Language
Primary means of human communication, spoken and written.
Call systems
Communication systems of nonhuman primates.
Cultural transmission
Transmission through learning, basic to language.
Productivity
Creating new expressions that are comprehensible to other speakers.
Displacement
Describing things and events that are not present; basic to language.
Kinesics
Study of communication through body movements and facial expressions
Phonology
Study of a language's phonemics and phonetics.
Morphology
(Linguistic) study of morphemes and word construction.
Lexicon
Vocabulary; all the morphemes in a language and their meanings.
Syntax
Arrangement of words in phrases and sentences.
Phoneme
Smallest sound and contrast that distinguishes meaning.
Phonetics
Study of speech sounds- what people actually say.
Phonwmics
Study of sound contrasts (phonemes) in a language.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Idea that different languages produce different patterns of thought.
Semantics
A language's meaning system.
Focal vocabulary
Set of words describing particular domains (foci) of experience.
Ethnosemantics
Study of lexical (vocabulary) categories and contrasts.
Style shifts
Varying one's speech in different social contexts.
Diglossia
Language with "high" (formal) and "low" (informal, familial) dialects.
Honorifics
Terms of respect; used to honour people
Black English Venacular (BEV)
Rule-governed dialect spoken by some African Americans.
Daughter languages
Languages sharing a common parent language (Latin).
Protolanguage
Language ancestral to several daughter languages.
Subgroups
(Linguistic) closely related languages.
Historical linguistics
Study of languages over time.