Chapter 9: Linguistic Approach

Question 1

What is Linguistics?

Answer 1

Linguistics is the study of language

Question 2

What are the five characteristics of language according to Clark and Clark?

Answer 2

Language is Communicative, Arbitrary (has symbolic elements) Structured (has set of rules), Generative (has several meanings) and Dynamic (constantly changes)

Question 3

What are the two most important elements of spoken language?

Answer 3

Phoneme and Morpheme

Question 4

What is a Phoneme?

Answer 4

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in the sound system of a language

Question 5

What are Morphemes?

Answer 5

Morphemes are the smallest units of spoken language that have meaning (e.g the “s” in apples is a morpheme as it indicates the plural form of an apple)

Question 6

What does Grammar consist of?

Answer 6

1. Phonology (rules that govern the sound system)
2. Morphology (rules that govern word structure)
3. Syntax (rules that govern the arrangement of words in sentences)
4. Semantics (rules that have to do with word meaning)

Question 7

What is the difference between Prescriptive and Descriptive grammar?

Answer 7

Prescriptive grammar is an established formal set of rules while Descriptive grammar refers to underlying rules that researchers infer from the way people use language

Question 8

What is the Cooing stage of language development?

Answer 8

It is the production of a wide variety of sounds. It’s the earliest stage of language development that infants first adopt.

Question 9

What is the Babbling stage of language development?

Answer 9

It is the production of sound units rather than fully pronounced words. (for example: mama) The intonations of these utterances will slowly begin matching to those of the actual language the child is learning.

Question 10

What is the One-Word stage of language development?

Answer 10

One word utterances. Might not be accurate but they are used in a symbolic and semantic fashion. (for example “unky” instead of “uncle”)

Question 11

What is the Two-Word stage of language development?

Answer 11

Words are arranged in a sentence-like structure and indicate the emergence of rudimentary syntactical skills. (for example “want toy”)

Question 12

What is implicit speech?

Answer 12

It’s equivalent to imagery, but occupies the mind’s “ear”. When we think, it feels like we can hear ourselves talk

Question 13

What is linguistic relativity hypothesis proposed by Sapir and Whorf?

Answer 13

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis supports:

a) the language a person speaks influences the way that he/she thinks (weak version)
b) language and thought are so similar that it is impossible to express the thoughts generated in one language in another language (strong version)

Question 14

What is surface structure in Grammar?

Answer 14

Surface structure is the organization of the sentence in the form that is expressed

Question 15

What is deep structure?

Answer 15

Deep structure is the underlying meaning of a sentence and remains constant of the specific form in which it is expressed

Question 16

What is universal grammar?

Answer 16

The common elements that languages have in a fundamental level (we can think of it as a collection of innate language rules)

Question 17

What is the Maximal Onset Principle?

Answer 17

Consonants usually precede vowels

Question 18

What is nonfluent aphasia or Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 18

A language deficit caused by brain damage in which faculty of comprehension is intact but production of speech is inadequate (agrammatic)

Question 19

What is Broca’s brain area believed to be responsible for?

Answer 19

Language production capacity

Question 20

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 20

A language deficit caused by brain damage (in Wernicke’s area) in which patients produce rapid fluent speech that has little meaningful content

Question 21

What is conduction aphasia?

Answer 21

A language deficit caused by brain damage (in Arculate Fasciculus) in which patients cannot repeat words or phrases they just heard

Question 22

What are the four stages of natural language understanding?

Answer 22

1. Speech Recognition
2. Syntactic Analysis
3. Semantic Analysis
4. Pragmatic Analysis

Question 23

Why is phoneme-to-word assignment difficult for computers?

Answer 23

Because word boundaries are indistinctive and there is wide phoneme variability

Question 24

What does communication refer to?

Answer 24

Production, transmission, and comprehension

of information.

Question 25

What may be the problem in award - language learning in animals?

Answer 25

Animals may fail to demonstrate the arbitrariness aspect of language (a symbol can be anything and still stand for its referent)

Question 26

What is displacement in language?

Answer 26

The aspect of language in which users refer to something that is removed in space or time

Question 27

What does intonation refer to?

Answer 27

The rises and falls in pitch and changes in other acoustic properties of one’s speech

Question 28

What is transformational grammar proposed by Chomsky’s?

Answer 28

A grammar that allows us to transform one sentence into another (for example a positive one to a negative one)

Question 29

What is the limitation of phrase-structure?

Answer 29

Although it is useful for understanding the organization of sentences it doesn’t tell us how to rearrange a sentence to express new meanings

Question 30

How can ease and rapidity in language be explained according to Bloom?

Answer 30

Some rules of language are innate and get further developed and adapted later on

Question 31

What can be the results of damage to angular gyrus?

Answer 31

Alexia (inability to read) and Agraphia (inability to write)

Question 32

What is the activation path for listening and speaking?

Answer 32

Primary Auditory Cortex (language sound) –>
Wernicke’s area (understanding, reply) –>
Broca’s area (information converted to motor code) –>
Primary Motor Cortex (muscle movement commands)

Question 33

What is the activation path for reading and writing?

Answer 33

Primary Visual Cortex (printed words input) –>
Angular Gyrus (information converted to auditory code)
Wernicke’s area –> Arcuate Fasciculus –>
Broca’s area –> Primary Motor Cortex

Question 34

What is coarticulation?

Answer 34

Ability to pronounce a given phoneme variably; in ways that depends on which phonemes precede it and which come after it

Question 35

What are Pragmatics?

Answer 35

Social rules that underlie language use as well as strategies used by speakers to make themselves clear

Question 36

What are five different types of spoken statements according to Searle?

Answer 36

1. Assertives (beliefs)
2. Directives (instructions)
3. Commissives (commit to a later action)
4. Expressives (psychological states of the speaker)
5. Declaratives (action utterances)