Chapter 9 Flashcards
What are some of the abilities needed to understand a spoken sentence?
Encoding the sound of a speaker’s voice
Encoding the visual features of printed language
Accessing the meaning of words
Understanding the rules that determine word order
Appreciating whether a sentence is a question or statement based on the speaker’s intonation
Psycholinguistics
Interdisciplinary field that examines how people use language to communicate ideas
Morpheme
Basic unit of meaning
Some can stand on their own, others need to be attached to other morphemes in order to convey their meaning
Syntax
The grammatical rules that govern how we organize words into sentences
Grammar
Encompasses both morphology and syntax
Pragmatics
Our knowledge of the social rules that underlie language use (takes into account the listener’s perspective)
Social understandings of how to use language
Also includes tone of voice, sarcasm, rhetorical questions
2 reasons English is an “outlier” language
English has relatively simple grammar
English has many more irregular pronunciations than other major world languages
Chomsky’s Approach
Humans have innate language skills
Language is modular (separate from other cognitive processes)
Surface vs deep structure
Surface: represented by the words that are actually spoken or written
Deep: underlying, abstract meaning of a sentence
Ambiguous sentences
Two sentences that have identical surface structures but very different deep structures
Cognitive functional approach
Emphasized that the function of language in everyday life is to communicate meaning to other individuals
Cognitive processes are intertwined in our language comprehension and production
People can use language creatively
4 reasons people have difficulty understanding sentences
If they contain negatives (actual or implied)
If they are in the passive voice
If they have a complex syntax
If they are ambiguous
Nested structure
Where one phrase is embedded in another
Good enough approach
We frequently process only part of a sentence
Neurolinguistics
The discipline that examines how the brain processes language
Damage to Broca’s area
Trouble producing language
May have some trouble with language comprehension
Damage to Wernicke’s area
Serious difficulties understanding language
Problems with language production
Lateralization
Each hemisphere of the brain has somewhat different functions
What is the role of the right hemisphere in language?
Active when paying attention to the emotional tone of a message
Plays a role in appreciating humor
Mirror system
Network of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex
Activated when you watch someone perform an action
Dual-route approach to reading
Skilled readers employ both a direct and indirect access route
Direct-access route
You recognize a work directly through vision
Likely to use this if the word has irregular spelling and cannot be sounded out
Indirect-access route
As soon as you see a word you translate it to a sound, before you can access a word and its meaning
Likely to use if the word has a regular spelling and can be sounded out
Also called phonological mediation
Whole-word approach
Argues that readers can directly connect the written word with the meaning the word represents
Favored by those who support the direct access approach
Phonics approach
Readers recognize words by trying to pronounce the individual letters in a word
Favored by those who support the indirect-access approach
Whole-language approach
Reading instruction should emphasize meaning, and it should be enjoyable to increase children’s enthusiasm about learning to read
Discourse
Interrelated units of language that are larger than a sentence
Inferences
Conclusions that go beyond the isolated phrase or sentence
Theory of mind
Trying to figure out the mental state of other people in our lives
The constructionist view of inferences
Readers usually draw inferences about the causes of events and the relationship between events
Transformational grammar
Proposed by Noam Chomsky
Interested in understanding how language is structured
Noun and verb phrase
Language is modular
Surface vs deep structure
We have to use transformational rules to transform surface into deep and vice versa
What does the left vs right side do with language?
Left: perceives speech, analyzes morphemes, reads, dominant meaning of ambiguous sentences
Right: emotional tone, metaphor, non-dominant meaning of ambiguous sentences
Graded cognitive meaning task
Using PET scans to determine brain activity
Big deal at the time
What part of the brain is activated when you think about the meaning of the word?
Frontal and temporal areas
Why is reading in english difficult?
- Poor letter-sound correspondence
2. Non-evolutionary (evolution hasn’t selected for reading ability)
