Language Flashcards
what is a language?
a shared symbolic system for purposeful communication
Why do we have so many languages?
vocabulary is shaped by environment and culture and what needs to be communicated.
What are lexical tones determined by?
partly by climate. more lexical tones in warmer climate.
What is Aphasia?
impaired language function from brain injury
What is Broca’s aphasia?
intact language comprehension but impairments with speech production caused by damage to Broca’s area.
Where is Broca’s area?
inferior frontal lobe
What does the severity of Broca’s aphasia depend on?
the amount of damage to the Broca’s area.
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
Ability to produce speech but the content is not meaningful or comprehensible caused by damage to the superior temporal lobe.
What are paraphasias?
language errors or the misuse of words
What is verbal paraphasia?
substituting a word with something semantically-related
What is phonemic (literal) paraphasia?
swapping or adding speech sounds
What is a neologism?
using a made-up word
What is conduction Aphasia?
when you have an inability for info to be transmitted from wernicke’s to boca’s
What is psycholinguistics?
studying how we comprehend, produce and represent language
What are phonemes?
smallest linguistic units
what are morphemes and words?
the smallest meaningful units of language
what are semantics?
the meaning
what is linguistic competence?
an internalized system of rules for language
What is linguistic performance?
dependent on competence mixed with cognitive factors and situational factors
What is the finite state grammar model?
rule system for forming sentences that operates one word by one word in one linear direction
What are the problems with the finite state grammar model?
- limits the choices for next state
- system can’t explain complexity in sentence generation
what are phase structure rules?
implicit and convert symbols to constrain language at the sentence level
What are ambiguous sentences?
Phrase structures de can be interpreted with different meanings
what are garden path sentences?
Grammatical sentences that are interpreted incorrectly because of the rulesthat are applied
What is transformational grammar?
Special grammatical transformational rules that convert a full phrase between the phrase structure (surface phonological structure) and deep structure (semantic meaning)
what is the innateness hypothesis?
We have an innate set of learning tools, Language Acquisition Device
What is the poverty of stimulus argument?
the poverty of stimulus argument states that the linguistic environment of a child is not sufficient to allow that child to learn a language, yet child still learn language so rapidly
What is the nativist view?
The relationship between language and thought changes overdevelopment/as we learn
What is the language of thought hypothesis?
single determined mental language that guides our thoughts that is innate.
What is linguistic relativity?
it suggests that language and thought are dependent
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
linguistic determinism states a person’s thoughts are determined by language
What is intrinsic frame?
spatial relations described in relation to objects
What is relative frame?
spatial relations described from an observer’s viewpoint
What is absolute frame?
spatial relations described as map coordinates
What is surface dyslexia?
person is impaired at producing irregular pronounced words
what is Phonological dyslexia?
when a person is impaired at reading non-words or new words
What is the cooperative principle?
when we engage in convo, weaccept this principlethat people follow certain maxim’s or rules
What are prices maxims?
- Maxim of quantity: say no more than is necessary but not too little
- Maxim of quality: say what is truthful
- Maxim of relation: Attempt to be relevant to the conversation
- Maxim of manner: Avoid ambiguity, be clear and brief
What are problems with maxims?
- overlap with one another
- not universally applicable
- more like a guideline for etiquette
what is Given-new contract?
Expect people to give us info we already know before we are given new info
How does gendered language affect gender inequality?
the more gendered language, the more inequality.
