Language Flashcards
How many languages are there?
Over 7000
When do we start learning language?
In the first year of our life.
Phonetics
Describes the physical nature of the speech signal
Phonology
Relates to the sound structure of language
Phonemes are speech sounds and the smallest units that distinguish meaning in a given
language
Morphology
Relates to morphemes, the smallest meaning-bearing units
Morphemes can be words in themselves (e.g. cat) or they can combine to create words (e.g.
beauti-ful; umpire-s; eat-ing; bed-room; police-man …)
Syntax
Relates to the combination of meaningful units (morphemes
and words) to create sentences
In linguistics, “syntax” refers to the rules governing how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Compositionality
Meaning of a larger unit is a function of the meanings of its component parts as well as the nature of their combination
Semantics
Relates to the meaning of linguistic units
literal meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. It explores how meaning is structured, interpreted, and represented in language.
Pragmatics
Relates to language use
It’s about implied meaning, tone, and situational nuances.
Uniqueness point
the brain
begins to dissociate real
words from word-like
stimuli (“pseudowords”)
after 50 ms of stimulus
uniqueness point
Event-related brain potentials (ERPs)
small changes in the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain that are time-locked to cognitive or sensory events
Classified via:
* latency (time after stimulus onset)
* topography (which electrodes?)
* polarity (negative or positive relative to a control
condition)
* amplitude (“strength“)
N.B. These measures are always relative to a control
condition!
electroencephalogram (EEG)
An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a non-invasive test that records electrical activity in the brain.
N400
The N400 is a component of time-locked EEG signals known as event-related potentials (ERP). It is a negative-going deflection that peaks around 400 milliseconds post-stimulus onset, although it can extend from 250-500 ms.
Characteristics of language comprehension
- Speed and incrementality
- language understanding is fast and incremental (i.e. it proceeds step-by-step)
- Target of comprehension: a complex interpretation
- speech stream —> complex meaning
- Ambiguity
- in language, the incoming signal is ambiguous (underdefined) at all levels
- not simply a matter of mapping the physical input to an interpretation
Speed a word is interpreted
500ms after the onset of a word, maybe faster
Cues used to determine beginning and ending of words in speech
- sound combinations (likelihood of a particular sound sequence in a given language)
- speech rhythm
- word predictability
Why not wait for speech to finish to deal with ambiguity? Why process meaning as it is received?
rapid incremental constituent structuring reduces
the no. of chunks that must be maintained in
working memory (e.g. Frazier & Fodor, 1978)
Early experimental evidence: speed and incrementality
- Shadowing: Participants repeat a sentence that they hear as quickly as possible while they’re hearing it.
- Marslen-Wilson (1975):
- participants shadowed sentences spoken at 160 words per minute, mean shadowing latencies between 250 - 750 ms.
- word restoration errors mostly when 1st syllable was
consistent with the context; - no delay for context restoration errors
- this was the case for all participants (including fast
shadowers, ~250 ms) - Findings suggests some role of prediction in the
comprehension process
Speed and incrementality:
predicting the type of word
*Expectation mismatches regarding the type of upcoming word (e.g. noun or verb) manifest themselves between 100 and 200ms post word onset
Simplicity
Strategy proposed to deal with ambiguity.
Conflict resolution
- When an interpretation strategy turns out to be incorrect, the system needs to reanalyse the
input. - In most cases, this is quick and seemingly effortless: this is why we don’t notice that we’re
constantly processing ambiguous input!
Incrementality
Incrementality is made possible by interpretation strategies (e.g. simplicity), prediction and
rapid conflict resolution; similar processes as in other cognitive domains
Evidence that speech is processed incrementally because longer sentences are remembered than strings of random words. This processing and understanding chunks speech.
