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Black English Vernacular (BEV)
A rulegoverned dialect of American English with roots in southern English. BEV is spoken by African American youth and by many adults in their casual, intimate speech—sometimes called ebonics . 75
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call systems
Systems of communication among nonhuman primates, composed of a limited number of sounds that vary in intensity and duration. Tied to environmental stimuli. 60
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cultural transmission
A basic feature of language; transmission through learning. 61
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daughter languages
Languages developing out of the same parent language; for example, French and Spanish are daughter languages of Latin. 77
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descriptive linguistics
The scientific study of a spoken language, including its phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. 65
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diglossia
The existence of "high" (formal) and "low" (familial) dialects of a single language, such as German. 71
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displacement
A linguistic capacity that allows humans to talk about things and events that are not present. 63
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focal vocabulary
A set of words and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups (those with particular foci of experience or activity), such as types of snow to Eskimos or skiers. 69
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historical linguistics
Subdivision of linguistics that studies languages over time. 77
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kinesics
The study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions. 64
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lexicon
Vocabulary; a dictionary containing all the morphemes in a language and their meaning. 65
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morphology
The study of form; used in linguistics (the study of morphemes and word construction) and for form in general—for example, biomorphology relates to physical form. 65
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phoneme
Significant sound contrast in a language that serves to distinguish meaning, as in minimal pairs. 65
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phonemics
The study of the sound contrasts (phonemes) of a particular language. 66
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phonetics
The study of speech sounds in general; what people actually say in various languages. 66
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phonology
The study of sounds used in speech. 65
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productivity
The ability to use the rules of one's language to create new expressions comprehensible to other speakers; a basic feature of language. 62
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protolanguage
Language ancestral to several daughter languages. 77
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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Theory that different languages produce different ways of thinking. 68
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semantics
A language's meaning system. 69
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sociolinguistics
Study of relationships between social and linguistic variation; study of language in its social context. 17, 71
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style shifts
Variations in speech in different contexts. 71
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subgroups
Languages within a taxonomy of related languages that are most closely related. 78
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syntax
The arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences. 65
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