History of Language Flashcards
what are psycholinguistics?
the study of a psychological process involved in language
what is language?
shared symbolic system for communication
what is communication?
the transfer of information from one individual to another
what is speech?
spoken words
what knowledge of language is needed to use it?
linguistic knowledge is mostly tacit
tacit knowledge?
knowledge on how to perform specific acts
explicit knowledge?
knowledge of processes of mechanisms used in these acts
what is phonology?
the sound pattern of language
what is morphology?
formation of words (structure)
what is syntax?
arrangement of words (sentences)
what are semantics?
meaning of language
what are pragmantics?
context of language
where is linguistic knowledge inferred from?
observing behavior
founder of behaviorism?
watson
focus of behaviorism?
observable behaviors
when did psycholinguistics emerge?
1950’s
challenges to behaviorism?
- study of attention
- verbal learning
- linguistics
what are some factors in the emergence of cognitive science?
- the computer
- important papers
-psycholinguistics
what is the evolutionary theory?
- evolution through natural selection
- modern apes and humans evolved from a common ancestor
how do we determine how characteristics of language evolved?
- look at ancestors
- look at other animals w common ancestor
what is continuity theory?
- language developed from early protolanguages
- human ancestors had some language abilities
- language shares some characteristics w animal communication
what is discontinuity theory?
- language evolved quickly and very recently
- no real relationship w nonhuman communication
what is module language? (continuity theory)
specialized system for performing a certain kind of mental task
what is interactive language? (discontinuity theory)
language and other cognitive processes influence each other throughout processing
what is semanticity?
language symbols convey meaning
what is arbitrariness?
unpredictable relationship between language symbols and meaning
- there is flexibility in connections between symbols and meaning
what does it mean to have duality of patterning?
symbols used at two levels
- spoken languages = one level of sounds that do not carry meaning (phonemes)
- these are combined into morphemes that meaning
example of phonemes?
p b t a
example of morphemes?
bat, cat, pat
what is productivity?
creativity, language is novel
what does novel mean?
long and complex sentences that deal especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events
what is displacement?
we can communicate about something other than the present
what is special about human language?
it is species specific, and is species uniform
vocal approach to teaching language?
- gua
- viki
- vocal apparatus differences
artificial language approach?
- sarah article (blocks used to convey meaning in spoken human language)
- lana and kazi
sign language approach?
- nim article
- washoe
other approaches to teaching language?
- videos
- more research
what view is held by most scholars?
continuity theory
who is main believer in discontinuity theory?
noam chomsky
