Untitled Quiz

Analyzing English: Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics

• Phonetics is the study of sounds of language.
• There are three types of phonetics:
  • Articulatory phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced.
  • Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds.
  • Auditory phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived.
• The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a chart of symbols used to represent all the sounds of human language.
• Phonology is the study of the sound system of a language, investigating how sounds are organized.
• Phonemes are basic units of sound which have meaning, and can distinguish between words.
• Allophones are different ways of producing the same phoneme, which do not create a different meaning.
  • For example, in English, the /t/ sound can be aspirated (released with a puff of air) or unaspirated, depending on its context.
• Allophones are predictable variants of the same phoneme.
• Minimal pairs test for phonemes.
  • Minimal pairs are words that differ in exactly one sound in the same position, and have different meanings.
• Morphology is the study of word formation.
• Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language.
  • Morphemes can be either free or bound.
  • Free morphemes can stand alone, as a whole word (e.g., "cat", "run").
  • Bound morphemes cannot stand alone, and must be attached to other morphemes (e.g., "-ing", "-ed").
• Bound morphemes can be either inflectional or derivational.
  • Inflectional morphemes change the grammatical function of a word, such as tense, number, or case (e.g., "-s", "-ed", "-ing").
  • Derivational morphemes create new words, often by changing the word's category or meaning (e.g., "-ness", "-ly", "-er").
• Syntax studies how words are combined into phrases and sentences.
• Constituents are units of a sentence that are grouped together.
• Phrase structure rules describe the hierarchical organization of constituents in a sentence.
• Semantics is the study of meaning in language.
• Lexical semantics studies the meanings of individual words.
• Sentence semantics studies the meanings of sentences.
• Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in context.
  • For example, pragmatics investigates how speakers take into account factors such as the relationship between the speaker and the listener, the setting, and the shared knowledge between them.
• Discourse analysis is the study of language in context.
• Language variation refers to differences in language that occur between speakers and groups of speakers.
• Dialects are variations of a language that are specific to a particular region or social group.
• Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society.
• Language acquisition is the process by which children learn to speak their native language.
  • Children generally learn language through interaction with their caregivers and other speakers.
  • They use a variety of strategies to learn language, including imitation, hypothesis testing, and analogy.
• Language change refers to the changes that occur in language over time.
• Language contact refers to the interaction between languages.
• Language families are groups of related languages that share a common ancestor.
• Historical linguistics is the study of language change and the relationships between languages.