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LING - Starter Vocab
A starter vocabulary for linguistics; Essentials of Language, chapter 1
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Linguistics | The scientific study of language and its structure, including the sounds, words, & grammar |
| Language | A system of communication using sounds, gestures, or written symbols to convey meaning |
| Grammar | The set of rules governing the structure of a language |
| Syntax | The study of the rules governing the structure of sentences and phrases in a language |
| Semantics | The study of meaning in language |
| Pragmatics | The study of how context affects the interpretation of language |
| Phonetics | The study of the physical properties of speech sounds or, for signed languages, signs |
| Phonology | The study of the meaningful sound/sign system of a language |
| Morphology | The study of the structure of words & how they are formed |
| Lexicon | The vocabulary of a language |
| Discourse | The use of language in a social context |
| Sociolinguistics | The study of the relationship between language & society |
| Dialect | A variety of a language spoken in a particular region or by a particular group of people |
| Accent | A distinctive way of pronouncing words associated with a particular region or group of people |
| Language acquisition | The process by which humans learn to understand and use language |
| Language universals | Features of language that are found in all languages |
| Language change | The way in which languages evolve over time |
| Language variation | The way language use can vary based on geography, social class, ethnicity, etc. |
| Language contact | The ways languages influence each other through contact & interaction |
| Language documentation | The process of recording & preserving information about a language |
| Language revitalization | The process of reviving a language that is in danger of becoming extinct |
| Language endangerment | The situation in which a language is at risk of disappearing |
| Language ideology | The beliefs & attitudes people have about language, i.e., its value, role in society, way it should be used, etc. |
| Language policy | The set of rules & regulations governing the use of language in a particular context, i.e., education, government, media, etc. |
| Language rights | The right of individuals & communities to use & maintain their own language, i.e., in education & other services |
| Prescriptive grammar | A set of rules & guidelines dictating how language should be used |
| Descriptive grammar | The description of how language is actually used by speakers |
| Mental grammar | The internalized system of rules & structures allowing speakers to understand & produce language |
| Universal grammar | The set of innate linguistic principles & structures shared by all human languages |
| Generative grammar | A type of grammar explaining how speakers can produce infinite sentences with a finite set of rules & structures |
| Transformational grammar | A type grammar emphasizing the role of structure-changing rules that can make new sentences |
| Surface structure | The actual words and phrases that make up a sentence |
| Deep structure | The underlying meaning or semantic content of a sentence |
| Language processing | The cognitive processes involved in understanding & producing language |
| Language comprehension | The ability to understand spoken, written, or signed language |
| Language production | The ability to produce spoken, written, or signed language |
| Language disorders | Conditions in which an individual has difficulty with language comprehension or production |
| Aphasia | A language disorder affecting an individual's ability to understand or produce language |
| Bilingualism | The ability to speak & understand two languages fluently |
| Code-switching | The practice of alternating between two or more languages or language varieties depending on context |
| Language attitudes | The beliefs & opinions individuals or groups hold about different languages or language varieties |
| Language identity | The way an individual or group identifies with a particular language or language variety |
| Language socialization | The process by which individuals learn to use language in a particular social & cultural context |
| Language & power | The ways language use can reflect & reinforce power dynamics within society |
| Language & gender | The ways language use can reflect & reinforce gender roles & stereotypes |
| Language & race | The ways language use can reflect & reinforce racial hierarchies & stereotypes |
| Language & ethnicity | The ways language use can reflect & reinforce ethnic identity & cultural heritage |
| Language & nationalism | The way language use can reflect & reinforce national identity & political power |
| Language & globalization | The ways language use is influenced by & influences global economic, political, & cultural |
| Language & technology | The ways technology is changing the nature of language use & communication |
| Corpus | A large & structured collection of texts or speech samples used to study language use & patterns |
| Corpus linguistics | A method of linguistic analysis involving large collections of texts, or corpora, to study language use & patterns of language variation |
| Computational linguistics | A field of study focusing on the use of computers to analyze & process natural language data |
| Natural language processing (NLP) | A subfield of computational linguistics focusing on the development of algorithms & models for processing & analyzing human language data |
| Machine learning | A type of artificial intelligence using algorithms & statistical models to enable computers to learn from data & make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed |
| Artificial intelligence (AI) | A field of focusing on the development of intelligent machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence |
| Speech recognition | The process of converting spoken language into text or other machine-readable formats |
| Text-to-speech synthesis | The process of converting written text into spoken language |
| Linguistic relativity | The idea that the language we use can influence the way we think & perceive the world around us |
| Sapir-Whorf hypothesis | A specific version of linguistic relativity suggesting the structure of a language influences the way its speakers perceive & think about the world |
| Cognitive linguistics | An approach to language emphasizing the role of mental processes & conceptual structures in shaping language use & understanding |
| Prototype theory | A model of categorization suggesting we form idealized representations of categories based on our experiences & interactions with the world around us |
| Discourse analysis | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on the study of language use in context, i.e., constructing meaning, conveying values, etc. |
| Conversation analysis | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on the study of naturally occurring talk & interaction |
| Narrative analysis | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on the study of stories & storytelling development. |
| Critical discourse analysis | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on language use as social practice, i.e., for power relations, ideology, social identity, etc. |
| Multimodal discourse analysis | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on language use in conjunction with other modes of communication, such as images, sound, & gesture |
| Ethnography of communication | A method of linguistic analysis focusing on language use within specific cultural & social contexts |
| Language planning | The process of making decisions about the use & development of language within a particular society or community |
| Standardization | The process of establishing a set of norms & conventions for the use of a particular language or dialect |
| Language variation & change | The ways languages vary over time & across different contexts |
| Language evolution | The ways languages change & develop over time |
| Speech community | A group of people who share a particular language or dialect & who use that language to communicate with each other |
| Language death | The complete loss of a language when there are no longer any speakers who are able to use it fluently |
| Language ecology | The study of the relationships between languages & their environments, i.e., social, cultural, & ecological factors influencing language use & change |
| Language endangerment | The situation in which a language is at risk of disappearing due to a lack of speakers or other factors that threaten its continued use & transmission |
| Language revitalization programs | Efforts to preserve & promote endangered languages & ensure their continued use & transmission to future generations |
| Language documentation & archiving | The process of recording, preserving, & making accessible linguistic data & materials related to endangered languages |
| Modality | The way languages are expressed or conveyed, e.g. spoken or signed |
| Signed | Refers to a language expressed through manual gestures, facial expressions, & body language, not sound |
| Language User | A person uses a language to communicate with others |
| Mental lexicon | The mental store of words & their meanings a language user has in their mind |
| Arbitrary | Refers to a connection based convention or agreement, not necessity |
| Articulatory phonetics | A branch of phonetics studying how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal tract |
| Implicit knowledge | Knowledge a person has but which they may not be aware of or able to articulate |
| Productivity, Generativity | The ability of a language to create an infinite number of new words, phrases, & sentences using a finite set of linguistic rules & vocabulary |
| Empirical observation | The process of gathering data & evidence by direct observation or experience, not theory or speculation |
| Metalinguistic awareness | The ability to reflect on & think about language as an object of study, apart from its use in communication |
| Ungrammatical | Refers to a word, phrase, or sentence that violates the rules or principles of the grammar of a particular language |
| Survey | A research method used to collect data about language use & attitudes from a large number of people |
| Interview | A research method used to collect data about language use & attitudes from individual speakers |
| Annotation | Adding additional information or metadata to a text or speech sample to help with its analysis |
| Experiment | A research method investigating language use & patterns in a controlled setting, often manipulating variables to observe their effect on language use or processing |
| Bias | A tendency to hold attitudes or beliefs about language varieties or language users not based on objective linguistic criteria |
| High prestige | Refers to a variety of language associated with social status, power, & privilege |
| Indigenous | Refers to languages native to a particular region or territory & spoken by the original inhabitants of that region for many generations |
| Colonialism | The historical process by which European powers established colonies in various parts of the world, often exploiting resources & exerting political control over the local population |
| Oralism | An approach to education for deaf children emphasizing the development of spoken language skills over the use of sign language |
| Norms | The shared conventions or expectations governing the use of language in a particular community or context |
| Aphasia | A language disorder affecting a person's ability to produce or comprehend language, often from brain injury |
Created by:
RLD
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