Language Flashcards
Three components of language
Regular: governed by rules and grammar
Arbitrary: lack of resemblance between worlds and their meaning
Productive: almost limitless ways to put the word together
Whorf Sapir
Language influences our thoughts and perception of the world
Morphemes
Smallest unit of sound that contains meaning
Phoneme
Morpheme broken down into constituent sounds
Syntax
Grammar
Semantics
Meaning of each word
Babbling
Includes rhythm and inflection
Language Explosion
Vocabulary increases rapidly
Segmentation problem
Difficulty segmenting speech into word units
Universal phonemic sensitivity
Ability of infants to discriminate between phonemes of different languages
Social learning theory
Children learn through a combination of imitation and operant conditioning
Evidence against:
Overextensions: apply a rule too broadly
Under extensions: apply a rule too specifically
Innate mechanism theory
Humans have innate mechanisms that allow them to understand and use these universal grammar rules allowing language skills to develop rapidly
Dysphemistic swearing
Euphemism: avoid thinking about how awful it is
Dysphemism: want you to know how awful it is
Emphatic swearing
Swearing for emphasis
Perceptual narrowing
Process of losing the ability to distinguish between contrasts in sounds not used in native language
