Chapter 1
Learning objectives
- Explain the difference in the meaning of the words communication and language.
- Recognize that language is rule-governed and explain this fact.
- Compare the differences between linguistic competence and linguistic performance.
- Analyze the statement: “Language is not dependent on hearing or on speech.”
- Describe the ways that nonhuman communication systems differ from language.
- Explain the statement: “Human communication is like an elaborate dance.”
- Construct a chart or a list that explains why most linguists believe that apes, such as Washoe and Koko, are not fully displaying human language abilities.
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Chapter 2
Learning objectives
- Name and explain what parts of the respiratory and digestive systems double as speech organs.
- Discuss the ways that consonants and vowels differ from each other.
- Describe how one consonant is differentiated from another consonant.
- Describe how one vowel is differentiated from another vowel.
- Explain what is meant by the term suprasegmental.
- Explain why linguists use a phonetic alphabet to represent speech sounds instead of regular spelling.
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Chapter 3
Learning objectives
- Explain the difference in the meaning of the terms phonetics and phonology.
- Define the term phoneme. Define the term allophones.
- Analyze the statement: “Phonemes and allophones are considered mental constructs rather than being defined in terms of their specific physical properties.”
- Describe how a language’s phonemes are determined.
- Define the term distinctive feature. Explain how distinctive feature analysis helps us understand the systematic aspects of language.
- List the two major classes of phonological processes, and explain how they differ from each other.
- Analyze the statement: “Speech includes redundant features.”
- Discuss the meaning of the term markedness.
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Chapter 4
Learning objectives
- Explain how words are created from a language’s basic units of meaning and name what those units are called.
- Discuss and name the different types of languages, based on the different ways of creating words from morphemes.
- Analyze this statement: “Language is an open system of communication.”
- List the ways that new words are formed as described in this chapter.
- Explain some of the ways that word meanings change over time.
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Chapter 5
Learning objectives
- Define the term syntax.
- Analyze the statement: “Syntax is basically subconscious knowledge.”
- List the names of the units that are larger than words and that make up sentences.
- List the names of different sentence types based on the types of clauses that construct each sentence type.
- Explain what types of sentences there are based on their meaning, function, or voice.
- Language is rule-governed. Discuss some of the general syntactic rules that a native speaker of a language knows.
- Word order is very important in some languages and less important in others. Explain why this is so.
- Report on who Noam Chomsky is and include what some of his contributions to linguistics are.
- Explain what phrase structure rules and phrase markers are.
- Discuss what is meant by saying that language has a hierarchical structure.
- Explain what is meant by the recursive property of language.
- Define transformational rules. List and explain the four basic types of transformations.
- Define grammaticality judgment.
- List the three types of ambiguity discussed in this chapter and provide at least one example of each.
- Explain how ambiguous and synonymous utterances can be seen in terms of deep and surface structure.
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Chapter 6
Learning objectives
- Explain what it means to mean something.
- Explain the basic difference between the related fields of semantics and pragmatics.
- Explain what is meant when we say that a language is a code and a symbol system.
- Define lexical semantics.
- Explain the concept of semantic properties as they relate to words.
- Describe how the components of meaning are analyzed.
- Name words that mean the same or sound the same.
- Name what it is called when rules regarding the meanings of words are broken.
- Explain the difference between lexical and structural semantics.
- Explain the difference between entailment and presupposition, and give examples of each.
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Chapter 7
Learning objectives
- Explain the meaning of the term pragmatics.
- List and define the various kinds of speech acts.
- Discuss politeness theory and the concept of “face” as it relates to politeness theory.
- Expand on the statement: “Discourse analysis is the process of discovering the rules of communication events.”
- Explain why presupposition is necessary in human communication.
- Explain the following statement and name the process being described: “Some words and expressions refer to their referents by ‘pointing’ to them as in an index.”
- Describe the concept of the maxims of conversation.
- Analyze the relationship of implicature to maxims of conversation.
- Provide examples of how maxims of conversation differ cross-culturally.
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Chapter 8
Learning objectives
- Explain the concept of a language community.
- Define the term dialect. Relate the term dialect to the term language.
- List the key characteristics of African American English.
- List the key characteristics of Hispanic English.
- Define pidgin and creole languages.
- Explain situational dialects.
- Discuss stereotypes based on dialect and language variation.
- Define code switching. Explain why people do it.
- Analyze how language reinforces social identity.
- Explain how men and women use language differently.
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Chapter 9
Learning objectives
- Define linguistic anthropology.
- Understand what the study of disappearing and extinct languages can tell us about the relationship of language to political power and economic success.
- Explain why the loss of a language is equivalent to the loss of cultural diversity and the loss of cultural identity.
- Explain the main reasons that languages disappear.
- Discuss some of the attempts to revive endangered or extinct languages.
- Discuss the concept of linguistic relativity.
- Analyze the following question: “Does language influence culture, or does culture influence language?”
- Explain how children are enculturated as they learn their language and culture.
- Discuss how personal names, as well as ethnic, racial, social class, and other labels might influence the development of a person’s identity and self-concept.
- Explain how ethnic pride is related to language nationalism.
- Explain the statement, “Language is power.”
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Chapter 10
Learning objectives
- Describe the role of brain development in language acquisition.
- List and explain the major theories of language acquisition.
- Describe how children acquire phonology.
- Describe how children acquire syntax and morphology.
- Describe how children acquire the lexicon.
- List the stages of first-language acquisition and briefly describe each.
- List and explain the different forms of bilingualism.
- Explain the two main hypotheses about how young children simultaneously acquire two or more languages.
- Analyze how second-language learning is different from first-language acquisition.
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Chapter 11
Learning objectives
- Explain why linguists now consider sign language to be a form of linguistic expression on a par with speech or writing.
- Discuss some misconceptions about sign language.
- Describe how the term phoneme can be applied to a sign language.
- Compare the acquisition of sign language by deaf children to speech by hearing children.
- Identify William Stokoe and discuss what he contributed to the study of sign language.
- List and explain the main parameters of sign language.
- Discuss how linguists describe the morphology and syntax of sign language.
- Explain why signers sign differently in different situations.
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Chapter 12
Learning objectives
- Writing is a graphic interpretation of speech. List and describe the three main ways that speech can be interpreted graphically.
- The Chinese writing system has been in continuous use for longer than any other writing system. List and explain what characteristics and functions of Chinese writing are responsible for this fact.
- Describe the rebus principle.
- Analyze the function or functions that many linguists see in the inconsistencies of English spelling.
- Evaluate the ways that writing and speech differ.
- Explain some of the ideas on the origin of writing.
- Define stimulus diffusion and give an example of a writing system originated by virtue of this phenomenon.
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Chapter 13
Learning objectives
- Compare the differences between verbal and nonverbal communication.
- List the ways that humans communicate extensively through the main categories of nonverbal communication discussed in this chapter.
- Explain the statement: “People in different cultures display different patterns of nonverbal communication.”
- Explain why one should be cautious of “how-to” books on nonverbal communication.
- Explain the statement: “The study of facial expressions and concepts of physical attractiveness illustrate that human behavior can be influenced by both innate biological factors (nature) and cultural factors (nurture).”
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Chapter 14
Learning objectives
- List and describe the main reasons that languages change over time.
- Identify the contributions of August Schleicher, Johannes Schmidt, and Sir William Jones to the study of historical linguistics.
- Define the terms language family and proto-language.
- Describe how the comparative method is used to show relationships between languages and to reconstruct proto-language.
- Compare the family tree model and the wave model of language relationship. Analyze the benefits and difficulties of each of these models in terms of their ability to explain historical linguistic phenomena.
- Explain what cognates are and provide examples.
- Explain the relatedness and regularity hypotheses.
- Define Grimm’s law.
- Explain the difference between conditioned and unconditioned phonological changes and provide examples of each type of change.
- List some examples of morphological changes and syntactic changes in language.
- Provide some examples of sociocultural and semantic changes in the English language. Discuss how sociocultural and semantic changes are related to each other.
- List and explain the ways linguists attempt to determine the rate at which daughter languages change from a mother language.
- Discuss the two main competing hypotheses on the location of the origin of Indo-European.
- When we speak of the spread of English throughout the world, it is more accurate to speak of the spread of “Englishes.” Analyze this statement.
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