Language Structure Flashcards

1
Q

Bilingualism

A

Substantial fluency in two languages.

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2
Q

Competence

A

In linguistics, a person’s abstract knowledge of a language.

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3
Q

Critical period

A

A period early in life when children are best prepared to learn a cognitive skill such as language.

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4
Q

Grammar

A

A set of rules that prescribe all the acceptable utterances of a language. A grammar consists of syntax, semantics, and phonology.

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5
Q

Language universals

A

Properties of natural languages, providing constrains on possible grammars.

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6
Q

Linguistic determinism

A

The claim that language determines or strongly influences the way that a person thinks, including how the person perceives the world.

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7
Q

Linguistic intuitions

A

Judgments by speakers of a language about the acceptability of utterances or about the relations between utterances.

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8
Q

Modularity

A

The proposal that language is a component (a linguistic module) separate from the rest of cognition, including the proposal that language comprehension has an initial phase in which only syntactic considerations are brought to bear.

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9
Q

Natural languages

A

Languages that humans can acquire.

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10
Q

Parameter setting

A

The proposal that the settings of 100 or so parameters account for the differences among natural languages and that language acquisition by children involves learning those settings.

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11
Q

Performance

A

In linguistics, the actual application of linguistic competence in speaking or listening.

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12
Q

Phonology

A

The study of the sound structure of languages.

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13
Q

Phrase structure

A

The hierarchical organisation of a sentence into a set of phrases, sometimes represented as a tree structure.

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14
Q

Productivity

A

Refers to the fact that natural languages have an infinite number of possible sentences.

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15
Q

Regularity

A

The fact that sentences are systematically structured in many ways.

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16
Q

Semantics

A

Grammatical rules that specify the meaning of sentences.

17
Q

Syntax

A

Grammatical rules that specify the correct word order and inflections in sentences.

18
Q

Transformations

A

Linguistic rules that move elements from one part of a sentence to another part.