Exam 2 Flashcards
Founder of modern linguistics
Noam Chomsky
Suggests that human beings are born to acquire language
Noam Chomsky
Describes language as it occurs in the world; describes what people actually do without offering an evaluative account of use; grammars are mental systems
Descriptive
Defines and describes how language should occur; prescribes what people should do, not what they really do; grammars are textbooks
Prescriptive
How do descriptives think of grammar?
Grammar can change/evolve
How do prescriptives think of grammar?
Grammar cannot be changed
What types of people are prescriptives?
English teachers, writers, employers
What types of people are descriptives?
Linguists and other language professionals
Why is language always changing?
Humans always change
What are some features found in varieties of American English but not general American English?
Vocabulary, 2nd plural, habitual be, double negative, double modal
Innate ability you have that to see if a sentence is structurally accepted
grammaticality
Something about the sentence looks wrong structurally
Linguistic motivated grammaticality
Is the context of the sentence socially accepted
Socially motivated grammaticality
Linguistic code
Language variety
Two language varieties are mutually unintelligible
Languages
