Chapter 11 Language

Question 1

Language

Answer 1

A system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

Question 2

Hierarchical nature of language

Answer 2

The idea that language consists of 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.

Question 3

Rule-based nature of language

Answer 3

The idea that there are rules in language that specify the permissible ways for arranging words and phrases.

Question 4

Psycholinguistic

Answer 4

The field concerned with the psychological study of language

Question 5

The four major concerns of psycholinguistic

Answer 5

1. Comprehension, 2. Representation 3. Speech production. 4. Acquisition.

Question 6

Lexicon

Answer 6

A person’s knowledge of what words mean, how they sound, and how they are used in relation to other words.

Question 7

Semantic

Answer 7

The meaning of words and sentences.

Question 8

Lexical semantics

Answer 8

The meaning of words

Question 9

Word frequency

Answer 9

The relative usage of words in a particular language. For example, in English, home has higher word frequency then hike.

Question 10

Word frequency effect

Answer 10

The phenomenon of faster reading time for high-frequency words than for low frequency words.

Question 11

Lexical decision task

Answer 11

The task is to decide as quickly as possible wether strings of letters are words or nonwords.

Question 12

Speech segmentation

Answer 12

The perception of individual words even though there are often no pauses between words.

Question 13

Our ability to hear spoken words

Answer 13

1frequency, 2 context of words 3 knowledge of statistical regularities 4 knowledge of word meaning

Question 14

Lexical ambiguity

Answer 14

When a word can have more than one meaning. For example, but can mean an insect, device m, annoy, etc

Question 15

Lexical priming

Answer 15

Priming that involves the meaning of words m. For example, rose would prime flower, because their meanings are related.

Question 16

Meaning dominance

Answer 16

Some meaning of words occur more frequently than others.

Question 17

Biased dominance

Answer 17

When a word has more than one meaning, and one meaning is more likely.

Question 18

Balanced dominance

Answer 18

When a word has more than one meaning and all meanings are equally likely.

Question 19

Syntax

Answer 19

The rules for combining words into sentences. Distinguishing from semantic.

Question 20

Parsing

Answer 20

The mental grouping of words in a sentence into phrases. The way a sentence is parsed determines its meaning.

Question 21

Garden path sentence

Answer 21

A sentence in which the meaning that seems to be applied at the beginning of the sentence turns out to be incorrect, based on information that is presented later in the sentence.

Question 22

Temporary ambiguity

Answer 22

A situation in which the meaning of a sentence, based on its initial words, is ambiguous because a number of meanings are possible.

Question 23

Garden path modal of parsing

Answer 23

A modal of parsing that emphasizes syntactic principles as a major determinant of parsing. Lynn Frazier (1979, 1987)

Question 24

Heuristics

Answer 24

A “tule of thumb” that provides a best-guess solution to a problem.

Question 25

Constraint-based approach to o parsing

Answer 25

An approach to parsing that proposes that semantic, syntax m, and other factors operate simultaneously to determine parsing.

Question 26

Object-related construction

Answer 26

A sentence construction in which the subject of the main clause is the object in the embedded clause, as in this sentence .

Question 27

Visual word paradigm

Answer 27

In experiments on language processing, determining how subjects are processing information in a scene as they respond to specific instructions related to the scene.

Question 28

Subjective-relative construction

Answer 28

A sentence construction in which the subject of the main clause is also the subject in the embedded clause.

Question 29

Object-related construction.

Answer 29

A sentence construction in which the subject of the main clause is the object in the embedded clause.

Question 30

Inference

Answer 30

In language, the process by which readers create information that is not explicitly stated in the text.

Question 31

Narrative

Answer 31

A story that progresses from one event to another.

Question 32

Coherence

Answer 32

The representation of a text or story in a readers mind so that information in one part of the text or story is related to information in another part.

Question 33

Anaphoric inference

Answer 33

An inference that connects an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence.

Question 34

Instrumental inference

Answer 34

An inference about tools or methods that occurs while text or listening to speech.

Question 35

Causal inference

Answer 35

An inference that results in the conclusion that events described in one clause or sentence were caused by events that occurred in a previous clause or sentence.

Question 36

Situation model

Answer 36

A mental representation of what a text is about.

Question 37

Common ground

Answer 37

Knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions shared between two speakers.

Question 38

Referential communication task

Answer 38

A task in which two people are exchanging information in a conversation, when this information involves reference-identifying something by naming or describing it.

Question 39

Entrainment

Answer 39

Synchronization between partners in a conversation. This can include gestures speaking rate, body position, pronunciation, and grammatical structure.

Question 40

Syntactic coordination

Answer 40

Process by which people use similar grammatical constructions when having a conversation.

Question 41

Syntactic priming

Answer 41

Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a statement that follows will be produced with the same construction.

Question 42

Theory of mind

Answer 42

The ability to understand what others think, feel or believe.

Question 43

Turn taking

Answer 43

Knowing when it’s appropriate to enter a conversation.

Question 44

Prosody

Answer 44

The pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language.

Question 45

Tonic

Answer 45

The key of a musical composition. The tonic note is the first note of a scale in a particular key.

Question 46

Return to the tonic

Answer 46

In musical compositions, coming back to the tonic note that was at the beginning of the composition.

Question 47

Congenital amusia

Answer 47

A condition, present at birth, in which people have problems with music perception, including tasks such as discrimination between simple Melodie’s or recognizing common tunes.