Final exam Flashcards
(47 cards)
what is one way that language change?
words broaden or narrow their meaning
What did the word “bimbo” start out as?
a term for babies
what did the word “starve” initially mean?
“Die” then became to mean “die from hunger” then just “suffer from hunger”
where did the word limelight come from?
It was a word referring to light being made from a burning lime, now it is an abstract noun
are words stored alphabetically?
no
Writing that drops down from one line and continues in a reverse order
boustrouphedon
what did writing first start off as?
pictures
using pictures as a unit to relay words
rebus device
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but __ sounds in the English language
44
what is the name of the sound that represents the ng combination in the English language
Engma
There are at least __ ways to spell “sh”
13
How does George Bernard Shaw say that “fish” could technically be spelled?
Ghoti
what is the job of the International Phonetic Association?
attempt to represent all the sounds spoken in the world’s languages
As a language develops, it tends to become more _____
regular
what are the two classes of verbs?
strong and weak
why don’t children make mistakes when changing statements into questions?
They are primed to learn to invert the highest auxiliary
_____ allow us to test the idea that people learn to transform sentences
Traces
Remnants of where words used to be in a sentence before a transformation
Traces
when children are learning speech and learn to leave out non-essential words
telegraphic speech
When someone points to an object and says its name, young children tend to assume that it is the whole object being referred to�
whole object constraint
Children tend to assume that words are basic level descriptors. That is, they assume dog versus animal�
taxonomic constraint
Tend to assume that if an object has a name, it is unlikely that a new name will refer to it�
mutually exclusive constraint
how do we know that humans come here ready to speak?
language is universal, has equal complexity, cerebral areas, throat modifications, linguistic biases
words that people who learn a language later in life have difficulty pronouncing�
Shibboleth