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Reflection

I would like to pursue the design of data and collection process in phonetics

specifically in the production of long and short vowel sounds by the Arabic speakers. For this,

I would like to adopt the method of collecting details of the speakers and their relevant

characteristics how they produce vowel wounds, what articulators help or obstruct their

production of sound and how they make efforts to do away with these obstructions. Most of

the ideas have been taken from Podesva and Devyani about modern aspects of linguistic

research (Podesva and Devyani, p. 14).. The important point in this book is the theoretical

framework and how a specific research is done within this ambit.

The most useful area in linguistics, in my opinion, is phonetics and semantics. The

first one convey a message through sounds and second convey the same message through the

use of words. This method of producing sounds and interpreting words and their usage makes

up the most of a language and if these two areas are perfectly understood, a person can

become proficient to learn about linguistics. However, it does not mean that other branches of

linguistics are unnecessary, they are very important such as sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics,

phonology and pragmatics. In fact, I simply like to study any of these two areas and conduct

further research on these topics by making my topic more specific and more controlled.

I personally think that methodology means a way to collect and analyze data during

research. This guides a student or researcher to take up a certain course of action or procedure

to conduct the research and draw his results. Although a student or researcher may take up any
course or procedure within methodology, he is to stick to it until he draws the results he has

expected from his research. It is a way to collect data through any means. Moreover, there are

some serious issues in data collection such as the question of ethics and privacy issues.

Therefore, a serious attention is paid to the question of surveys, interviews and questionnaires.

As far as the course is concerned, I am fully satisfied with the course work, the class

sessions and what we studied in the class and what we did in Question Assignment,

Bibliography and Research Proposal Draft. I have learned enough to undertake my final

research in any of the field or topic from linguistics. I dont think there is much for me to

recommend for further addition in the course work. However, one or two assignments on

Semantics or Historical Linguistics with actual field research will be make it superb. It is

because they would give more overview of how meanings work and how language has

evolved over time.

Ending my reflection, I think that that the textbook, Research Methods in Linguistics,

helped me a great deal in learning about theoretical and practical foundations of linguistics. I

am now more equipped with basic linguistic knowledge not only in terms of theory but also in

terms of practical when doing assignments. It is also that the course has proved that linguistics

is an experimental subject and can be taken up as an experimental research study.

 Reference

Podesva, R, and Devyani, S. (2013). Research Methods in Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Linguistic Terms

Week-1

1. Competence: The concept of an individual having the innate ability of learning a spoken
language
2. Performance: Utilizing the language efficiency in practical life in order to communicate
while speaking a language is performance.
3. Context: The environment of the language where some portion of it like specific terms
are used and their meaning vary from situation to situation.
4. Sign Language: The language that is consists upon entirely on signs or gestures to
communicate with other people. It is usually studied in the exact same way as a spoken
language.
5. Dipthong: The vowel type that has two vowels sounds for example thou and now are
dipthongs.
6. Articulators: All the anatomical and structural parts of a human body that are utilized to
create sounds that include lips, mouth, vocal chords and tongue.
7. Inflection: It is the slight change in the word that occurs in various formats in order to
make the plural forms like child from children.
8. Present Participle: The noun forms that have ing in the end like from finish to
finishing.
9. Compound Word: Any complex word that is created after joining two words together
those individually have different meaning like from boy and friend to make boyfriend.
10. Lexic: All the simple words that we use to gather understanding about the languages as a
whole.

Week-2

11. Descriptive Approach: The individual uses this approach when the language is known
and wants to explore it further without having any concern regarding the nature and
quality of the language itself.
12. Hierarchy: It is the specific sequence of words like verbs and nouns that come in the
start followed by other portions of the language and it is known as the hierarchy order.
13. Metalanguage: The usage of the language to explore a certain language just like the
linguistic terms that aid in the working and understanding of other languages.
14. Root: The root of a word is the portion that can't be further broken. Prefixes and
suffixes can be added or removed to make other related words root is a word or a part that
can't be broken further. For example, from happy to unhappy and happily.
15. Allophone: The various sounds of one phoneme are known as allophones. For example,
certain alphabets like t and n are not pronounced in the words and sometimes become
more stressed.
16. Irregular Verb: The verb format that has not the same form as others when plural forms
are created like women for woman and feet for foot.
17. Tree diagram: It is the diagram tree that includes the sentence elements in the form of
branches that give them a graphic representation. Each word of the sentence is taken that
forms it in a sequence.
18. Alveolar: Some sounds that are created from our upper teeth and articulatory bone
palate including d, l, n, t, s and z.
19. Clause: It is a syntax united usually smaller than a complete sentence and larger than the
phrase.
20. Bilabial: It is a sound that comes as the lower and upper lips touch that include the
sounds of m and p.

Week-3

21. IPA: It is the short form of International Transcription System that consists of Latin and
Greek letters to denote the various spoken words sounds.
22. Suffix: It is the joining of certain letters to the root of the word after it so that a new
related word is formed. Examples include attaching the ly to the world love to create
another world that would be lovely.
23. Denotation: Some words have different meaning than dictated in a standard dictionary
when spoken are known as denotations.
24. Bilingualism: When an individual acquires two different languages simultaneously and
has the similar language efficiency as native speakers then it is called bilingualism.
25. Register: When certain terms are used by professionals during their interactions and any
ordinary person would find it hard to understand.
26. Vernacular: The formats of English that are spoken at different places.
27. Substrate: Any language type less acknowledged than others is called the substrate
language.
28. Homograph: When two words that are different in meaning in a context but similar in
spelling create a conflicted pronunciation.
29. Idiom: It is a group of words that makes a phrase that is semantically different. Example
includes disappearing into thin air which means leaving without a trace.
30. Speech act: The action of communicating something to another individual through
spoken language directly or face to face such as "Please leave this room" is an example.

Week-4

31. Code switching: When the individual starts to speak in another language all of a sudden
in the middle of a speech act. Like speaking English in the middle of a conversation that
was in French until that point. The person has switched codes.
32. Dialect: The language form that is spoken in a different way at one place as compared to
another is known as its different dialects like Scottish English.
33. Declarative: It includes any sentences that make a statement and has no negation or a
question like "We will leave this city soon."
34. Quantifier: It is a term that conveys the value quantity of things like food or scores.
35. Idiolect: It is the language spoken by a person in a certain accent.
36. Pidgin: Any broken or partial language used by two individuals to communicate and it is
a second language to both of them.
37. Acquisition: It is how people learn a language in a natural way such as the acquisition of
the German language.
38. Nasal: It is the name of a sound that is created through our nasal cavity and the sound
produced is called nasal.
39. Sibiliant: Any words that come out in a hissing sound that include sh or s sounds.
40. Lexeme: The shortest unit in a language that has individual meanings like come and
came.

Week-5

41. Creativity: It is the special feature of the language that forms various structures of
sentences.
42. Diachronic: Any language that is studied over a certain period of time.
43. Consonant: It is the sound type that is dissimilar from the vowel sounds and includes f,
d c and b etc.
44. Homophone: Words pair that has similar pronunciation but different meanings as well as
spelling such as flour and floor.
45. Prosody: It is the special feature of supersegmental like tempo or pitch that are utilized in
order to denote a prosody term.
46. Aspirated: Any sound that is created when the air is exhaled for example the h sounds in
happy and high.
47. Closed Syllable: Any syllable that has a consonant sound at the end is known as a closed
syllable in linguistics.
48. Mute: It is the alphabet that isn't pronounced nor has no distinct voice in a word in
spoken language like the sound of k in knot.
49. Phonetic: It is the means of utilizing sings or symbols when communicating in a speech
act in writing in order to describe the pronunciation of the words.
50. Schwa: The vowel sound type that is utilized in unstressed syllable form and written as a
reverse letter in written language.

Week-6

51. Glottal Stop: It is a slight blockage in the air when the air travels from the throat while
speaking certain sounds.
52. Sociolect: When a language is used by a certain group it is called a sociolect.
53. Hyponymy: The term that is used to show meaning of one word in other related words
that have same relation or association such as mango is a fruit and cabbage is a vegetable.
54. Gradable antonyms: When the opposite meaning words are used in gradable way like
cold and hot can be depicted in a way that exhibit quantity.
55. Collocation: The usage of the words along with other elements that don't make any sense
when they are used separately without sounding strange.
56. Paronym: These are the words that have similar meaning and similar pronunciations
like effect and affect.
57. Relational Opposites: Words that have opposite meanings that are associated with one
another like make and unmake and matter and antimatter.
58. Conversational Analysis: It is the study of conversations regarding to where they take
place and how they progress.
59. Lexical meanings: All words that refers to the lexemes of the language like nouns and
verbs.
60. Semiotics: All signs made to communicate meanings during a study of languages are
called semiotics.

Week-7

61. Speech community: It is a linguistics community that has a special language and related
signs.
62. Repertoire: The usage of similar codes, linguistic features and style in a communication
or a speech act.
63. Kernel Sentence: A common sentence that is a declarative one with a single verb and
its object such as "He works hard" is a good example of Kernel sentence.
64. Tense: Tense is a reference for the time when action has occurred. It is shown through a
verb and its forms.
65. Presupposition: It is something that a listener assumes when he hears something. For
example, if you ask your friend "Did you enjoy this ride?" it means that you have
assumed that he has taken the ride.
66. Predicate: It is a phrase that comes after the subject and shows its action such as in a
sentence "She wears a skirt" "wears a skirt" is a predicate.
67. Generative Grammar: This is theory of Chomsky that a grammatic structure has
various shapes according to the given structural pattern and a person can generate
various sentences out of a single sentence on the same pattern by replacing different
grammar elements.
68. Instrument: An instrument is used in semantics is a tool that the agent uses to perform
an action. In the sentence, "They are playing with a ball", "the ball" is an instrument."
69. Author Attribution: I read it in forensic linguistics. It means to try to find out the
writer of some document. This concept or predictive ability is called author attribution.
70. Speech event: It is the event when two individuals talk to each other on a specific topic.

Week-8

71. Phoneme: It is the distinct and clear letter sound that is known as a phoneme such as /f/
or /m/.
72. Apical: Whenever sounds are made at the completion of a topic are known as apical
sounds.
73. Conventions: Any unconscious agreement of a single community over a special
language sequence as a language feature in a certain circumstance such as formal
greetings.
74. Displacement: When the location feature of a language is used to show displacement like
"He was living in England and now resides in Canada"" is called displacement.
75. Burst: The sudden air release from the mouth when some sounds are pronounced like /k/
or /t/ and /p/.
76. Coda: When any word ends the last syllable is known as a coda like in England the g is
the coda.
77. Zero Coda: When a vowel is used at the end and the syllable ends there is called zero
coda.
78. Fricatives: These are the consonants that are voiced when forcing air through the mouth
in with a stress like /f/ and /s/.
79. Sibilant: All the strong fricatives that are clearly distinguished from others such as /sh/
and /z/ sounds.
80. Laterals: When consonants are made only through the upper portion of the mouth and
cannot be spoken otherwise are known as laterals that include /d/ and /t/.

Week-9

81. Alveolar Ridge: It is a part of upper roof of our mouth that is an articulator. It produces
various sounds when tongue is touched there while speaking.
82. Diglossia: Whenever an individual of a community employs different variations of same
language while communicating with other individuals.
83. Discourse: The form of languages that is used every day by people in routine is known as
discourse in linguistics.
84. Elision: Certain sounds are lost when the spoken language is used such as parts of the
words and especially vowels are missed in sentences.
85. Approximant: Any consonants that don't block any flow of the air while speaking
like /w/ in wind.
86. Cardinal vowels: These are the vowels that are voiced when the tongue and the jaws are
lowered for example the words crow and care.
87. Stress: Sometimes some emphasis is applied on some syllables or sounds of a word as
compared to the others while speaking.
88. Tone: It is the sound quality or loudness in Phonetics. However it is known as the hidden
pitch of the sounds in Semantics.
89. Indirect Object: Any object that is closer to the object of a direction in the sentence
while speaking.
90. Noun Phrase: It is the phrase when the noun is dominating element and known as the
noun phrase.

Week-10

91. Past: The 2nd verb form that is used in simple past tense and it shows the passage of time
like came is second verb form of come.
92. Voicing: It is the vocal chords loudness or the capacity to produce sound.
93. Neologism: Whenever a new term is formed and it is registered into the existing
language for active usage like using social networking websites is now known as
networking.
94. Active: When the subject of a sentence is similar to the active form verb and semantic
subject.
95. Copula: Any specific verb used as "be" in the present language of English.
96. Determiner: In linguistics, it is the noun along with what determines the meanings like
"I am in the city" here "the" is determiner in the sentence.
97. Situation meanings: Sometimes some words have meanings that depend upon certain
situations and vary accordingly.
98. Base: Base means root of a word. It can exist on its own with its own means such as in
"predict" is a base in unpredictability.
99. Appositive: It means the use of a noun phrase to point out the noun that it refers to such
as in "The person, who gave me a book, is David," "The person" is an appositive.
100. Surface structure: It is a structure of a sentence that is very much clear when reading
or writing such as "They are boys."

Week-11

101. Deep structure: It is a concept of transformational grammar that means the underlying
structure such as PR or SPR in syntax.
102. Interrogative: An interrogative is a term used in grammar to show that a sentence is
asking some information. Helping verb comes in the beginning of the sentence with
rest of the sentence remains the same. It ends with a question mark as ?.
103. Proposition: It means a relation between two sentences on the basis of context such as
"John and David fought" , "and "John killed David." Both have a contextual relation
with each other.
104. Negative: A negative in grammar is a sentence that negates the action of a sentence or
it could be simply "No." All other sentences with "no, neither, nor or les and until"
have negative connotations.
105. Past Participle: A past participle as the name shows is third form of verb such as go,
went and gone where gone is a past participle. It is mostly used in perfect tenses.
106. Gerund: It is formed with an -ing form and functions as a subject or noun in a
sentence.
107. Slang: It comprises of utterances, words and phrases that we cannot use in formal
conversation or environment. These included invectives and rough sort of utterances
too.
108. Jargon: Jargon means technical type of wording or vocabulary that is mostly used
among the professionals when talking in a workplace environment such as drivers or
engineers use when talking about their professions.
109. Helping Verb: A helping verb is not a verb but just a semblance of a verb that shows
that an action is committed by linking it to the subject and the main verb such as "is,
was, had and will" etc.
110. Acronym: An acronym is a work that is made up of initial letters of all words of the
organization such as GATT is General Agreement on Trade and Tarif.

Week-12

111. Prefix: A prefix is an incomplete word that is used to attach with a base or root to form
a new work with different meanings such as in "debriefing" "de" has been attached to
briefing.
112. Imperative: An imperative mood is a mood of a sentence that is either request or a
command such as "Get out of this room" is a command. Hence, it is an imperative
sentence.
113. Subject-Verb Agreement: According to this grammatical rule, the verbs of a subject
must agree to it to show whether it is a singular or a plural.
114. Collective Noun: It shows a noun that representing a whole body such as team of
players or a jury of judges and so on.
115. Hybrid Words: Such words are an amalgamation or new coinage from two different
languages such as television is a word of Latin Tele and Greek vision.
116. Dialectology: As a dialect is a language of a specific community located at a specific
place, dialectology is a study and analysis of a dialect.
117. Anaphora: It means a term that refers to something that has already been mentioned.
In grammar, it is often a pronoun that refers back to the people or persons having
names in a sentence.
118. Anti-language: It is a type of language that is used by anti-societies or resistance
groups.
119. Classroom Discourse: It is a type of communication that happens between students
and teachers in a classroom setting.
120. Coherence: it is a way how a written piece is made to have organized meanings that
readers easily understand.

Week-13

121. Intonation: In any spoken language, there are fall and rise of the voice with stresses at
specific places is known as the intonation of that language.
122. Loan-word: Many words are taken from other languages and are common among
languages. The borrowed word is known as the loan word that is taken into another
language from the original one.
 123. Apposition: It is when two phrases of noun are parallel from each other and come
together to make that structure is known as apposition such as "My mother Jasmine".
124. Cleft Sentence: Any sentence that is complex in nature but can also be explained in a
fewer words and a less complex way like "It was my aunt who gave me the cat" can be
"I got the cat from my aunt".
125. Copular Verb: Any verb that can makes connects the subject and the predicate as in
"Jack is a wise person" here "is" would be copular verb in the sentence.
126. Modifier: Whenever the word that acts like a noun modifier in a particular sentence and
usually is an article or an adjective is called the modifier.
127. Noun Phrase: When the phrase has a dominating noun in it such as "The little elephant
is lost" and here "the little elephant" is the noun phrase.
128. Agent: Whenever a noun or a person creates actions such as "Grandpa plants a tree"
here "Grandpa" acts like an agent.
129. Theme: The element that stays as it is after an act is performed in a sentence such as
"Some people live in the mountains." Here 'the mountains' is the theme
130. Patient: When the action occurs but the meaning changes in the sentence like "the
wheat was grinded to make bread" here the wheat is patient as it changes form.

NOTE: All the terms have been taken from the class but defined according to the reference as
given below. The definitions have been rephrased for better understanding.
Reference
Radford, A. et al. (1999). Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.