Language+Terms

====**Allophone**: There are times when a phoneme is produced and pronounced in different fashions. The permutations of the phoneme are called its allophones. These variations do not change the meaning of the morpheme that the phonemes create. In Japanese, the 'r' and 'l' sounds are allophones.==== Please see the following explanations: ====**Acquisition:** There are two theories of incorporating a language into one's mind: the language learning theory and the language acquisition theory. Those who believe that a language can be 'learned' think that it should be taught as a cognitive process. Those who think that a language should be acquired believe that it should be taught as an unconscious process. The main proponent of the language acquisition theory is [|Steven Krashen].====
 * [|About.com] || [|Wikipedia] || [|Britannica] ||

====**Affix:** An affix is a bound morpheme affixed to a free morpheme to change the meaning of the later. Affixes fall into one of three categories: prefixes, suffixes, and infixes, although infixes don't really exist in English. Prefixes are bound morphemes coming before a free morpheme. The 'in' in //incredible// is one such prefix. Suffixes are those bound morphemes attached the end of free morphemes, such as the 'bly' in //incredibly//. The only infix in the English language is the 'F-bomb' such as in the word //abso$#@%inglutely//.====

====**BICS:** Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills are those linguistic skills acquired the quickest for ELLs which allow them to communicate on an everyday level with their peers and other such interlocutors. These skills include such things as greetings, likes and dislikes, the weather, etc.====

====**CALP:** Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency are those linguistic skills which have to do with content area knowledge and complex school-related vocabulary. These skills include such things as summarizing, defending hypotheses, etc.====

Please see this[| website]for more information on the difference between BICS and CALP.

====**Calque:** An expression that is borrowed from one language to the other, translated into the new language and becomes a part of the second language. This is different from a borrowed term, because a borrowed term retains its original form (generally phonemic and morphemic). For example, email is a borrowed term for French. A French person would say: "Je vous enverrai un //email// sur ce sujet" (I will send you an email on that subject) rather than using an 'approved term' like //courriel//. We use the phrase "Flea Market" to describe what the French call "Un marché aux puces" (a market with fleas, or rather a market at which one buys fleas). This is a calque rather than a borrowed term, because we translated the expression into English and began using it. If it were a borrowed term, we might call the flea market a //marchayopus// or something similar.====

====**Cognate:** A cognate is a word that is the same or similar in two languages. Many cognates are borrowed terms, but many just have common roots. Many cognates in French, Italian, and Spanish come from the common root language Latin. Intelligent is a cognate in all three languages, plus English. This is because of the influence of Latin on all four languages. Lists of cognates are easy to find. Below are links to common cognates in English.====


 * [|Spanish Cognates] || [|French Cognates] || [|German Cognates] || [|Other Cognates] ||

**Interlocutor:** The person to whom one is talking. If Brandon is talking to Marissa, Marissa is his interlocutor.
====**Lexicon:** The lexicon is the collection of words and expressions in a language. It includes not only words that are used (run) but also idiomatic expressions, colloquialisms, etc. For more information, please see the Wikipedia article concerning [|lexicon].====

====**Morpheme:** A morpheme is the smallest unit of a language that still has meaning in the language. Morphemes come in two varieties: free and bound. Free morphemes have meaning by themselves, such as //run//, //tiger//, //fatigue//, and //suspect//. Bound morphemes are added to free morphemes to change their meaning slightly, to change their part of speech, to change their tense, etc. Thus, bound morphemes are -ing in //running//, -s in //tigers//, in-, de- and -able in //indefatigable//, and -ious in //suspicious//.====

====**Phoneme:** A phomeme is the smallest individual unit of sound. Morphemes are formed by one or more phonemes. The morpheme //a// for examle (as in: "he wants a dollar") contains one single phoneme, [ə] whereas in the same sentence //dollar// contains five [dɑlɜr]. These are generally expressed in IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet.====

====**Spanglish:** Spanglish is a Code-Switching that occurs in Spanish speakers who are learning to speak English. It's sort of a blend of Spanish and English, though the language structure is Spanish sprinkled with English terms. Some of these terms become a permanent part of the 'Spanglish' lexicon, without being borrowed into the standard Spanish language. Spanglish is spoken by populations of Spanish speakers living in English-language communities in the United States. A speaker of Spanglish might use 'so' instead of 'porque' such as "Good morning, voy al restaurante so puedo comer el lonche." Also included in this phrase is the word 'lonche' which can replace the Spanish word 'almuerzo.'====

====**Universal Grammar:** According to Noam Chomsky's theories, there are certain language universals and these are subconscious and are part of our genetic makeup. He theorized this based on observation that all languages contain similar concepts, such as parts of speech, and of course morphemes, phonemes, etc. Also all children are able to acquire their native tongue without direct formal instruction. This must mean that children are born with the ability to acquire language based on universal grammar. For more information, please see [|Don Cruse's take on UG], or [|hear Mr. Chomsky] himself talk about UG.====

=**Mr. Truax Contact Information ** =

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Tel: (615) 669-7676 =====

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Email: TruaxJ@rcschools.net  =====

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Web: [|www.mrtruax.com]  =====