Topical Guide 303
Mark Dorset
Language: Idiolect
Language: Structure (Morphemes, Phonemes, Syllables, Monosyllables)
Language: Words Meaningful and Meaningless; Word Play; Semantic Satiation; Scatting
They stayed for five years. During those five years, Mr. Mikszath, who had been the victim of a stroke, never said anything but “Dut, dut, dut.” Herb and Lorna learned to interpret his pointing, his sketching in the air, his twisted facial expressions, and the various emphases he put on his “duts,” and they made his vocabulary of “duts,” grimaces, and gestures a part of theirs.
Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 8
Dut, obs. f. doubt, doubted : see DOUBT sb. and v.
Dut, var. of DUTE, Obs.
Dute. Obs. Shortened form of dedute, DEDUIT, enjoyment, pleasure.
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
Idiolect is an individual’s unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. An idiolect is the variety of language unique to an individual. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people. The term is etymologically related to the Greek prefix idio- (meaning “own, personal, private, peculiar, separate, distinct”) and -lect, abstracted from dialect, and ultimately from Ancient Greek λέγω, légō, “I speak.”
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful lexical item in a language. … In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are considered roots (such as the morpheme cat); …
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme (/ˈfoʊniːm/) is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
In semantics, semiotics, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and metasemantics, meaning “is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they intend, express, or signify.” The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely: There are the things in the world, which might have meaning; There are things in the world that are also signs of other things in the world, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind); There are things that are necessarily meaningful such as words and nonverbal symbols.
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all.
Semantic satiation is a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds. Extended inspection or analysis (staring at the word or phrase for a lengthy period of time) in place of repetition also produces the same effect. …
An explanation for the phenomenon is that rapid repetition makes both the peripheral sensorimotor activity and central neural activation fire repeatedly. This is known to cause reactive inhibition, hence a reduction in the intensity of the activity with each repetition. Jakobovits James (1962) calls this conclusion the beginning of “experimental neurosemantics.”
See also: Meaning TG 11
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