Language Flashcards
what is language
system of communication using arbitrary sounds or symbols to express feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences uniquely humans (when defined as having complex grammar and productivity)
the universality of language
all cultures have a language - 5000 documented worldwide
we are driven to communicate - deaf children invent novel sign language
everyone with normal capacity = develops language and uses it easily
language development in infants is similar across cultures
languages are unique but the same
how are languages unique but the same
different words, sounds and rules
all have nouns, verbs, negatives, questions, past/present tense
skinner view on language
language learned through reinforcement
chomsky view on lnaguage
syntactic structures
human language coded in the genes
underlying basis of all language is similar
review of skinner - phrases like i hate you mommy = can’t of heard before and isn’t reinforced, studying language is a window to the mind
psycholinguistics
discover psychological process by which humans acquire and process language
- comprehension
- speech production
- representation
- aquisition
hierarchical organization of language
larger texts - discourse phrases and sentences - syntax words - semantics units of meaning - morphemes speech sounds - phonemes
production of phonemes
modulation of air by mouth and nose
flow of air from lungs
involves vocal dols in the larynx, lips, oral cavity, soft palate and dental conconant region
phonology voicing
whether vocal folds vibrate (z,b,d,v) or not (s,t,p,f)
phonology manner of produciton
whether air is fully stopped (b,p,d,t)
or merely restricted (z,s,v,f)
phonology place of articulation
where in the mouth the air is restricted
closing of the lips - b,p
top teeth against bottom lip (v,f)
tongue behind upper teeth (d,t,z,s)
phonemes are created
by combining 3 features -voicing -manner of production -place of articulation engish = 44 phonemes some language = only 12, some many more
complex speech perception
many words have no clear boundaries yet speech segmentation is effortless
ambiguity in speech segmentation - same phonemes but how do we distinguish between two different sentences eg guy vs sky is falling
coarticulation
what is coarticulation
the blending of phonemes at word boundaries
aids to speech perception
perception of language is constructed
-use prior knowledge to fill in missing information (top down processing)
phonemic restoration effect
-fill in missing phonemes based on context of sentence and portion of word presentation
-occurs even when participants are aware that a phoneme is missing
example how do we tell did you vs djoo
or big girl vs big earl
context (when presented in isolation people only understoof 1/2 of their own words)
understanding the meaning
understanding of sound and syntactic rule (eg tl is not acceptable sequence at the beginning of a word in english)
cateogircal perception
continuous variation of sounds are filtered to produce clear phonemes
we are very sensitive to difference between categories eg p vs b but to within category differences (one p vs another p sound)
lexicon
all words a person understands triangle model - need to look up orthography = written phonology = spoken /.../
phoneme
shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of the word
morphemes
smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function
free morpheme stand alone
bound morpheme - has to be bound to a free morpheme
for each word a speaker knows what kinds of information is there
phonology
orthography
syntax
semantics
referent
actual object, action or event in the world a word refers to
- conceptula information
- semantic knowledge
- not every word or phrase has a referent
- unicorn, perfect world, president of US (non-stable referent)
generativity
size of vocab is fluid
new words can be formed (eg computer words)
words can take on new meanings (hacker)
ambiguity in language / having more than one meaning
- phonological
- syntactic (global and local)
- lexical
-phonological - sky vs guy falling
-syntactic (global) - he wants to discuss sex with jay leno
-syntactic (local) because he ran the second mile went quickly (garden path sentence)
-lexical - the man found several insects, spiders and other bugs in the room
lexical ambuguity refers to multiple meanings being assigned to one word
cross-modal priming task
listen to this sentence
at the same time watch computer screen and perform lexical decision on words that appear
indicates tha immediately after hearing the word bug both meaning are primed but only briefly (so no delay both ant and spy = reaction time, but after a dealy only the context of bug workd so ant quick and spy slow)
generativity
almost infinite number of sentences can be created by combining finite set of words
but - there are rules governing which combinations of words are acceptable and which are not
syntax = rules governeing the sequences of words in a phrase or sentence
syntax - descriptive rules
what english is - basic rules of suntax
syntax - prescriptive rules
what english is supposed to be. the proper way to structure sentences
changes from one generation to the next
split infinitives or not eg to bolgly go or to go boldly
phrase stucture…
aids comprehension
global ambiguity of syntax
The syntactic organization of the words can change the meaning of the sentence.
Results in ambiguity – multiple meanings mapped onto one form/sentence (think back about lexical ambiguity)
Same sequence of sounds can result in multiple word meanings
Here, same sequence of words can result in multiple sentence meanings
generativity
almost infinite number of sentences can be created by combining finite set of words
but there are rules = some combinations are acceptable and others are not
syntax = rules governining the organisation of words in a phrase of sentence
desciprtive vs prescriptive suntax
descriptive = how we use language prescriptive = how we ought to use language
relation with syntax and meaning
different
good syntax does not mean sentence will have meaning and vice versa
sentence passing
the process of figuring out how words map onto the syntactic structure in order to understand a sentence
parsin on-line (incrementally vs waiting to the end of the sentence?
= self-paced reading
garden path sentences
get confused as nect word that appear does not match with what you were expecting to come next
eg the old man the boats
are locally ambiguous
-once all info is obtained, there is only one interpretation
but some sentences are globally ambiguous
-the sentence itself does not provide disambiguating information
=top down cues: can us eprevious knowledge to disambiguate
parsing garden path sentences
people parse sentences incrementally (ie one word at a time)
late closure = new words assumed to be part of the same phrase (attach word to the phrase currently being processed)
minimal attachment = comprehender seeks the simplest phrase structure(simplest syntactic structure, fewest nodes possible
comprehender seeks parsimony
sentence parsing and babckground knowledge
background knowledge plays a part
Hearing “the detectives examined…” leads people down the wrong path. Hearing “The evidence examined…” does not.
Evidence would be weird as the subject. Evidence doesn’t have agency to do the examining
Knowledge about the actions detectives vs evidence can take
extralinguistic context also helps
sentence processing and eye tracking
go over recordings slide 16, language 2
prosody
patterns of rythm and pitch changes
signals the difference between a question and an assertion
emphasises elements of a sentence
pragmatics
intended meaning (beyond the literal meaning)
grice’s cooperative principle
make your controcersial contribution such as is require, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged
assume speakers and listeners act cooperatively and rationally
4 Gricean maxims
maxim of quality - be truthful
maxim of quantity - ne informative
maxim of relation - be relevant
maxim of manner - be intelligible (avoid obscurity, ambiguity, be brief, be orderly)
to communicate effectively there must be
common ground
information that is assumed to be shared by both the speaker and the listener
why is language the way it is
communicative efficency
tradeoff between
-production ease = speaker says whta is leasst effortful to produce
communicative goal = speaker says what is most likely to be understood by the listener
zipf’s ;aw
word length is inversley related to word frequency
higher frequency words shorter word length
lower frequency words longer word length
language learning
children are amazingly adept at learning a language
learn phonemes of language before 1 yo
converse by 3-4 yo
even without complete exposure to language, children develop some language eg home signing
lack of negative evidence
relation to language learning
children tend to only receive positive evidence about language, not negative evidence
eg their syntax is basically never corrected
statistical learning of language
more likely hypothesis
eg 8 month old infants learned to recognise bidaku within a string of other nonsense
language and thought
eskimo has 50 words for snow
proposed means they must experience snow very differently
linguistic determinism
the language you speak changes the way you think and perceive the world -whorfian hypothesis probably not that drastic. more likely -increased attention -expertise in categorization
colour in language
need to go over recordings slides 34 ish
is there a cognitive advantage to being bilingual
is it really the case that bilinguals have better executive functions
inbibitory control - bilib=nguas need to inhibit language they are not currently using
task switching - code switchnig between languages requiers switching between tasks
is unclear differences in memory etc
language in the brain
left lateralized
comes from lesion studies and aphasic case studies
aphasia = a disruption in language due to brain damage
two main types = brocas and wernickes
brocas aphasia
associated with nonfluent aphasia
eg girl give mother toy
wernickes aphasia
associated with fluent aphasia
rambling
