ARTS1691 - Definitions
  1. A description of the speaker's competence (e.g. a list constructed of all their knowledge)
  2. The competence of a speaker
  • E.g. dindin, booboo.
Aphasia
Loss of ability to understand or express speech, due to brain damage
Transition Network
A graphical (network) representation of syntactic and semantic grammatical connections
Reduplication
The process of repeating part of a word or syllable with at most a slight modification. Often used in motherese.
Agrammatic
A form of speech aphasia which prevents you from speaking with correct grammar
Alphabetic Language
A language translated by ear.
Brain
All neurological structures above the spinal cord
Calque
A word translated from one language to another by literally translating each concept. E.g. Ubermensch to Superman.
Collocation
In frequency analysis, the return of appearances of multiple search terms together
Concordance
In frequency analysis, the return of search terms together with their immediate context
Content Words
Words with semantic context - nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Elision
The omission of a sound or syllable (often for purposes of sound flow)
Epenthesis
The addition of a sound or syllable (often for purposes of sound flow)
Euphemisms
Alternate, softer, words for taboo words.
Function Words
Words there purely for grammatical reasons - pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions
Garden Path Sentences
Anything designed to deliberately trick your mental parser into reading it wrong/confusingly
Grammar
Gyri
The folded out tissue of the cerebral cortex
Human Language Processing
Area of linguistics concerned with how we use linguistic competence in production and comprehension of language.
Interlinear Gloss
Words written in between the lines of a text to comment on the text or its translations (e.g. metawriting).
Intuition
Conscious application of knowledge/competence (e.g. when you look at a sentence and conclude it is wrong, without knowing quite why).
Kenning
A metaphorical compound phrase (e.g. oar-steed = ship)
Language
a dialect with an army and a navy. I.e. the dialect spoken by those in power becomes the language.
Lateralisation
When a cognitive function takes place in only one hemisphere it is said to be lateralised.
Linguistic Competence
What we know (basically see above)
Linguistic Determinism
(Rubbish). The theory (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) that our language controls how we understand our world.
Linguistic Knowledge
Knowledge of sound system, words and sentences+non-sentences
Linguistic Performance
How we use what we know in actual speech comprehension and production.
Linguistic Relativism
(Also rubbish). Weaker theory of linguistic determinism – speakers of different languages think about the world in different ways. Theories against this include bilinguality.
Longitudinal Fissure
the large fissure that runs from front to back of the cerebral cortex. It separates the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
Metathesis
Transposition of Sounds
Morphology
rules for word formation (e.g. “happiness” not “nesshappy”)
Neurolinguistics
Language and the Brain
Orthographical
A method of representing sounds of a language by transcribing them (essentially writing).
Paleography
The science of reading texts
Phonology
Rules for combining sounds into words (e.g. bat not abt)
Psycholinguistic Processing
the area of linguistics concerned with how we use linguistic competence in production and comprehension of language
Psycholinguistics
Language and the Mind
Referentiality
The ability to talk about things that aren't there. This distinguishes human language from others (except bees)
Retronyms
words combined to create a more clarified meaning of a phrase, based on differentiation from more common meanings.
Semantics
Rules for assigning meaning (agreed upon convention)
Slang
colloquial use of language.
Sound System
Knowledge of sounds within the language, and what sounds can start words, end words, and follow other sounds.
Sulci
The folded in tissue of the cerebral cortex
Superstratum
The language of the imposing nation/group of people.
Syntax
Rules for combining words → phrases → sentences (e.g. “the boy” not “boy the”)
Taboo
Acts that are forbidden, or at the least to be avoided. Sometimes referential words take on these taboo properties.
The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax
that the eskimoes have 234923490234 words for snow, which is wrong but also kind of irrelevant – English speakers who spend time in snow (skiers etc) have just as many words.
Universals
The features all languages have in common
Words (knowledge thereof)
Knowledge of the sound sequences that make up concepts and meanings, and of the arbitrary relationship between them (sounds and meanings).