Ch 1 A Connection of Brains

Question 0

Language

Answer 0

A system of abstract symbols and rule governed structures, the specific conventions of which are learned.

Question 1

Communication

Answer 1

The sending and receiving of information, ideas, feelings, or messages.

Question 2

Speech

Answer 2

The oral expression of language.

Question 3

Echolalia

Answer 3

An imitation of words, phrases, or even whole sentences in the absence of an understanding of what they are saying.

Question 4

Alveolar Ridge

Answer 4

An area on the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth.

Question 5

Pragmatics

Answer 5

The use of language.

Question 6

Hockett’s 13 design features of language

Answer 6

1) The Vocal Auditory Channel
2) The Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception
3) Rapid Fading
4) Interchangeability
5) Total Feedback
6) Specialization
7) Semanticity
8) Arbitrariness
9) Discreteness
10) Displacement
11) Productivity
12) Duality of Patterning
13) Traditional Transmission

Question 7

1) Vocal Auditory Channel

Answer 7

The first design feature that says that humans beings communicate by forcing air through the vocal folds of the larynx and breaking the vibrating air stream into sounds of speech, which are organized into words and sentences.

Question 8

2) Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception

Answer 8

The fact that when speech is produced, it radiates in all directions, allowing it to be received by any listener who is in range. In addition, a listener with two good ears can compare the loudness and timing of the signals reaching each ear and can determine the direction from which the sound is coming.

Question 9

3) Rapid Fading

Answer 9

Unlike writing, speech is not set in stone forever. Speech signals are transitory, meaning that they do not linger.

Question 10

4) Interchangeabilty

Answer 10

Any human being can say anything that is said by any other human being, such as children imitating parents.

Question 11

5) Total Feedback

Answer 11

Human speakers have the capacity to monitor what they say and how they say it, so we can monitor articulators and make adjustments so that the output is finely tuned.

Question 12

6) Specialization

Answer 12

Speech is specifically designed for communication and serves no other purpose. The structures involved in speech are actually creating speech as a secondary function, but speech itself serves no other purpose other than communication.

Question 13

7) Semanticity

Answer 13

The ability to use human speech to convey specific messages. More than speech is needed in most cases to ensure the specificity of messages.

Question 14

8) Arbitrariness

Answer 14

There is nothing inherent in a spoken word to account for its meaning. An example is why we call a chair a chair. There is nothing about it’s properties that tells us it should be called a chair, but someone arbitrarily decided to call it that.

Question 15

9) Discreteness

Answer 15

Although human speech can produce a wide range of noises, each language is limited to a finite or discrete number of sounds. Each sound used in one or more human languages has very specific characteristics so that each sound is discrete.

Question 16

10) Displacement

Answer 16

Humans can talk about things that are distant in time or space.

Question 17

11) Productivity

Answer 17

Humans have the amazing ability to be creative in their communication efforts. We can say things that have never been said before, or we can put old messages in brand new language forms. We can use a finite collection of sounds and words to shape an infinite variety of messages.

Question 18

12) Duality of Patterning

Answer 18

Although a given language is restricted in the number of sounds it uses, these sounds can be combined in an infinite number of ways to produce an infinite variety of words, and these words can be combined into an infinite variety of sentences. New words can be created.

Question 19

13) Traditional Transmission

Answer 19

The suggestion in this feature is that speech is instinctive in humans. We have a genetic or biological capacity for language so powerful that few environmental factors can stop the acquisition of speech, although they may affect the rate at which it is acquired and they may affect the quality of the language we use.

Question 20

Indexicality

Answer 20

The ability of a communicator to use situational context, as well as past experiences, in the production, reception, and interpretation of messages. Branches out into presemantic, semantic, postsemantic, and extrasemantic information.

Question 21

Presemantics

Answer 21

Allow communicators to use their past and current experiences to help determine the meanings of words as used in a specific context.

Question 22

Semantics

Answer 22

Using specific words in specific grammatical configurations to convey specific messages.

Question 23

Postsemantic Information

Answer 23

The ability to analyze messages to determine the truth, reality, and completeness of the utterances produced in a given situation.

Question 24

Extrasemantic Information

Answer 24

Social and psychological factors that can shade or shape meaning. For instance, you can tell if a friend is upset by the way they act emotionally and the way that they talk.

Question 25

Recursion

Answer 25

This involves a human’s ability to use acquired knowledge to create language, to imagine what others may be thinking, to engage in mental time travel to the past and the future, to think about and gain understanding of self, and to relate to a divine being in the development and demonstration of spirituality. Recursion underlies the ability of humans to use words and phrases in complex and embedded arrangements, as well as to store linguistic expressions, such as idioms and other constructions, that do not follow standard syntactic rules.

Question 26

Prevarication

Answer 26

The ability of humans to intentionally deceive others in their communications. This does not have to be negative. A positive example is storytelling, while a negative example is lying.

Question 27

Reflexiveness (Metalinguistic Ability)

Answer 27

The ability of humans to use language to talk about language.

Question 28

Learnability

Answer 28

Learning occurs when we combine a person’s innate capacity for learning, a learning environment, and some stimulus for learning that comes from the learner himself. Learnability suggests that cognitive structures interact with experience to produce learning.

Question 29

Sound waves

Answer 29

Patterns of air pressure changes.