Language Flashcards
Generativity
Using the finite set of words in our vocabulary, we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express and infinite number of ideas
Phonemes
smallest units of meaningful sounds (rake v.s. lake example)
cultural differences in Hindi example
Morphemes
the smallest units of meaningful language (dog = one morpheme, dogs = two morphemes)
syntax
Rules specifying how words from different categories (noun, verbs, adjectives, etc.) can be combined
By age 5, children can generate novel sentences that are correct in terms of phonology, semantics, and syntax of their native language
Pragmatics
knowledge about how language is used
the understanding of the cultural contexts of language - including shifts in tone and body language, which allow two strangers who speak the same language to communicate successfully
Semantics
meaning of word phrase of sentence
Infant directed speech (IDS)
a distinctive mode of speech used when speaking to infants and toddlers -> higher pitch, happy -> not used in all cultures
Prosody sensitivity
developing very early, with newborns becoming attuned to the prosodic properties of the ambient language, and it continues to develop during childhood until early adolescence.
Categorical perception
the perception of phonemes as belonging to discrete categories
voice onset time
the length of time between air passes through the lips when vocal cords vibrate
word segmentation
discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech
Segmentation by statistics
when babies presented with chain of sounds and one sound follows another 100% of the time. showing word like ‘bidaku’ of which sounds in this order 100% of time, babies think it’s a word over ‘kugola’ which is not always together
babbling: when does it start & what is it
begins between 6-10 month, repetitive consonant vowel sequence (baobab) or hand movement (for sign language)
overextension v.s. underextension
an overly broad interpretation of the meaning of the word v.s. an overly narrow interpretation of the meaning of the world
mutual exclusivity
children are guided by a number of assumptions about the possible meaning of a new word -> presented with two objects and they know the name of one, when unknown name is asked for they know it must be the other thing
pragmatic cues
aspects of the social context used for word learning
whole object assumption
children expect novel word to refer to a whole object
linguistic context
syntatic form of word (ex: noun, verb) influences interpretation of what the word refers to -> infer based on linguistic context
shape bias
children generalize a novel word to objects of the same shape no matter what size and texture
taxonomic constraint
children extend words to other things in the same category
syntactic bootstrapping
use linguistic context to show what the unknown word means/see what words surround that word to find the meaning
use grammatical structure to infer meaning of a new word
cross-situational word learning
determining word meanings by tracking correlation between labels and meanings across scenes and context –> narrow down possible meaning of new words
telegraphic speech
short 2 word utterances that leave out non essential words (“knee hurt”)
overregularization
speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
Developmental patterns of infant phoneme perception (methods and findings): Possibility 1 v.s. Possibility 2
Possibility 1: we need to learn to tell the different phonemes (speech sounds) apart through experience
Possibility 2: we need to unlearn recognizing the variation of sounds that aren’t important in our language
Developmental patterns of infant phoneme perception (methods and findings): the conditioned head-turn task
used sounds from other cultures that are not used in english and played them for babies to see if they could distinguish differences
taught the baby to turn head where there was a change in sound and toy reward would be presented
results of the conditioned head-turn task & reasoning for results
results: 6 month old in English speaking family could discriminate between sounds in Hindi and Nlakapamux, but 10-12 months olds could not
reasoning: reorginaztion of speech perception over life; we become between at one language when we lose the ability to perceive others; synaptic pruning and perception narrowing
Quine’s “Gavagai” problem: problem of reference
What does a word refer to? Labeling is ambiguous
Problem: Alien comes down and you point to somehting and say a word but how are they supposed to know what you’re referring to?
Ex: point to a rabbit and say “gayvagai” but do not know what exactly the word is referring to (near infinite possibilities -> rabbit, jack rabbit, mammal, animal, white, furry??)
Word Learning
babies had default rules/assumptions that allow them to understand what words are applying to
there must be some default assumption that make word learning possible
biases/constraints
Whole-object bias (object perception)
“Truck” -> assume you’re talking about whole object not just bed or wheel
children assume the word refers to the whole object and not a part, action, or property of the object
object perception –> whole object might share the same color or same shape/space
Space bias
“Dax”
Children generalize a novel word to objects of the same shape no matter what size/texture
All things being equal, shape is more important than color
taxonomic constraint
“Flurg” -> when shown stuffed animal then stuffed animal and sponge, and ask “can you show me another flurg” they would point to other stuffed animal
taxonomic - refers to category
children extend worlds to other things in the same category
mutual exclusivity
“Can you show me the blicket” when presented with an amp cord and rubber duck -> no one has taught the child what a blicket is but they know that the other object is a duck so they assume it must be the other thing
asummptions that a given entity will have only one name and if they hear another word, the person must be referring to another object
one object gets one exclusive name -> learn other word when they know the names of the things around it (using logic)
learn new word by constrasting with a family word (aka Lexical contrast)
Linguistic context
Syntactic form of word (ex: noun, verb) influences interpretation of what the word refers to -> infer based on linguistic context
show a child the picture (bowl with hands going into it with something in the bowl (looks like square pieces))
- “sib” : container, “sobbing”: the action (-ing referring to verb), “some sib”: the substance (referring to quantity)
Syntactic bootstrapping
show children two characters that are interacting -> characters are tapping other and other hand moving in circle motions
changes way the phrase is being used to show who is doing the action
“the duck and rabbit are kradding” - they are both doing the action
“the duck is craddling the rabbit” -> only one is doing action
use linguistic context to show what the unknown word means/see what words surround that word to find the meaning
over-regularization
over-regularization errors: mistakes made by over applying the rules of grammar. treating irregular words as regular (“he goed to the store”)
Ex: child - “when i growed up”, parent - ‘you mean when you grew up’, child - “yeah when i grewed up”
word = man, irregualr form = men, overregularize -= mans
this shows they are not just learning words through exposure but by association -> using/overapplying abstract rules to create words they have never heard
critical period
to learn language, children must be exposed to other people using language - spoken or signed - and timing matters
Case Study: Nicaraguan Sign Language
- nicaraguan people born deaf without access to language because was not taught sign language until a special needs school was opened and put in classroom with 50 deaf people -> 50 rudimentary ways to communicate
- they did not have sign language but were taught to write even though it went over their head
- through interaction at recess and bus, children made their own sign system to communciate with each other –> created a language
- signed national anthem
Case Study: Nicaraguan Sign Language
What does it tell us about language development?
Relationship between language & thought
Compared younger signers to older signers -> showed them the same video and asked them to sign what they saw
- older signers more spastic, full body movements
- younger signers -> all movemetns in hand & wrist
- main difference - older signers described only events, younger described characters feelings. kids were better at thinking about thinking
test thinking about others thinking: next showed different age groups comic strips of little brother moving older brother toy when he wasn’t there and asked where older brother would look for his toy
- older signers would pick the wrong place that the older brother would look
- younger signers know where older brother would actually look because younger children had more words for the concept of thinking
when went back 2 years late, older signers were doing better -> younger kids hung around other people at deaf association and taught them
learning that took place in adulthood that geve them insight into toher peoples thinking
active learning
learning by engaging with the world, rather than passively observing objects and events
instrumental conditioning
involved learning the relationship between a behavior and its consequences
perceptual narrowing
developmental chnages in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system
intermodal perception
the combining of information from two or more sensory systems
violation of expectancy procedure
a procedure used to study infant cognition in which infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if it goes against something the infant knows
damage to Broca’s area:
near what cortex? associated with what?
near the motor cortex and is associated with difficult in producing speech
(broca’s = speech is broken)
damage to wernicke’s area:
near what cortex? linked to what?
near auditory cortex and is linked to difficulties in understanding meaning
Developmental dissociation: What are the two genetic brain conditions?
Williams syndrom & Specific language impairment
Developmental dissociation: Language skill is…
distinct from cognitive skill and intelligence level because of different parts of the brain are responsible for language
Williams Syndrome (and language)
cognitive impairment paired with high levels of linguistic skills
characteristics: Low IQ, unique facial characteristics but high language abilities
Specific Language Impairment
Linguistic impairments paired with otherwise normal cognitive functioning
What does the left hemisphere show (infancy & age)
Left hemisphere shows some socialization in infancy and increases with age
Adults who learned a second language at 1-2 years show:
normal pattern of greater left hemisphere activity in a test of grammatical knowledge
As you get older
you need to utilize more of your brain
What side of the brain do you use when you learn a language past the 1-2 year mark?
Right hemisphere
Critical period: language
to learn language, children must be exposed to other people using lamguage - spoken or signed - and TIMING MATTERS
Case study Genie: Key points
Able to memorize language but deficit in grammar and order
Genie was neglected by parents & never heard language
Rescued from abusive parents -> able to learn language but did not learn grammar
Had trouble understanding the order of language
Testing Critical Period Hypothesis: Results & Reasoning
Best results when moved to USA between 0-6/7 years of age and drastically decline with age
Because of: Neural plasticity
English grammar test on adults originally from korea and china
Directly related to the age at which they came to the US
Neural Plasticity
Brain is sensitive to neural input from the environment early in life
Animal Language
Nim-Chimpski: results
Giving animals (chimps) same language exposure as child
- Many “words” -> pointing to things and signing
- Little evidence for word ordering & Highly repetitious
- Learned slowly through extensive training based on association
After years of training -> “nim eat nim eat”, “banana me me eat”
main result: difference in way brains work in language as for as order and grammatical rules
Nim-Chimpski was a chimp that was raised as a human being
similar results in almost every animal study
Alex the Parrot
- Can answer simple questions
- Impressive cognitive abilities
- Dozens of words
- No sensitivity to word order (grammar)
What makes animals and humans different
Humans are…
- built for languages
- children have order (grammar) by 2 years old
- Children acquire language in a wide range of environments
When there is input and is chaotic, children structure it
When language is absent, they create it
Humans have..
innate or adaptive
innate linguisitic abilities which fill in adequacies of the environment
