Language Flashcards
Why do psychologists study language?
Interested in how humans use and acquire language
to process information
to communicate
form their Perception because language and perception are inextricable
Neurologically modular
What does the study of linguistics consist of?
The hierarchical language structure including speech sounds, grammar and meanings
How is language processed?
languages is processed hierarchically from phonemes to complex sentences used to yield meaning
Phonemes form –> morphemes form —> phrases form –> sentences (sequence of organised words produced to convey thought or intention)
How many letters and phonemes are there in language? And how are they interrelated?
26 letters
45 phonemes
These are both combined to form the myriad of sentences used by humans to communicate
What are 3 components of linguistics?
Phonemes
Morphemes
Syntax
What is phonology?
The sound of language
What are phonemes?
smallest units of speech used to differentiate words. However, have no meaning
eg. The s and z distinction between s and Dogs
What is your speech dependent on?
Depends on the movement of our mouth.
The McGurk Effect : dub ‘ba’ into a video saying ‘ga’, it will produce ‘da’
What is morphology?
Study of words through morphemes
What is a morpheme? How would you distinguish morpheme from phoneme?
Phonemes are combined to form
Morphemes which are ‘the smallest units of meaning in language’ (burton, Westen, Kowalski, 2009, p. 323)
These include prefixes, suffixes, words
eg. house, -ing
Where are morphemes and phonemes stored in the human brain?
Morphemes and phonemes are some of the information in the human mental lexicon.
The lexicon is a knowledge of words shared by speakers of a language. The lexicon includes a word’s phonemic representation, morphological structure, and meaning
What are some features of the human mental lexicon?
- The word frequency effect allows some words to be more accessible
- Concepts and words are grouped in semantic categories
- Semantically related words ‘activate’ each other so that you will be faster recognising semantically related words (e.g., bread/butter)
- orthographic ‘neighbours’ are recognised more slowly
How does the lexicon raise new questions?
It is still unknown
how we access the lexiconNeurological correlates of the lexicon
What is syntax?
A set of phrase structure rules governing combination and placement of morphemes and phrases to generate a grammatically correct sentence
In what circumstances is syntax lacked? What does this suggest?
Telegraphic text that is semantically sound ‘need money, send Kristen now’
Children early language
This has lead to some arguing Comprehending language does not rely on formal syntactic rules such as in the case context is known however, others suggest it is necessary for meaning to be conveyed
What was the was the significance of works by Noam Chomsky?
Altered our perception of language use and acquisition
Universal theory that grammar describes abstract nature of languages not their surface characterstics
Distnguished deep and surface structure of language
language must be a generative and creative process based on transformational grammar
What does transformational grammar explain?
Notwithstanding the changes in linguistic form such as the structure of sentences, the same meaning is retained.
Sentences may be re-written in a variety of forms while maintaining their basic meaning
We are not relying solely on memory
Thus, language must be a generatie and creative process, rather than a process of imitation (this would additionally imply fantastic memory processes)
Eg. The child threw the ball . The ball was thrown by the child
What is semanatics?
How does it interact with syntax?
rules that govern meanings (rather than order) of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences to understand what people say
eg. date has multiple meanings
Understanding language relies on syntax (order of sentence) and semantics (meaning of words)
How is sign language similar to spoken language?
Contains syntax and is use to communicate
Uses the same grammar as spoken, supporting Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar in both spoken and signed language
Children as they learn to sign, make mistakes in sign language just as they would in spoken
Uses the left hemisphere
What is interesting about sign languages?
There can be accents in sign language
More than 5000 exist in the world
Supports that language is generative, a brain process, while memory plays a role, is not completely reliant
What are some language universals?
Semanticity: this yield meaning compared to sounds such as sneezing
Displacement: the tenses used such as past, present future give sense of time
Flexibility of symbols: arbitrary connection between words allows new words to be developed as society evolves eg. Ipod, download and alter meaning of older words such as text, web
**Productivity: infinite sentences being produced **
Language development:
What do as young as 1 month babies develop?
innate ability to distinguish between phonemes even before speaking
Language Development
What do 8 month infants develop?
They can hear words in speech streams
Language Development
During the prelinguistic stage, what occurs?
This is the time before an infant speaks
Prefer sound of language to other sounds
Language Development
Why do infants cry?
It is reflexive although after a few weeks
Able to make fake cries as a means of communicating
Children Language Development
What occurs during the babbling stage?
6-18 months old
First stage of language production by infants whereby familiar syllables and concrete words ( frequently repeated and easy to pronounce eg. Mamma, dada) are produced
1 year old, point at objects while uttering single word
Deaf children babble in sign language
Language Development
How much many words can be understood by infants between 8 and 18 months?
This expands in general from 40 to 200 words
Language Development
At what age can the toddler form words?
18 to 20 months old, toddler can create 2 word phrases.
Increase use of morphemes in their telegraphic speech (utters essential words but omits others)
Also articles, prepositions increase
Language Development
What happens when a child is 2 or 3?
Understand more syntax and begin to incorporate syntax in their language production through 2 or 3 word phrases and sentences
Language Development
How does language develop during middle childhood?
Develop metalinguistic awareness (the nature of language)
Can start to appreciate jokes, riddles and puns (ever heard a knock-knock joke from a 5-yr old?)
Language Development
How does language develop by age of 4 or 5?
Vocabulary expands to to over 2000 words following the exponential increase after first 50-100 words (Burton, Westen, Kowalski, 2009, p. 332)
Can produce and understood nearly all syntax
Language Development
How does the ‘Learning Theory’ help children learn language?
Classical conditioning: Repeating to child, and child will make connection between the physical representation and sound. Strengthening connection between concept and bird
Shaping
**Imitation: **
Language Development
What is telegraphic speech?
Young children use telegraphic speech to communicate. These utterances of essential words while omitting other parts of speech.
Language Development
What is remarkable about language?
It’s generativity. One word can be used and heard in many different, unique sentences
It is an innate process
Language Development
How does ‘Nativism’ help children learn language?
According to Chomsky and Pink due to generativity of language, children can create sentences in infinite ways which means children must have some level of language instinct (innate knowledge of language) .
Language Development
According to Chomsky, what are humans born with?
language acquisition device which is an ‘innate set of neural structures for acquiring language’. (Burton, Westen, Kowalski, 2009, p. 327)
Born with ‘language instict’ , knowledge of universals of language a term coined by linguist Steven Pinker (1994)
Language Development
What kind of environment is essential for normal language development?
An interactive environment
Language Development
How do sensitive periods relate to language development by children?
During the sensitive period, Normally between 2-5, children are able to acquire language the fastest because their brain is more receptive to language during this short period.
Second language After after 3, is more difficult and near-native fluency may be impossible as the neural circuits in brain undertake other linguistic tasks rather than process the first language. Ideally, exposure to phonemes of second language up to age 3 will be needed for fluency in second language (Mcdonald, 1997)
Lack of linguistic input results to non-linguistic representations formed in cortical areas
Neurolinguistics
Language and the brain
Which psychologists made a milestone and what did they discover?
Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke discovered specific parts of the brain were responsible for language processing in the 19th century
Describe Paul Broca’s autopsy on Tan
Broca undertook an autopsy on a man who had been mute for the past 20 years, called Tan.
While Tan could understand language, his only ever response would be the repetition of the single syllable word “tan” twice accompanied with communicative bodily gestures
It was found he had severe damage to the inferior left pre-frontal cortex–
Tan was the first clue for the localisation of language function in the brain, known as Broca’s Area
How did Tan’s damage on his left frontal cortex influence Broca’s study on subsequent patients?
Subsequent patients who also had impairment or damage to the inferior left pre-frontal cortex experienced the same lack fluency in verbal speech yet still understood speech
This brain impairment is known as Broca’s Aphasia
Features of Broca’s Aphasia
- –Speech is agrammatical
- -Speech is effortful, telegraphic, sparse, repetitive
- –Comprehension is maintained
- -Became known as a problem in the production of language
What were the works of Carl Wernicke?
Patients who could not comprehend language but could produce speech effortlesly had
–left poster, temporal lobe, mid temporal gyrus.
Now known as Wernicke’s area
•Characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia:
–Language production is maintained
Language is fluent and effortless
However, it appears to be devoid of meaning
What is an aphasia?
Aphasia patients perceive relevant stimuli however, are impaired or have no ability to comprehend and/or produce language
Lateralization of Language
Does the left hemisphere also process and manage language the same way for deaf people?
In deaf people the cortical areas devoted to sign language are the same as for spoken languages
Therefore, the regions of the brain devoted to language are specialised for symbolic representation and communication (sign language)
What did the split brain research exhibit?
Due to the lack of communication between the two hemispheres, verbal report of perceived stimuli by patient was not possible
The stimuli on the left visual field projected to right hemisphere. since the right hemisphere cannot communicate with the left, the left hemisphere cannot report it saw the stimuli
What judgements can split brain patients make?
Semantic, logical judgements and thoughts
Hard for them to understand pragmatics: sarcasm, humour , metaphor
What is global aphasia
Massive damage to the language system•
what is anomic aphasia?
Problems in finding the appropriate words in speech
Our language comprehension is predicated upon?
top-down processes
i.e. Context of the language being used whether that be the preceding or subsequent context
What is majority of language used in?
everyday conversation
what is pragmatics of language? what occurs one has pragmatic competence?
–Pragmatics of language studies how language is used and understood on an everyday basis through conversational rules.
–To have Pragmatic competence one can distinguish between sentence and speaker meaning
Pragmatics
Conversational rules. What do they refer to?
Structure of conversation
Pragmatics
Conversation Rules:
What are some conversation rules?
What influences conversation rules?
Take turns to speak. Current speaker selects next speaker such as by asking question, or other signals
Cooperative principal: assumed that rules are complied and sincere contribution to conversation by parties eg. when sarcasm is used, this infringes this principle because the sentence structure does not equate to sentence meaning
**Topic maintenance: **contribution to conversation apposite to subject, does not go off tangent or digress
violation be intentional (lack interest) or unintentional (not understood)
**Online Theories: **
theory on what the conversation partner knows or is interested in
theory conversation partner thinks about the other contributor in conversation
Social roles can influence conversation rules
Pragmatics and neuroscience
Describe a pragmatic disorder
Semantic-pragmatic disorder occurs when there is damage to the right hemisphere lesions
features include
abnormal prosody (the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry)
cannot understand humour, metaphor, sarcasm
What is the verbal overshadowing effect?
Give an example
Verbal description can distort memory. This was deduced by experiments
Eg. - Description of wine after tasting (does not apply to wine experts)
- voice (giving verbal description of voice after hearing it)
- colour
- Witnesses have found it difficult to give verbal description of suspect following the event
What can explain the verbal overshadowing effect?
As one gives a verbal description, their memory is accessed to find words relevant for the description.
However, because they are describing verbally, there is a transition from perceptual to verbal focus, in turn hindering one’s accessibility to their perceptual memories.
How did language originate?
The origins of language is unknown. There is an assumption that language evolved from expressive gestures otherwise known as the body language
Describe the importance of gestures in language?
innate hand gestures made during speech stimulates Broca’s Area in LH commonly activated by listening to speech
Gesture, being a motor activity suggests the motor system is linked to languaging processing areas of brain
- assist with finding what to say
Gestures
What are mirror neurons?
By imitiating an action, Broca’s Area is activiated before the motor cortex
Occurs to imitator and imitatee as well as watching hand movements
Which animal used gestures?
Using gestures is a reflexive action for apes
what are features of bilingual people?
speak another language in the same fluency as their native language
Does language shape thought?
Yes according to whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity, language constructs and influences thoughts and one perceives world. Conversely, thought shapes language
Does communication rely solely on syntactic rules?
Communication does not rely solely on syntactic rules of sentence strcture but conversation rules known by participants
eg. important information in writing is communicated through topic sentence. Intonation in speech, voice tone
Non verbal communication cues include body language, facial expression, gesture
How does non verbal communication influence language learning?
An example is a child who learns a new word by looking at the gaze of speaker while the speaker calls out the word
This is in exception of autistic children who do not follow gaze of speaker but attach word with object in their gaze
What part of the brain process language?
What does this suggest
How about at birth?
Left frontal lobe processes grammar
Left temporal lobe processes semantics (word meaning)
use of syntactic rules and semantics are innate
At birth, the language areas situated in left cortex is larger than right hemisphere. These neurons in left hemisphere are more responsive to speech sounds than that of right (Stromswold, 1995).
How are dyxlexic people different from others?
Do not differ intellectually but they may feel incompetent from their disorder
What happens when a child is not exposed to second language at a young age?
Nowhere near as fluent as native language in terms of effortlessness and quickly producing words.This is because neural circuit to process language is different to native speakers
if an adult learns a second language, may develop an accent.
Give a case study of a child who was not exposed to language at an early age
Neuron connections and normal lateralization of language functions will disappear
Genie who was 13 when found by authorities being raised in social deprivation. She was tied to a chair in her room since 20 months and her abusive father only ever communicated through shouting occassionally.
She did not have lateralization in left hemisphere for language, explaining why she could not produce sentences beyond ‘genie go’. Her intellectual and social abilities expanded in a few years but this stabibilised and she became socially awkard in her adult years.
Her vocabularly was sound and she did learnt to combine words into phrases but her syntax never reached normal levels.
What are ways to facilitate language development in children?
Speaking ‘Motherese’ by using a high pitch, slow pace and exaggerated intonation (Burton, Westen, Kowalski, 2009, p. 332)
Repetition by parents and adding new information
If the parents just acknowledge, syntax development is delayed (Burton, WEsten, Kowalski, 2009, p.332)
