Chapter 10: Language Comprehension

Question 1

pragmatics

Answer 1

pragmatics (the study of the ways in which language is used and understood in the real world, including a consideration of its intended meaning

Question 2

parsing

Answer 2

an analysis of the syntactical or grammatical structure of sentences

Question 3

• Verb bias:

Answer 3

a characteristic of many verbs that are found more often in some syntactic structures than in others (Duck as a duck –noun- or as in ducking- verb)

Question 4

• Figurative language

Answer 4

is language not intended to be taken literally, for example metaphor.

Question 5

egocentric heuristic

Answer 5

a strategy in which listeners interpret what they hear based on their own knowledge rather than on knowledge shared with the speaker

Question 6

• Reading span:

Question 7

Operation span:

Answer 7

the maximum number of items (arithmetical questions+words) from which an individual can recall all the last words

Question 8

logical inferences

Answer 8

inferences depending solely on the meaning of words

Question 9

bridging inferences

Answer 9

inferences that are drawn to increase the coherence between the current and preceding parts of a text: also known as backward inferences

Question 10

elaborative inferences

Answer 10

inferences that add details to a text that is being read by making use of our general knowledge; also known as forward inferences

Question 11

anaphor resolution

Answer 11

working out the referent of a pronoun or noun by relating it to some previously mentioned noun or noun phrase