UNIT 4

• openness: the ability to talk about the same experiences using different words and in a lot of different ways.
• displacement: the ability to talk about the past, present, and future and about things that don't exist
• Prevarication: the ability to lie and say things that don't make sense (or contradict each other).
• Arbitrariness: having words or sounds that don't relate or connect to what is being referred to. (i.e. a tree being called a tree)
• Phonemes: sounds that make up words, they are the smallest units of speech.
• Morphemes: the smallest unit of meaning in a language; when broken apart its just sounds, when put together -> creates new meanings.
• semanticity: using language to make sense of objects and processes in the world and communicating it in ways that people agree upon.
• design features of language:

  1. openness
  2. displacement
  3. prevarication
  4. arbitrariness
  5. Duality of patterning (phonemes and morphemes)
  6. Semanticity
• Components of languages make up grammar
• Phonology: phones and phonemes
• Morphology: the study of morphemes
• Syntax: the study of sentence structure; how a sentence can mean different things if order is different
• Semantics: the study of meaning; textbook meanings, slangs, etc.
• Pragmatics: the study of language in the context of its use. How context changes/contributes to the meaning.
• Non-linguistic context: paying attention to the objects and activities present when something is being said.
• Linguistic context: the meaning depends on the speaker's culture, social class, and education.
• heteroglossia: coexistence of different genres and styles of speech
• genre: different ways you (are expected to) communicate depending on the context/environment.
• Pidgin: a simple of language developed in a single generation by people who speak different languages
• Creole: A complex language with native speakers that developed over generations from a mixture of different languages. (passed on pidgin language)
• components of language:

  1. phonology
  2. morphology
  3. semantics
  4. syntax
  5. pragmatics