Welcome to the flashcards tool for ‘The Study of Language, 5th

edition’, Chapter 19

This is designed as a simple supplementary resource for this textbook, and

aims to help students grasp the meaning of the core essential terms within the
book. Each term will appear on its own, and you can then click to check the
definition.

Click or press [space] to begin.

 term:

speech community

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 definition:

a group of people who share a

set of norms and expectations
regarding the use of language

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 term:

idiolect

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 definition:

the personal dialect of an

individual speaker

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 term:

linguistic variable

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 definition:

a feature of language use that

distinguishes one group of
speakers from another

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 term:

social dialect

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 definition:

a variety of a language with

features that differ according to
the social status (e.g. middle
class or working class) of the
speaker
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 term:

social variable

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 definition:

a factor such as working class or

middle class that is used to
identify one group of speakers as
different from another

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 term:

sociolect

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 definition:

social dialect, a variety of a

language that is strongly
associated with one social group
(e.g. working-class
speech)
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 term:

sociolinguistics

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 definition:

the study of the relationship

between language and society

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 term:

postvocalic

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 definition:

used after a vowel

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 term:

social marker

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 definition:

a linguistic feature that marks the

speaker as a member of a
particular social group

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 term:

speech style

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 definition:

a way of speaking that is either

formal/careful or
informal/casual

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 term:

style-shifting

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 definition:

changing speech style from formal

to informal or vice versa

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 term:

covert prestige

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 definition:
the status of a speech style or
feature as having positive
value, but which is “hidden” or
not valued similarly among the
larger community, in contrast to
overt prestige
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 term:

overt prestige

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 definition:

status that is generally

recognized as “better” or more
positively valued in the larger
community, in contrast to covert
prestige
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 term:

prestige

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 definition:

higher status

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 term:

convergence

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 adopting a definition:
speech style that
attempts to reduce social
distance by using forms that
are similar to those used by the
person being talked to, as a
type of speech
accommodation, in contrast to
divergence
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 term:

divergence

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 definition:
adopting a speech style that
emphasizes social distance by
using forms that are different
from those used by the person
being talked to, as a form of
speech accommodation, in
contrast to convergence
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 term:

register

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 definition:
a conventional way of using
language that is appropriate in
a specific situation, occupation
or topic, characterized by the
use of special
jargon
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 term:

speech accommodation

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 definition:

modifying speech style toward

(convergence) or away from
(divergence) the perceived style
of the
person being talked to

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 term:

jargon

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 definition:

special technical vocabulary

associated with a specific activity
or topic as part of a register

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 term:

slang

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 definition:

words or phrases used instead

of more conventional forms by
those who are typically outside
established higher status
groups (e.g. bucks for dollars)
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 term:

AAVE

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 definition:

African American Vernacular

English

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 term:

African American English

(AAE)

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 definition:

a social dialect used by many

African Americans in different
regions of the USA

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 term:

African American
Vernacular English
(AAVE)

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 definition:

the casual speech style used

by
many African Americans as a
vernacular

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 term:

taboo terms

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 definition:

words or phrases that are

avoided in formal speech, but
are used in swearing, for
example (e.g. fuck, shit)

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 term:

vernacular

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 definition:

a social dialect with low

prestige spoken by a lower-
status group, with marked
differences from the standard
language
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