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PSYCH 85 > Language > Flashcards

Language Flashcards

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1
Q

what is a language?

A

the ability to communicate complex ideas, share our internal thoughts and emotiohns and plans for the future

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2
Q

how would Chomsky define language?

A

a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements

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3
Q

how would Harley define language?

A

a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate

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4
Q

what are the branches of linguistics?

A
  1. pragmatics: the study of language in context
  2. semantics: the study of meaning and relationships of words
  3. syntax: the study of the arrangement of words and phrases
  4. phonetics: the study and classification of speech
  5. phonology: the study of sounds
  6. morphology: the study of words and how they are formed
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5
Q

what are the 5 characteristics of language?

A
  1. symbolic: uses symbols that don’t carry meaning, meaning is assigned arbitrarily
  2. displacement: can speak about abstract things or things not physically present
  3. structured: follows rules, has grammar
  4. generative: can use finite elements to make infinite meanings
  5. multiple levels of organization: organized hierarchically from ounds to words to sentences
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6
Q

how can the symbols of letters/words be represented differently?

think about the senses

A
  1. written: visual
  2. spoken: auditory
  3. tactile: braile
  4. gestures: sign language
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7
Q

explain the displacement characteristic of language

maybe provide an example

A

we can describe things that are not physically present
- warn about a threat
- hopes & dreams
- plan for the future

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8
Q

explain the hierarchy of language

A

sentence can be broken down into phrase -> word -> morpheme
-> phoneme

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9
Q

what is a phoneme?

A

the smallest unit of sound in a language

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10
Q

do phonemes carry meaning?

A

not usually

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11
Q

do

how many phonemes are there in the english language?

A

44

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12
Q

what is phoneme parsing?

A

the process of categorizing or separating individual phonemes from seemingly continous sounds

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13
Q

what is coarticulation?

A

how a phoneme is pronounced depends on what comes before or after

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14
Q

how do we parse phonemes?

A

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

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15
Q

what is the McGurk Effect?

A
  • 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)
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16
Q

what is a morpheme?

A

the smallest unit of meaning in a language
- can be words but not the same thing
- prefixes, suffixes

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17
Q

is un- a morpheme or a phoneme?

A

morpheme
- it is a prefix

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18
Q

how many morphemes in ‘dog’?

A

1

19
Q

how many morphemes in ‘baker’

A

2 (bake and er)

20
Q

how many morphemes in ‘dogs’?

A

2 (dog and -s meaning multiple)

21
Q

how many morphemes in restudied?

A

3: re- study-ed

22
Q

what is syntax?

A

the grammatical rules and structure that give meaning to sentences

23
Q

why does “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” make more sense than “furiously sleep ideas green colorless”

A

“colorless green ideas sleep furiously” follows english’s synatic rules of
ADJ + ADJ + NOUN + VERB + ADVERB

24
Q

what does syntatic ambiguity rise from?

A
  1. misinterpretation of words
  2. segmentation issues
  3. garden path structure

example: squad helps dog bite victim
complaints about N

25
Q

what is a garden path sentence?

A

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’

26
Q

what is extralinguistic context?

A

things outside of syntax and words themselves that change meaning
- movements and gestures
- prosody
- pragmatics

27
Q

define

prosody

A

how we pronounce or emphasize words
ex. i never said she stole the money
vs i never said she stole the money

28
Q

define

pragmatics

A

how we use words, context in which we say them, and what’s left unsaid

29
Q

what is the behavioristic view on language acquisition?

A

operant conditioning -> language
- trial-and-error learning

30
Q

what is wrong with the behavioristic view on language acquisition?

A

fails to explain:
- universal timeline in language development
- similar language ability despite different upbringings

31
Q

what are the principles of language acquisition (Chomsky)

A

abstract rules, grammars; the innate language mechanism, ready to understand any syntax (light swithches)

32
Q

what are the parameters of language acquisition?

A

the variables that determine which syntax. learned through exposure

33
Q

what is the word segmentation problem?

A

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

34
Q

what are the stages of language learning?

A
  1. cooing: uttering sounds, early infancy (first 6 months)
  2. babbling: uttering fewer sounds (ma-ma-ma, da-da-da)
  3. one-word: entire morphemes (mama, water)
  4. two-word: putting syntax together to create meaning (‘want water”, “look doggy”)
35
Q

what is a critical period?

A

the language exposure period that children kind of need to learn a language entirely

36
Q

are language and thought dependent?

three answers

A
  1. functionally distinct
  2. partial dependence
  3. cogntiively inseparable
37
Q

why is it that hebrews can click the buttons for earlier and later much faster when earlier is on the right?

A

Hebrew is read right to left

38
Q

what is the linguistic relativity hypothesis? (Sapir-Whorf)

A
  1. strong version: thought and language are completely intertwined
  2. weak version: language influences how people think
39
Q

what is global aphasia?

A

severe language deficit (often production and comprehension)

40
Q

can patients with global aphasia solve basic math problems?

A

yes

41
Q

can patients with global aphasia understand theory-of-mind?

A

yes, they can understand what another person is thinking

42
Q

how does grammatical gender affect perception/cognitive bias?

A

Germans and Spanish describe a bridge differently based on their language
(big and dangerous vs. beautiful and elegant)

43
Q

True or False: If different languages have different words to describe colors, then people who speak those languages should perceive the colors differently

A

False. Color categorization is genearlly universal

44
Q

Can animals learn language?

A

Language seems to be uniquely a human ability
- animals can communicate in some ways, but aspects of language are limited like displacement, generativity, syntax

PSYCH 85 (6 decks)

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