Language Flashcards
What are the aspects to language
regular (regulated by rules of grammar)
arbitrary (lack of resemblance b/w words and their meaning)
productive (limitless ways to combine words to describe)
What is the sapir-whorf hypothesis
language influences our thoughts and the way we perceive and experience the world
Morpheme
smallest unit of sound that contains info
phoneme
smallest unit of sound in speech
syntax
rules that govern words in a sentence that are put together (grammar)
symantics
meaning of each individual word (sentences can be syntactically correct w/o and semantic meaning)
what is the language development in infants
8w cooing, 16 w turns head, 6m imitates/ babbles/consonant sounds 8m complex, non random babbling
8m-6 years: language explodes
Segmenting
understanding individual words iin the speech of a foreign language
Does early proficiency at speech segmentation predict language proficiency
yes
infants that segment vocab will tend to have strong vocab later in life
What is the difference between phoneme distinguishing in infants and adults
infants can distinguish between more phonemes than adults
children develop phonemic sensitivity based on the language they grew up with
Uniform phoneme sensitivity
ability in infants to discriminate between sounds they’re tested on
- includes sounds from non-native languages
- developmental basis for phoneme discrimination early on in life
When do children lose their ability to discriminate sounds
end of first year of life (10-12 months)
- adults require more practice to distinguish phonemes in new languages
What is social learning theory
children learn through a combination of imitation and instrumental conditioning
- lack of early social interaction leads to an inability to develop language skills
What is innate mechanism theory
humans are born with some knowledge of linguistic stricture
- better explains spontaneous and novel language errors
What is proof for the inate mechanism theory
- language productivity in children too fast to be driven by social interaction done
- children make language mistakes that adults wouldn’t
What are the language mistakes that children make
- overextension: apply a rule too broadly (meaning or syntex)
- doggie for any 4-legged animal - overregulation: type of overextension
- leaned “played” uses “runned” - underextension: specific rule to one object only
- “doggie” only to their specific dog
How does the basal ganglia react to swearing
stimulated when you produce taboo words
How does the amygdala react to swearing
stimulated when you hear taboo words
What is euphemism
using nice words to describe something icky
What is dysphemism
picking more crude words to make the other person feel bad
What is emphatic swearing
not to hurt someone, but used for emphasis
What is cathartic swearing
used to feel good
releasing emotions
Perceptual narrowing
losing ability to distinguish between contrasts in sounds not used in native learning
where and what is the brocas area
left frontal lobe
difficulty to production of fluent speech if damaged
