Language Flashcards
top 5 most widely spoken languages
- Mandarin
- Spanish
- English
- Hindi-Urdu
- Arabic
do we know how many languages there are?
not really, because the line between languages and dialects is blurred
evidence that DNA encodes a strong ability to learn language
kids deaf from birth will invent their own language
language definition
arbitrary, but conventional symbols combined in a rule-like way to convey meaning
what are rules required for in language
for putting symbols together
who came up with properties of language
Hockett (1960, 1966)
4 properties of language
- semantic
- arbitrary
- displaced
- productive
how is language semantic
there must be intention to convey something of meaning
why is language displaced
gives us the ability to talk about things that aren’t present
how is language productive
we can come up with new words and sentences
2 things that allow language to be productive
- it is hierarchical
2. is has rules
3 disciplines of language
- linguistics
- psycholinguistics
- neurolinguistics
linguistics
study of emergence of language
psycholinguistics
study of language and psychology
neurolinguistics
study of language and the nervous system
3 ways language is represented in the mind
- surface structure
- propositional level / meaning / gist
- situation model
surface structure
exact words you are reading
how long does the surface structure representation remains
it decays very quickly
propositional level
general idea of what was said
example of propositional level representation
EAT (FROG, BUG) represents “the frog eats the bug”
situational model
a mental representation of the situation described by what you just heard
is the situational model based simply on what is heard
no, it can be a lot more than what is heard
6 levels of language
- phonology
- morphology
- semantics
- syntax
- discourse
- pragmatics
phonology
study of sound systems in a language
phoneme
smallest unit of speech that makes a difference to a native speaker
what happens if you change a phoneme
you change the meaning
difference between phonemes and sounds
sounds don’t necessarily change meaning
how many phonemes in all human languages
about 200
how many phonemes in English
about 46, depending on the dialect
how many phonemes in Hawaiian
15
morphology
study of word formation and word structure
morpheme
smallest unit of language with meaning or function
how is a morpheme different from a word
a morpheme may or may not be able to stand on its own
example of a morpheme with grammatical function but not meaning
pre-
semantics
the study of meaning
truth value
if a sentence matches to something that exists, it is true and has meaning
how is semantics related to associations
words bring up a set of associations which bring meaning to the word
mental lexicon
everything you know inside your head (the dictionary inside your head)
how are bilingual lexicons different
perhaps bilingual people have more than one lexicon
syntax
system of rules and categories that underlie sentence formation
difference between syntax and grammar
grammar = rules you are taught syntax = what you actually do
2 structures in syntax
- surface structure
2. deep structure
surface structure
order of words in a sentence
deep structure
underlying form of a sentence
discourse
putting sentences together to form something that is meaningful
4 most common discourses
- narration
- exposition
- persuasion
- conversation
pragmatics
ways in which context contributes to meaning
what does pragmatics include
what is unsaid or unintended
challenge with perceiving phonemes
sounds aren’t the same as phonemes, and different people pronounce phonemes differently
phonemic restoration effect
if we cut out a phoneme and replace it with white noise, people recall hearing both the white noise AND the phoneme
segmentation problem
we can understand individual words even though spoken sounds aren’t segmented into words
2 other problems of word comprehension
- we don’t annunciate clearly
2. one word can have multiple meanings
how does frequency effect word comprehension (3 things)
- we read frequent words faster than less frequent words
- fixation times are faster
- lexical decisions are faster
lexical decision
is this a real word I’m looking at
how does syntax help determine word meaning
helps determine if a word is a noun or a verb
meaning dominance
for ambiguous words, one meaning is often favored
word superiority effect
people are faster at recognizing letters in a word, than letters in a non-word string, or letters alone
what does the word superiority effect demonstrate
top-down processing occurring during reading
challenge with comprehending sentences
must say one word at a time, but syntax is hierarchical
garden path sentences
give people sentences that take a turn and change meaning at the end
syntax-first approach
when reading a sentence you form a syntactic tree, and if you make a mistake you change it after
what type of approach is the syntax-first approach
late closure
interactionist approach
meaning is key in understanding a sentence
visual world paradigm
looking at a picture and listening to a sentence
- where you look shows how you interpret the sentence
example supporting the interactionist approach
difference between “the spy saw the man with binoculars” and “the bird saw the man with binoculars”
3 problems with comprehending discourse
- we say very little when we talk to each other
- we speak very fast
- we often don’t say what we mean
given-new contract
when making a sentence, start with a given and add on the new
given
information that is already known, or from earlier in the conversation
what does given information depend on
social and cultural contracts
new
information you will add in your utterance
co-operative principle
we agree on certain guidelines in how to speak
4 conversational maximums
- maximum quantity
- maximum quality
- maximum relation
- maximum manner
maximum quantity
don’t say anything more than you need to
maximum quality
don’t say anything you aren’t sure of
maximum relation
don’t say anything that is irrelevant
maximum manner
be brief, be orderly, be clear
what occurs if a maximum is violated
we can infer that you mean something else
situation models
construct a mental representation of the situation
embodied cognition
part of mental representation in reading is perceptual representations (imagining)
perceptual simulations
when we read something we get an abstract perceptual representation
example of a perceptual simulation
“he hammered a nail into the wall”
- people will identify a horizontal nail faster than a vertical one
motoric simulation
if you read about an action, parts of the brain related to this will become active
conversation
series of sentences exchanged that fulfills a goal within a social context
physical aspect of conversation
body language
3 techniques used in conversation
- given-new contract
- try to achieve common ground
- syntactic coordination
syntactic coordination
tendency to recycle syntax when having a conversation
achieving common ground
confirmation that we are on the same page by using certain words like “right?”
syntactic priming
give someone a sentence to listen to, ask them to describe an unrelated picture
- they will use the same syntax
3 stages of speech production
- conceptualization
- formulation
- articulation
conceptualization
formulating the intention of what you want to say
formulation
deciding what words to use and what syntactic structures to build
articulation
creating a phonetic plan of what sounds you want to produce
hypothesis of how language and cognition are related
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
evidence for Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (2)
- different languages effect color perception
2. different languages effect family relations
how do languages effect naming colors
specific progression of colors based on language words to describe colors
color progression based on language words
3 = black, white, red 4 = + green 5 = + blue
how would someone perceive orange if they lacked a color word to describe it?
as red
how do different languages effect family relations
- in English we distinguish male and female for siblings
- in Japanese they distinguish order that brothers are born
- shows what is important in each culture
