Language (3-4%) Flashcards
How is language (stupidly) defined?
The meaningful arrangement of sounds.
What is the study of the psychology of language known as?
Psycholinguistics
Words are made up of
Phonemes - discrete sounds, that on their own carry no meaning - arranged based on phonological rules.
What are the smallest units of meaning in language?
Morphemes - words or parts of words that have meaning
What exactly defines a linguistic “phrase”
a constituent of a sentence that is larger than a word but smaller than a clause
What exactly defines a linguistic “clause”
generally contain both a subject and verb, may be either a main clause (makes sense and is a sentence on its own) or a subordinate clause (which does not).
How is syntax different from grammar?
Grammar is the overall system of rules that includes syntax (how words are arranged), morphology (the rules affecting word forms), and sometimes also phonology and semantics.
What does language morphology or its morphological rules do?
Rules affecting the form taken by individual words.
What is semantics?
The study of what words mean, or their relationship to the concepts to which they refer.
What is phonology?
The study of sound patterns in languages.
What is phonetics?
Studies the physical properties of speech sounds and the physiological means by which these are produced and perceived.
Whats is phonemics?
the study of which of the phonetic distinctions are considered meaningful within a given language.
What is prosody?
The ways tone, accents, and other aspects of pronunciation carry meaning.
How did behaviorism conceive of language acquisition?
BF Skinner suggested we are rewarded for using certain words and punished or not rewarded for using others.
Which language acquisition theory suggested language was acquired through social learning and interaction with others?
Social interactionist theory
Who was one of the main proponents of the social interactionist theory of language acquisition?
Lev Vygotsky
Who is the most important figure in pyscholinguistics?
Noam Chomsky
What were Noam Chomsky’s contributions to psycholinguistics?
1) transformation grammar
2) language acquisition device (LAD)
What is the concept of transformational grammar?
That there are two elements of language the surface structure (the way words are organized) and deep structure (the underlying meaning of words) and that they may not change together.
LAD in regards to language stands for…
language acquisition device
What is the concept behind the language acquisition device?
That humans have an inborn ability to adopt grammar rules of the language that they hear and can use those rules to create meaning.
What is controversial about the language acquisition device?
It is a genetic interpretation.
Which comes first in babies, the ability to understand or to produce language?
To understand language
What are the stages of language development and when do they occur?
1) Pre-linguistic stage
2) Cooing (2-3 months)
3) Babbling (4-6 months)
4) Speaks first word(s) (1 year)
5) >50 spoken words, usually in 2 and then 3 word phrases (2 years)
6) 1000 words but use has many grammatical errors (3 years)
7) Grammar problems are random exceptions (4 years)
What are communication characteristics of the pre-linguistic stage?
Eye contact, facial expressions, body language, and crying are used to communicate.
What are communication characteristics of the cooing stage?
Consists solely of vowel sounds
What are communication characteristics of the babbling stage?
combining consonant and vowel sounds
What is language overextension?
The use of specific names for broader categories of things (ie. Mommy for all women)
When does language overextension usually occur in development?
From 1 year to 2-3 years of age.
What is it called when a child uses a more specific name for a more general category of things?
Overextension
What is it called when a child uses a single word to try to express a whole sentence?
holophrasic speech
What is it called when speech is stripped of its articles or extras?
Telegraphic speech
What is it called when children overapply grammar rules in instances that they do not need to be used?
Overregularization
When in development is overregularization most likely to occur?
Between 2-5 years of age.
What factors may make you slower at language acquisitions
Being a boy, being bilingual
Where are reading and writing processed in the brain?
In the speech centers of the brain
What is it called if you cannot read?
alexia
What types of words do children generally learn first?
nouns then verbs
Who is known as the founder of developmental psycholinguistics
Rodger Brown
What did Rodger Brown discover about developmental psycholinguistics?
1) That children’s understanding of grammatical rules develop as they make guesses about how syntax works and then self-correct using their experience.
2) That mean length of utterance is a better predictor of language development than age.
Rodger Brown proposed there were how many stages of language development?
5
What was Katherine Nelson’s contribution to psycholinguistics?
That language acquisition is not only about listening but also about actively talking, including talking to themselves and their parents. This not only helps them learn language but also to understand themselves and the world around them.
Who contributed the idea that the onset of active speech is important to language development?
Katerine Nelson
What is it called when a sentence makes the listener believe the sentence will mean one thing when it actually means something else?
“A garden path sentence”
Define ambiguity
When a word (lexical) or text (linguistic) ambiguity is open to multiple interpretations or has multiple meanings.
What is “parsing” as it refers to language?
The way a sentence is broken down into its constituents to get to the meaning of the message
What is the difference between online versus offline measurement of language processing?
In online processing language processing can be assessed without interrupting the speaker, in offline processing the speaker has to be stopped.
What is the correct term for “ebonics” or “black English”?
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
AAVE is a ___ of English
dialect
What theory proposed that how a culture says things influences its perspective?
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is also known as the
linguistic relativity hypothesis
What does the linguistic relativity hypothesis state?
That how a culture says things influences its perspective
Who are Russia’s two best known psychologists?
Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria
What did Vygotsky and Luria learn about language development?
1) Development of word meanings is changed by interpersonal experience
2) Language is a tool involved in the development of abstract thinking (not just a byproduct of abstract thinking.)
What did Charles Osgood study?
semantics
What do semantic differential charts do?
Allow people to plot their perception of a words meaning graphically.
What did Charles Osgood’s studies with semantic differential charts show?
People from similar cultures or subcultures have shared connotations for certain words.
What is connotation?
Implied meaning
Which side of the brain is Broca’s area located on?
The dominant side of the brain (usually the left)
Broca’s area is most closely associated with what element of language?
Speech production
Damage to Broca’s area is most commonly associated with what kind of aphasia?
Nonfluent aphasia (can understand speech but cannot or has difficulty producing it.)
Wernicke’s area is located on which side of the brain?
The dominant side of the brain (usually the left)
What part of the brain is Wernicke’s area located in?
The posterior section of the temporal lobe.
Wernicke’s area is most closely associated with what element of language?
the comprehension of speech and written language.
Damage to Wernicke’s area is most commonly associated with what kind of aphasia?
fluent aphasia, where someone cannot understand language but can produce sounds with the rhythm and sound of language.
Who was instrumental in studying AAVE and establishing it as a valid dialect?
William Labov
Name important examples of animal communication
Washoe - Chimp, ASL 300-400 signs combined into sentences
Koko - Gorilla, ASL 1000+ signs
Lana - Chimp, communicated desires with lexigrams
Dolphins - Can understand but may not use language
What is a lexigram?
An artificial language using symbols on a keyboard
