Language Flashcards
Language
A symbolic shared system for purposeful communication
Symbolic
There are units to reference something else
Shared
It is common among a group of people
Purposeful
To communicate and translate thoughts
Different languages for Different Purposes
-Complexity of language (morphology) decreases with languages spoken by more people
-Cold climate languages have more words for snow
-Lexical tones are partly determined by climate
Aphasia
Impaired language function, usually from brain injury
Expressive Aphasia
-Intact language comprehension
-Impaired speed production and articulation
-Can understand everything, but can’t speak fluently
Broca’s Aphasia and Patient Tan
-Could only speak one syllable
-Still tried to communicate via gestures, tone, inflection
-Large lesion in the left inferior frontal gyrus
Broca’s Aphasia
-Struggle to produce speech
-Halted speech
-Simple sentences
-Speak in only nouns + verbs
-Drops words from sentences
-Writing also affected
-Impairments range from deficits -> depend on amount of damage to Broca’s area
Wernicke’s Aphasia
-Posterior superior temporal lobe damage
-Speech is fluent but incomprehensible
-Normal prosody + intonation
-Interrupts others + speak rapidly
-Words do not make a coherent thought, lacks meaning
-Includes paraphasias and neologisms, or invented words in speech
Verbal Paraphasia
Substituting a word with something related
-Shares meaning with intended word
-E.g. swapping term brother with sister
Phonemic (literal)
Swapping or adding speech sounds
-Shares sounds with intended word
-E.g. calling crab salad: sad cralad
Neologisms
Invented Words
-Different from those shared with community: Mansplain
-E.g. leg covers; instead of pants
Conduction Aphasia
Neural pathway from between Broca’s and Wernicke’s area disconnection
-Reminds us language depends on a network of brain regions
-Can read, write, and speak
-Can usually understand spoken messages
-Word-finding difficulty
-Unable to repeat words or sentences
-Lost connection between understanding something and speech production
Brain Lateralization
Language is often considered left lateralized
-Most cases of aphasia from left sided damage
Broad aspects of language are supported by the right hemisphere
-Prosody + pitch to convey intonation
-Mood, attitude, gestural communicaton
Right Hemisphere
Supports non-literal language use
-E.g. speech prosody (the music of language)
-How something is said conveys meaning
Right-Hemisphere Lesions
Disrupts the ability to interpret and express prosody of speech
-Problems understanding the emotion of a phrase
-Problems understanding sarcastic speech
Wernicke’s Aphasia
A patient comes to the clinic with some language problems. You ask this person to name some common items. For example, you point to a pair of shoes for them to name and they respond ‘‘feet-houses’’. What type of aphasia would you think this person has?
Nuturist or Behaviourist View
-Language is acquired through the same mechanisms as skill or associative learning
-Explicit training of language (conditioned)
-Trial and error reinforcement as well as modelling other people shapes language
Chomsky and Naturist View
-We are born with the innate capacity to learn language
-Language is not stimulus dependent or determined by reinforcement
-Language is complex and acquired rapidly
-We can understand and speak what we have not heard before
The Innateness Hypothesis
-Grammar, synatic structure, is serperate from semantic meaning and cognition
-E.g. ‘‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’’
-We are born with principles of grammar
-Children only need to learn language-specific aspects to put ‘‘on top’’ of Universal Grammar
-This would mean that deep down, there is 1 language
Convergence
-Support for the innateness hypothesis
-Children are exposed to different learning situations, yet converge on the same grammar
-E.g. Anyone who is interested can see me later
1. Is anyone who is interested can see me later?
2. Can anyone who is interested see me later?
-Both assume a rule, but most children use (2) which is more ‘‘grammatical’’ than (1)
Uniformity
-Support for the innateness hypothesis
-Children develop speech at a constant pace as they are growing up and most children follow this same timeline
Poverty of Stimulus Argument
-The linguistic environment of a child is not sufficient enough for a child to learn a language via reinforcement, rules or imitation alone
-A child doesn’t hear enough language to acquire all language
-This means they won’t have enough opportunities to learn from mistakes
-This means there must be something innate about language
