10: language and text comprehension Flashcards
Why is it important to study language?
- allows for communication of thoughts to other people
- Reduces uncertainty, coordinates effort to solve a problem, helps people get through ambiguous situations
What are the characteristics of language?
- Generative: limited words can be recombined to convey an infinite number of meanings
- Communicative (purpose)
- Dynamic: not static, subjected to incremental changes in lexicon (vocab), grammar
What are the basic building blocks of language?
phenomes: individual sound units (alphabets)
morphemes: smallest meaningful units of a word (-ing, un-)
syntax: grammar, rules
lexicon: collection of words (dictionary, vocab)
What are the components of language?
semantics: meaning
prosody: rhythm, pattern of vocal intonation that can modify the literal meaning of words
discourse: linking of sentences to constitute a narrative
What was the old perspective of learning language? What were the problems of it?
that we learn language by paired association between adjacent words - one word is a stimulus for the next
- need to learn an infinite number of associations
- doesnt account for associations between non-adjacent words, and hierarchical structure of sentences
What is the more plausible theory of how we learn language? Exceptions?
we learn a grammar
- grammatically correct sentences may not be meaningful
- sentences can still make sense even if not grammatically correct
What is broca’s aphasia?
- impaired syntax
- not fluent
What is wernicke’s aphasia?
- meaningless sentences
- fluent
What do brocas and wernickes aphasia show?
There is a distinction between syntax (grammar n rules) and semantics
- Diff region of brain for diff speech production and comprehension
What affects sentence processing?
context, garden path processing, ambiguous sentences, working memory capacity
How does context affect sentence processing? how does High and low constraint sentences influence sentence processing?
high constraint sentences: facilitates recognition of expected words, and interferes with unexpected words
low constraint sentences: moderately facilitates recognition of expected and unexpected words
What is Garden path sentences?
What is minimal attachment strategy?
garden path sentences are sentences that set up in such a way that the reader’s most likely interpretation is incorrect
- people need to backtrack to parse the sentence
minimal attachment strategy: people tend to add new words to an existing node in a sentence structure instead of creating a new node
how does Ambiguous sentences influence sentence processing? What are the kinds of ambiguity?
lexicon ambiguity: one word can have diff meanings
underlying ambiguity: alternative meanings that can only be differentiated at the deep levels
how does Working memory capacity influence sentence processing?
influences ability to resolve ambiguity
high wm: easier/faster to suppress inappropriate meaning quickly once disambiguating info is processed
low wm: less resource for suppression, not able to hold both meanings in memory for a long span, dominant interpretation favoured
What is the Structure building framework?
laying foundation: first sentence of a paragraph takes the longest time
mapping information: integration of information and creating mental models
build new structures: shift of topic, creating new mental models
