CHAPTER11 - LANGUAGE Flashcards
define language
a system of communication using sounds or symbols enabling expression of feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences
do humans or animals have a wide variety of signals to be combined in COUNTLESS ways?
humans
animals use language on for what basis?
survival
humans language is seen as more ____
creativity-based
what 2 kinds of nature allow us to create new and unique sentences?
hierarchical and rule-based
describe the hierarchical nature of language
consisting of small components that can be combined to form larger units
describe the rule-based nature of language
components in language can be arranged in certain ways but not others
why is language considered to be universal?
it occurs wherever there are people
who were the Greek philosophers that studied language?
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Paul Broca said that damage in the _____ imapirs _____
frontal lobe; speech production
Carl Wrenkie said that damage in the _____ impairs ____
temporal lobe; speech comprehension
what did B.F Skinner propose?
language is learned through reinforcement
describe Skinner’s behaviourist view on language and children
children learn language by being rewarded for correct usage and punished for incorrect usage
who disagreed with the behaviourist theory of language?
Noam Chomsky
what did Noam Chomsky propose?
humans are preprogrammed to acquire and use language through genetics
why did Noam Chomsky propose this over Skinner’s theory?
children produce sentences that are not reinforced or taught which goes against Skinner’s theory
what is psycholinguistics?
the field concerned with the psychological study of language
what is the goal of a psycholinguistic scholar?
discover the psychological processes humans use to acquire and process language
what are the 4 concerns of psycholinguistics?
comprehension
representation
speech production
acquisition
what is comprehension in psycholinguistics?
how people understand and process words and sounds
what is representation in psycholinguistics?
how language is represented, grouped, and connected in the mind
what is speech production in psycholinguistics?
how people mentally and physically produce language
what is acquisition in psycholinguistics?
how people learn their own language and additional ones
what is a lexicon?
all the words we know