UCLA LING 1 EXAM 1 COMPREHENSIVE
INTRODUCTORY LINGUISTICS STUDY GUIDE
2026
◉ language as a type of KNOWLEDGE.
Answer: You have a finite set of building blocks and rules.
You know how to use them.
This is unconscious knowledge.
You understand the inventory of sounds in your language: Phonetics.
You understand the sound patterns in your language, what
sequences are possible: Phonology.
◉ lexicon.
Answer: your mental dictionary,
you know words that are not in any written dictionary, and may
never be
◉ morphology.
Answer: the "rules" that allow you construct words
◉ syntax.
Answer: How to build good PHRASES and SENTENCES
,◉ semantics.
Answer: Meanings of words and how to use them
◉ Education?.
Answer: Being a fully competent native speaker of a language is
independent of educational level.
Being more (or less) educated does not make a person a "better" (or
"worse") native speaker.
◉ linguistic competence.
Answer: What you know in your mind
What you can do
Systematic
◉ linguistic performance.
Answer: What actually comes out of your mouth
What you do do
Subject to physical limitations such as breath, fatigue, nerves, etc.
Slips of the Tongue are performance errors.
◉ Features of Language.
,Answer: 1. Arbitrariness: The relationship between a word and its
meaning is arbitrary. (This is why the sounds used to name the same
object vary across languages.)
2. Creativity: Speakers use a finite set of building blocks and rules to
create and understand an infinite set of novel sentences. (Sentences
cannot simply be memorized or learned by imitation.)
Creativity is a universal property of human language.
◉ Language Universals.
Answer: -All languages have ways of forming questions.
-All languages have means for negating an utterance.
-All languages have means for indicating when an action takes place.
-All languages possess a set of discrete sounds (or gestures).
-All languages permit displacement—the ability the talk about
things other than the here and now.
-All languages exhibit stimulus-freedom, the ability to say anything
at all—including nothing—in any circumstances.
◉ descriptive grammar.
Answer: linguist's description or model of the mental grammar
What speaker's rules actually are
speaker's grammar
linguist's grammar
, ◉ prescriptive grammar.
Answer: rules of grammar (often based on Latin) used by teachers
What speaker's rules should be
◉ lateralization.
Answer: language is "lateralized" to the left hemisphere
Without access to the left cerebral hemisphere, normal language
processing cannot occur.
◉ Dichotic Listening Tests.
Answer: Different sounds are played in both ears
Subject reports hearing only one
Sound from right ear is almost always reported
Conclusion: at least auditory processing of language seems to be in
the left hemisphere
◉ Split Brain Patients.
Answer: In severe cases of epilepsy, the corpus callosum is
sometimes severed
As a result, the two hemispheres can not share information
Linguistic responses are not possible if stimulus was presented to
the right hemisphere (left visual field).
INTRODUCTORY LINGUISTICS STUDY GUIDE
2026
◉ language as a type of KNOWLEDGE.
Answer: You have a finite set of building blocks and rules.
You know how to use them.
This is unconscious knowledge.
You understand the inventory of sounds in your language: Phonetics.
You understand the sound patterns in your language, what
sequences are possible: Phonology.
◉ lexicon.
Answer: your mental dictionary,
you know words that are not in any written dictionary, and may
never be
◉ morphology.
Answer: the "rules" that allow you construct words
◉ syntax.
Answer: How to build good PHRASES and SENTENCES
,◉ semantics.
Answer: Meanings of words and how to use them
◉ Education?.
Answer: Being a fully competent native speaker of a language is
independent of educational level.
Being more (or less) educated does not make a person a "better" (or
"worse") native speaker.
◉ linguistic competence.
Answer: What you know in your mind
What you can do
Systematic
◉ linguistic performance.
Answer: What actually comes out of your mouth
What you do do
Subject to physical limitations such as breath, fatigue, nerves, etc.
Slips of the Tongue are performance errors.
◉ Features of Language.
,Answer: 1. Arbitrariness: The relationship between a word and its
meaning is arbitrary. (This is why the sounds used to name the same
object vary across languages.)
2. Creativity: Speakers use a finite set of building blocks and rules to
create and understand an infinite set of novel sentences. (Sentences
cannot simply be memorized or learned by imitation.)
Creativity is a universal property of human language.
◉ Language Universals.
Answer: -All languages have ways of forming questions.
-All languages have means for negating an utterance.
-All languages have means for indicating when an action takes place.
-All languages possess a set of discrete sounds (or gestures).
-All languages permit displacement—the ability the talk about
things other than the here and now.
-All languages exhibit stimulus-freedom, the ability to say anything
at all—including nothing—in any circumstances.
◉ descriptive grammar.
Answer: linguist's description or model of the mental grammar
What speaker's rules actually are
speaker's grammar
linguist's grammar
, ◉ prescriptive grammar.
Answer: rules of grammar (often based on Latin) used by teachers
What speaker's rules should be
◉ lateralization.
Answer: language is "lateralized" to the left hemisphere
Without access to the left cerebral hemisphere, normal language
processing cannot occur.
◉ Dichotic Listening Tests.
Answer: Different sounds are played in both ears
Subject reports hearing only one
Sound from right ear is almost always reported
Conclusion: at least auditory processing of language seems to be in
the left hemisphere
◉ Split Brain Patients.
Answer: In severe cases of epilepsy, the corpus callosum is
sometimes severed
As a result, the two hemispheres can not share information
Linguistic responses are not possible if stimulus was presented to
the right hemisphere (left visual field).
