simultaneous bilingualism

occurs when a child learns two languages from birth

sequential bilingualism

occurs when an individual first learns one language and then another

malapropism

one word is replaced by another that is similar in sound but different in meaning

linguicism

or stereotype based on dialect, may be quite widespread and can cause many interpersonal problems

Linguistic relativity

refers to the assertion that speakers of different languages have differing cognitive systems and that these different cognitive systems influence the ways in which people think about the world

single-system hypothesis

suggests that two languages are represented in just one system or brain region

dual-system hypothesis

suggests that two languages are represented somehow in separate systems of the mind

spoonerisms

the initial sounds of two words are reversed and make two entirely different words

substitution

the speaker substitutes one language element for another

reversal (also called "transposition")

the speaker switches the positions of two language elements

anticipation

the speaker uses a language element before it is appropriate in the sentence because it corresponds to an element that will be needed later in the utterance

perseveration

the speaker uses a language element that was appropriate earlier in the sentence but that is not appropriate later on

pragmatics

the study of how people use language

indirect requests

through which we make a request without doing so straightforwardly

cooperative principle

we seek to communicate in ways that make it easy for our listener to understand what we mean

lips of the tongue

—inadvertent linguistic errors in what we say. They may occur at any level of linguistic analysis: phonemes, morphemes, or larger units of language

monolinguals

—people who can speak only one language

bilinguals

—people who can speak two languages