Language Science

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Language Science
2012-05-18 14:25:06
Language Science

Exam 2
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  1. Semantics
    The study the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences.
  2. Pragmatics
    The study of how context and situation affect meaning.
  3. Tautology
    A sentence that is true in all situations; a sentences true from the meaning of its words alone, e.g., Kings are not female.
  4. Contradiction
    Describes a sentence that is false by virtue of its meaning alone, irrespectale of context, e.g., Kings are female.
  5. Paradox
    A sentence to which it is imposible to ascribe a true value, e.g., this sentence is false.
  6. Situational
  7. Entailment
    The relationship between two sentences, where the truth of one necessitates the truth of the other, e.g., Corday assassinated Marat and Marat is dead; if the first is true the second must be true.
  8. Anamolie
    A violation of semantic rules resulting in expressions that seem nonsensical; e.g., the verb crumpled the milk.
  9. Metaphore
    Nonliteral, suggestive meaning in which an expression that designmates one thing is used implicitly to mean something else; e.g., The night has a thousand eyes, to mean "One may be knowingly observes at night."
  10. Idiom
    An expression whos meaning does not conform to the principle of compositionality, that is, may be unrelated to the meaning of its parts, e.g., kick the bucket meaning "to die."
  11. Lexical Ambiguity
    Demonstrations of words which have multiple meanings dependent on context.

    Example: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
  12. Structural Ambiguity
    Structural ambiguity is a result of two or more different syntactic structures that can be attributed to one string of words. That means that a sentence is structurally ambiguous not because it contains a single lexeme that has several distinct meanings, but because the syntactic structure of the sentence causes multiple interpretations.

    Flying planes can be dangerous.

    This often quoted example of structural (also called syntactic) ambiguity comes from Noam Chomsky. Sentences that contain lexemes that change their word form or even word class depending on the sentence’s interpretation are part of this category. Flying planes in this example sentence may be understood as “to fly planes” as well as “planes, which fly”. Therefore, the lexeme flying can be interpreted as the gerund form of a verb in a verb phrase, or as an attribute of a noun phrase.
  13. Synonyms
    A word that means the same as another word, or more or less the same.

    'Movie' is a synonym of 'film'. In this example the former is more common in American English and the latter in British English.
  14. Homonyms
    A word that is written and pronounced the same way as another, but which has a different meaning.

    'Lie' can be a verb meaning to tell something that is not true or to be in a horizontal position. They look and sound the same, but are different verbs as can be seen from their forms:

    Lie-lied-lied (to say something untrue)

    Lie-lay-lain (to be in a horizontal position)
  15. Antonyms
    Two words are anonyms if their meanings differ for a single semantic feature

    Dead vs. alive

    The meanings of the number of an antonym pair are identical with opposite values of one semantic property
  16. Hyponymy
    A word that contains the meaning of a more general words

    A word whose meaning contains all the same features of another word in addition to other features

    Eg- miniature poodle contains the meaning of dog and therefore poodle is a hyponym for the superordinate dog

    There are a number of hyponyms for each superordinate
  17. Contradictory Pairs
    antonyms in which the presence of one quality or state signifies the absence of the other and vice versa.

    single/ married, not pregnant/pregnant

    There are no intermediate states.
  18. Gradable Opposites
    Pairs that describe opposite ends of a continuous dimension

    Old/young or hot/cold

    Members of a larger set of related words

    • Antonyms which allow for a gradual transition between two poles, the possibility of making a comparison--a little/a
    • lot good/bad, hot/ cold
  19. Relational Opposites
    antonyms which share the same semantic features, only the focus, or direction, is reversed:

    tie/untie, buy/sell, give/receive, teacher/pupil, father/son.
  20. Agent
    Someone (usually human/conscious/animate) that performs an action.

    For example, “John broke Meredith’s favorite computer game.”

    Meredith held a giant bug.

    Meredith is the Agent, because “holding” is a deliberate action.
  21. Theme
    The recipient of an action (generally, the recipient is termed “theme” if itdid not undergo a change as a result of the action, and as “patient” if it did).

    So, in “John broke Meredith’s favorite computer game,” “Meredith’s favorite computer game” is the patient because it was broken.

    In contrast, in “John gave Meredith a new computer game,” “Meredith” is the theme.
  22. Experiencer
    Someone that experiences some input (usually sensory).

    For example,“John heard Meredith through the radio”.

    John saw Meredith hold a giant bug from behind the pillar.

    John is the experiencer, because “seeing” is not a deliberate action.From behind the pillar is the source from which John performed his action.
  23. Instrument
    Something used to carry out the action.

    For example, “John broke Meredith’sfavorite computer game with a hammer.”
  24. Goal
    The direction of the action.

    For example, “John ran toward Meredith.”
  25. Source
    The location where the action originated.

    For example, “Meredith activated theweapon from a safe distance.”
  26. Implicature
    An inference based not only on an utterance, but also on assumptions about what the speaker is trying to achieve, e.g., Are you using the ketchup? to mean "Please pass the ketchup" while dining in a cafe.
  27. Mass Noun
    A mass noun is a noun whose referents are not thought of as separate entities.

    It may have distinguishing features such as the following:

    -The inability to take a plural form

    -Cooccurrence with some determiners (such as some and much), but not others (such as the English many)
  28. Count Noun
    count nouns can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by numerals, and can co-occur with quantificational determinerslike many, most, more, several, etc.

    • For example, the noun bike is countable noun.
    • Consider the following sentence: There is a bike in that garage. In this example, the word bike is singular as it refers to one bike that is presently residing in a particular garage. However, bike can also occur in the plural form.There are six broken bikes in that garage. In this example, the noun bikes refers to more than one bike as it is being modified by the numeral six.

    In addition, countable nouns can co-occur with quantificational determiners. In that garage, several bikes are broken.This sentence is grammatical, as the noun bike can take the modification of the quantificational determiner several.
  29. Statives
    A type of sentence that describes states of being such as Mary like soysters, as opposed to describing events such as Mary are oysters.
  30. Eventives
    A type of sentence that describes activities such as John kissed Mary, as opposed to describing states such as John knows Mary.
  31. Deitic Features of Language
    The reference (or lack of same) is ultimately context dependant. They require situational information for the listener to make a referential connection and understand what it means.
  32. Time Words
    The use of word to refer to time whose referense relies entirely on context, e.g., now, then, tomorrow, next month.
  33. Place Words
    The use of terms to refer to places whose references relies entirely on context, e.g., here, there, behind, next door.
  34. Exercises 2, 5, 6, 11, 14, 17, 22, 24, 25
  35. Phonetics
    The study of linguistic speech sounds, how they are produced (articulatory), how they are perceived (auditory), and their physical aspects (acoustic).
  36. Orthography
    The written form of a language, spelling.
  37. Distinctive Feature
    Phonetic properties of phonemes that acount for their ability to contrast meanings of words, e.g., voice, tense.
  38. Nondistinctive Feature
    Phonetic features of phones that are predictable by rule, e.g., aspiration in English.
  39. Aspiration
    the sound h as in English “hat.” Consonant sounds such as the English voiceless stops p, t, and k at the beginning of words (e.g.,“pat,” “top,” “keel”) are also aspirated because they are pronounced with an accompanying forceful expulsion of air. Such sounds are not aspirated at the end of words or in combination with certain consonants (e.g., in “spot,” “stop”).

    the /p/ in pigand repeatwill pronounce aspirated [ph],but in inspire, we have to pronounce unaspirated[p]
  40. Nasalization
    Nasalized vowels are allophones of the same phoneme in English. Take, for example, the sounds in bad and ban. The phoneme is /æ/, however the allophones are [æ] and [æ̃]. Yet in French, nasalized vowels are not allophones of the same phonemes. They are separate phonemes. The words beau [bo] and bon [bõ] are not in complementary distribution because they are minimal pairs and have contrasting sounds. Changing the sounds changes the meaning of the words. This is just one example of differences between languages.
  41. Stops
    obstruct airstream completely
  42. Liquids
    partial obstruction, no friction
  43. Fricatives
    partial obstruction with friction
  44. Affricatives
    stop airstream, then release
  45. Major Phonetic Classes (and terms)
    • All of the classes of sounds described above can be put into more general classes that include the patterning of sounds in the world's languages.
    • Continuant sounds indicate a continuous airflow, while non-continuant sounds indicate total obstruction of the airstream.

    Obstruent sounds do not allow air to escape through the nose, while sonorant sounds have a relatively free airflow through the mouth or nose.
  46. Consonants
    A speech sound produced with some constriction of the airstream.
  47. Vowels
    A sound produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the oral cavity.
  48. Stops
    [-continuant] sounds in which the airflow is breifly but completely stopped in the oral cavity.

  49. Voiced
  50. Unvoiced
  51. Prosodic Feature
    The duration (length), pitch, or loudness of speech sounds.
  52. Manner of Articulation
    The way the airstream is obstructed as it travels through the vocal tract. Stop, nasal, affricate, and fricative are examples.
  53. Place of Articulation
    The part of the vocal tract at which contriction occurs during the production of consonants.
  54. Intonation
    The pitch contour of a phrase or sentence.
  55. Pitch
    The fundamental frequency of sound perceived by the listener.
  56. How do intonation and pitch influence language?
    In many languages, the pitch of the vowel in the syllable is linguisticallysignificant. For example, two words with identical segments may contrast inmeaning if one has a high pitch and another a low pitch. Such languages are tone languages. There are also intonation languages in which the rise and fallof pitch may contrast meanings of sentences. In English the statement Mary is a teacher will end with a fall in pitch, but in the question Mary is a teacher? the pitch will rise.
  57. Exercises 5 and 9
  58. Phonology
    Whereas phonetics is the study of sounds and is concerned with the production, audition and perception of of speech sounds (called phones), phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language and operates at the level of sound systems and abstract sound units.
  59. Phonetics
  60. Phonemes
    The abstract basic units the differentiate words.
  61. Phones
    the phonetic sounds the occur in the language
  62. Allophones
    A predictable phonetic realization of a phoneme, e.g., [p] and [p^h] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ in English
  63. Minimal Pairs
    • 1. A minimally phonologically distinctive pair of words establishes a minimal distinctive linguistic sound, known as a PHONEME, from among the acoustically distinguishable
    • sounds in a language, known as the phones of the language.

    2. A minimal distinctive sound is one which can distinguish one word from another when all other sounds are identical. These p hones are said to be in CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION. To establish the phonemes of a language such MINIMAL PAIRS, two words differing in just one distinguishable sound (hence 'minimal'), must be found for all the phonemes.

    Minimal pairs are words with different meanings that have the same sounds except for one. These contrasting sounds can either be consonants or vowels. The words pin and bin are minimal pairs because they are exactly the same except for the first sound.
  64. Contrasting sounds
  65. Complementary Distribution of Sound
    The situation in which phones never occur in the same phonetic environment, e.g. [p] and [p^h] in English
  66. The purpose of Phonological Rules
    The function of the phonological rules in English is to provide the phonetic information necessary for pronunciation of utterances.

    Phonological rules exist in part to enforce phonotactic constraints.Optimal-ity Theory hypothesizes a set of ranked constraints that govern the phonologicalrules.

    The phonological rules in a language show that the phonemic shape of wordsis not identical with their phonetic form. The phonemes are not the actual pho-netic sounds, but are abstract mental constructs that are realized as sounds bythe operation of rules such as those described in this chapter. No one is taughtthese rules, yet everyone knows them subconsciously
  67. Assimilation Rules
    • sounds become more like neighboring sounds, allowing for ease of articulation or pronunciation; such as vowels are nasalized before nasal consonants
    • - Harmony: non-adjacent vowels become more similar by sharing a feature or set of features (common in Finnish)
    • - Gemination: sound becomes identical to an adjacent sound
    • - Regressive Assimilation: sound on left is the target, and sound on right is the trigger
  68. Dissimilation Rules
    sounds become less like neighboring sounds; these rules are quite rare, but one example in English is [fɪfθ] becoming [fɪft] (/f/ and /θ/ are both fricatives, but /t/ is a stop)
  69. Feature Changing Rules
    A rule that changes the feature specifications. In English, the [-nasal] value of vowels is changed to [+nasal] phonetically through an assimilation process when the vowels occur before nasals.
  70. Segment Insertion Rules
    adding a whole new segment

    random: athlete --> pronounced athalete

    systematic: plural /z/ ->/´z/ after another sibilant (s-type sound)
  71. Metathesis Rules
    reordering of phonemes; in some dialects of English, the word asked is pronounced [æks]; children's speech shows many cases of metathesis such as aminal for animal
  72. Explain how stress can change the meaning of a word or phrase, esp. with compounds.
    Stress is a property of the syllable rather than a segment; it is a prosodicor suprasegmental feature. To produce a stressed syllable, one may change thepitch (usually by raising it), make the syllable louder, or make it longer. We oftenuse all three of these phonetic means to stress a syllable

    When words are combined into phrases and sentences, one syllable receivesgreater stress than all others. That is, just as there is only one primary stress in a word spoken in isolation, only one of the vowels in a phrase (or sentence) receives primary stress or accent. All of the other stressed vowels are reduced tosecondary stress. In English we place primary stress on the adjectival part of acompound noun (which may be written as one word, two words separated by ahyphen, or two separate words), but we place the stress on the noun when thewords are a noun phrase consisting of an adjective followed by a noun. The dif-ferences between the following pairs are therefore predictable:

    tíghtrope (“a rope for acrobatics”) tight rópe (“a rope drawn taut”)Rédcoat (“a British soldier”) red cóat (“a coat that is red”)hótdog (“a frankfurter”) hot dóg (“an overheated dog”)Whíte House (“the President’s house”) white hóuse (“a house paintedwhite”
  73. Recognize and label the parts of a syllable.
    There are three peaks to a syllable: nucleus (vowel), onset (consonant before nucleus) and coda (consonant after nucleus.)

    The onset and coda are both optional, meaning that a syllable could contain a vowel and nothing else. The nucleus is required in every syllable by definition. The order of the peaks is always onset - nucleus - coda.
  74. Explain why slips of the tongue are evidence for phonological rules.
    in which we deviate in some way fromthe intended utterance, show phonological rules in action. We all make speech errors and they tell us interesting things about language and its use.
  75. Phonological Constraints in a Language
    Rules stating permissible strings of phonemes; within a syllable' e.g., a word-initial nasal consonant may be followed only by a vowel (in English).
  76. Lexical Gap
    Possible but not occuring words; forms that obey the phonotactic constraints of a language yet have no meaning, e.g., blick in English.