Chapter 11: Language Flashcards
Language
a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences
Hierarchical Nature of Language
the idea that language of a series of small components that can be combined to form larger units
for example, words can be combined to create phrases, which in turn can create sentences, which themselves can become components of a story
Rule-Based Nature of Language
the idea that there are rules in a language that specify the permissible ways for arranging words and phrases
Psycholinguistics
the field concerned with the psychological study of language
Lexicon
a person’s knowledge of what words mean, how they sound, and how they are used in relation to other words
Semantics
the meanings of words and sentences, distinguished from syntax
Lexical Semantics
the meanings of words
Word Frequency
the relative usage of words in a particular language
for example, in English, home has a higher frequency than hike
Word Frequency Effect
the phenomenon of faster reading time for high-frequency words than for low-frequency words
Lexical Ambiguity
when a words can have more than one meaning
for example, bug can mean and insect, a listening device, to annoy, or a problem in a computer program
Lexical Priming
priming that involves the meaning of words
for examples, “rose” would prime “flower”, because their meanings are related
Meaning Dominance
some meanings of words occur more frequently than others
Biased Dominance
when a word has more than one meaning, and one meaning is more likely
Balanced Dominance
when a word has more than one meaning and all meanings are equally likely
Syntax
the rules for combining words into sentences, distinguished from semantics
Parsing
the mental grouping of words in a sentence into phrases, the way a sentence is parsed determines it’s meaning
Garden Path Sentences
a sentence in which the meaning that seems to be implied at the beginning of the sentence turns out to be incorrect, based on information that is presented later in the sentence
Temporary Ambiguity
a situation in which the meaning of a sentence, based on it’s initial words, is ambiguous because a number of meanings are possible, depending on how the sentence unfolds
Garden Path Model of Parsing
a model of parsing that emphasizes syntactic principles as a major determinant of parsing
Heuristics
a “rule of thumb” that provides a best-guess solution to a problem
Late Closure
in parsing, when a person encounters a new word, the parser assumes that this word is part of the current phrase
Constraint-Based Approach to Parsing
an approach to parsing that proposes that semantics, syntax, and other factors operate simultaneously to determine parsing
Visual World Paradigm
in experiments on language processing, determining how subjects are processing information in a scene as they respond to specific instruction related to the scene
Subject-Relative Construction
a sentence construction in which the subject of the main clause is also the subject of the embedded clause
Object-Relative Construction
a sentence construction in which the subject of main clause is the object in the embedded clause
Inferences
in language, the process by which readers create information that is not explicitly stated in the text
Narrative
a story that progresses from one event to another
Coherence
the representation of a text or story in a reader’s mind so that information in one part of the text or story is related to information in another part
Anaphoric Inference
an inference that connects an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence
Instrument Inference
an inference about tools or methods that occurs while reading text or listening to speech
Causal Inference
an inference that results in the conclusion that the events described in one clause or sentence were caused by events that occurred in a previous clause or sentence
Situation Model
a mental representation of what a text is about
Given-New Contract
in a conversation, a speaker should construct sentences so that they contain both given information (information that the listener already knows) and new information (information that the listener is hearing for the first time)
Common Ground
knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions shared between two speakers
Referential Communication Task
a task in which two people are exchanging information in a conversation, when this information involves reference - identifying something by naming or describing it
Entrainment
synchronization between partners in a conversation, this can include gestures, speaking rate, body position, pronunciation, and grammatical structure
Syntactic Coordination
process by which people use similar grammatical constructions when having a conversation
Syntactic Priming
hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a statement that follows will be produced with the same construction
Theory of Mind
the ability to understand what others think, feel, or believe
Prosody
the pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language
Emoji’s
symbols used in electronic communication and web pages that can indicate emotions, and are also used to represent other things, such as objects, animals, places and weather
Tonic
the key of a musical composition, the tonic note is the first note of a scale in a particular key
Return to the Tonic
in a musical composition, coming back to the tonic note that was at the beginning of the composition
Congenital Amnesia
a condition, present at birth, in which people have problems with music perception, including tasks such as discriminating between simple melodies or recognizing common tunes
What is language?
system of communication using sounds or symbols
express feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences
What is a hierarchical system?
components that can be combined to form larger units
letter to word to sentence to text
What is the universality of language?
deaf children invent sign language that is all their own
all humans with normal capabilities develop a language and learn to follow it’s complex rules
language is universal across cultures
language development is similar across cultures
languages are “unique but the same”
How are all languages “unique but the same”?
different words, sounds, and rules
all have nouns, verbs, negatives, questions, past/present tense
What is B.F. Skinner’s idea of verbal behavior?
language learned through reinforcement
What is Noam Chomsky’s idea of syntactic structures?
human language coded in the genes
underlying basis of all language is similar
children produce sentences they have never heard and that have never been reinforced
human language coded in genes: just like we are genetically programmed to walk, we are programmed to acquire and use language
underlying basis of all language is similar
How did Noam Chomsky’s ideas lead to the development of psycholinguistics?
children produce sentences they have never heard and that have never been reinforced
against the viewpoint of reinforcement is “I hate you, Mommy”
this led to the development of psycholinguistics
What is psycholinguistics?
discover psychological process by which humans acquire and process language
What is comprehension?
understand spoken and written language
What is speech production?
psychological processes of speech production
What is representation?
how people represent language (verbal, mental model)
What acquisition?
learning language including the second langauge
What is a lexicon?
all words a person understands
What are the components of words?
phonemes and morphemes
What are phonemes?
shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of the word
bit contains the phonemes /b/ /i/ /t/
/p/ /i/ /t/
/b/ /e/ /t/
/b/ /i/ /d/
different from letters” one letter can have two phonemes, “e” in “we” and “wet”
the “e” in some is silent, “e” in “home”
What are morphemes?
smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function
“table” contains a single morpheme, “bedroom” contains two morphemes, “bed” and “room”
endings such as “s” and “ed” are morphemes, so “tables” contains two morphemes, “table” and “s”
What is the word superiority effect?
people perceive a letter better when the letter is in a word than when the letter is presented alone or in a nonword
What is the phenomic restoration effect?
“fill in” missing phonemes based on context of sentence and portion of word presented
Warren (1970) replaced the first /s/ in “legislatures” with the sound of a cough when reading the sentence “the state governors met with their respective legislatures convening in the capital city”
no participants can notice it even when they were informed /s/ was missing
What is speech segmentation?
context: participants could identify only half of the word of their own conversation when single words were relayed
understanding of meaning: an unfamiliar language sounds like an unbroken string of sounds
understanding of sound and syntactic rules: words can begin with Kr (e.g. krill) but end in rk (e.g. work)
statistical learning
What factors influence our ability to understand words?
word frequency effect and context effect
What is the word frequency effect?
respond more rapidly to high-frequency words in a lexical decision task
fixate on low-frequency words longer than high-frequency words
eye movements while reading: look at low-frequency words longer
What are context effects?
the meaning of a sentence affects our ability to access words in the sentence
walrus is easy to understand in “the eskimos were frightened by the walrus” than in “the bankers were frightened by the walrus”
What is lexical ambiguity?
words have more than one meaning
context clears up ambiguity after all meanings of a word have been briefly accessed
bug could be insects or hidden listening devices
“my mother is bugging me” can clear the ambiguity
What is dominance?
the fact the some words are used more frequently than others
What is biased dominance?
when words have two or more meanings with different dominance
What is balanced dominance?
when words have two or more meanings with about the same dominance
What is lexical priming?
heard ambiguous word had priming effect for the words relevant to both meanings
What is semantics?
meanings of words and sentences
What is syntax?
rules for combining words into sentences
How does Broca’s aphasia affect how a person understands language?
the apple was eaten by the girl (no trouble)
the boy was pushed by the girl (trouble)
modern researchers have concluded that damage to Broca’s area in the frontal lobe causes problems in syntax - creating meaning based on word order
How does Wernicke’s aphasia affect how a person understands language?
produced speech that was fluent and grammatically correct but tended to be incoherent
Wernicke’s patients have more widespread difficulties in understanding and would have difficulty in understanding both sentences
Wernicke’s area in the temporal lobe is thus involved in semantics - understanding meaning
What is parsing?
mental grouping of words in a sentence into phrases
it is easy to parse “the spy saw the man”
but how about “the spy saw the man with binoculars”
we can group “with binoculars” with either the spy or the man
What is syntactic ambiguity?
more than one possible structure, more than one meaning
two proposed parsing mechanisms: syntax-first approach and the interactionist approach
What is the syntax-first approach to parsing?
grammatical structure of sentence determines parsing
late closure: parser assumes new word is part of the current phrase
What is the interactionist approach to parsing?
semantics and syntax both influence processing as one reads a sentence
What is coherence?
representation of the text in one’s mind so that information from one part of the text can be related to information in another part of the text
most of the coherence in text is created by inference
What is inference?
readers create information during reading not explicitly stated in the text
What are anaphoric inferences?
connecting objects/people
inferences that connect an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence
Riffifi, the famous poodle, won the dog show. She has now won the last three shows
reading are capable of creating anaphoric inferences even under adverse conditions
What are instrumental inferences?
inferences about tools or methods
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while he was sitting at his desk. We can infer that he was using a quill pen
What are causal inferences?
events in one clause caused by events in previous sentence
Sharon took an aspirin. her headache went away
What is the situation model?
mental representation of what a text is about
represent events as if experiencing the situation
point of view of protagonist
in a story about a man walking through a building, the reader would create a map of the space through which the protagonist is walking and keep track of the protagonist’s location in the building
What is the physiology of simulations?
approximately the same areas of the cortex are activated by actual movements and by reading related action words
the activation is more extensive for actual movements
What are conversations?
two or more people talking together
dynamic and rapid
ways to make easier for the listeners to understand
What is semantic coordination in conversations?
good if participants have shared knowledge
using similar grammatical constructions
What is the given-new contract?
speaker constructs sentences so they include: given information and new information
new can then become given information
What is syntactic priming?
production of a specific grammatical construction by one person increases chances other person will use that construction
reduces computational load in conversation
What is theory of mind?
being able to understand what others feel, think, or believe
What is nonverbal communication?
being able to interpret and react to the person’s gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice, and other cues of meaning
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
language influences thought
What is categorical perception?
stimuli in same categories are more difficult to discriminate from one another than stimuli in two different categories
What is the relationship between music and language?
music as the “language of emotion”
music creates emotion through sounds that have no meaning
language, on the other hand, creates emotions using meaningful words
language combines words and music combines tones to create structured sequences that unfold over time
What is prosody?
the pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language
often creates emotion in spoken language (a speaker’s “soaring oratory”)
