Chapter 9: Language

Question 1

Language

Answer 1

Structure: has structural principles such as a grammar or a system of rules and principles that specifies the properties of expression
Localization: various physical mechanisms…specific language centers in the brain
Use: used for expression of thought, establishing social relationships, communication of ideas, clarifying ideas

Question 2

Necessary Characteristics of Language

Answer 2

Regular: governed by a system of rules, called grammar
Productive: infinite combinations of things can be expressed in it

Question 3

Additional Characteristics of Language

Answer 3

Arbitrariness: lack of a necessary resemblance between a word or sentence and what it refers to
Discreteness: system can be subdivided into recognizable parts (e.g. sentences into words, words into sounds)

Question 4

What Is Not Language

Answer 4

Bird song is not a language because songs and calls communicate only about certain topics (no productivity)
Bees do not have a language because physical motions of the dance carry info about nectar sources (lack of arbitrariness)

Question 5

Structure Components of Language

Answer 5

Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Pragmatics
Grammar
Linguistic competence
Linguistic performance

Question 6

Phonology

Answer 6

Study of systematic ways in which speech sounds are combined and altered in language

Question 7

Phonetics

Answer 7

Study of speech sounds and how they are produced

Question 8

Phonology: Consonants & Vowels

Answer 8

Vowels work without obstructing airflow, depending on shape and position of the tongue and lips
Consonants in general are made by closing or almost closing part of the mouth
Differ in place of articulation: where the obstruction of the airflow occurs
Differ in manner of articulation: mechanics of how the airflow is restricted
Voicing is different based on if the vocal cords must be vibrated or not (e.g. s vs z)

Question 9

Phoneme Combination

Answer 9

Features of phonemes are involved in phonological rules that govern how they can be combined
E.g. if two true consonants (all consonants except h, w, y, r, l, and some other sounds like th, ch) are at beginning of english word, first must be an s
This rule prevents word strings such as dtop or mkeech from being legal words in english, whereas stop and speech are words

Question 10

Syntax

Answer 10

Arrangement of words within sentences
More broadly is the structure of sentences (parts and the way parts are put together)

Question 11

Syntactic Rules

Answer 11

Govern ways in which different words or larger phrases can be combined to form legal sentences
Two requirements;
Should be able to describe every legal sentence
Should never be able to describe an illegal sentence

Question 12

Syntax: Sentence Structure

Answer 12

Constituents: dividing words of sentence into groups
Various levels of grouping
Use tree diagram
-Nodes depict various constituents of the sentence
-E.g. ball is part of four constituents: [ball], [the red ball], [chase the red ball], [the poodle will chase the red ball]
Generally speaking, can replace a noun with another noun and will still have a syntactically grammatical sentence

Question 13

Syntax: Phrase Structure Rules

Answer 13

Functions to generate the structures depicted in tree diagrams
AKA rewrite rules
Phrase structure rules allow certain symbols to be rewritten as other symbols
Lexical insertion rule: allows insertion of words (lexical items) into the structure generated by the phrase structure rules

Question 14

Transformational Rule

Answer 14

Turn structures into other structures
Preposing phrasal constituents could be allowed through this rule

Question 15

Semantics

Answer 15

Study of meaning
For listeners to figure out the meaning of a sentence, they need to pay attention to more than just the meanings of individual words
Syntax gives clues as to what a sentence means

Question 16

Semantics Must Explain

Answer 16

Anomaly (Why can’t one say things like “Coffee ice cream can take dictation”?)
Self-contradiction (Why is it contradictory to say, “My dog is not an animal”?)
Ambiguity (Why isn’t it clear where I intend to go in “I need to go to the bank”—to a nan-cial institution or to the side of a river?)
Synonymy (Why does “e rabbit is not old enough” mean the same thing as “e rabbit is too young”?)
Entailment (Why does “Pat is my uncle” mean that Pat is male?)

Question 17

Pragmatics

Answer 17

Social rules of language
Include certain etiquette (e.g. not interrupting others)

Question 18

Pragmatics: Utterances

Answer 18

Assertives
Directives
Commissives
Expressives
Declarations

Question 19

Assertives

Answer 19

Speaker asserts belief in a proposition (e.g. its hot in here)
Require little overt response from listener, who is assumed to add the info asserted by the speaker into their own model of the world

Question 20

Directives

Answer 20

Instructions from speaker to listener (e.g. close the door)

Question 21

Commissives

Answer 21

Utterances that commit the speaker to some later action (e.g. I promise to clean my room)

Question 22

Expressives

Answer 22

Describe psychological states of speaker (e.g. I apologize for eating the last piece of pie)

Question 23

Declarations

Answer 23

Speech acts in which the utterance is itself the action (e.g. you’re fired)

Question 24

Speech Act Theory

Answer 24

Part of job of listeners is to figure out which of the five types of a particular utterance is and to respond appropriately

Question 25

Fundamental Problems In Speech Perception

Answer 25

Speech is continuous: rarely pauses around each sound, sounds blend into each other (pauses we perceive are illusory)
Single phoneme sounds different depending on context (e.g. gender of speaker affects pitch, speaker’s accent)

Question 26

Speech Perception

Answer 26

Involves top down processes
Explanation that we perceive speech in the way we perceive written text is not correct
Understanding speech is usually easy unless it is a foreign language or if speaker has a speech impediment

Question 27

McGurk Effect

Answer 27

Visual cues affect how sounds are perceived
If lips do something different than what they’re saying, you hear what their lips do
If are hearing Ba, if video person looks they they’re saying Fa we hear that

Question 28

Phoneme Restoration Effect

Answer 28

Listeners restore missing phonemes predicted by other linguistic info during the course of perception
Neighboring stimuli have a great impact upon how speech sounds are perceived
Participants shadowing speech were more likely to restore distortion of word if the word was highly predictable from the context

Question 29

Speech Errors

Answer 29

Instances in which what the speaker intended to say is quite clear, but speaker makes some substitution or reorders the elements
Much of data from speech error studies is observational

Question 30

Classes of Speech Errors

Answer 30

Meaning relations: using finger in place of toe, or walk instead of run
-Rarely involve similarities of form
Form relations: guest instead of goat, or mushroom for mustache
-Rarely involve similarities of meaning

Relative infrequency of word substitution errors showing both meaning and form similarities indicates the language production system processes info about meaning and info about form at different points in sentence construction

Question 31

Lexical Decision Task

Answer 31

Observers presented with target letter strings and asked to decide if it is properly spelled word
Observers are faster and more accurate when target word is preceded by another word, called a prime, that is associated in meaning
Semantic priming effect

Question 32

Processes Responsible for Semantic Priming

Answer 32

Fast acting automatic spread of activation
Slow expectancy driven process

Question 33

Switch Instruction Experiment

Answer 33

Switch instructions: when participants saw prime word building, they should expect it to be followed by a target word that named part of the body (and vice versa, part of body = part of building)
When target word was presented shortly after prime word, instructions to participant did not matter
No priming was observed for pairs like body-window, even though they were consistent with switch expectation
Evidence for automatic spreading activation

Question 34

Switch Instruction Experiment With More Time

Answer 34

When increased amount of time separating presentation of prime and target
Participants were slower to respond to items that were really related (e.g. body-nose) than they were to respond to items that were completely unrelated (e.g. bird-arm)
Evidence for operation of a slow acting expectancy process

Question 35

Modularity Hypothesis

Answer 35

Argues that certain perceptual and language processes are modules
Processes are thought to be set apart from other cognitive processes (e.g. memory, thinking, problem solving are non modular)
Operate automatically and independently of other cognitive processes like thought
Domain specific

Question 36

Module Processes

Answer 36

Domain Specific: operates specifically with certain kinds of input and not others
E.g sentence parsing involves processes that are specific to division of phrases and words into constituents

Informationally Encapsulated Process: operates independently of the beliefs and the other info available to the processor

Question 37

Evidence For Modularity Hypothesis

Answer 37

When people are presented with an ambiguous word all possible meanings are triggered for a fraction of a second
Triggering appears to be automatic and reflexive, and completely independent of other cognitive processes

Question 38

Whorfian Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity

Answer 38

Strong relations exist between language and other cognitive processes
Language both directs and constrains thought and perception
The language you grow up learning and speaking determines the way one perceives, thinks, and organizes information about the world

Question 39

Evidence For Whorfian Hypothesis

Answer 39

Dani culture only has words for dark and light, not colour
Dani should have great difficulty perceiving or remembering colours not named in their language compared to english speakers
Focal colours: best examples of basic colours (e.g. green green instead of blue green)
Dani speakers performed better if initial clip showed a focal over a nonfocal colour

Question 40

Aphasia

Answer 40

Collective deficits in language comprehension & production that result from brain damage

Question 41

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 41

Expressive aphasia
Halting, agrammatic speech
Nouns and verbs okay, function words impaired
Difficulty comprehending reversed sentences
Damage to frontal areas of brain

Question 42

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 42

Receptive aphasia
Fluent speech without content
Cannot comprehend and execute simple commands like ‘touch your knee’
Not aware that their speech makes no sense
Damage to temporal lobe of left hemisphere

Question 43

Lateralization

Answer 43

Term for specialization of function between two hemispheres
Aphasic patients usually have damage on left hemisphere

Question 44

Slowly Progressive Aphasia

Answer 44

Normal or mild atrophy of left language regions
And hypometabolism by the left hemispheres

Question 45

Localization of Language

Answer 45

Not all patients with lesions in Broca’s area develop aphasia, not all patients with Broca’s aphasia have damage in that area
Language processes do not necessarily have a specific location, but are distributed across a region of the brain in a neural network configuration

Question 46

Other Aphasias

Answer 46

Anomia: naming deficit
Alexia: visual language impairment
Agraphia: inability to write
Alexia without agraphia: can write, but cannot read what they have written