A

alphabetic writing - written symbols representing a single sound

arbitrariness - no natural connection between sound and its meaning; the writing form

has no iconic relationship with the real concept

articulatory phonetics - study about how speech is made (`articulated')

acoustic phonetics - deals with the physical properties of speech when sound waves `in

the `air'

auditory (perceptual) phonetics - perception of sounds via the ear

alveolars - front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l]

alveo-palatals - tongue at the front of the palate near alveolar ridge: [sh], [ch], [dg]

affricates - stopping the airstream and obstructed release: [ch], [dg]

approximants (semi-wovels, glides)- [w], [y], [l], [h]

assimilation - some aspect of one phoneme is copied by the other (eg. nasalizing [n] in I

can go)

adjectives - provide more information about the things referred to (happy people)

adverbs - provide more information about the actions and events

agreement - whether the parts of speech `agree' with each other

associative - connotations of the word (needle = pain)

agent - performs the action

antonymy - words with opposite meanings:

Aphasia - poor language function due to brain damage, which makes understanding

and/or producing linguistic forms difficult.

Anomia - difficulty in finding correct words.

Acquisition - development of language by using it naturally in communicate situations.

Children and people who spent a lot of time abroad acquire language.

Affective filter - acquisition barrier that results from negative feelings or experiences:

audiolingual method - emphasizing the spoken language, drills, developing `habits'

Applied linguistics - analyzing L2 learning from sociological, psychological, communicative and educative point of view.

B

Bow-wow theory - language developed from onomatopoeic sounds of nature (eg.

bow-wow, cuckoo, bang, boom, splash) or natural cries of emotion (pain, anger, joy -

eg. Ah!, Hey!, Wow!, Yuck!)

bilabials - sounds produced using both upper and lower lips: [p], [b], [m]

Broca's area (anterior speech cortex) - involved in the production of speech

Broca's aphasia (motor aphasia) - reduced amount of speech, effortful and distorted

articulation, omission of functional morphemes.

`babbling' - 6 months - production of different vowels and consonants and their

combinations; the children use them to express emotions and emphasis

BEV (Black English Vernacular) - widespread dialect of many African-Americans

absence of copula: You crazy!

double negative constructions: I can't get no sleep.

C

communicative signals- intentional, used to communicate (express) something directly

cultural transmission - we don't inherit the language from our parents, we acquire it in

the culture of other speakers of it; language is passed from one generation to the next

people do not have specific predispositions for speaking a particular language, such as

English or Polish

animals learn their signals instinctively

conjunctions - connect and indicate relationships between things and events (although)

conceptual - basic, literal components of meaning (needle = thin, sharp, steel instrument)

collocation - which words frequently go together:

butter - bread, salt - pepper

Cohesion - the ties and connection within the text, that make it logical.

Coherence - arriving at interpretation, making sense of what one reads or hears.

Conversation - activity where speakers take turns at speaking. When the speaker indicates

that he has finished, he signals a completion point (asks the question, pauses, facial

expressions etc).

Co-operative principle - our contribution to conversation must be appropriate.

Conduction aphasia - damage to the arcuate fasciculus; disrupted rhythm of speech due

to pauses and hesitations

Critical period - the time of lateralization of the brain, which happens in early childhood.

The language acquisition then takes place. If a child doesn't acquire language during that

period, he will find it difficult to learnt it later on.

Caretaker speech - simplified speech style adopted by people, who spend a lot of time

interacting with young children (frequent questions, exaggerated intonation, baby-talk).

Pre-language stages:

`cooing' - 3-10 months - first sounds, with velar consonants such as [k] and [g] and high

vowels such as [i] and [u]

communicative approaches - focus on functions of language rather than form

(grammar), organizing lessons around certain topics

creative construction - generating structures based on overgeneralization

Communicative competence - ability to use L2 accurately, appropriately and flexibly:

D

displacement - ability to relate to events far from here and now (past or future,

somewhere else); animals cannot refer to things not present in the immediate environment

also, we can talk about things and places whose existence we cannot be sure of -

mythical creatures, demons, angels, Santa Claus, etc. - animals cannot relate to fiction

however, to some degree bees possess this ability - when a worker bee finds a source

of nectar, it comes back to the hive and performs complex dance routine to

communicate to its friends the location of the nectar

discreteness - each sound in the language is treated as discrete, i.e. change in

pronunciation of one sound leads to a change in meaning of the word, eg pack vs back

duality - two levels of language (sound and meaning):

distinct sounds - they carry no meaning when put individually

distinct meanings - we can combine sounds to express different meanings (messages)

we can produce a large number of sound combinations which are distinct (different) in

meaning using limited number of distinct sounds

dentals - tongue tip behind the upper front teeth: [th]

Diphthongs - begin with vowel sound and end with a glide; they change vocalic position

while being uttered: [ay], [aw]. [oy]

Diphthongization - common in Southern British, AmE

deep structure - abstract level of organization, involving structural interpretation

Deictic expressions - can be understood only in their physical context:

direct speech act - used to ask the question (get the information)

Discourse analysis - understanding what speakers mean despite what they say, taking part in a course of conversation.

As a language users, we are capable of recognizing correct vs incorrect form and structure, we

can also make sense of ungrammatical texts.

Dichotic listening test - experiment, which proves that language functions are located in left

hemisphere. Subject sits with earphones on and gets two different sound signals through each

earphone.

Diglossia - situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech

community.

E

elision - omitting the sound segment that would be present in the pronunciation of the

word in isolation (eg. [himesbi] for he must be)

experiencer - has a feeling, perception or state

error - indicates the process of acquisition taking place rather than failure; it is a clue to

the progress made by a student

F

fixed reference - each animal signal relates to only one particular object or occasion

forensic phonetics - speaker identification, analysis of recorded utterances for legal

purpose

fricatives - blocking the airstream and letting it go through the narrow opening (friction):

[f], [v], [th], [s], [z], [s], [ż]

flap - pronouncing eg. [t] similarly to [d] - AmE

face-threatening act - eg. direct orders to show the social power over somebody (Give

me that salt!)

face-saving act - lessens possible threat to someone else's face, eg. indirect speech acts

(Could you give me that salt, please?)

Forming questions:

Stage 1 - adding wh- form to the beginning of the expression:

Stage 2 - more complex expressions, more wh- forms:

Stage 3 - inversion of subject and verb:

Forming negatives:

Stage 1 - adding no or not on the beginning of any expression:

No mitten, not a teddy bear, no sit there

Stage 2 - additional forms are used - don't, can't

He no bite you, you can't dance, I don't know

Stage 3 - disappearance of stage 1 forms, other auxiliaries are used:

I didn't caught it, She won't let go, He not taking it

Fossilisation - when learners develop features which do not match L2.

G

Glossogenetics - addresses biological formation and development of human language,

describes unique human features that enable people to use and develop language (eg.

upright posture, two-legged locomotion, revised role of front limbs)

glottals -without use of the tounge or any other parts: [h]

glottis - space between the vocal cords and larynx

open glottis - voiceless sounds

glottal stop - closing the vocal cords and then releasing it: [?], eg. Uh-uh meaning `no'

grammatical gender - in terms of grammatical form.

Generative grammar (by Chomsky)- explicit system of formalized rules from mathematical

view of language; using finite set of rules to generate infinite number of sentences.

Properties of grammar:

it will use finite set of rules to generate an infinite number of well-formed structures

goal - where the entity reaches to

gradable antonyms - can be used in comparative constructions; negative of one word

doesn't have to imply the other (big - small => bigger than)

Genie - 13-year-old, who in the 70s spend most of her life in a small closed room. She

contacted only for a few minutes with her mother while feeding. Any attempts of producing

sound were punished by her father.

She was unable to use language at first, but shortly she began to respond to the speech of

others and finally to communicate in spite of very simple syntax.

grammar-translation method - long lists of words and grammar rules to be memorized,

focus on written form; traditional approach to Latin

grammatical competence - knowledge of accurate words and structures

H

hyponymy - meaning of one form is included in another:

dog - animal, carrot-vegetable,

homophony - two different written forms have the same pronunciation (homophones):

bare - bear, meat - meet, sew - so

homonymy - one form has more than one unrelated (separate) meaning:

bank (of a river) - bank (institution), hands (watch) - hands (human body)

I

interactional function - humans use the language to interact with each other (socializing,

expressing emotions)

ideograms - pictures representing abstract, derived ideas rather than literal concepts;

informative signals - unintentional, carrying some kind of indirect information (eg sneezing =

having a cold, yawning = being bored)

animals do not communicate anything by their appearance; they send only communicative

signals using sounds:

instrument - is used in performing the action

Inference - additional information used by the listener to connect what is said to what must

be meant (I enjoy listening to Mozart).

indirect speech act - using a form, which performs different action than it would suggest:

Interlanguage -system used in L2 acquisition consisting of aspects of L1 and L2 but having

rules of its own.

Input - language the learner is exposed to. It has to be comprehensible (foreigner talk -

simplified version of language).

Negotiated input - requesting clarification and active attention on what is said.

Idiolect - personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language.

J

Jargon - technical vocabulary connected with a special activity of group.

L

lateralized brain - specialized functions on each of the two hemispheres

left hemisphere - language, analytic functions, tool-using etc.

ability to construct more complex messages

logograms - used by Sumerians in form of cuneiform (`wedge-shaped') writing; the form

gives no clue to what is being referred to by the symbols

eg. Chinese characters - represent the whole word, not the sound of spoken language;

Lana - learnt Yerkish (set of symbols visible on a large computer keyboard)

labiodentals - formed with upper teeth and lower lip: [f], [v]

Linguistic etiquette - knowledge which structures are `proper' or `best' to be used in the

language.

location - where the action takes place

Lexical relations - are analyzed in semantic description of languages:

Linguistic context (co-text) - words used in the same phrase or sentence, which has strong impact

on the meaning of the word

Learning - conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the language. Maths is learnt.

Linguistic determinism - theory of language which states that “language determines

thought”. We can think only in the categories which our language allows us to think in.

Language universals - common properties of all languages.

M

Minimal pair - two words are identical in form but differ in one phoneme in the same

position, such as pat - bat, site - side, fan - van.

Minimal set - the same as above, but there are more than two words.

Mental grammar - subconscious internal linguistic knowledge which helps to produce and

recognize appropriately structured expressions.

metonymy - based on a close everyday connection:

container-contents: bottle - coke, can - juice

whole-part: car - wheels, house - roof

Manner: be clear, brief and orderly:

avoid obscurity (Eschew obfuscation);

avoid ambiguity

be brief;

be organized;

malapropisms - mistakes in uttering the words (eg. sextet instead of sextant)

Morphology:

About 3 years of age - children pick up some grammatical forms and tend to

Motivation:

those who experience some success are more motivated to learn

learner who is willing to guess and take a risk is likely to be more successful

N

non-directionality - anyone can pick up linguistic signals, not only their original

listeners/receivers

Nim Chimpsky - learnt and used ASL similarly to human children, but he only produce

signs as a response, and did not develop into more complex ones

nasals - airstream through the nose: [m], [n], [ng]

nouns - refer to people, objects, things, creatures, abstract ideas

number - whether the noun is singular or plural

natural gender - from biological distinction between male and female

non-gradable antonyms (complementary pairs) - no comparative constructions;

negative of one form implies the other (dead - alive)

Negative face - the need to be independent and free from imposition

negative transfer (interference) - not effective for L2 communication if L1 features

differ from those of L2

O

onset - one or more consonants

one-word (single-unit, single-form, holophrastic) stage - 12-18 months - children use

single words which function as phrases and sentences (juice = Give me some juice or

There is a juice on the table)

overgeneralize

- apply the single grammatical rule to all cases, without any exceptions (She goed)

Optimum age - 10 to 16 years old - for learning a second language.

Output - language produced by the learner in meaningful interaction. Crucial point of taskbased

learning and developing communicative competence.

P

pictograms - pictures used to represent particular images in a consistent way;

conventional connection must exist between the symbol and its interpretation

productivity (open-endedness, creativity) - one can produce unlimited number of

utterances using the limited number of elements in the language

animals cannot produce new signals to communicate new experiences or events

Phonetics - general study of characteristics of speech sounds:

Phonology - abstract study which describes the systems and patterns of speech sounds in the

language. It's based on subconscious knowledge of every language speaker.

Phoneme - each sound which distinguishes the meaning in the language. If we replace one

sound with the other and the meaning changes, those sounds are separate phonemes.

Phones -different versions of one sound type; allophones - all phones are versions of the

same phoneme, eg. aspirated vs unaspirated sounds.

Phonotactics - describes how the sounds are likely to combine with each other, deals with

the sequence or position of English phonemes.

prepositions - provide information about time, place etc. (at, in, on, near)

pronouns - replace nouns, refer to things already known (this, it,he, she)

person - distinctions of first (speaker), second (hearer) and third person (any others)

prototypes - one word is considered the best exemplar of its category:

bird - sparrow or pigeon

furniture - bench or stool

polysemy - one form having many related meanings:

head - on the top of body; on the top of company;

Pragmatics - the study of `intended speaker meaning' of the words.

physical context - the time and space in which we encounter linguistic expressions

person deixis: me, you, him, them

place deixis: here, there

Presupposition - knowledge which the speaker assumes to be true or known by the hearer.

Politeness - showing awareness of another person's face (public self-image).

Positive face - the need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of the group

positive transfer of L1 knowledge - beneficial if L1 and L2 have similar features

R

rebus writing - symbol of one concept is used to represent the sound of the other word in

spoken form

reciprocity - any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/receiver)

rapid fade - linguistic signals appear and disappear quickly

rime - one vowel (nucleus) plus following consonant(s) (coda)

recursion - it can be used more than once in generating a structure

reversives - one word doesn't mean negative of the other (tie - untie != not tie) but

rather the reverse of it

Reference - act by which the speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader)

to identify something (Can I look at your Chomsky?).

Relation: be relevant to the topic

right ear advantage - when the testee identifies correctly the sounds from right ear. The

signal goes to the right hemisphere earlier than this from left ear and is processed as first.

S

syllabic writing - symbols represent pronunciations of single syllables

to some extent, modern Japanese has syllabary (syllabic writing system)

specialization - linguistic signals serve only linguistic purpose, they cannot be used for

feeding or breathing

Sarah - used plastic shapes representing words to arrange `sentences'

stops (plosives) - stopping the airstream and letting it go abruptly: [p], [b], [t], [d], [k]

Syllable - must contain a vowel (or vowel-like sound):

Syntax (`setting out together', `arrangement')- structure and ordering of component within a

sentence.

surface structure - syntactic form of English sentence

structural ambiguity - the sentence has two deep structures (Anne whacked a man with

an umbrella)

Semantics - study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences, which emphasize

objective, general and conventional meaning conveyed by the words and sentences. source - where the entity moves

synonymy - closely related meanings (not always the same; may differ in terms of

formality):

almost - nearly, cab - taxi, liberty - freedom, answer - reply

Speech acts - actions such as:

requesting

commanding

questioning

informing

schema - conventional knowledge structure which exists in memory

script - dynamic schema consisting of a series of conventional actions (going to the

dentist, restaurant)

slip of the tongue - distracting the expressions (eg. long shory stort)

Spoonerisms - word reversals, eg. use the door to open the key

slips of the ear - misunderstandings (great ape instead of grey tape) sociolinguistic competence - knowing which words to use in a particular social context

strategic competence - ability to organize the message effectively and overcome

difficulties with conveying the meaning (using communicative strategy)

Sociolinguistics - deals with inter-relationships between language and society. It is connected

to anthropology (investigating the language and culture), sociology (language in social

groups), psychology (expressing attitudes and perceptions)

Social dialects - varieties of language used by groups according to class, education, age,

T

The divine source - humans were provided with language by God

There were experiments to prove which language could be labeled as divine

The natural-sound source - language was an imitation of natural sounds heard by early

people

The oral-gesture source - language developed as a set of oral gestures, similar to

physical gestures

transactional function - humans use the language to share knowledge, skills or information

Traditional grammar - derived from Classical Latin and Greek. Those languages were the

languages of scholarship, religion, philosophy and `knowledge'.

Traditional categories:

tense - distinctions of relation to the time

theme - involved or affected by the action

time deixis: now, then, last week

The motor cortex - controls movement of the articulatory muscles (face, jaw, tongue,

larynx)

The arcuate fasciculus - links Broca's and Wernicke's areas

Word is heard via Wernicke's area => signal goes through the arcuate fasciculus to Broca's

area, which prepares an answer => signal to motor cortex in order to articulate the word.

Tongue tips and slips - when brain and speech production fail to work together smoothly:

tip of the tongue - one knows the word but cannot get it into the surface; mainly in case

of uncommon terms of names

The right hemisphere - non-verbal sounds.

The left hemisphere - language sounds.

two-word stage - 18-20 months - children combine about 50 different words (the number

of them increases) to convey messages, such as mommy eat, baby chair

telegraphic speech - 2-3 years - producing multiple word utterances consisting mainly of

lexical morphemes (Andrew want ball, cat drink milk). Vocabulary expands to hundreds

of words and pronunciation becomes closer to that of adult.

The acquisition process - children pick up the phrases and sentences and try them out,

imitating and subconsciously learning the adult language

The learner:

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - people of different languages perceive the world differently

from each other.

Q

Quantity: make your contribution as informative as required, not more, not less

Quality: do not say for what you lack evidence or that is untrue, do not gossip

V

voiceless - vocal cords spread apart, the air from lungs passes through them without

obstacles

voiced - vocal cords drawn together, they vibrate when pushed by the flow of air

velars - back of the tongue against the vellum: [k], [g]

Vowels:

all are voiced

produced with relatively free flow of air

they differ in way which the tongue influences the flow of air

eg. high-front vowel - front part of the tongue in raised position

verbs - refer to various kinds of actions and states (run, jump, be, seem) involving the

things in events

voice - active or passive

vocal-auditory channel - language is typically generated via the vocal organs and

perceived via the ears; however, we can transmit the language without sound, eg. in

writing or sign language

W

Washoe - raised like a child in domestic environment, she used signs of American Sign

Language and combined them to produce simple `sentences'; she understood more

symbols than she actually produced

Wernicke's area (posterior speech cortex) - involved in the understanding of speech

Wernicke's aphasia (sensory aphasia) - fluent speech, but difficult to make sense of.

Y

Yo-heave-ho theory - language developed from sounds of people involved in physical

effort (esp. when several people had to coordinate with each other)

Word is heard via Wernicke's area => signal goes through the arcuate fasciculus to Broca's

area, which prepares an answer => signal to motor cortex in order to articulate the word.
Broca's area (anterior speech cortex) - involved in the production of speech

 Wernicke's area (posterior speech cortex) - involved in the understanding of speech
Broca's aphasia (motor aphasia) - reduced amount of speech, effortful and distorted

articulation, omission of functional morphemes.

 Wernicke's aphasia (sensory aphasia) - fluent speech, but difficult to make sense of.

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