9. Language Flashcards
What are 2 necessary characteristics of a natural language
- it is regular (governed by a system of rules called grammar)
- it is productive (infinite combinations of things can be expressed)
In addition to being regular and productive, what are 2 other characteristics of human language
- arbitrariness
- no semblance between word and what it refers to - discreteness
- system can be subdivided into recognizable parts (sentence, word)
(3) Generative -> slides
- can state, write, or sing something that no one has done before
Explain phonemes vs morphemes
Sounds vs. smallest meaningful units
What is phonology
Study of how phonemes can be combined in a language
What is morphology
identifying the meaningful units in a language
what is syntax vs semantics
structure vs meaning
What is the study of pragmatics
How listeners and speakers each contribute to the conversation and what assumptions they make
- social rules of language
- includes etiquette conventions
What is linguistic competence vs linguistic performance
Competence: underlying linguistic knowledge that lets us understand and produce the language
- not always evident bc of nervousness, tiredness etc
Linguistic performance only reflects linguistic competence in completely ideal situations
What are 2 things that make consonants more complicated
- differences in place of articulation
- where the obstruction in airflow occurs
- vs. vowels, no obstruction - differences in manner of articulation
- how the airflow is obstructed
What diagram depicts the various constituents of a syntactic sentence
a tree diagram
What is the use of tree diagrams
can explain why some changes are valid and others arent
- preposing
What is preposing
taking a certain part of the sentence and moving it to the front
- usually for emphasis
What are phrase structure/rewrite rules
rules in the grammar
etc.
S -> NP VP
What might understanding the semantics of a sentence mean
it is the understanding of meaning in language
for a sentence it means:
- understanding each word
- understanding the truth conditions
what is a directive
instructions to the listener
etc. “close that door”
what is a commissive
the speaker is committing to some later action
etc. “I promise to read a book”
what is an expressive
describes the psychological state
etc. “i apologize for eating the last piece of pie”
what are declarations
where the utterance itself is the action
etc. “you’re fired”
“I promise to read a book” is what kind of speech act
commissive
“you’re fired” is what kind of speech act
declarative
“i apologize for eating the last piece of pie” is what kind of speech act
expressive
“close that door” is what kind of speech act
directive
according to george miller, what are 2 fundamental problems that speech perception should solve
- speech is continuous
- a single phoneme sounds different depending on the context
What did Lisker and Abramson show about how we understand speech
they played ba or pa by altering the b/p sound and found that it was only distinguished when they fell across a certain boundary
we pay attention to some parts (meaningful) in speech and ignore others
what is the phoneme restoration effect
listeners restore the missing phoneme when it is covered up during the course of perception
According to Garrett what are the two common forms of speech errors and are they related
meaning and form
he looked at probability occurrences of both
no; operates separately
T/F
As Neely INCREASED the amount of time between the prime word and the target, participants performed better on intentionally primed pairs (Etc. BUILDING-foot) than naturally primed pairs (etc. BODY-hand)
+ what does this mean for semantic priming
F
Participants performed worse, possibly due to:
- fast-acting spread of activation
- slow-acting expectancy-driven process
What is Phonetic ambiguity
A spoken sentence often contains words that are not meant to be heard
- but we ignore these
etc. Remember <-> Ream ember
What is Lexical ambiguity
Occurs with words that have 2 meanings
What is Syntactic ambiguity
Different phrasings (parsings) of a sentence lead to different meanings
What are saccades
“jumps” between fixations when you are reading
According to Just and Carpenter’s study, what word would you expect a longer fixation time on and why
of
flywheel
flywheel
We spend more time fixing on content words -> semantically rich parts of the text
Here are 2 sentences
- We got some beer out of the car. The beer was warm
- We checked the picnic supplies. The beer was warm
Which one would be deciphered faster, and why? What strategy does Haviland and Clark propose we use
2
We use the strategy of given-new and make connections of the new material based on knowledge of old material (antecedent)
2 takes longer because we need to draw more inferences
What does it mean for a sentence to have a high propositional complexity
There are more basic ideas conveyed
What are the 4 maxims of cooperative conversation by Grice
- Maxim of quantity: correct amount of info
- Maxim of quality: try to make it true
- Maxim of relation: relevance
- Maxim of manner: be clear
QQRM
Are subvocal speech and thought equivalent
No
What is the difference between the Modularity hypothesis and the Whorfian hypothesis for linguistic relativity
Modularity: certain perceptual and languages processes are modules
- experiment of lexical ambiguity: this is automatic
Whorfian: believed strong relations exist between language and other cognitive processes, and language constrains the way your world is percieved
- probably false
What are a few experiments that counter the Whorfian hypothesis
- Dutch people naming colours in English
- Chinese speakers being able to draw counterfactual inferences as easily as English speakers
explain expressive aphasia (Broca) vs receptive aphasia (Wernicke)
and areas of injury
broca: damage to frontal area
wernicke: damange to temporal lobe
both on left
think ordering b - w, f - t
note:
- not completely localized; patients have gotten broca’s aphasia without damage there and vice versa
Damage to which side of the brain usually causes aphasia
left
due to lateralization (specialization of function between two hemispheres)
What does it mean for a language to be arbitrary
There is no direct link between the word and its meaning
What does it mean for a language to be generative
Everyone can say something that no one has said before
