Exam 1 Flashcards
(40 cards)
What are linguistic units?
- A single “piece of language”
- Building blocks
What is a phone?
- Speech sound that can be used in an ordinary word in a language
- Has form, no meaning
- Ex. [m]
What is a morpheme?
- Smallest units of meaning in a language
- Has form, has meaning
- Ex. un- as in unhappy
What is a word?
- The smallest separable unit in language
- Has form, has meaning
- Ex. unhappy
What is the mental lexicon?
- Stores words & morphemes
- Links forms to meanings in the mind
Explain what each of these components of grammar do: phonology
- Combines phones – into morpheme or words
- Ex. c + u + p = cup
Explain what each of these components of grammar do: morphology
- Combines morphemes – into words
- Ex. un + happy = unhappy
Explain what each of these components of grammar do: syntax
- Combines words – into phrases & sentences
- Ex. the + big + dog = the big dog
Explain what each of these components of grammar do: semantics
- Linguistic meaning, part of the mental lexicon, & part of the grammar
- Combines meanings into larger units
- Ex. un (not) + happy = not happy
Identify the component of grammar responsible for a fact about language
What part of grammar is responsible for the way American English speakers say I love apples, not *Love I apples?
- Semantics
Identify what’s ungrammatical about a language error
Define mental grammars w/ examples
- Mental grammars: grammars create new words that follow certain rules/principles
- Ex. Torrix or blifter : could be a word in English & phonology tells us this
- Ex. What did he compare the forged painting WITH? : syntax tells us this
What does it mean for a word or sentence to be “ungrammatical”? What symbol is used to mark grammatical & ungrammatical sentences?
- Ungrammatical: the mental grammar of the language user doesn’t generate it; it “can’t happen”
- Marked by * (asterisk)
- Ex. *kzen
What are implicit & explicit knowledge?
What’s the other name for explicit knowledge?
- Implicit: knowledge of your grammar(s) that you have w/out being aware of it (ex. how to blink when you get dust in your eye)
- Explicit: aka metalinguistic awareness – conscious knowledge about your grammar(s)
Describe what aphasia is & what causes it
- Aphasia: acquired language disorder
- Almost always caused by injury/illness in the left hemisphere
- Traumatic brain injury: blow/jolt to the head
- Stroke: disruption of brain’s blood supply
- Neuro-degenerative disease: like Alz but affects language
What are language varieties? Do they all have a grammar?
- Language varieties: diff ways of using language
- Languages (English, Spanish, ASL)
- Dialects (Standardized American
English, Black/African American
English, Canadian English, British
English)
- All language varieties have a grammar & are equally valid
Identify descriptive & prescriptive statements about language
Descriptive: statement abt language that describes the way a language is
– what language is & how it works
– spanner is the word for the concept wrench in English
Prescriptive: carries judgement - a statement about the way someone should talk talk or communicate
– we should all say spanner instead of wrench
What is a language modality? What is the primary modality for producing English? Spanish? ASL?
- Language Modality: the physical way that language is produced/understood
- Languages have a primary modality for physically producing language
- Spoke languages like English,
Spanish, Korean = vocalized - Signed languages like American
Sign Language = signed
- Spoke languages like English,
What is expressive language? What is receptive language?
- Expressive Language: production
- Vocalized or manual - Receptive Language: comprehension
– Auditory or visual
Identify a task as testing expressive language, receptive language, or both, based on a clear description of what the participant is presented w and what they do
Expressive Language: picture naming
- You present a picture & ask the client to name it (ex. apple)
Receptive Language: word-picture matching
- You say a word, ex. “sleep”
- Client points to the matching pic
Both Languages: reception/reading aloud
- The client is asked to repeat word, phrases, & sentences that you say
- The client is asked to read words, phrases, & sentences out loud
Given a description of an adult or child’s communication, determine whether they could be considered to have a “language disorder”. If so, determine whether the disorder was developmental or acquired
People w language disorders struggle with…
- Learning linguistic units/grammar
- Using linguistic units/grammar they previously knew
- Expressive language, receptive language, or both
- Developmental: a child’s language abilities develop atypically
- Acquired: caused by injury or illness that affects the brain
What are the mental steps involved in naming a picture?
- See object
- Get meaning → mental lexicon
- Get form (phonology) → mental lexicon
- Articulate word
From a description of a situation in which a person cannot come up w the name of an object, identify the step in which naming “failed” or stopped”
- Can’t get the meaning : they see the object & then can’t get the other 3 steps
- Can’t get phonology: they see the object, get the meaning, & can’t get the other 2 steps
Define “anomia”. How can you tell if someone has anomia?
- Anomia: frequent word production challenges that negatively affect communication
Causes of anomia:
- Can’t get meaning: the person doesn’t know what the object is
- Can’t get form: the person knows what the object is, but can’t find the word
Define paraphasia
Identify semantic, phonological, & mixed paraphasias
- Paraphasias: naming errors produced by ppl w anomia
- Most paraphasias are related in some way to the correct word
- Semantic Paraphasia: target word (apple) is sub w a semantically related word (banana)
- Phonological Paraphasia: target word (car) is sub w a phonologically related word (card) or non-word (gar)
- Mixed: a word that relates both semantically & phonologically to the target word
Ex. Instead of pen, they say pencil – similar phones & similar meaning
