Language and Communication Key Terms

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Chapter 15

• Language and CommunicationKey Terms

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• languageA system of communication using sounds
  or gestures that are put together in meaningful
  ways according to a set of rules.
• signalsA sound or gesture that has a natural or
  self-evident meaning.

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• linguisticsThe modern scientific study of all
  aspects of language.
• descriptive linguisticsThe branch of linguistics
  that involves unraveling a language by recording,
  describing, and analyzing all of its features.

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• phoneticsThe study of the production,
  transmission, and reception of speech sounds.
• phonology The study of language sounds.

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• phonemesIn linguistics, the smallest classes of
  sound that make a difference in meaning.
• morphologyThe study of the patterns or rules of
  word formation in a language (including such
  things as rules concerning verb tense,
  pluralization, and compound words).

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• morphemesIn linguistics, the smallest units of
  sound that carry a meaning.
• frame substitutionA method used to identify the
  syntactic units of language. For example, a
  category called nouns may be established as
  anything that will fit the substitution frame I
  see a . . .

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• syntaxIn linguistics, the rules or principles of
  phrase and sentence making.
• grammarThe entire formal structure of a language
  consisting of all observations about the
  morphemes and syntax.

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• form classesThe parts of speech or categories of
  words that work the same way in any sentence.
• gestureFacial expressions and bodily postures
  and motions that convey intended as well as
  subconscious messages.

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• kinesicsA system of notating and analyzing
  postures, facial expressions, and body motions
  that convey messages.
• proxemicsThe cross-cultural study of humankinds
  perception and use of space.

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• paralanguageThe extralinguistic noises that
  accompany language, for example, those of crying
  or laughing.
• voice qualitiesIn paralanguage, the background
  characteristics of a speakers voice.

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• vocalizationsIdentifiable paralinguistic noises
  that are turned on and off at perceivable and
  relatively short intervals.
• vocal characterizersIn paralanguage, sound
  productions such as laughing or crying that
  humans speak through.

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• vocal qualifiersIn paralanguage, sound
  productions of brief duration that modify
  utterances in terms of intensity.
• vocal segregatesIn paralanguage, sound
  productions that are similar to the sounds of
  language, but do not appear in sequences that can
  properly be called words.

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• tonal languageA language in which the sound
  pitch of a spoken word is an essential part of
  its pronunciation and meaning.
• historical linguisticsThe branch of linguistics
  that studies the histories of and relationships
  between languages, both living and dead.

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• language familyA group of languages descended
  from a single ancestral language.
• linguistic divergenceThe development of
  different languages from a single ancestral
  language.

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• glottochronologyIn linguistics, a method for
  identifying the approximate time that languages
  branched off from a common ancestor. It is based
  on analyzing core vocabularies.

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• core vocabulariesIn language, pronouns, lower
  numerals, and names for body parts and natural
  objects.
• pidginA language in which the syntax and
  vocabulary of two other languages are simplified
  and combined.

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• CreoleA pidgin language that has become the
  mother tongue of society.
• linguistic nationalismThe attempt by ethnic
  minorities, and even countries to proclaim
  independence by purging their languages of
  foreign terms.

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• ethnolinguisticsThe study of the relation
  between language and culture.
• linguistic relativityThe proposition that
  diverse interpretations of reality embodied in
  languages yield demonstrable influences on
  thought.

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• gendered speechDistinct male and female syntax
  exhibited in various languages around the world.
• dialectsVarying forms of a language that reflect
  particular regions or social classes and that are
  similar enough to be mutually intelligible.

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• code switchingThe process of changing from one
  language or dialect to another.
• displacementThe ability to refer to things and
  events removed in time and space

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• writing systemA set of visible or tactile signs
  used to represent units of language in a
  systematic way.
• alphabetA series of symbols representing the
  sounds of a language arranged in a traditional
  order.