Chapter 9: Language & Thought Flashcards
Define: Grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages
Define: Language
A system for communication with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning
Define: Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise (th-e-b-o-i)
Define: Phonological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds
Define: Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language (the-boy)
Define: Morphological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words
Define: Syntactical Rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences
Define: Deep Structure
The meaning of a sentence, deep reading
Define: Surface Structure
How a sentence is worded
Defined: Fast Mapping
The fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure
Define: Telegraphic Speech
Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consist mostly of content
Define: Nativist Theory
Argued by Noam Chomsky: Language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.
Define: Language acquisition device
(LAD) A collection of processes that facilitate language learning
Define: Genetic Dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence
Define: Aphasia
Difficulty in producing or comprehending language
Define: Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
The proposal that language shapes the nature of thought
Define: Concept
A mental representation that group or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli
Define: Family Resemblance Theory
Members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category member but may not be possessed by every member - so to use the example of a bird, anything that has feathers and wings is categorized as a bird.
Define: Prototype Theory
The “best” or “most typical” member of a category
Define: Exemplar Theory
A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgements by comparing