Language Flashcards
1
Q
Phonemes
A
- Smallest unit of perceived speech
- Different phonemes in different languages
● /l/ versus /r/ in English but not Japanese - 10 to 150 per language
● ~44 in English - Language-specific rules for combining (phonology)
2
Q
Morphemes
A
- Smallest unit that signals meaning
- Combinations of phonemes
- Prefixes, suffixes, roots, or entire words
- Many thousands per language
- Language-specific rules for combining (morphology)
3
Q
Words
A
- Smallest stand-alone units of meaning
- Combinations of one or more morphemes
- Tens or hundreds of thousands per language
- Language-specific rules for combining (syntax)
4
Q
Phrases
A
- Organized grouping of one or more words
- Play a particular role in grammatical structure of a sentence
- Almost limitless number
- Language-specific rules for combining (syntax)
5
Q
Sentences
A
- A set of words/phrases that (in principle) tells a
complete thought - Can express a statement, question, exclamation,
request, command, or suggestion - Almost limitless number
- Sentences can be combined to form larger linguistic units (e.g. paragraphs)
6
Q
Grammar vs. semantics
A
- Grammar: rules for language structure including Morphology and Syntax
- Semantics: How meaning is derived from morphemes, words, phrases, and sentances
7
Q
Surface structure vs. deep structure
A
- Phrase structure that applies to the order in which words
are actually spoken - Deep structure: Fundamental, underlying phrase structure that conveys meaning
8
Q
Transformational grammar
A
Rules that transform among surface structures having
same deep structure
9
Q
types of ambiguity
A
- Lexical ambiguity: when a word has two different meanings (ex: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo…)
-Syntactic ambiguity: when same words can be grouped together into more than one phrase structure - Referential ambiguity: when same word/phrase can refer to two different things within a sentence, uses anaphors
10
Q
Broca’s aphasia
A
- Due to damage to Broca’s area
- Speech is labored, slow &
nonfluent with awkward
articulation - Problems with language
planning and production
(not a motor problem) - Problems with understanding
and using syntax
11
Q
Wernicke’s aphasia
A
- Due to damage to Wernicke’s area
- Generally fluent, unlabored, well articulated
- Problems translating auditory input into phonological forms that
can then access semantics - Problems with language
comprehension - Problems with understanding and using semantics
12
Q
Left vs. right hemisphere
A
Split brain studies: left hemisphere can name objects, right hemisphere cannot
13
Q
Prosody
A
- intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm
- used for emotional state, form, irony, emphasis, etc.
14
Q
Aprosodia and types
A
- Difficulty processing prosody
- Productive aprosodia: monotonic, associated with damage to right hemisphere Broca’s equivalent
- Receptive aprosodia: Difficulty detecting and understanding emotional tone, associated with damage to right hemisphere Wernicke’s equivalent
15
Q
Sources of information
A
- Genes: info learned on timescale of evolution
- Past experience: Info learned on timescale of a human life
- Internal state: Info learned on timescale of current episode
- Environmental context: info learned now
- Proximal stimulus: the stimulus itself
