language Flashcards
what is a natural language
- naturally occurring, find it spontaneously. arbitrary signs ( why do we call a chair a chair)
- productivity - new words can be created
- new meanings
- recursive rule, go on forever
- combos of units (apples)
- syntax (word order)
- rules
early study by Robert seyfarth findings when animals are called to do something ..
they responded to recorded monkey sounds by running away suggesting this communication had meaning
example of chimpanzee vicky being taught speech
could say 4 words, mama, papa, cup, and up.
why do primates struggle to vocalise human speech
they do not have the correct vocal anatomy to produce speech sounds as humans do.
the shape of the tongue is different and has difficult mechanics with fine motor control that they struggle to achieve.
washoe chimp
sign language in man made region, learned 200 words.
koko gorrilla
intelligent could sign but was this spontaneous
kanzi
ould make a tool to open a box to get a banana, some level of communication necessary fot his behaviour to be learned. Know hundred of words. could be told to find something and would.
could put soap on ball, and listen ti actions and understand sentences and word orders.
what is different in humans that allows us to have better communicatiob system
- brain size
- compared to body mass
- brain growth, w era born with 28% whilst mammals 90%
evolutionary factors that have improved human communication system
- babies are constantly encouraged to communicate learning more social behaviours
- babies are better at interpreting
dogs and pointing
dogs are able to do this as well. between 2 and 3 babies go through development that takes them past that of a dog. dogs understand pointing because they have been domesticated and breeded together.
innate modular perspective of language
- language is an instinct
- everything the brain does has its own module and rules
what is the innate language organ?
present at birth that guides the language we are subject to learn due to our environment. a separate brain system.
what is an example of a module?
vision, language, motor skills and memory
poverty of the stimulus argument
children are not exposed to rich enough data within their linguistic environments to acquire every feature of their language therefore there must be an aspect of innateness
they have to learn sentence structure etc this cant be learned via SR so innate capacity to know
experienced based interactive view of language
children must map together both linguistic and non-linguistic information.
they receive feedback from their environment and this is how they learn language.
what do experienced based psychologists think we have an innateness for?
we have an innate ability to learn but this is not language specific
experienced view on stimuli
the stimulus from the environment are rich
what is a nativist
person who believe mental processes are innate
evidence of nativism
williams syndrome: results from a genetic anomaly. - evidence of intact language vs impaired cognition, suggesting two different modules
specific language impairments: typical cognition (with typical IQ levels) but impaired language at several levels.
criticism of williams syndrome argument
delayed language development until teenage years so it something that is more than just cognitive failures, genes can have a cascading effect that influences lots of things
criticisms of specific language impairments argument
- specific language impairements —> working memory and sound processing are also flawed which may inhibit language skills suggesting intertwined not modular
argument against nativism –> can humans invent a language
if left to their own device humans should, by modular view, be able to create a language but in exp this isnt possible suggesting needs to be interaction with environmental stimuli
nicaraugan sign language
- deaf children put together to create a new language
- younger signers who had a less developed basis for communicating with people were able to formulate NSL
younger did better on a test
WHAT IS THE UNIVERSAL / MODULAR VIEW ON COGNITION?
universal (modular) - all humans have similar mental representations. separate rom the way we think, language differs in the way we map thoughts into the world. little possibility that language influences other cognitive parts because it happens independently.
what is the linguistic relativity hypothesis (interactive view) on cognition?
inguistic relativity (interactive) —> learn language within environmental context and with interacting with people etc , Language may influence our mental representations at least in some circumstances because we are product of our environment. may influence cognition because
what was davidoffs 1999 experiment?
- pp spoke different languages
- showed PP a chip of colour and then a blank screen for 30 second sand then showed them two color chips asking them which matched the original chip
- english speakers better than bernimo because had more colour names
what are the implications of davidoffs findings?
we have improved memory performance of colour when we have more specific colour names but not wholly colour perception effecting language
describe winawaers test on colour
- native english and russian speakers
- russians have two words for blud, goluboy and siniy
- asked PP which shade of blue/green matched the target colour
- russian speakers were faster than english suggesting have two blue distinictions is adavntageous in colour perception
- supports linguitisc relativity hypothesis
gilbert et al on hemispheric lateralisation
- he manipulated which brain hemisphere recieved visual informtaion first
- pp were shown a circle of colours
- had to identify the odd one out
- ## if the odd one out was on the right pp were quicker at identiying it, this is likely because left side of the brain is associated to language.
what do the findings of gilberts study suggest?
- when we colurs with RVF we autoatically name them and this naming makes us idnetify them faster
- rely on their colour names for perception
how do english speakers describe motion?
- with a verb and direction
- snaeak in, sneakup
how do spanish/greek speakers say motion?
- dont describe how an agent moves through space
- just enter
due to english and other languages difference in motion vocab what is the hypothesis or english speakers?
they pay more attention to motion and mnoitor it
do they have better memory of motion
Gennari eye tracking study
- there is a skating man going towards a snowman
- english vs greek speakers
- greek speakers describe then do memory test
- one watch and do memory test
what were the findings of gennari eye tracking study?
- greek speakers looked more to a path or goal more than english speakers
- if youre just watching groups are the same with attention
- when youre using language, english use direction more wilst greek us snowman more
- if you ask people ti engage they use their language
- language might be used to memorise events
why does it mean for lngauge to be arbitrary?
having no clear meaning
chair being called a chair is essentially random
no intrinstic relation
what do we need for a communication system?
- rules that are shared
- mapping between the world and our words
- rules are implicict
what makes language distinictive?
- semanticity - fixed associations between the world and language
- arbitrarieness
- discreteness - language is distinict
- displacement - discuss things outside of time and space
- productivity - can say things that have never been said before
- traditional transmission - has to be learned via exposure
- ## duality of patterning - meaning is made by small units
what does semantic dementia do?
struggle to know what words mean
what is important for language comprehnsion
- recognising sounds and words
- retrieving wors from your brain
- combing words into a message
what is aphasia?
language impairment as a result of a stroke
is production or comprehnsion harder
production
tip of the tongue phenomena
you know the meaning of a word but fail produce it
what does speaking involve?
- retirveing words from memory
- putting words together
- fine-grained motor planning - actually have ur mouth move to say the right words
developmental verbal apraxia
Someone with apraxia has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently.
evolutionatry factors that mean humans have more succseful language system…
- social communicative urge to cooperate nd build attachments with others
- innate ability to understand others inetentions, babies point and attempt to understand others
ververt monkeys
- played monkey calls to monkeys that had been previously recorded
- observed how the monkeys responded
- to see if they calls had a consistet meaning
- clearly referntials calls
- snake,eagles and leopards
what is semanticiyty ?
fixed associations between language and outside world
discreteness?
units of language are seperate rather than whole
displacement
language can speak about things outside of space and time
productivity
language can tstae things that have never been said before
traditional tranmission
language has to be learned by people round them cant learn thorugh genetic transmission
duality of patterning
maniguful units are used by the combnations of small elements
why couldnt vicky say human words?
- different vocal structure
- couldnt lift larynx to say vowels
lana bonobo
- used lxigrams (pictures that represented something ) to comunicate wkth researcheson a keyboard.
dolphin ecxperiment
- non primate communication
- very sociable
- had dolphins talk to humans using hand gestures
- sign for hoop and loop - dolphin went in lop
- dolphin person surf board
- dolphin surfboard person
-understood word order - 100 of words, categorise
- understand what isnt there
- under thourgh etc
- word order
what proprotion of our body mass is deidcated to the brain?
2.1%
what factors are different in humans , influcning their cmplex communication ysstem?
- the mass of brain in reflection to mass size
- ## brain gworth and neural development, humans are only born with 28/% brain mass but mammals = 90%
poverty of the stimulus argument
environement is not rich enough for us to learning language from it
what the ar the two debates on how language is learned?
- modular view
- interactive experienced based view
what is the exerienced based interactive view?
language is rich
children can learn from this
children can learn patterns over time and regularities in language
innate capacity to learn but not language specifi principles
domain general
sentence structure from learning
nativist view
stimulus and language is pooor
learn via stimulus response
mind is modular
universal lanugage princiiples are innate
what does NSL show
there is a critiucal perod for language
