LINA01H3 Study Guide - Comprehensive Final Exam Guide - Vowel, Verb, Predicate (Grammar)
Document Summary
Knowing a language is being able to speak and be understood by others who know that language. The capacity to produce some sounds (or signs for deaf and mute people) that have a certain meaning and to understand and interpret the signs produced by others. The capacity to understand what linguistic constructions (sounds or signs, words, sentences) are possible in a specific language and what constructions are not. The linguistic knowledge is unconscious knowledge: people speaking a specific language are able to explain what constructions are correct or incorrect in that language, but they are not able to explain why. When analyzing language, we need to distinguish between competence, defined as a speaker(cid:495)s (cid:523)unconscious(cid:524) knowledge of what can and can(cid:495)t be said in their language, and. Performance (how the speaker actually uses his/her linguistic competence to produce and understand speech). Language is a linguistic rule system with the following characteristics:
