Core Curriculum: Linguistics Midterm Exam
Material: CH 1-10 from Yule (2022)
Competence = abstract structural principles (speaker’s intuitions about native language).
Performance = the actual realization of language, which may not always directly reflect the
underlying abstract principles.
Innateness hypothesis (Chomsky) = languages are naturally acquired by children in their
first years, without much strain and instructions. So, the human capacity for language (the
language faculty) is innate. Children show similar developmental patterns (no matter the
language), it’s always successful, and correction / instruction has little to no effect.
Properties of human language:
- Reflexivity: humans can use language to talk about language.
- Arbitrariness: linguistic units have no natural connection between form and meaning.
- Displacement: language can be used to refer to things that are not in the here / now.
- Open-endedness: the potential number of utterances in human languages is infinite.
- Cultural transmission: humans have a predisposition for language, but the language they
acquire depends on their surroundings.
- Duality of patterning: linguistic forms have 2 levels of structure (meaning and form).
Phonetics = the study of speech sounds.
Articulatory phonetics = production of speech by speaker
Acoustic phonetics = physical properties of sound waves
Auditory phonetics = perception of speech by hearer
Sound is air that vibrates. Air molecules are set in motion by an energy source. This causes
them to oscillate and pass on their energy to neighbouring molecules. This way, sound is
propagated from the speaker to the listener.
Properties of sound: loudness, pitch, shape of the sound wave.
Deep orthography = like English and French; their spelling systems deviate quite
considerably from the ideal one-to-one sound-letter correspondence.
Shallow orthography = like Italian and Spanish.
Voiceless sounds = when the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes
between them with no obstruction.
Voiced sounds = when the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly
pushes them apart as it passes through (vibration).
Obstruent sounds = involve pressure change and noise in their production (plosives,
affricates, fricatives). The velum must be raised. Can be voiced or voiceless.
Sonorant sounds = do not involve changes in pressure or noise in their production (nasal,
approximants). Velum can be raised or lowered. Always voiced.
Phonology = description of systems / patterns of speech sounds in a language.
Phoneme = each meaning-distinguishing sound (/ /). They function contrastively (/f/ - /v/).
When 2 sounds share features (/p/ - /k/), they’re members of a natural class of phonemes.
Phones = the sounds that are actually produced in speech ([ ]).
Allophones = a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme (ex: [t] in tar and
1
, star is different).
Complementary distribution = when we have 2 allophones of a phoneme, each used in
different places in words, they are in CD (ex: pronunciation of /t/ with aspiration is used
word-initially, as in tar, but never after another consonant in initial position, as in star).
Minimal pair = when 2 words (ex: fan – van) are identical in form except for one phoneme
occurring in the same position.
Minimal set = when a group of words are identical in form except for one phoneme
occurring in the same position.
Phonotactics = permitted arrangements of sounds.
Syllable = σ, a unit containing an obligatory centre part which is usually a vowel.
Nucleus = middle part of the syllable, often the vowel.
Onset = consonants before the nucleus. Onset without consonant: empty onset.
Coda = consonants after the nucleus.
Rhyme = nucleus + coda.
Open syllables = syllables which have an onset and nucleus, but no coda (ex: me, to).
Closed syllables = syllables which do have a coda (ex: up, cup).
Consonant cluster = more than one consonant (CC).
Lenition = when the pronunciation of the final consonant changes (secret -> secrecy).
Aspiration [h] = a puff of air following a phoneme (ex: [th] in tar).
Assimilation = sounds become more similar to those in surroundings (ex: better – ‘bedder’).
Nasalization [~] = simultaneous oral and nasal airflow.
Elision = the loss of a sound, usually on unstressed vowels (ex: next day)
Fundamental frequency (F0) = speaker can manipulate the rate of vibration which is
difference in pitch. Higher F0 is higher vibration is higher pitch.
Harmonics / overtones = the individual frequencies that make up a complex sound wave.
Each harmonic is an integer multiple of F0.
Vowel quality = the specific acoustic characteristics that differentiate one vowel sound from
another. This depends on the shape of the vocal tract.
Formants = prominent frequency peaks in the acoustic spectrum of speech that result from
the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract.
Etymology = the study of the origin / history of a word.
Ways to make neologisms (= new words):
- Borrowing = many words in English came from borrowing from other languages. Loan-
translation / calque = a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing
language (ex: skyscraper – wolkenkrabber, Wolkenkratzer, gratte-ciel).
- Compounding = joining of 2 words to produce one form (ex: fast food). Blending is when
the combination of 2 forms produce a single new term (ex: smoke and fog -> smog).
- Clipping = when a word of >1 syllable is reduced to a short form (ex: gasoline -> gas).
With hypocorisms, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to
the end (ex: breakfast -> brekky). Backformation is when a noun is reduced to a verb (ex:
emotion -> emote).
- Conversion = a change in the function of a word, like a noun to a verb (ex: vacationing).
- Coinage = the invention of totally new words. New words based on the name of a person /
place are called eponyms (ex: jeans from Genoa where the cloth was made). Acronyms
are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words (ex: NASA). An
2
Material: CH 1-10 from Yule (2022)
Competence = abstract structural principles (speaker’s intuitions about native language).
Performance = the actual realization of language, which may not always directly reflect the
underlying abstract principles.
Innateness hypothesis (Chomsky) = languages are naturally acquired by children in their
first years, without much strain and instructions. So, the human capacity for language (the
language faculty) is innate. Children show similar developmental patterns (no matter the
language), it’s always successful, and correction / instruction has little to no effect.
Properties of human language:
- Reflexivity: humans can use language to talk about language.
- Arbitrariness: linguistic units have no natural connection between form and meaning.
- Displacement: language can be used to refer to things that are not in the here / now.
- Open-endedness: the potential number of utterances in human languages is infinite.
- Cultural transmission: humans have a predisposition for language, but the language they
acquire depends on their surroundings.
- Duality of patterning: linguistic forms have 2 levels of structure (meaning and form).
Phonetics = the study of speech sounds.
Articulatory phonetics = production of speech by speaker
Acoustic phonetics = physical properties of sound waves
Auditory phonetics = perception of speech by hearer
Sound is air that vibrates. Air molecules are set in motion by an energy source. This causes
them to oscillate and pass on their energy to neighbouring molecules. This way, sound is
propagated from the speaker to the listener.
Properties of sound: loudness, pitch, shape of the sound wave.
Deep orthography = like English and French; their spelling systems deviate quite
considerably from the ideal one-to-one sound-letter correspondence.
Shallow orthography = like Italian and Spanish.
Voiceless sounds = when the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes
between them with no obstruction.
Voiced sounds = when the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly
pushes them apart as it passes through (vibration).
Obstruent sounds = involve pressure change and noise in their production (plosives,
affricates, fricatives). The velum must be raised. Can be voiced or voiceless.
Sonorant sounds = do not involve changes in pressure or noise in their production (nasal,
approximants). Velum can be raised or lowered. Always voiced.
Phonology = description of systems / patterns of speech sounds in a language.
Phoneme = each meaning-distinguishing sound (/ /). They function contrastively (/f/ - /v/).
When 2 sounds share features (/p/ - /k/), they’re members of a natural class of phonemes.
Phones = the sounds that are actually produced in speech ([ ]).
Allophones = a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme (ex: [t] in tar and
1
, star is different).
Complementary distribution = when we have 2 allophones of a phoneme, each used in
different places in words, they are in CD (ex: pronunciation of /t/ with aspiration is used
word-initially, as in tar, but never after another consonant in initial position, as in star).
Minimal pair = when 2 words (ex: fan – van) are identical in form except for one phoneme
occurring in the same position.
Minimal set = when a group of words are identical in form except for one phoneme
occurring in the same position.
Phonotactics = permitted arrangements of sounds.
Syllable = σ, a unit containing an obligatory centre part which is usually a vowel.
Nucleus = middle part of the syllable, often the vowel.
Onset = consonants before the nucleus. Onset without consonant: empty onset.
Coda = consonants after the nucleus.
Rhyme = nucleus + coda.
Open syllables = syllables which have an onset and nucleus, but no coda (ex: me, to).
Closed syllables = syllables which do have a coda (ex: up, cup).
Consonant cluster = more than one consonant (CC).
Lenition = when the pronunciation of the final consonant changes (secret -> secrecy).
Aspiration [h] = a puff of air following a phoneme (ex: [th] in tar).
Assimilation = sounds become more similar to those in surroundings (ex: better – ‘bedder’).
Nasalization [~] = simultaneous oral and nasal airflow.
Elision = the loss of a sound, usually on unstressed vowels (ex: next day)
Fundamental frequency (F0) = speaker can manipulate the rate of vibration which is
difference in pitch. Higher F0 is higher vibration is higher pitch.
Harmonics / overtones = the individual frequencies that make up a complex sound wave.
Each harmonic is an integer multiple of F0.
Vowel quality = the specific acoustic characteristics that differentiate one vowel sound from
another. This depends on the shape of the vocal tract.
Formants = prominent frequency peaks in the acoustic spectrum of speech that result from
the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract.
Etymology = the study of the origin / history of a word.
Ways to make neologisms (= new words):
- Borrowing = many words in English came from borrowing from other languages. Loan-
translation / calque = a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing
language (ex: skyscraper – wolkenkrabber, Wolkenkratzer, gratte-ciel).
- Compounding = joining of 2 words to produce one form (ex: fast food). Blending is when
the combination of 2 forms produce a single new term (ex: smoke and fog -> smog).
- Clipping = when a word of >1 syllable is reduced to a short form (ex: gasoline -> gas).
With hypocorisms, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to
the end (ex: breakfast -> brekky). Backformation is when a noun is reduced to a verb (ex:
emotion -> emote).
- Conversion = a change in the function of a word, like a noun to a verb (ex: vacationing).
- Coinage = the invention of totally new words. New words based on the name of a person /
place are called eponyms (ex: jeans from Genoa where the cloth was made). Acronyms
are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words (ex: NASA). An
2
