Language Flashcards
What is language?
- A system for representing, communicating information about the world using symbols and rules.
- Natural language vs Formal languages
- Human language vs animal language
Formal languages
Finite systems of signs and rules for combination
- Computer languages
- Limited number of things that can be done compared to natural language
Human language vs animal languages
- Bees, primates, cetaceans
- Animals need to be able to communicate with one another
- Closed/finite vs generative
- Human language is capable of representing abstract concepts
Evolution of language groups
- Over 6000 languages
- Evolved from ancestral languages
- Evolved from latin
- Still see great similarities between languages
- Ancestral language known as proto-languages
Functional component of languages
- Articulation
- Phonology
- Meaning/sematics
- Syntax
- Comprehension
Articulation component
- Movement of tongue, lips and jaw to modify a sound wave
- Words are articulated due to precise movements of tongue, lips, jaw and pharynx, epiglottis to shape the column of sound formed by vocal cords.
- Can produce many words because of the way in which this happens
How are sounds classified?
Based on place it is made.
Manner of articulation
Labial sounds
Touching the lips together
Alveolar/dental sounds
When the tongue presses against the top ridge, behind top teeth
Palatal sounds
Made by the tongue manipulating against the pharynx
Voiced vs unvoiced
The difference between p and b for example
What is fricatives?
Fricatives is the hissing/continous sound
Phonology
The sound combination from which the syllables and words of a language are built up.
What structures vary across languages?
Legal phonological structures varies across languages
Phonemes
Component of Syllables
What is the international phonetic alphabet?
Easier for people from different countries to have their own rules. Used as a common notation
What is semantics?
- Representation in long term memory of concepts and the relations between them
- What they signify
- Actions, objects and properties which are verbs, nouns and adjectives
- Independent of grammer
- Mapping through concepts and symbols is generally arbitrary
What is the exception for semantics?
Onomatopoeia
What is syntax?
The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
Relies on grammatical markers and word order.
Comprehension
Ability to represent the meaning of words or sentences spoken or written by another person
Entails knowledge of all of articulation, phonology, meaning and syntax
Also needs context, pitch, stress and prosody
What is prosody?
Patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry
Cerebral organisation of language
Dependent on left hemisphere network of cortical regions and white matter connections - known as the language network
Left inferior frontal gyrus
Broca’s area - production of sentences
Auditory cortex
Critical for understanding speech
Anterior regions of temporal lobe
Important in representing meaning
Wernicke’s Area
decoding incoming speech signal
Arcutae Fasciculus
Connects anterior and posterior parts of language network together
Articulation and phonology
- Depend on inferior and opercula parts of motor homunculus
- Control movements of tongue, mouth, larynx and epiglottis
- Corresponds to anterior portions of Broca’s area
Which region of the brain is responsible for meaning?
- Highly dependent on left and right temporal poles
- Dense interconnections of temporal poles and areas of association cortex where individual features of the world as we experience it are first registered and processed e.g connections with taste areas, sound features
- Formed as modality independent representations
Which region of the brain is responsible for syntax?
- Dependent of frontal areas
- Regions more posterior to Brodman’s area 44 and 45 complex
- Possibly extending into insula
- Left inferior frontal gyrus
Which region of the brain is responsible for comprehension?
- Primary auditory cortex: without being able to represent an auditory signal, you wouldn’t understand speech.
- Temporal poles: to comprehend speech, need to understand the significance of the signals you are comprehending
- Left inferior frontal gyrus: understanding syntactic elements
- Arcuate fasciculus
- Left posterior superior
- Temporal gyrus
Language change after a stroke
- Broca’s Aphasia
- Wernicke’s Aphasia
- Conduction Aphasia
- Adynamic Aphasia
What is Broca’s aphasia?
- Difficulty with articulation and phonolgy
- Speech:
- > Fragmented
- > Distorted
- > Halting
- > Aggramatic
- > Distorted grammatical structure
- Comprehension:
- > Preserved for words
- > Reduced for sentences
- Follows damage to:
- > Broca’s Area
- Typical pathologies:
- > Middle cerebral artery infarction
- > Haemorrhagic stroke
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
- Receptive/sensory aphasia
- Speech unnaturally fluent: usually contains meaningless phonological strings
- Damage: to posterior regions of language networks
- Typical pathologies: Penetrating brain injury, cerebral haemorrhage
