Chp 9.1: Language Flashcards
mental representations
cognitive representations of the world, including images, ideas, concepts, and principles, that are the foundations of thinking and problem solving
language
a system of symbols and rules for combining them that can produce an almost infinite number of possible messages and meanings
psycholinguistics
the scientific study of the psychological aspects of language, such as how people understand, produce, and acquire language
grammar
provides structure by stating a set of rules for how the symbols can be combined for message and meaning
syntax
(part of grammar), rules pertaining to the order of words
semantics
the meaning associated with words and sentences
generativity
a characteristic of symbols of language that can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel meaning
displacement
the capacity of language to represent objects and conditions that are not physically present, enable communication of both abstract and concepts.
surface structure
a linguistic term for the words and organization of a spoken or written sentence; two sentences with different surface structure may still mean the same thing
deep structure
a linguistic term that refers to the underlying meaning of a spoken or written sentence; the meanings that make up deep structure are stored as concepts and rules in long-term memory
phoneme
the smallest unit of sound in a language; these are the vowel and consonant sounds that are recognized in any given language; English has 44 phonemes,
Eg. Th, a, t
morpheme
the smallest unit of meaning in a given language; English morphemes include whole words, prefixes, and suffixes; there are over 100 000 English morphemes eg. Dog, pre-, -ed, -ous, s(plural)
discourse
the sixth level of the hierarchical structure of language in which sentences are combined into paragraphs, articles, books, conversations, and so forth
bottom-up processing
perceptual processing that begins with the analysis of individual elements of the stimulus and works up to the brain’s integration of them into a unified perception
top-down processing
perceptual processing in which existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, or expectations are applied to make sense of incoming stimulation
`speech segmentation
perceiving where each word within a spoken sentence begins and ends
pragmatics
in language learning, a knowledge of the practical aspects of using language
(Eg. Talking slower to children/ less complex= more effective to children)
aphasia
- damage to one or both Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas= impairment in speech production and/or comprehension
Broca’s aphasia
- may be able to understand speech, but may only be able to produce short phrases
Wernicke’s aphasia
- may speak in long, complete sentences that are not meaningful and add unnecessary or made-up words
Nature (biology) (Language Development)
• Infants can distinguish sounds and organize speech consistent with their native language without formal training, and with limited thinking abilities
Nurture (environment) (Language Development)
• Language is learned through imitation and reinforcement
language acquisition device (LAD)
according to Noam Chomsky, an innate biological mechanism that contains the general grammatical rules common to all languages
language acquisition support system (LASS)
according to Jerome Bruner, the factors in the social environment that facilitate the learning of a language
linguistic relativity hypothesis
the idea, suggested by Benjamin Whorf, “language not only influences but also determines what we are capable of thinking”
(most psycholinguists don’t agree, language most likely influence how people think but does not detemine)
Describe key properties of language. (5)
five properties that are essential to any language
- symbols,
- structure
- meaning
- generativity
- displacement (extra property)
