Chapter 9 - Language and Thinking Flashcards
mental representations
cognitive representations of the world, that are the foundations of thinking and problem-solving
language
A system of rules for combining certain symbols to generate messages and meanings
psycholinguistics
The scientific study of the psychological aspect of language
what do some evolutionary theorists believe is the reason for language evolving?
as social environments become more complex, the need arised to:
create divisions of labour and cooperative social systems
develop social customs and communicate thoughts
to pass or knowledge and wisdom
what are the five properties of language
symbolic Structured Conveys meaning Generative Permits displacement
what are symbols in language?
sounds, written characters, hand signs, etc.
what does it mean when we say that symbols in language are arbitrary?
The word “dog” doesn’t sound or look like a dog, but we all agree on the meaning of the word.
grammar
The rules about how symbols can be combined
syntax
The rules about how symbols can be ordered
semantics
The meaning of words and sentences, beyond just literal meaning
Generativity
The symbols of language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel meaning
displacement
language allows us to communicate about stuff that is it physically present
you can discuss the past, the future, people, objects, events, imaginary situations, etc.
surface structure
The symbols that are used, and their order
deep structure
The underlying meaning of the combined symbols
is it possible for two sentences to have different surface structure, but the same deep structure?
yes
ex: “Sam ate the cake” “the cake was eaten by Sam”
is it possible for two sentences to have the same surface structure, but different deep structure?
yes
ex: “The police must stop drinking after midnight”
in what order do we use surface structure and deep structure in the following situations:
1) when first hearing speech
2) a while after hearing speech
3) when speaking/writing to others
when you read or hear speech, you are moving from surface structure to deep structure
after time, you may forget the surface structure, but will remember the deep structure
when you want to express your thoughts to other people, you must transform deep structure into surface structure
phenome
A unit of speech sound in a language
morphemes
The smallest units of meaning in a language
how many morphemes are in the word “players”? What are they?
three
play - indicates the action
er - indicates the person is doing the action
s - indicates that it is plural
what is the hierarchy of language?
Phenomes Morphemes Words Phrases Sentence
discourse
sentences are combined into paragraphs, articles, books, conversations, and so forth
bottom up processing in language
analyzing the hierarchy of language, using phonemes to create morphemes to create words
top down processing
sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations