Some terms used in linguistics, language studies, language teaching and
SLA research.
Based on V.J. Cook (1997), Inside Language, Arnold
The aim is to present quick glosses, not watertight definitions.
LINKS:
SLA
Bibliography Languages
List
Vivian
Cook's home page
adjacency pair: a pair of discourse moves that often go together, e.g. question and answer
agreement: Agreement consists of a change of form in one element of a sentence caused by a second element, to show their common number, gender etc, for example Subject Verb Agreement of number in English One swallow DOESN’T make a summer/Two swallows DON’T make a summer.
allophone: Allophones are alternative pronunciations of phonemes in a particular language that never affect the meaning. For example RP English has clear /l/ at the beginning of words such as lick, dark /l/ at the end of words such as kill, but these do not change the words if the wrong one is used; in Polish the two /l/s are different phonemes.
alphabetic principle: the writing system in which written symbols correspond to spoken sounds, contrasted with the LOGOGRAPHIC and ORTHOGRAPHIC principles
aphasia: aphasia is in general the impairment of the ability to use language, particularly grammar and vocabulary, usually caused by some form of damage to the brain, sometimes accompanied by other forms of impairment, consisting of types such as Broca's and Wernicke's aphasias
articulatory loop: in Working Memory theory the means by which information is kept in working memory by being audibly or silently articulated
assimilationist teaching: teaching that expects people to give up their native languages and to become speakers of the majority language of the country. See transitional teaching, submersion teaching
authentic speech: ‘an authentic text is a text that was created to fulfil some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced’ (Little et al., 1988)
bilingualism: see second language, additive/subtractive, elite bilingualism
binding: The relationship between a pronoun such as she and its antecedent noun such as Jane as in Jane helped herself, Helen said Jane helped her, etc, is called binding—a complex area of the Universal Grammar theory
Broca’s aphasia: A type of aphasia characterised by loss of ability to produce but not to comprehend speech, associated with injury to Broca’s area in the front left hemisphere of the brain (left frontal lobe)
canonical order: The canonical order of the sentence is the most usual order of the main sentence elements, Subject (S), Verb (V) and Object (O), in a language, for example VSO in Arabic or SVO in English. See also Word Order
case: Case is variation in the form of Nouns and Pronouns to show their role in the structure of the Sentence, in English limited visibly to pronouns, Subject case he, Object case him, Possessive case his, in Latin extending to nouns with six cases, in Finnish to fifteen, used nowadays for a more powerful abstract relationship not necessarily visible in the sentence itself.
clause: A clause has the attributes of a sentence but may occur within a sentence, for example a relative clause who played the alto within the sentence The man who played the alto was Charlie Parker.
cognitive deficit: the limitations on processing information in a second language compared to in a first language
cognitive strategies: these involve specific conscious ways of tackling L2 learning. See learning strategies
cognitive style: a person’s typical ways of thinking, seen as a continuum between field-dependent (FD) cognitive style, in which thinking relates to context, and field-independent (FI) style, in which it is independent of context
communication strategies in
SLA can be:
- individual
solutions to psychological problems of L2 processing (Faerch and Kasper
1984)
- mutual attempts to solve L2
communication problems by participants (Tarone 1980)
- ways of filling vocabulary gaps in L1 or L2 (Kellerman
1990, Poulisse 1990)
communicative competence: the speaker’s ability to put language to communicative use, usually traced back to Hymes. See pragmatic competence
components of meaning: one way of describing the meaning of words is to split it up into separate components so that for example the noun boy can be seen as having the components [non-adult] [male], girl the components [adult] [female], woman, the components [adult] [female], and so on.
consciousness-raising: helping the student by drawing attention to features of the second language
consonant: Typically, in terms of sound production, a consonant is a sound which is obstructed in some way by tongue or lip contact as in /k/ keep or /b/ beep, as opposed to the unobstructed sound of a vowel. In terms of the sound system, a consonant is a sound that typically occurs at the beginning or end of the syllable rather than the middle, thus contrasting with vowel.
content words: Content words such as table or truth are best explained in the dictionary (lexicon). Content words form four types of lexical phrase around lexical heads: Nounsdrum, Verbs play, adjectives pretty, and Prepositionsto. They contrast with grammatical words.
creole: A creole language is a new language created when children acquire their parents’ pidgin language as their first language, for example Hawaiian creole and Guyanese creole.
critical period hypothesis (CPH): the claim that human beings are only capable of learning language between the age of 2 years and the early teens
decoding versus codebreaking: processing language to get the ‘message’ versus processing language to get the ‘rules’
derivation: Derivation is how new words are created by processes such as inflections,trumpet + er = trumpeter, or compounding wind + mill = windmill. It contrasts with grammatical inflections
dialect: A dialect is a particular variety of a language spoken by a group united by region, class etc. It is usually seen nowadays as a matter of different vocabulary or grammar rather than of accent.
diglossia: Diglossia is a situation where there are two versions of a language with very different uses, a High form for official occasions and a Low form for everyday life, as in the difference between High German and Swiss German in German-speaking areas of Switzerland
diphthong: A
diphthong is a type of vowel
produced by moving the tongue as it is produced from one position towards
another, for example in English // fear and
// low. It may correspond to one or two written
letters.
discourse move: the speaker’s choice of what to do in the conversation, e.g. opening moves such as ‘greeting’
distinctive feature: Distinctive features are a way of analysing speech sounds in terms of a certain number of on/off elements. So the /b/ in English bass has the feature +voice, the /p/ of piano has the feature -voice, and so on.
dyslexia: Children with developmental dyslexia have problems with reading but not usually with other areas of development. See SLI.
élite bilingualism: either the choice by parents of bringing up children through two languages, or societies in which members of a ruling group speak a second language
epenthesis: Epenthesis is the process of adding vowels to make possible syllables out of impossible consonant sequences, for example Rawanda for Ruanda
Estuary English:This
is some people’s name for a recent accent of British English allegedly
originating from the Thames estuary, known for its use of the glottal
stop [] /
/ for bet /bet/ and of /w/ for /l/ as in /fuw/
for full /ful/.
focus on form (FonF): incidental discussion of grammar arising from meaningful language in the classroom
focus on formS: deliberate discussion of grammar in the classroom without reference to meaning
frequency: either how many times a word occurs in speech or how often it is practised by a student
fricatives: A type of consonant in which the air escapes through a narrow gap created between lips, teeth and tongue, as in English /f/ fine, /s/ sign, /v/ vine, etc.
front/back: In phonetics the dimension in the position of the tongue for vowels from the front to the back of the mouth is called front/back
functional phrases: In current syntactic theory, a functional phrase is built round a HEAD consisting of a GRAMMATICAL WORD such as the (Determiner Phrase), for example the book, or a grammatical INFLECTION such as present tense ‘-s’, as in lives. According to some theories, these are not available to young children.
gender: Gender is a system for allocating different elements in the sentence to the categories of masculine, feminine and neuter. In English gender is seen only in the link between Pronouns such as she and Nouns such as Susan, in other languages it affects Agreement of adjectives and Verbs with nouns. Gender is called ‘natural’ when it correlates with sex, ‘arbitrary’ when it does not, as in French la table (feminine, ‘table’) and German das Madchen (neuter, ‘girl’).
glottal
stop: A speech sound made by closing the vocal cords
and then releasing them, as in a cough, symbolised by //.
good language learner (GLL) strategies: the strategies employed by people known to be good at L2 learning
grammar: Grammar is the system of relationships between elements of the sentence that links the ‘sounds’ to the ‘meanings’. It is used to refer both to the knowledge of language in the speaker’s mind, and to the system as written down in rules, grammar-books and other descriptions. The type of grammar derived from classical languages that is often taught in schools is called traditional grammar and is more concerned with prescribing how native speakers should use language than with describing it. Main areas of grammar are WORD ORDER, GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES, GRAMMATICAL INFLECTIONS and PHRASE STRUCTURE. See also prescriptive grammar, traditional grammar.
grammatical (linguistic) competence: the native speaker’s knowledge of language
grammatical inflections: Grammatical inflections are a system of showing meaning by changing word endings, as in the English ‘-ed’ inflection meaning past tense, I looked, absent from some languages like Vietnamese
grammatical morphemes: Grammatical morphemes is a collective term for morphemes that primarily play a role in the grammar of the sentence, consisting in English of either grammatical words such as the articles the/a or Prepositions to/in or grammatical inflections such as the past tense ‘-ed’, liked, or the possess-ive ‘’s’ Albert's. In recent UG these are the heads of functional phrases.
grammatical words: Grammatical words (also known as 'function' or 'structure' words such as preposition by/for or determiners a/an express the grammatical relationships in the sentence rather than meanings that can be captured in the lexicon.
head: The head of a lexical phrase is a lexical head around which the phrase is built, i.e. Noun Phrases like a good CD have a head Noun such as CD. The head of a functional phrase may be an inflection such as ‘-s’ or a grammatical word such as the.
head parameter: The head parameter captures the difference between languages in which the head of the phrase comes first, i.e. the preposition head comes before its ‘complement’ in English on Tuesday, and those in which it comes last, as the Postposition head comes last in Japanese Nihon ni (in Japan).
h-dropping: H-dropping refers to the presence or absence of /h/ in the pronunciation of certain words where the letter “h” is present in the spelling, as in Harry versus ‘Arry. In French h-dropping is part of the standard language; in English English, but not American, h-dropping is a strong social marker of low status in words like high hat or hit.
hyper-correction:
Hyper-correction is the phenomenon whereby a speaker exaggerates the
prestige pronunciation beyond that used by high status speakers, for example
/hn
st/ for honest.
immersion teaching: teaching the whole curriculum through the second language, best known from experiments in Canada
independent language assumption: the language of the L2 learner considered as a system of language in its own right rather than as a defective version of the target language (sometimes called ‘interlanguage’. See multi-competence
infix: An infix is a morpheme that is added inside a word to get a new meaning, often by changing the vowel, as in blow versus blew. Infixes are rare in English but common in Arabic.
instrumental motivation: learning the language for a career goal or other practical reason
integrative motivation: learning the language in order to take part in the culture of its people
intonation: Intonation is the change of pitch used in the sound system of language, i.e. John? versus John! Sometimes intonation refers specifically to the use of change of pitch to show attitude or grammar in a language rather than vocabulary differences, in which case it is opposed to tone.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): Internationally agreed phonetic alphabet for writing down the sounds of languages in a consistent fashion.
laterals: Laterals are speech sounds produced asymmetrically in the mouth, typically /l/ in which one side of the tongue makes contact with the roof of the mouth but not the other.
language awareness: helping the student by raising awareness of language itself
language function: the reason why someone says something, e.g. apologizing, arguing, greeting, etc
language maintenance and bilingual language teaching: these teach or maintain the minority language within its group. See assimilationist teaching
learning strategy: a choice that the learner makes while learning or using the second language that affects learning, whether cognitive, or metacognitive. See GLL
length: Length
usually distinguishes pairs of vowels in
a language, such as short // in /
/ pit versus long /i:/ in /pi:t/
Pete.
lexical entry: A word has a lexical entry in the mind that gives all the information about it such as its pronunciation, meaning, and how it may be used in the structure of the sentence
lexical phrase: A lexical phrase is built around a lexical head such as a Noun the house on the hill, a Verb cross the road, an Adjective quick to anger, or a Preposition in the spring. It contrasts with a functional phrase.
linguistic imperialism: means by which a ‘Centre’ country dominates ‘Periphery’ countries by making them use its language
linguistics: The academic discipline that focuses on language is called linguistics and is carried out by linguists.
linguist: In the study of language, a linguist is usually someone who studies linguistics rather than someone who speaks several languages.
logographic principle: The writing system in which written symbols correspond to meanings, as in Chinese characters. See alphabetic principle
metacognitive strategies: learning strategies that involve planning and directing learning at a general level
Minimalist Program(me): The Minimalist Programme is the current version of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar theory, as yet only partially developed, which tries to reduce grammar to the minimum possible principles.
MLU (Mean Length of Utterance): MLU measures the complexity of a child’s speech by averaging the number of morphemes or words per utterance, useful as an L1 measure up to about the age of 4 years.
morpheme: A morpheme is the smallest unit in the grammar that is either a word in its own right (free morpheme) cook or part of a word cooks (bound morpheme ‘-s’). Grammatical morphemes that form part of the grammar, such as the plural inflection ‘-s’ in books are one type. Morphemes that change one word to another, for example cooker, cookery, cookbook, are part of derivation. See infix, suffix
movement: Movement is a way of describing the structure of the sentence as if elements in it moved around, typically in English in questions and passive constructions. Thus the question Will John go? comes from a similar structure to that underlying the statement John will come by movement of will. See subjacency and structure-dependency.
multi-competence: the knowledge of more than one language in the same mind
multilingualism: countries where more than one language is used for everyday purposes
nasals: Nasals are consonants
created by blocking the mouth with the tongue or lips, lowering the soft
palate (velum), and allowing the air to come out through the nose, as in
English /m/ mouse and /n/ nous. Vowels
may be nasalised by allowing some air to come out through the nose and mouth
at the same time, as in French // son (sound).
native speaker; a person, usually monolingual, speaking the first language they learnt as a child
noun: The lexical category of Noun (N) consists of words such as John, truth and electron. In Universal Grammar theory, a noun is the head of a lexical phrase, the Noun Phrase. It can also be thought of as a potential Subject of the sentence, The truth hurts.
number: Number is a way of signalling how many entities are involved, for example through the forms of Nouns, Pronouns and Verbs. English, French, and German have two numbers, singular (he) and plural (they). Tok Pisin and Old English, etc add dual number; Fijian trial. Number is often used to signal other things then sheer quantity, for instance social relationship through pronouns.
Object: The object of the sentence is usually a Noun Phrase in a particular relationship to the Verb of the sentence acting as ‘receiver of the action’; for instance the verb see requires an object see something; the verb give two objects give someone (indirect) something (direct)
official language: language(s) recognized by a country for official purposes
open/close: In phonetics the dimension in which the tongue position of vowels varies from the top to the bottom of the mouth is called open/close
orthographic principle: A writing system in which written symbols have a system of their own, corresponding neither to sounds nor to meanings. Cf. alphabetic principle
parameter: In Universal Grammar theory the variation between languages is seen as a question of setting values for a small number of parameters, for example Italian sets the pro-drop parameter to have a value of pro-drop and thus allows sentences without subjects, vende (he sells), while German sets the value to non-pro-drop and thus has subjects in all sentences Er spricht (he speaks). Cf head parameter
parsing: the process through which the mind works out the grammatical structure and meaning of the sentence. whether top-down or bottom-up
person: Person is a way of linking the sentence to the speech situation through the choice of Pronoun or Verb form, often in terms of the person speaking (first person, I/je/ich, etc), the person(s) spoken to (second person, you/tu/vous/du/Sie, etc), and other people involved (third person), he/she/it/they il/elle/ils/elles er/sie/es/Sie etc). Sometimes person is extended to people not previously mentioned (fourth person), as in Navaho, and to listener-included ‘we’ versus listener-excluded ‘we’, as in Melanesian Pidgin English yumi and mipela. Often linked to number.
phoneme: The distinctive sounds of a particular language system are its phonemes, studied in phonology. Thus in English the sounds /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes because they distinguish /pi:k/ peak from /bi:k/ beak; the sounds [p] and [ph] are different phonemes in Hindi because they distinguish two words, but do not in English as they simply form two variant allophones of the same phoneme without ever distinguishing two words.
phonetics: The sub-discipline of linguistics that studies the production and perception of the speech sounds themselves is called phonetics and contrasts with phonology.
phonology: The area of linguistics that studies the sound systems of particular languages is phonology, and is contrasted with phonetics
phrase structure: The phrase structure of the sentence links all the parts together in a structure like that of a family tree. So the Noun Phrase the soprano combines with a Verb to get the Verb Phrase played the soprano, which in turn combines with the Noun Phrase Sidney Bechet to get the sentence Sidney Bechet played the soprano
pidgin: A pidgin language is created by speakers of two different languages for communicating with each other. Pidgins share similar characteristics wherever they arise such as CV syllable structure. Examples are: Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea), Cameroon Pidgin English, Ivory Coast Pidgin, etc. See also creole.
plosive: A speech sound made by blocking the air-stream completely with the tongue or lips, allowing the air to burst out after a brief moment, as in English /t/ tea or /b/ bee. See VOICE ONSET TIME.
pragmatic competence: Chomsky's term for the speaker’s ability to use language for a range of public and private functions, including communication. See grammmatical competence
prefix: A prefix is a morpheme that is added to the beginning of a word to create another word by derivation as “Brit” is added to “pop” to get Britpop.
preposition: The category of grammar called preposition (P) consists of words like to, by and with. In UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR theory the Preposition is the HEAD of a LEXICAL PHRASE, the Preposition Phrase. When coming before a NOUN, the category is called ‘preposition’ as in in Basin Street, when after a Noun a ‘postposition’ Nippon ni (Japan in)
prescriptive grammar: grammar that ‘prescribes’ what people should say rather than 'describes' what they do say
principle: In the Universal Grammar theory, principles of language are built-in to the human mind and are thus never broken in human languages. Examples are STRUCTURE-DEPENDENCY and SUBJACENCY.
pro-drop: The pro-drop parameter (null subject parameter) divides languages into pro-drop languages in which the Subject of the sentence may be left out, as in Italian Sono di Torino (am from Turin) and Chinese Shuo (speak), and non-pro-drop languages in which the subject must be present in the actual sentence as in English, German, and French.
pronoun: Pronouns such as he and them differ from Nouns in that they refer to different things on different occasions: She likes it can refer to any female being liking anything; Helen likes Coltrane only to a specific person liking a specific object. English pronouns have Case (she versus her) and number (she versus they).
prototype theory: in Rosch's theory, words have whole meanings divided into basic level (‘table’), superordinate (‘furniture’), and subordinate (‘coffee table’)
r-dropping: Some
standard accents of English such as American are ‘rhotic’ in that they have
/r/ before consonants
bard is /ba:rd/ or before silence fur //. Other accents of English such as British RP are
‘non-rhotic’, in that they do not have /r/ in these two positions, i.e.
bard /ba:d/, fur /
/. R-dropping is a marker of low status in the USA
and lack of r-dropping is a marker of rural accents in England.
RP: The prestige accent of British English is known by the two letters RP, originally standing for ‘Received Pronunciation’. It is spoken in all regions of the UK, even if by a small minority of speakers.
schema (pl. schemas or schemata): the background knowledge on which the interpretation of a text depends
script: ‘a predetermined stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known situation’ (Schank and Abelson, 1977)
second language: ‘A language acquired by a person in addition to his mother tongue’ UNESCO. See Bilingualism
sentence: A sentence is the largest independent unit in the grammar of the language. It may include other clauses within it.
short-term memory (STM): the memory used for keeping information for periods of time up to a few seconds. See working memory
sign language: A sign language differs from other human languages only in using a gesture system rather than a sound system.
Specific Language Impairment (SLI): Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is one term for difficulties with language development in children unaccompanied by non-linguistic disabilities, possibly genetic in origin and characterised inter alia by missing grammatical morphemes.
structural grammar: teaching term for grammar concerned with how words go into phrases, phrases into sentences
structure-dependency: Structure-dependency is a restriction on movement in human languages that makes it depend on the structure of the sentence, rather than on its linear order. A principle of Universal Grammar.
style: Style is used by Labov and others to refer to the dimension of formal to informal in language use.
subjacency: Subjacency is a restriction on grammatical movement in the sentence that prevents elements moving over more than one boundary, the definition of boundary varying as a parameter from one language to another.
subject: The Subject (S) is the Noun Phrase of the sentence alongside the Verb Phrase in its structure, John likes biscuits, compulsory in non-pro-drop languages in the actual sentence but may be omitted in pro-drop languages; it often acts as the ‘agent of the action’.
submersion teaching: extreme sink-or-swim form of assimilationist teaching in which minority language children are simply put in majority language classes
subtractive bilingualism: L2 learning that takes away from the learner’s capabilities. (Lambert). See additive bilingualism
suffix: A suffix is a morpheme that is added to a word to create another word by derivation. Felon thus becomes a second noun by adding “-y” felony, and an adjective by adding “-ous” felonious.
syllable: A sound structure usually consisting of a central vowel (V) such as /a:/, with one or more consonant (C) preceding or following it, such as /b/ or /k/ CV /ba:/ bar and VC /a:k/ ark. Languages vary in whether they permit only CV syllables or allow CVC syllables as well and in the combinations of C that may be used. See epenthesis
teachability hypothesis: ‘an L2 structure can be learnt from instruction only if the learner’s interlanguage is close to the point when this structure is acquired in the natural setting’ (Pienemann)
tone: Usually tone means a unit of pitch change for a given language, English having about seven tones. Sometimes tone is used to contrast a tone language where tones are used to show vocabulary differences such as Chinese and an intonation language where tones show attitudes, grammar etc, such as English.
top-down and bottom-up: starting from the sentence as a whole and working down to the smallest parts of it, versus starting from the smallest parts and working up
traditional grammar: ‘school’ grammar concerned with labelling sentences with parts of speech
transitional teaching: teaching that allows people to function in a majority language, without necessarily losing or devaluing the first language. See assimilationist teaching
Universal Grammar: Sometimes Universal Grammar refers simply to the aspects of language that all languages have in common. In the Chomskyan sense Universal Grammar refers to the language faculty built in to the human mind, seen as consisting of principles such as structure-dependency and parameters such as pro-drop.
uvular /r/: An /r/ pronounced with tongue contact at the uvula at the back of the mouth—the usual French /r/
verb: A Verb (V) is a lexical category in the grammar made up of words such as like and listen. In UG theory it is the head of the lexical Verb Phrase (VP). Different types of verbs specify whether there is a need for: no Object Eric fainted, one object Billie sang the blues two objects Mary gave the money to her brother, an animate Subject the man fainted not the rock fainted, and so on.
vocal cords: ‘Vocal cords’ are flaps in the larynx which may open and close rapidly during speech to let out puffs of air, producing a basic vibrating noise called voice
voice: Voice in phonetics is technically the vibration contributed to speech by allowing flaps in the larynx known as vocal cords to rapidly open and shut as air passes through them. Presence or absence of voice is then a distinctive feature that separates voiced sounds like the /d/ of dime from unvoiced sounds like the /t/ of time.
Voice Onset Time (VOT): When a plosive sound is created by blocking the airway through the mouth, the moment when voice starts is called the Voice Onset Time. Voicing may start before release (minus VOT) or after release (plus VOT). For example English /p/ is distinguished from /b/ by its longer VOT inter alia. VOTs vary from one language to another.
vowel: In terms of sound production, a vowel is a single
speech sound produced by vibrating the vocal cords
and not obstructing the mouth in any way, as in the // of bank, shaped by the position of the lips
into rounded and unrounded sounds as in English /i:/ bee and /u:/
boo, and by the position of the tongue into open/close
as in English /u:/ loot vs /
/ lot and
front/back as in English /e/ bet versus /u/ foot. In terms
of sound structure, a vowel typically occurs as the core of the syllable
rather than at the beginning or the end, thus contrasting with consonant.
Wernicke’s aphasia: Wernicke’s aphasia is the name of a type of aphasia involving difficulty with comprehension rather than speaking, associated with injury to Wernicke’s area in the back left area of the brain (posterior upper temporal lobe).
word order: A crucial aspect of the grammar of many languages is the order of the elements in the sentence, called word order in general. One variation is the order of Subject, Verb and Object, whether SVO, SOV, or whatever, the main order for a language sometimes being called its canonical order. Another word order variation is whether the language has Prepositions before Nouns in New Orleans or postpositions after Nouns Nippon ni (Japan in). See head parameter
working
memory: the memory system used for holding and manipulating information
while various mental tasks are carried out. See articulatory
loop.