Language Flashcards

Question

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Answer 1

Entity that supports language

Answer 2

A part of the LAD that includes rules for all languages * Children only need to learn language-specific aspects to put “on top” of Universal Grammar

Answer 3

Children are exposed to different learning situations, yet converge on the same grammar E.g. All children follow the Structure-dependent hypothesis when forming double-auxiliary questions

Answer 4

There is uniformity of developmental milestones of learning language across children

Answer 5

The linguistic environment of a child is not sufficient 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

Answer 6

The environment is not so impoverished * A child hears around 6,000 to 21,000 words per day! - Evidence that rules are not all innate * Adult reformulations of children’s speech target the structure but not meaning : as rules need to be refined, maybe the rules are not so innate in the first place

Answer 7

You use context and internal knowledge of speech sounds to “hear’ E.g. reading a word primes you to hear it (McGurk effect)

Answer 8

A single word form can refer to more than one different concept e.g. BARK ( > 80% of English words have more than one dictionary entry) Basis of Puns

Answer 9

With short delay : Bias and no context→ both meanings were active * Bug primes spy (context inappropriate) and ant (context related) With long delay : Only context biased meaning active * Bug primes only ant (context related) **Conclusion** : Both meanings are initially retrieved, but contextually inappropriate meaning is quickly discarded

Answer 10

* dividing a sentence into words * identifying them as nouns, articles, verbs

Answer 11

We hear sentences incrementally and there is often more than one way to parse a sentence (words can be nouns and verbs)

Answer 12

- Sentences with multiple syntax structures - Interpreting a word one way leads you awry

Answer 13

- We use grammatical rules to interpret a sentence as we hear or read it (one direction) - Local or specific * You may get to the end and “oops” wrong meaning, so must go back *The horse raced past the barn fell*

Answer 14

- We use non-grammatical information to help interpret sentences and resolve any ambiguity - Global or holistic We use more than grammar to parse sentences : * Non-grammatical information can be used * Semantic and thematic context * Expectation * Frequency

Answer 15

Language and thought are interconnected

Answer 16

Language and thought are independent

Answer 17

Language changes how we think and perceive * People who speak different languages think differently - Whorf believed Inuit people could perceive snow differently due to vast vocabulary

Answer 18

Russian language discriminates between lighter (“goluboy”) and darker (“siniy) blues, not English * English and Russian speakers performed a color discrimination task with blue colors * Task with no memory or language demands * Russian speakers were faster to respond for colors that fell into different than from the same blue category * English speakers showed no effect - suggests language impacts perception

Answer 19

English Language speakers: 11 words for color * Dani tribe in Indonesia: 2 words for color * Test 1: Named color patches: two groups performed this differently * Test 2: Match /categorize learned color patches, no group difference * Suggests accessing color category without language labels does not change across language Although they identified the colors differently, they seemed to match a remembered color patch to the right one equally well.