Linguistics (chapters 1-4) (All Correct Answers)

Prescriptive vs. Descriptive grammar Correct Answers Prescriptive grammar means describing language as some people (experts) think it should be. Stating what is considered right and wrong in English. Prescriptivism passes judgements, for example, "Don't end a sentence with a preposition." "Splitting infinitives is wrong." Often prescriptivists are clinging to the past, for e.g., the distinction between who and whom is now lost on most speakers. Descriptive grammar describes the facts and language forms without value judgment, for example: Some people split infinitives some don't. Which kind of people split infinitives? When do they do that? What can be used to split an infinitive. Diachronic vs. Synchronic views Correct Answers Diachronic view looks at language changes through time, word origins (etymology), reconstructs languages no longer spoken whereas synchronic views describe how language works today at any given moment in time Competence vs. Performance Correct Answers Competence is the ability to produce a word or sentence, what you know about a word or sentence. Performance is actually saying the word or sentence, the sounds you articulate and make. Corpus Linguistics Correct Answers A branch of linguistics that describes and verifies hypotheses about language on the basis of sufficiently large sample of actual data, a corpus of texts, transcriptions of conversations, etc. Neologisms vs. Archaisms Correct Answers Neologisms are new words, archaisms are words that have died out/ no longer used for e.g., words like thee, thou, thine etc. Phonetic Alphabet Correct Answers Symbols that allow linguists to represent sounds in languages univocally, for example [p] [f] [y]. Phoneme Correct Answers Mental representation of a sound, the smallest unit of language that helps distinguish meaning, e.g., t, ck .