Language Flashcards
what is a language?
the ability to communicate complex ideas, share our internal thoughts and emotiohns and plans for the future
how would Chomsky define language?
a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements
how would Harley define language?
a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate
what are the branches of linguistics?
- pragmatics: the study of language in context
- semantics: the study of meaning and relationships of words
- syntax: the study of the arrangement of words and phrases
- phonetics: the study and classification of speech
- phonology: the study of sounds
- morphology: the study of words and how they are formed
what are the 5 characteristics of language?
- symbolic: uses symbols that don’t carry meaning, meaning is assigned arbitrarily
- displacement: can speak about abstract things or things not physically present
- structured: follows rules, has grammar
- generative: can use finite elements to make infinite meanings
- multiple levels of organization: organized hierarchically from ounds to words to sentences
how can the symbols of letters/words be represented differently?
think about the senses
- written: visual
- spoken: auditory
- tactile: braile
- gestures: sign language
explain the displacement characteristic of language
maybe provide an example
we can describe things that are not physically present
- warn about a threat
- hopes & dreams
- plan for the future
explain the hierarchy of language
sentence can be broken down into phrase -> word -> morpheme
-> phoneme
what is a phoneme?
the smallest unit of sound in a language
do phonemes carry meaning?
not usually
do
how many phonemes are there in the english language?
44
what is phoneme parsing?
the process of categorizing or separating individual phonemes from seemingly continous sounds
what is coarticulation?
how a phoneme is pronounced depends on what comes before or after
how do we parse phonemes?
cues! visual cues/context clues like the rest of a sentence or somebody’s mouth movements
example:
- the moon rises at _usk
- the walrus is missing a _usk
what is the McGurk Effect?
- seeing someone speak (visual information) changes they way you hear the sound
- when someone dubs a video of a mouth moving with a different sound, a third phoneme can be heard (not the word mouthed nor the one dubbed)
what is a morpheme?
the smallest unit of meaning in a language
- can be words but not the same thing
- prefixes, suffixes
is un- a morpheme or a phoneme?
morpheme
- it is a prefix
how many morphemes in ‘dog’?
1
how many morphemes in ‘baker’
2 (bake and er)
how many morphemes in ‘dogs’?
2 (dog and -s meaning multiple)
how many morphemes in restudied?
3: re- study-ed
what is syntax?
the grammatical rules and structure that give meaning to sentences
why does “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” make more sense than “furiously sleep ideas green colorless”
“colorless green ideas sleep furiously” follows english’s synatic rules of
ADJ + ADJ + NOUN + VERB + ADVERB
what does syntatic ambiguity rise from?
- misinterpretation of words
- segmentation issues
- garden path structure
example: squad helps dog bite victim
complaints about N
what is a garden path sentence?
sentence that is grammatically correct that initially suggests one interpretation which turns out to be wrong or a dead end
- i.e ‘the old man the boat’, ‘the cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi’
what is extralinguistic context?
things outside of syntax and words themselves that change meaning
- movements and gestures
- prosody
- pragmatics
define
prosody
how we pronounce or emphasize words
ex. i never said she stole the money
vs i never said she stole the money
define
pragmatics
how we use words, context in which we say them, and what’s left unsaid
what is the behavioristic view on language acquisition?
operant conditioning -> language
- trial-and-error learning
what is wrong with the behavioristic view on language acquisition?
fails to explain:
- universal timeline in language development
- similar language ability despite different upbringings
what are the principles of language acquisition (Chomsky)
abstract rules, grammars; the innate language mechanism, ready to understand any syntax (light swithches)
what are the parameters of language acquisition?
the variables that determine which syntax. learned through exposure
what is the word segmentation problem?
infants need to extract words from fluent speech in order to build their vocabulary
- infants are sensitive to the statistical patterns contained in sequences of sounds
what are the stages of language learning?
- cooing: uttering sounds, early infancy (first 6 months)
- babbling: uttering fewer sounds (ma-ma-ma, da-da-da)
- one-word: entire morphemes (mama, water)
- two-word: putting syntax together to create meaning (‘want water”, “look doggy”)
what is a critical period?
the language exposure period that children kind of need to learn a language entirely
are language and thought dependent?
three answers
- functionally distinct
- partial dependence
- cogntiively inseparable
why is it that hebrews can click the buttons for earlier and later much faster when earlier is on the right?
Hebrew is read right to left
what is the linguistic relativity hypothesis? (Sapir-Whorf)
- strong version: thought and language are completely intertwined
- weak version: language influences how people think
what is global aphasia?
severe language deficit (often production and comprehension)
can patients with global aphasia solve basic math problems?
yes
can patients with global aphasia understand theory-of-mind?
yes, they can understand what another person is thinking
how does grammatical gender affect perception/cognitive bias?
Germans and Spanish describe a bridge differently based on their language
(big and dangerous vs. beautiful and elegant)
True or False: If different languages have different words to describe colors, then people who speak those languages should perceive the colors differently
False. Color categorization is genearlly universal
Can animals learn language?
Language seems to be uniquely a human ability
- animals can communicate in some ways, but aspects of language are limited like displacement, generativity, syntax
