LING 1010 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH DETAILED
VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS
What is linguistics?
The scientific study of language.
What is science?
A systematic way of asking and answering questions that allows us to gain an understanding of
the world around us
What is human language a product of?
Our extraordinarily complex brains.
LANGUAGE IS A PRODUCT OF THE MIND!
What does it mean when people say the mind has structure (or the mind is structured)?
Each cognitive ability works in a very specific way!
There are limitations with what we can do. We can't bend spoons with our mind.
The Language Faculty
A way of referring to all of the cognitive abilities that give rise to language in humans. But more
specifically, it is the set of abilities that allows us to convert from physical signals like sound
(or visual signs) to thoughts!
What happens during comprehension?
The language faculty turns speech sounds (or signs in sign language) into complex meanings.
What happens during production?
The language faculty turns complex meanings into motor commands for the vocal tract (or
hands in sign language).
,Phoneme
The smallest segment of speech that leads to a meaningful difference between words.
This definition tells us how to test whether a word is a phoneme. Take a word, change one of
the speech sounds in it. If the change leads to a change in the meaning of the word, then the
original sound and the new sound are distinct phonemes.
Minimal Pairs Test
Step 1: Pick a word in the language:
"sad"
Step 2: Change one sound in the word: "sat"
If the changed sound leads to a different word, then the two sounds (the original and the new
one) are both distinct phonemes in the language!
Two words that differ in exactly one speech sound make a minimal pair!
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- Created so that we can easily write phonemes. Each phoneme that occurs in a language in the
world is given a symbol. And each symbol is used only once so there is no confusion!
- IT IS IMPORTANT FOR WRITING HOW A WORD IS PRONOUNCED, NOT SPELLED! THERE IS A
DIFFERENCE SOMETIMES.
- The IPA has a symbol for every phoneme in every language (over 300).
Why do we use the IPA and not the alphabet?
- In the IPA, there is a one-to-one relationship between symbols and phonemes. The alphabet
and English writing system do not obey this principle.
, - There are letters of the alphabet that represent more than one English phoneme.
- There are English phonemes that can be represented by more than one letter.
What is sound?
A distortion in air pressure
What is a sound wave?
- A disturbance in air pressure.
- It creates compression, or close-packing, of the air molecules that alternates with rarefaction
Why are sound waves important in linguistics?
They signify the PHYSICAL PROPERTIES of each phoneme that makes them distinct from one
another.
What are the two different types of waves?
(1) Transverse Waves
(2) Longitudinal Waves
Transverse Waves
The oscillation is perpendicular to the direction the disturbance is moving.
WAVES IN THE OCEAN ARE AN EXAMPLE!
Longitudinal Waves
The oscillation moves in the same direction as the disturbance.
SOUND WAVES ARE AN EXAMPLE!
VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS
What is linguistics?
The scientific study of language.
What is science?
A systematic way of asking and answering questions that allows us to gain an understanding of
the world around us
What is human language a product of?
Our extraordinarily complex brains.
LANGUAGE IS A PRODUCT OF THE MIND!
What does it mean when people say the mind has structure (or the mind is structured)?
Each cognitive ability works in a very specific way!
There are limitations with what we can do. We can't bend spoons with our mind.
The Language Faculty
A way of referring to all of the cognitive abilities that give rise to language in humans. But more
specifically, it is the set of abilities that allows us to convert from physical signals like sound
(or visual signs) to thoughts!
What happens during comprehension?
The language faculty turns speech sounds (or signs in sign language) into complex meanings.
What happens during production?
The language faculty turns complex meanings into motor commands for the vocal tract (or
hands in sign language).
,Phoneme
The smallest segment of speech that leads to a meaningful difference between words.
This definition tells us how to test whether a word is a phoneme. Take a word, change one of
the speech sounds in it. If the change leads to a change in the meaning of the word, then the
original sound and the new sound are distinct phonemes.
Minimal Pairs Test
Step 1: Pick a word in the language:
"sad"
Step 2: Change one sound in the word: "sat"
If the changed sound leads to a different word, then the two sounds (the original and the new
one) are both distinct phonemes in the language!
Two words that differ in exactly one speech sound make a minimal pair!
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- Created so that we can easily write phonemes. Each phoneme that occurs in a language in the
world is given a symbol. And each symbol is used only once so there is no confusion!
- IT IS IMPORTANT FOR WRITING HOW A WORD IS PRONOUNCED, NOT SPELLED! THERE IS A
DIFFERENCE SOMETIMES.
- The IPA has a symbol for every phoneme in every language (over 300).
Why do we use the IPA and not the alphabet?
- In the IPA, there is a one-to-one relationship between symbols and phonemes. The alphabet
and English writing system do not obey this principle.
, - There are letters of the alphabet that represent more than one English phoneme.
- There are English phonemes that can be represented by more than one letter.
What is sound?
A distortion in air pressure
What is a sound wave?
- A disturbance in air pressure.
- It creates compression, or close-packing, of the air molecules that alternates with rarefaction
Why are sound waves important in linguistics?
They signify the PHYSICAL PROPERTIES of each phoneme that makes them distinct from one
another.
What are the two different types of waves?
(1) Transverse Waves
(2) Longitudinal Waves
Transverse Waves
The oscillation is perpendicular to the direction the disturbance is moving.
WAVES IN THE OCEAN ARE AN EXAMPLE!
Longitudinal Waves
The oscillation moves in the same direction as the disturbance.
SOUND WAVES ARE AN EXAMPLE!
