(2) Chapter 2 - Language and meaning

Question 1

Language design features

Answer 1

Properties that characterise language.

Question 2

Semanticity

Answer 2

A design feature of language relating to how a word reflects aspects of the world.

Question 3

Displacement

Answer 3

The ability to refer to events and items that are not currently perceived.

Question 4

Syntax

Answer 4

The analysis of sentence structure.

Question 5

Ethology

Answer 5

The study of behaviour in its natural setting.

Question 6

Planum temporale

Answer 6

Area of cortex involved in language.

Question 7

Wernicke’s and Broca’s area

Answer 7

Areas of cortex involved in language.

Question 8

Fluent aphasia

Answer 8

An inability to produce meaningful speech despite being coherent.

Question 9

Non-fluent aphasia

Answer 9

An inability to produce connected, coherent speech.

Question 10

Metarepresentation

Answer 10

An individuals representation of another person’s representation, or of their own process of reflection.

Question 11

Semantic Priming

Answer 11

A method of investigating the effect on recognition of a target word by preceding it with a different word: the priming stimulus. In semantic priming the two words are related in meaning. In associative priming they are typically words that occur close together in text or speech.

Question 12

Word superiority effect

Answer 12

The finding that a letter is detected more readily when it is embedded in a word then when it is not.

Question 13

Connectionist model

Answer 13

A type of computer model that contains simple units that are connected to each other in a network structure.

Question 14

Lexicon

Answer 14

A mental dictionary that contains information about individual words.

Question 15

Garden path sentences

Answer 15

Ambiguous sentences in which the structure that is usually selected first is incorrect.

Question 16

Discourse

Answer 16

In cognitive psychology, a piece of text or speech consisting of related sentences.

Question 17

Effort after meaning

Answer 17

The attempt by listeners and readers to understand the meaning of discourse.

Question 18

Script

Answer 18

A schema that represents a typical event.

Question 19

Proposition

Answer 19

A statement consisting of a single idea or unit of meaning.

Question 20

Prosody

Answer 20

Aspects of the sound of speech, such as stress and rhythm, that function to clarify or reinforce the meaning of a sentence.

Question 21

Pragmatics

Answer 21

The way that the intended rather than the literal meaning of language is inferred.

Question 22

Contested

Answer 22

The process by which an individual challenges the meanings being constructed, or actions accomplished, by another speaker.

Question 23

Ethnomethodology

Answer 23

A study of the socially shared knowledge of rules, roles and conduct, that individuals draw upon to analyse, understand and act in everyday life.

Question 24

Discourse (Social Psychology)

Answer 24

In discursive psychology discourse is the spoken or written matter by which a particular object is constructed.

Question 25

Subject position

Answer 25

The place or character an individual can construct for themselves using discourses and particular recognized positions like ‘the good mother’.

Question 26

Interpretative repertoire

Answer 26

The sum of different discourses, and the ways that they can be combined or mixed together, which the individual has at their disposal to construct subject positions.