Study Guide

Topic Lessons Concepts to Know Terms to Know
Basics of Linguistics Lesson 1
  1. The difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammars
  • Descriptive grammar
  • Prescriptive grammar
Phonetics Lesson 1-2
  1. IPA Symbols of English based on place/manner of articulation and voicing
  2. Know your vowel chart as well
  3. How different sounds are produced
 Voicing

Place of Articulation

  • Bilabial
  • Labiodental
  • Dental
  • Alveolar
  • Post-Alveolar
  • Velar
  • Glottal

Manner of Articulation

  • Stop
  • Affricate
  • Fricative
  • Glide
  • Nasals
  • Liquids

Vowel descriptors

  • High
  • Mid
  • Low
  • Front
  • Central
  • Back
Phonology Lessons 3-4
  1. How to determine whether segments belong to the same or separate phonemes
  2. Natural Classes
  • Complementary distribution
  • Contrastive distribution
  • Phoneme
  • Allophone

Natural Classes

  • Sonorant
  • Obstruent
  • Continuant
Morphology Lesson 5
  1. How to determine morphemes based on a dataset
  2. Classification of morphemes (free vs. bound)
  3. Kinds of morphological phenomena (backformation, blends, etc.)
  • Derivation
  • Inflection
  • Affix

Morphemes

  • Bound
  • Free

 
Syntax Lessons 6 – 7
  1. X-bar structure
  2. Constituency tests
  3. The different syntactic categories
  4. Syntactic tranformation rules
  • Constituent
  • Modifier
  • Complement
  • Specifier
  • Complementizers
  • Deep Structure
  • Surface Structure
  • Do-Insertion

 
Semantics Lesson 10
  1. Gricean Maxims
  2. Entailment
  3. Presupposition
  • Entailment
  • Presupposition
Historical Lesson 11 – 12
  1. How to write Historical Rules
  2. History of English (esp. contact with other languages)
  3. Grimm’s Law (don’t have to memorize, just be sure to know the gist and recognize its effects)
  4. The Great English Vowel Shift;Common Sound Shifts (Table 7.3)
  • Proto-forms
  • Proto-language
  • General sound change terms
  • The Great English Vowel Shift
  • Shifts
  • Splits
  • Mergers
Language Acquisition Lesson 8
  1. The story of Genie
  2. General stages of development
  3. The role of caregiver speech
  • Critical period
  • Innateness Hypothesis
  • One-word stage
  • Two-word stage
  • Telegraphic stage
Language and the Brain Lesson 9
  1. The difference between Wernicke’s and Broca’s aphasias
  2. Right-Ear Advantage
  3. Dichotic Listening tests
  • Wernicke’s aphasia
  • Broca’s aphasia
Language Variation and Contact Lesson 13 – 14
  1.  The notion of a “standard” language
  2. How to describe regional variation
  3. The difference between a pidgin and a creole
  •  Accent
  • Dialect
  • Pidgin
  • Creole

 
Writing Systems Lesson 15
  1. The different writing systems and their relative histories.
 Writing Systems

  • Logographic
  • Alphabetic
  • Phonographic

Syllabary

Orthography