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ch3 251 > language > Flashcards

language Flashcards

1
Q

formal definition of language

A

systematic means of communication info using conventionalized sounds, gestures, marks, or signals having understood meaning

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2
Q

function of human language

A

is to influence people’s behaviour by changing what they know, think, believe, or desire

allow us to affect what other people think, and thus what they do
When we speak we put ideas into other people’s heads or even our own heads
How do we communicate in an efficient and effective way - it is fund. To how we function in the world as humans

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3
Q

challenge of language

A

need shared understanding between two people who use it

key power of language is our ability to express novel ideas say things that have never been said, think things that have never been thought before and then communicate them

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4
Q

list some of the powers mentioned of human language

A

communicate info fast

makes a social netowrk

store info outside of ourselves

creative expression

refers to time and place

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5
Q

phonemes

A

smallest units of perceived speech. Categorical speech sounds

Ta, ba, ki.

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6
Q

rules on how phones can be combined to form larger units is

A

phonology

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7
Q

how many phonemes does English have

A

44

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8
Q

morphemes are defined as

A

smallest unit of language that carry meaning, combinations of phonemes, - players - ‘play’ ‘er’ ‘s’ -

3 separate morphemes all meaning different things.

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9
Q

rules about combining morphemes to form Words

A

morphology

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10
Q

definition fo words

A

smallest stand-alone units of meaning

Morphemes have meaning but you need to add them to give them plausibility

Ind words can at least stand alone. Combos of one or more morphemes,

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11
Q

syntax

A

language specific rules for combining words

happy child vs nino feliz

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12
Q

what are phrases

A

words in turn are combined into phrases

limitless in English

phrases combined to make sentences

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13
Q

in English - what order do verbs, objects and subjects go in for a sentence

A

SVO

John ate the apple

subject, object verb

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14
Q

what is a sentence

A

a set of words/phrases that in principle tells a complete thought, expresses an idea

can consist of one or more phrases,

even more limitless

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15
Q

understanding of language that we have in modern linguistics due to the researcher named what?

A

Noom Chomsky

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16
Q

Chomsky argued what 4 main ideas

A

1) young children combine words in novel ways they haven’t heard before to express new ideas - argued this showing there is more to language than just repetition of what you hear

2) same as above, it can’t just be about imitation and repetition

3) we learn an underlying set of rules that we can use to generate sentences based on them once we have learned them

4) there is a built in mechanism in our brain that knows from birth that sentences have Subjects, Verbs and Objects - and we just have to figure out what order they go in in our given language

we only learn parameters of language, not the whole thing from scratch

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17
Q

who is nim chimpsky

A

chimp they tried to teach English to, to understand how people learn the language

named after Noam Chomsky

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18
Q

difference between syntax and semantics

A

syntax - rules of word’s order - morphology, phonology - how to put things together

semantics - meaning of language - how meaning is derived from words phrases sentences

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19
Q

how did Chomsky demonstrate that syntax and semantics are ind. components of language

A

used a sentenced that is grammatical but meaningless
‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’

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20
Q

what sentences is ungrammatical but meaningful

A

colourful green ants crawls furiously

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21
Q

phrase structure is generated from…

A

Generative Grammar - set of rules that specify what orders and combinations these roles can occur in

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22
Q

what is generative grammar

A

set of rules that specify what orders and combinations these roles can occur in

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23
Q

what is a noun phrase

A

consist of an optional article followed by a noun

fill in an article like ‘the’ and a noun like boy.

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24
Q

what is a verb phrase

A

verb followed by a noun phrase, optional article followed by a noun, constructed sentence

‘the boy hit the ball’

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25
what are problems with relying on phrase structure alone to determine meaning sentence example what does this suggest
sometimes you have a sentence that has just one phrase structure and yet there are 2 possible meanings the shooting of the hunters was terrible - did they got shot or was their aim the issue suggests phrase structure alone isn't determine meaning - it works the other way around
26
when we say phrase structure works the other way around what do we mean
look at these sentences ‘the boy hit the ball’, and the ‘the ball was hit by the boy’ these 2 have the same meaning and yet they have very different phrase structures
27
chomsky proposed - there are actually 2 types of structure involved in language understanding
Surface - refers to structure to words as they are actually spoken in order Deep Structure - exists in our minds that is where the underlying meaning is represented - underlying phrase structure that conveys meaning
28
how do we get from surface structure to deep structure? it was proposed our minds do this by
transformational grammar take a deeps structure and convert it to surface structure when you want to say something and take surface to deep when you comprehend what someone is saying
29
core proposition refers to
the idea being represented by the sentence - like deep structure
30
the boy hit the ball vs the ball was hit by the ball same meaning (DS) - what is their difference
emphasis first one the emphasis is on the subject - the boy 2nd one the emphasis is on what was hit - the ball
31
what is ambiguity in terms of language
example of a sentence with multiple interpretations/meanings
32
studying ambiguity gives us insight on...?
gives us insight to the nature of that process our mind and brain does A lot like how illusions can be helpful to get insight into perceptions show the ways in which systems can fail and types of assumptions perceptual system makes ambiguity serves a similar role for language
33
example of where ambiguity in language often appears
Newspaper Headlines - because they try to minimize their amount of words used
34
what kind of ambiguity occurs when a particular word was more than one meaning
Lexical Meaning
35
what is syntactic ambiguity example
not due to word meanings, due to multiple possible phrase structures that we construct in our minds to represent the relationships between the words ‘They are cooking apples’ ‘I saw the gorilla in my pajamas’
36
what is referential ambiguity often caused by use of ___ examples
has to do with certain words we use in language that necessarily refer to other entities in a sentence – ‘john grabbed his lunch, sat on a rock, and ate it’ the word it is an object - it refers to an object already introduced and so does it refer to the lunch or the rock? caused by use of Anaphors
37
what are Anaphors
words that refer to a person place or thing that are referential, has to refer to something that was already introduced - the word stands in for that person place or thing it, she, him, her,
38
list 3 kinds of ambiguity
Lexical - word w multiple meaning Syntactic - possible relationships between the words Referential - has to do with words that refer to other entities - it she her
39
like other motor control operations, speech control is heavily dependant on the ..?
prefrontal cortex
40
in speech production, when it comes to the planning of speech at the level of abstract language, an area of the brain strongly implicated is...? where in the brain is this area
Broca's area in the prefrontal cortex
41
most of us language is lateralized primarily to the ____ hemisphere including ______
most of us language is lateralized primarily to the LEFT hemisphere including BROCA'S AREA
42
what is aphasia
a language deficit
43
damage to Broca's causes Broca's Aphasia - what speech issues does this cause
Struggle to string words into complete sentences, can get words out, a few words but can’t link them together Meaning is there but not conveyed through complete sentences for the most part slow, confluent, awkward articulation, phonemic error (pelsil instead of pencil)
44
you see Broca's aphasia in both __ and __ speech
spoken and written
45
Broca's aphasia is not an issue __ it's an issue of ___ you'l see a BA patient says something better if it is ____
not an issue of lip movement, issue of abstract language planning better if it is memorized because they don't have to plan out ind words repeated words doesn't depend much on broca's area, but planning a sequence of words does
46
in broca's aphasia patients - they're speech planning is bad, but their ____ is spared
Comprehension is spared, they can understand straightforward questions you ask them a problem with the planning and production of language. Not a motor problem
47
what kind of words to BA patients have the most issue with
verbs, articles, pronouns, words that are smaller and connect language together, or verbs where you have to conjugate them correctly. No verb inflection. Responses can make sense but are incorrect grammatically.
48
BA can comprehend pretty well, except their comprehension of _____ is limited
comprehension of syntax is limited. If I asked them ‘did the dog chase the cat’ they understand, but if I asked ‘was the cat chased by the dog’ - they would understand they were being asked about a cat, a dog and a chase, but confused about who is chasing who due to the complicated syntax.
49
BA patients aren't good at telling is a sentence is __ or not they also have issue with function words like
grammatical or not they have issues with function words like ‘and, for’ etc.
50
BA impacts people's ability to produce language, but more than that is a difficulty with _____ in both production and comprehension of language __ is in tact, but __ is impaired
that it is a difficulty with Syntax in both the production and comprehension of language. Semantics (meaning) is intact, but Syntax is more impaired.
51
Broca's area is important for the ___ of language
syntax
52
what lobe is wernicke's area in _______ part of the brain
temporal lobe - perceptual part of the brain
53
why does it make sense WA is in the temporal lobe in the ______ stream
because temporal lobe is about perception, and speech comprehension involves perception - visual or auditory in the WHAT stream
54
WA causes a deficit in language coming out is ___ correct, but hard to
speech compression Language coming out is more syntactically correct but hard to figure out what they are talking about - the meaning is lacking,
55
Wernicke's speech comes out sounding ____ but rather ______
sounding natural but rather meaningless.
56
which aphasia - broca's or wernicke's has good emphasis and normal intention
Wernicke's speech has good articulation and prosody - normal emphasis and intonation
57
what aphasia has been called word salad
wernicke's aphasia
58
when people with WA express meaning, they often do it in a what is this called
roundabout sort of way called Circumlocution
59
what aphasia has impaired comprehension
wernicke's don’t understand what you ask them, they respond and talk and talk but you get the sense that they don’t really know what you asked them
60
problem in WA is the link between __ and ___ they ___ you, but don't link it to _______, affecting ___ __________
seems to be the link between the sequence of sounds and the meaning to which that refers - this profoundly affects the comprehension of language they hear the sound you say but don't link it to meaning, and affects language production
61
___ aphasia is about syntax ______ aphasia is about semantics
broca’s is about syntax wernicke’s is about semantics. Linking sounds and visuals of words to the meaning they have
62
what does split brain refer to why does this happen
corpus callosum was severed bridge between the two is no longer there developmental reasons - also done to help Epilepsy
63
In a split brain patient an object presented in the _____ hemisphere only goes to the ______ hemi and can’t get across, and vice versa.
an object presented in the left hemisphere only goes to the right hemi and can’t get across, and vice versa.
64
what happens with the split brain patient looking at the photo fo the dog and cat on left and right side
cat is in the right visual field, it gets sent to the left hemisphere the left hemisphere also controls the right hand, because motor control is also contralateral. left side uses right hand to draw the photo dog goes to right hemi, that controls left hand to draw the dog they can draw both at the same time as their 2 hemi's act independently
65
what % are right handed, and what % are left handed the rest are one of what 3 things
70-90% right handed 10% left some folks are ambidextrous, cross Dom, or mixed handedness
66
for right handers, 95% have language primarily in their
left hemisphere the rest are right hemisphere Dom for language
67
for left handed, what % of them are left hemisphere Dom for language what % right what % split evenly
70% left hemisphere for language 15% are right hemisphere dom 15% are split evenly
68
if we are left hemisphere Dom for language, what goes on in the right equivalent area
one way right hemisphere is involved in Prosody - the that we say words, stress, rhythm, question tones, sarcasm, tone
69
deficit of prosody is called what are the diff kinds of this
Aprosodia produce and receptive
70
what is productive aprosodia, what is it caused by
caused by damage to RH equivalent to Broca’s Area that is used for incorporating prosody into one's language can't use prosody in one’s own speech, right words but monotone speech, lacks emotion
71
what is receptive aprosodia associated with what area
refers to difficulty processing prosody in other’s speech associated with RH equivalent to Wernicke’s Area left hemi wernicke’s is important for Language Comprehension and it RH equivalent is important for Comprehension of Prosody
72
Not correct to say language is entirely in LH in typical brain, more accurate to say that ___ are on one side
core functions syntax, processing, meaning from words
73
Broca's area is for wernicke's area is for
Broca’s - syntax and planning for production Wernicke - word perception and semantics
74
sensory vs motor cortices in language
Sensory Cortices - are also important for language because we hear or read language, even braille Motor Cortices - how we produce language, same parts of brain that control mouth face tongue, hands and arm to write
75
what is association cortices used for in language
the core is getting a meaning across to someone else a highly distributed representation of meaning throughout cortex is fundamental to meaning
76
what 5 sources of info are used to interpret what we comprehend from language
Genes Past Experience Internal State Environmental Context Proximal Stimulus
77
what is the interactive activation theory
time and accuracy that we can perceive ind letters depends on perception of letter and also faster when we can perceive them in the context of words top down influence on letter perception
78
is language processing bottom up or top down
both
79
why do people hear da in the mcgurk effect
person says GA audio says BA B is on lips and G is back in the throat, and so what you end up perceiving is something in between, Da is on tip of the tongue - in between the lips and the throat, your mind and brain combine the two inputs allowing the perception of the sound to be influenced by your visual context
80
garden path sentences
example of how we hear language one word at a time, but the brain doesn’t wait until the end of the sentence to start processing - we process it word by word ‘online’ - we have to guess the correct phrase structure of the sentence as it comes in.
81
know where broca's and wernicke's area are on the brain map image on page 15 on our google notes
okay broca's pink - rostral and large wern green - above blue, caudal
82
fmri measures changes in __ using __ and ___
measures changes in magnetization using electromagnetic radiation and nuclear magnetic resonance,
83
diff between functional mri and mri
instead of focusing on a structure of the body functional mri is trying to measure what’s going on and in particular we are interested in brain activity
84
how does an MRI measure magnetization - 4 steps
sending ElectroMagnetic Radiation (radio waves) into body absorbed by atoms in our body (usually Hydrogen) releases it back out and how quickly it is released depends on the type of brain tissue it is in and what is going on in that tissue
85
fmri is based on a principle called
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
86
fmri can't measure neural activity, it measures ____ how is this helpful
changes in blood oxygenation, how much oxygenated vs deoxygenated hemoglobin there is in our blood you can measure that is because hemoglobin has iron in it, iron has strong magnetic properties when brain becomes active, body pushes blood to that part of the brain, pushes out deoxy hemo. so we end up w more oxy hemo less deoxy this change in blood oxygenation represents brain activity
87
fmri is good for _ resolution, bad for _ resolution
temporal resolution isn't great takes 5-6 seconds to see result spatial resolution is good - because this neuromuscular response is very specific - a few mm where the change in blood flow occurs tells you within m where the neural activity is EEG is the opposite
88
pros and cons of Fmri
pros - non invasive, no surgery, no injection, low risk, used a lot, rare complications cons - safety issues regarding magnetic objects colliding with the strong magnet
89
Mitchells brain study overview
use text to see which nouns commonly co-occur w which verbs recorded neural pattern of people thinking about verbs predicted the neural activity for nouns that co-occured with verbs got patients to think of nouns and see if they could guess which noun they thought of based on their brain activity
90
Mitchells study conceptually idea - celery example
any given noun like celery we may be able to think of it as a combo of different semantic features if we knew the brain activation associated with each of those features we could make a prediction for what the overall pattern of activation in brain would be as a combo of those features they said what if a noun is essentially the combo of meanings of the related verbs? Would that let us make accurate predictions in the brain his study worked
91

ch3 251 (21 decks)

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