SLO1 WGU EXAM STUDY GUIDE 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Dialect - ✔✔Language variety used by a particular group of speakers
✔✔Regional dialect - ✔✔Lang variety used by a particular group of spellers in a certain
geographical region
✔✔Social dialect - ✔✔Lang variety used by a group of speakers who share the same
social status - way of bonding from gangs to country clubs
✔✔Isogloss - ✔✔geographic boundary between dialect speakers
✔✔Accent - ✔✔Pronunciation of a specific regional dialect by a nonnative speaker
✔✔Standard American English - ✔✔An idealized dialect of English that is considered by
some prescriptive grammarians to be the proper form of American English
✔✔African American English - ✔✔Dialect of English spoken by some African Americans
✔✔Ebonics - ✔✔Alternative term for the various dialects of African American English
first used in 1997
✔✔Chicano English - ✔✔Dialect of English spoken by some bilingual Mexican
Americans in the southwest and California
✔✔Code-switching - ✔✔The insertion of a word or phrase other than that being spoken
into a single sentence, or the movement back and forth between two languages or
dialects
✔✔Lingua Franca - ✔✔a language used among speakers of different languages for the
purposes of trade and commerce (e.g. English at the United Nations)
✔✔Pidgin - ✔✔partial language developed for specific uses between speakers of
different languages
Market language
✔✔Creole - ✔✔Language which started as a pidgin learned by children as 1st language
✔✔Style/register - ✔✔Situation dialect/formality of language use
School; friend; church; work; family
, ✔✔Slang - ✔✔words and phrases used by particular group, often youth in casual
speech. May not be long lasting.
✔✔Argot/jargon - ✔✔specialized vocabulary
✔✔Taboo - ✔✔Bad words according to "polite society"
✔✔Euphemism - ✔✔Coverup for taboo word - considered more polite
✔✔Colloquialism - ✔✔Word or phrase commonly used in informal speech or writing
some people consider it slang, but slang is usually more of an in-group phenomenon
✔✔Language - ✔✔System of human communication
✔✔Linguistics - ✔✔Study of language as a system of human communication
✔✔Phonology - ✔✔Sound system of a language
✔✔Phonetics - ✔✔Study of speech sounds
✔✔Proxemics - ✔✔Physical distance btwn people talking to each other
✔✔Syntax - ✔✔Rules of sentence formation
✔✔Discourse - ✔✔Lang which has been produced as the result of an act of
communication
✔✔Form - ✔✔Phonological or gestural representation of a morpheme or word
✔✔Meaning - ✔✔Refers to the conceptual or semantic aspect of a word or sentence
that permits us to comprehend the message being conveyed. The linguistic sign has
both a form (its pronunciation) and a meaning
✔✔Lexicon - ✔✔Speaker's mental dictionary --- and speaker's knowledge about
morphemes and words
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔Smallest unit of sound "boy" or "s" in cats
✔✔Morphology - ✔✔Study of structure of words; the rules of word formation
✔✔Root - ✔✔Can work in isolation
i.e. system, boy, believe
WITH ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Dialect - ✔✔Language variety used by a particular group of speakers
✔✔Regional dialect - ✔✔Lang variety used by a particular group of spellers in a certain
geographical region
✔✔Social dialect - ✔✔Lang variety used by a group of speakers who share the same
social status - way of bonding from gangs to country clubs
✔✔Isogloss - ✔✔geographic boundary between dialect speakers
✔✔Accent - ✔✔Pronunciation of a specific regional dialect by a nonnative speaker
✔✔Standard American English - ✔✔An idealized dialect of English that is considered by
some prescriptive grammarians to be the proper form of American English
✔✔African American English - ✔✔Dialect of English spoken by some African Americans
✔✔Ebonics - ✔✔Alternative term for the various dialects of African American English
first used in 1997
✔✔Chicano English - ✔✔Dialect of English spoken by some bilingual Mexican
Americans in the southwest and California
✔✔Code-switching - ✔✔The insertion of a word or phrase other than that being spoken
into a single sentence, or the movement back and forth between two languages or
dialects
✔✔Lingua Franca - ✔✔a language used among speakers of different languages for the
purposes of trade and commerce (e.g. English at the United Nations)
✔✔Pidgin - ✔✔partial language developed for specific uses between speakers of
different languages
Market language
✔✔Creole - ✔✔Language which started as a pidgin learned by children as 1st language
✔✔Style/register - ✔✔Situation dialect/formality of language use
School; friend; church; work; family
, ✔✔Slang - ✔✔words and phrases used by particular group, often youth in casual
speech. May not be long lasting.
✔✔Argot/jargon - ✔✔specialized vocabulary
✔✔Taboo - ✔✔Bad words according to "polite society"
✔✔Euphemism - ✔✔Coverup for taboo word - considered more polite
✔✔Colloquialism - ✔✔Word or phrase commonly used in informal speech or writing
some people consider it slang, but slang is usually more of an in-group phenomenon
✔✔Language - ✔✔System of human communication
✔✔Linguistics - ✔✔Study of language as a system of human communication
✔✔Phonology - ✔✔Sound system of a language
✔✔Phonetics - ✔✔Study of speech sounds
✔✔Proxemics - ✔✔Physical distance btwn people talking to each other
✔✔Syntax - ✔✔Rules of sentence formation
✔✔Discourse - ✔✔Lang which has been produced as the result of an act of
communication
✔✔Form - ✔✔Phonological or gestural representation of a morpheme or word
✔✔Meaning - ✔✔Refers to the conceptual or semantic aspect of a word or sentence
that permits us to comprehend the message being conveyed. The linguistic sign has
both a form (its pronunciation) and a meaning
✔✔Lexicon - ✔✔Speaker's mental dictionary --- and speaker's knowledge about
morphemes and words
✔✔Morpheme - ✔✔Smallest unit of sound "boy" or "s" in cats
✔✔Morphology - ✔✔Study of structure of words; the rules of word formation
✔✔Root - ✔✔Can work in isolation
i.e. system, boy, believe
