11-Language Flashcards
How many languages are there thought to be worldwide?
6,000-7,000
Languages are disappearing, & more than half are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. How many will be gone within 100 years?;
Why do people drop language?
Perhaps 90%; For assimilation (as different tribes & language groups are assimilated into one group) & to use languages of commerce
The nature of language is perhaps the most distinctive & important human characteristic. Though arguments have been made, why does Chomsky believe language is universally human & unique?
We have a universal grammar (the ability to create novelty in our articulations, which is not a trait of other animals); there is a critical period for acquiring language (phases out typically around puberty)
Why are reading & writing considered “unnatural”?
We have to learn deliberately & effortfully; it doesn’t come naturally (whereas we learn speaking from our social environment)
Describe the properties of language
It’s communicative (influences minds & behaviour); uses arbitrary symbols (we need to know what sounds represent – there’s no analogical representation); It’s structured/rule governed (e.g. grammar rules) & hierarchical (levels are combined via phonology, morphology & syntax); it’s generative - by applying rules we can create new content (generate new/novel sentences based on the rules); & it’s dynamic - languages are alive, constantly changing; new concepts added; old discarded; shortened expressions
Phonemes are the smallest unit of speech that makes a difference to meaning (cat vs. bat). How many phonemes can we distinguish?
Around 45
Plotting speech patterns have shown that the frequency & energy used to make sounds aren’t always the same; they constantly shift. Describe the Motor Theory of speech perception, according to Liberman
It’s the idea that the invariance lies in production, not in the acoustic signal; we hear sounds according to how we produce them (e.g. Germans confuse S & TH; Japanese confuse L & R)
There seems to be an influence on how to make a phoneme depending on the context. What processing occurs in regards to context?
Parallel computation (including surrounding phonemes); top-down processes; we use visual cues & lip reading (e.g. if you walk into a room & say “yellow” – it will be interpreted as hello – we anticipate what will come & fill in the blanks)
Describe the McGurk effect
It’s a perceptual illusion;; if given an acoustic stimulus: ba, & visual lip movement: ga, we will perceive it as “da” (fits with Massaro’s Fuzzy Logical Model of speech perception); also works for entire sentences
Explain how the McGurk effect works
2 sensory inputs (physical properties of auditory & visual); we evaluate (brain has to match prototype but also matches other phonemes to some extent); we integrate (each potential phoneme gets a value leading to a combined probability based on both stimuli); then we make a decision (happens very rapidly & unconsciously)
Describe what happens when watching a finger point to a doll or ball, while hearing a vocal sound
When it points to the doll we hear doll, when it points to the ball we hear ball (not saying either); visual cue makes us expect/anticipate; it’s only when there’s a clear violation do we notice a mismatch
What are Morphemes?;
What’s Morphology?
The smallest root of meaning (root words, prefixes & suffixes);
Rules governing how morphemes are put together
What’s the difference between content morphemes & functional morphemes?
Content morphemes are inflections, which convey meaning (e.g. joy [stem] ful [suffix] & prefixes e.g. after-, anti-, co-); functional morphemes serve a grammatical function, but with little meaning by themselves (e.g. s to indicate plural, ed to indicate past, etc)
Around how many words are in our vocabulary?
60,000
Explain how languages are alive or dynamic
New words & expressions are constantly added; old ones disappear
Syntax refers to rules by which words are structured into phrases & phrases into sentences. Describe Recursion;
What’s the problem with Parsing?
Recursion is to tack clauses into clauses, or embed clauses into clauses, such as this one (allows us to refer back & build up content);
The point is expressed in the sentence but we have to keep track of what goes with what & how to make sense of it; there’s no syntax
According to Chomsky’s universal grammar, languages differ in surface structure, but underlying rules share many elements. Give an example
SOV languages such as Japanese (subject, object, verb) & SVO languages such as English (subject, verb, object), have the same structures but in different order
According to Chomsky, the underlying deep structure of language reflects innate organizing principles of cognition. What are these principles?
Innate language acquisition devise (we learn from the environment how to do what we’re already predisposed to do); parameter setting to learn rules of a particular language; once learned they can be applied to other contexts (generalisation rules)
What do Pragmatics refer to?
How we use language in different settings (e.g. politely or sarcastically); often guided by socially understood scripts (e.g. restaurant scripts)
What are the 4 Gricean Maxims (cooperative principles of conversation)?
Quantity (conversation should be informative as required but no more than is appropriate); quality (should be truthful & what you believe to be the case); relation (should be relevant); & manner (should avoid obscure or vague expressions)
What were Skinner’s & other behavourist’s attempts to explain language?;
What’s Chomsky’s response to this?
A child utters sound at random, gets reinforced for approximations to correct; language is shaped;
Parents don’t shape language like this; they’re typically concerned with truth value or what they’re trying to say, not grammaticality
What’s another factor that contradicts Skinner’s view on language acquisition?
We acquire language in predictable stages (e.g production); this wouldn’t be the case if it was reinforced, there would be differences
When is babbling or practicing of phonemes acquired?;
When do real words start to appear?;
At 8 months;
10-15 months
What occurs at 18-24 months of language acquisition?;
What occurs at 2-4 years?
Rapid word acquisition (1 every 2 hrs) & 2-word sentences;
Syntax acquisition
What are 2 factors that suggest language is instinctual (growth) rather than reinforced (learning)?;
Critical period - the case of Genie; hard-wiring not complete until puberty; right hemisphere can take over if left is damaged in early childhood; Poverty of stimulus - overgeneralization/overregularisation must be biologically predisposed or it wouldn’t happen; environment doesn’t give enough information;
Though we may be predisposed to acquiring language, we have to learn what works & what doesn’t. So what role does learning play?
In phoneme selection, grammatical parameters & words acquired through association
From what age can bilingual children easily discriminate languages?
From 2 onwards
A second language is difficult to learn in adulthood, & it’s particularly hard to eradicate a foreign accent. What does this evidence suggest?
That phoneme acquisition is especially dependent on the critical period
Sign language of the deaf is now recognized as fully syntactic, natural language (they go through the same developmental stages, such as babbling). How may language have originally evolved according to Corballis, 1999?
It may have originally evolved from manual gesture & later switched to vocal mode
What areas have neuroscientists focused on in relation to language?
Cerebral asymmetry; brain damage; Broca’s area (productive aphasia & agrammatism – problems with syntax); & Wernicke’s area (receptive aphasia)
Describe the language symptomology of conduction aphasia
It’s located in the area between Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas; spontaneous speech is fluent; comprehension is good; but paraphasia is common (use of words in wrong or senseless combinations)
Describe the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis;
What’s the weak version?
You can’t think certain things in certain languages, because you don’t have the concepts to shape the thoughts;
Certain thoughts are more difficult because they are clumsy to express in one’s native language
Though there is little evidence to support the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, there is some in support of the weak version. What did Brown & Lenneberg find?;
In contrast, what did Heider (1972) find about the Dani, who have only 2 terms for colour (mili for darker colours & mola for lighter colours)?
Colours that one has names for are slightly easier to remember than noncodable colours (colour names of a language has an effect of colour categorization);
They performed like English speakers on a colour recognition test (more recent evidence has shown a minor influence though)
What has been found with Pihara, which supports the weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, whereby the language we speak may bias us to think in certain ways?
Their limits in number words (1, 2 & many) was associated with limits in computing (in a counting the dots task), but not in estimating
Why have attempts to teach apes vocal language failed?
Their vocal apparatus isn’t sufficient; they have a lack of voluntary control of vocal tract & facial muscles
What idea does the success of teaching chimpanzees, orangutans & gorillas American sign language support?
The evolutionary idea of gesturing language coming before vocal language
What did Terrace, who trained Nim Chimpsky in symbols & pointing, argue?
That they’re mostly conditioned responses
What did Kanzi, the chimpanzee acquire while researchers were attempting to train his foster mother, Matata?;
Kanzi is probably the most linguistically competent non-human animal alive. What is his level of comprehension?
Lexigram symbols; he acquired a multimodal symbol system for lexigrams, spoken English & sign language;
It’s like a 2 year olds; he can follow unusual commands (e.g. put the toothbrush in the lemonade), but production is more limited (most common are 3 word sentences (e.g. chase Kanzi person); little to suggest there’s syntax involved
What have great ape language projects on chimpanzees, gorillas & orangutans shown?
Protolanguage; they can learn symbols but not grammar or syntax, like a 2 year old; they can’t tell us how they’re feeling or what they’re thinking; they show similar language to Pidgin (using bits of different language groups & combining them with gestures); & it’s allowed research on brain damage (in Broca’s area)
