ENG510 Glossary by Asfand Yarr

1. Accent :A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class.
2. Argot :Specialized terminology in general
3. Bilingualism :Bilingualism (or more generally: Multilingualism) is the phenomenon of speaking and understanding two or more languages. The term can refer to individuals (individual bilingualism) as well as to an entire society (social bilingualism).
4. Cliché :A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
5. Code mixing :Generally refers to alternations between varieties, or codes, within a clause or phrase. Often elicits more strongly negative evaluations than alternations or code switching across clauses.
6. Code Switching :In its most specific sense, the alternation between varieties, or codes, across sentences or clause boundaries. Often used as a cover term including code mixing as well.
7. Communicative Competence :What a speaker needs to know to communicate effectively in cultural settings
8. Constraints :A limitation or restriction.
9. Creole :It is a stable natural language developed from a mixture of different languages at a fairly sudden point in time: often, a pidgin transitioned into a full, native language.

10. Desertion :The act of deserting or abandoning or the state of being deserted or abandoned 11. Diachronic :Concerned with the way in which something, especially language, has developed and evolved through time. 12. Dialect :A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group. 13. Diglossia :Classically defined as a situation where two closely related languages are used in a speech community. 14. Diminutive Expressions :A diminutive form (abbreviated DIM) is a wordformation device used to express such meanings; in many languages, such forms can be translated as "little" and diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as " Tiny Tim". ... 15. Discipline :The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience. 16. Domain :Situations where people typically use a particular language or type of language 17. Gender :The state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). 18. Gravity Model :Model of the diffusion of innovations introduced to sociolinguistics by Peter Trudgill. Social innovations (including linguistic innovations) have been observed to ‘hop’ between large population centers in a (spatially) discontinuous manner. At its simplest, the gravity model predicts that the larger the city/town, the sooner an innovation is likely to show up there. (i.e., the ‘gravitational force’ is provided by the weight of numbers of people). 19. Greetings :Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) or social status (formal or informal) between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. 20. H and L Varieties :The ' High' and ' Low' versions of a language which are used for different purposes in a society 21. Ideology :A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. 22. Idioms :A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light). 23. Imaginary :Existing only in the imagination or fancy; not real; fancied 24. Jargon :Special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand. 25. Language :A system of communication used by a particular country or community. 26. Language Accommodation :In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participant. 27. Language Change :Language change is the phenomenon by which permanent alterations are made in the features and the use of a language over time. 28. Language death :Language death is a process in which the level of a speech community's linguistic competence in their language variety decreases, eventually resulting in no native or fluent speakers of the variety. 29. Language hybridization :It is a resultant process of frequent code-mixing sometimes; even the grammar or structure of one language is applied to the vocabulary of another. So when two or more languages are frequently mixed, resultantly, a new hybrid variety, Of language takes birth.