Quiz 1 (W3)

• Linguistics: The scientific study of language.
• Linguist: A person who studies Linguistics.
• Phonology: The branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages.
• Phonologist: A linguist who specializes in phonology.
• Phonemes: is a basic unit of a language's phonology. They are sounds not letters. The same phoneme can be represented by different letters.
• Morphology: The study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language.
• Morphologist: a linguist who specializes in morphology
• morphemes: is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. formed by combining phonemes.
• Syntax: the study of how words are arranged to create phrases, clauses and sentences.
• Syntactician: a linguist who specializes in syntax.
• syntax: forms meaning full sentences above word level
• semantics: the study of the meaning of phrases, clauses and sentences
• semanticist: a linguist who specializes in semantics
• sociolinguistics: the study of language in society.
• neurolinguistics: the study of language in the brain
• communication: the transfer of information
• communication in language: human language allows us to communicate with infinite variety
• language has arbitrary signs: to assign meaning into certain words. it isnt necessary for there to be a connection between the form of the word and the meaning. Very arbitrary.
• language has displacement: humans are able to talk about the past and future while animals can only live in the present. we can talk about hopes and dreams which is unique to humans.
• language has discrete infinity: with limited sounds humans can create an infinite amount of words with different meanings and expressions
• language is combinatorial: it has the ability to combine words and phrases to mean different things but animals can only communicate a limited number of needs and wants.
• Properties of language: Arbitrary signs, displacement, discrete infinity, and combinatorial
• language:

  • human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication
  • a system of communication of meanings through complex arbitrary signals or symbols in a significant syntax