PSY374H5 Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Linguistic Principles.docx
Document Summary
English: strict about word order: syntax subject-verb-order (svo) Russian: flexible about word order: meaning conveyed by affixes (suffixes & prefixes) attached to words, modify meaning, need tense & female/male (animals) Declarative sentences express subject, verb and object. Preferred word order (some more flexible than others) Duality of patterning: one level: small number of basic, meaningless elements , second level: larger number of meaningful elements, all languages can combine one level into second level (w. rules) Phones: speech sounds (pill vs. spill, puff of air: aspiration. Phonemes: diffs. in sounds that make contribution to meaning (b vs. d big vs. dig, categories of phones each phone = physically distinct version of phoneme, /p/ in english (no aspiration) vs. /ph/ in thai. Presence/absence distinguishes sounds from others: /b/ is. + voicing (vocal cords vibrate); /p/ is voicing. + stop (airflow from lungs stopped @ production)
