Term
| demonstrative pronouns and adjectives |
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Definition
were
gender-specific, and each one's gender was determined by inflection rather than by meaning. In Middle
English, demonstrative pronouns and adjectives took on the fixed, gender-neutral forms this, that, these,
and those. |
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Term
| the Great Vowel Shift of the fifteenth century |
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Definition
pronunciation of the long vowels in English gradually changed. For example, before the Great Vowel
Shift, the e had been pronounced as it is currently pronounced in the word where or as the a is currently
pronounced in the word late. But by the sixteenth century, the long e was pronounced like the ee in the
word keep. English spelling did not change to reflect the Great Vowel Shift, and as a result, vowel
symbols still correspond to their former sounds. |
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Term
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Definition
all human languages
share common underlying principles relating to aspects of language such as phrase structure and
phonology. Some theorists hold that mastery of these
common principles is innate, and that this innate linguistic knowledge enables the infant to acquire a
specific language so quickly. |
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Term
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Definition
the development of a language through
the merging of two or more different languages. This process occurs when language groups are in close
contact. Initially, the merged language is a simplified code containing features of the parent languages.
Over time, new vocabulary is added and the code expanded to follow increasingly complex linguistic
principles until it is similar in complexity to other languages. |
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Term
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Definition
the smallest unit of meaning in a language and
cannot be further subdivided into meaningful linguistic parts. There are two types of morphemes, free
morphemes and bound morphemes. A free morpheme stands alone as a complete word (e.g., the word
"bag"). A bound morpheme must be attached to a word (e.g., the inflectional ending "s" in the word
"runs" is a bound morpheme). |
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Term
| overt inflectional suffix |
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Definition
inflectional
suffixes never change the part of speech of the base word to which they are attached: pretend is a verb
and pretends is a verb. Derivational suffixes such as -ive change the part of speech of the word to which
they are attached. |
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Term
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Definition
the smallest unit of speech sound that, when
combined with other units of speech sound, forms a word. The three phonemes in the word gray are /g/,
/r/, and /a/. |
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Term
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Definition
-hypocritical contains the base word critical and the prefix hypo, which means "too little."
-miscellany is most likely derived from the Latin miscellanea; mis is not a prefix in the word miscellany.
-tribunal is derived from the Latin
tribunus; tri is not a prefix in the word tribunal.
specific is derived from the Latin species. |
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Term
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Definition
-illustrious is derived from the Latin illustris.
-knight and gallant are derived from the Old English cniht and the Middle French galant,
-quixotic is the adjective form of the word quixote, which is an eponym for the fictional character Don Quixote. |
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Term
| adjective formed by adding a derivational suffix to a noun |
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Definition
The adjective reasonable is formed by adding the derivational
suffix -able to the noun reason |
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Term
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Definition
focuses on language as communication and is
concerned with the uses of different types of utterances in different contexts and for different purposes.
For example, different forms of speech are used to make a request, to make an assertion, and to ask a
question. Pragmatic theory focuses on the speaker's intention, as opposed to the literal meaning of an
utterance. |
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Term
| diagram of the structure of the sentence |
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Definition
dividing the sentence into its noun phrase ("The woman in the car") and verb phrase
("drives to the opera"). These phrases are then subdivided into individual parts of speech (e.g., the article
"the," the noun "woman," and the prepositional phrase "in the car"). Each level of the diagram
corresponds to a level of syntactic structure. |
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Term
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Definition
During the transition to Modern English, the pronunciation of
many vowels underwent rapid change. For example, prior to this transition (known as the Great Vowel
Shift), the words cook and mood both had the same vowel sound as the modern word book. The vowel
sound in mood then shifted to its current pronunciation, while the vowel sound in cook stayed the same.
Like other irregular spellings in Modern English, the spelling of the word mood did not change to reflect
the new vowel sound it acquired during the Great Vowel Shift. |
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Term
| Latin root of the word get |
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Definition
the word get is derived
from the Latin prehendere, which means "to seize or grasp." The word apprentice refers to "one who is
learning a trade by practical experience under a skilled worker"—or, one who is trying to seize, grasp, or
acquire the requisite skills for working in a trade. |
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Term
The expressions "surf the Net" and
"browse a Web site" are evidence of
which of the following types of word
formation in English? |
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Definition
The meaning of existing words
expands as a reflection of changes
in the everyday lives of English
speakers. The words that constitute these expressions were in use
long before the development of computers. |
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Term
predictable pronunciation based on
reliable sound-symbol correspondences |
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Definition
The pronunciation of the word marvel is based on the reliable,
or predictable, sound-symbol correspondences of each of its letters. Less predictable sound-symbol
correspondences are found in the word fraction (the digraph ti pronounced as /sh/), in the word wreath
(the digraph wr pronounced as /r/), and in the word knives (the digraph kn pronounced as /n/). |
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Term
developments in
contemporary American English |
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Definition
The term committee chairperson is a gender-neutral
replacement for the terms committee chairman and committee chairwoman. The term flight attendant is a
gender-neutral replacement for the term stewardess. And the term mail carrier is a gender-neutral
replacement for the term mailman. |
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Term
| English-speaking children from different sociocultural backgrounds are most likely to differ in which of the following aspects of language development? |
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Definition
Children from different sociocultural backgrounds may differ
in the style and structure of their oral narratives. Some children create open-ended narratives that develop
through association or analogy, while other children construct narratives focused on a central topic or
conclusion. The differences in how narratives are perceived often stem from sociocultural factors. |
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Term
The critical period hypothesis accounts
for which of the following cognitive
factors related to language acquisition? |
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Definition
The critical period hypothesis states that humans' ability to
learn language peaks during early childhood. Research shows that second-language learners under the age
of 15 years attain greater proficiency in grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and comprehension than do
adult second-language learners. The critical period hypothesis suggests that one reason for this difference
in language learning capability is that the brain's language faculty either stops functioning or becomes less
accessible after the critical period has ended. As a result, adults must use other cognitive mechanisms to
acquire language. |
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Term
Which of the following statements best
describes an example of the influence of an affective factor on second-language acquisition? |
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Definition
Affective factors that influence second-language acquisition
include willingness to risk embarrassment when speaking in the second language. A second-language
learner who would be embarrassed by producing incorrect utterances would try to avoid making mistakes
by using known vocabulary and forming sentences mentally before speaking them. |
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Term
Which of the following second-language
learners would most likely acquire the
second language more easily? |
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Definition
Second-language learners who desire to
integrate into the culture in which their second language is spoken are more successful at acquiring the
second language. Research has also shown that a higher degree of acculturation by second-language
learners correlates with a higher degree of proficiency in the target language. |
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Term
Which of the following statements best
describes a primary influence of a first language on second-language
development? |
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Definition
Second-language learners internalize a set of rules that they use to speak an interlanguage, which serves as an intermediate step in acquiring the second language. The learners' experience with rules from
the first language can influence the formation of the interlanguage. |
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Term
that infants start out able to discriminate between all the phonemes that occur in human language. However, they soon lose the
ability to distinguish between phonemes that they do not hear being used in their environment. This explains... |
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Definition
The difficulty second-language learners have in recognizing certain phonemes in the target language is related to the fact that there is a limited
developmental period during which infants can discriminate between all phonemes in human speech. This
also helps to explain the widely observed tendency for older learners of a second language to retain an
accent. However, with practice many adult second-language learners eventually recognize most target language phonemes. |
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