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