Ch10 - Language

Question 1

morpheme

Answer 1

smallest unit of language that contains meaning

eg: tree, ball…

Question 2

phonemes

Answer 2

smallest unit of sound used in words in a language

eg: la, thi…

Question 3

phonemic restoration effect

Answer 3

when a missing phoneme is easily filled in using the context cues present

Question 4

categorical perception

Answer 4

better at percieving sounds from different categories than from the same category

Question 5

generativity

Answer 5

a trait where someone is able to combine and recombine units to create new and more complex entities

• linguistic rules are generative as they allow for the creation of new words, phrases and sentences

Question 6

syntax

Answer 6

rules that govern the structure of phrases and sentences

Question 7

prescriptive vs descriptive rules

Answer 7

prescriptive: rules describing how language is “supposed” to be used
eg: with whom are you speaking?

descriptive: rules describing how language is ordinarily used by fluent speakers
eg: who are you speaking with?

Question 8

how do we parse sentences

Answer 8

in real time, instead of waiting for the full sentence
words are grouped in the most intuitive fashion

this is typically effective, but can sometimes lead to misinterpretations

Question 9

garden path sentences

description + example

Answer 9

sentences that initially suggest an interpretation which turns out to be incorrect

eg: Mary had a little lamb, but I was quite hungry so I had the lamb and the soup.
(we interpret “had = to own” rather than “had = ate” until the second half of the sentence provides context)

Question 10

extralinguistic context

Answer 10

the social, physical or setting cues which act to contextualize an encountered phrase or sentence

Question 11

prosody

Answer 11

patterns of pauses and pitch changes which characterize speech production

• can be used to emphasize or alter the meaning of a phrase
• each language can have unique prosody cues

Question 12

pragmatic rules

Answer 12

rules that govern how people use a language in the real world

eg: “what happened to the roast beef?”
reply: “the dog sure looks happy.”
–> we assume responses are relevant to the question even if linguistically, they are not fully formed responses

Question 13

common ground

in the context of language cues/rules

Answer 13

beliefs shared by conversational partners

• can take advantage of common ground to communicate ideas with less words

Question 14

4 brain areas relating to speech

brief what they do + where they are

Answer 14

1. broca’s area: left frontal lobe - language production
2. wernicke’s area: left temporal lobe - language comprehension
3. motor projection areas: frontal lobe - motor control for speech
4. auditory projection areas: temporal lobe - hearing sound

!!!highly simplified purposes

Question 15

fluent vs nonfluent aphasia

difference + brain regions involved

Answer 15

damage to Broca’s area –> nonfluent: patients can understand language, but cannot write or speak

damage to Wernicke’s area –> fluent: patients can speak words with some correct syntax, but sentences are largely meaningless

Question 16

what happens when a child is not raised with a communicative partner?

Answer 16

they do not, and cannot develop language use to the same level as a human raised with speaking partners

Question 17

linguistic relativity

description + alternate name

Answer 17

the idea that language shapes the way we think

also called the Whorfian hypothesis

Question 18

does learning multiple languages simultaneously, affect the rate of learning?

Answer 18

no, bilingual children learn both languages just as quickly as monolingual children learn one.