Language Flashcards
Define
Anaphoric inference
An inference that connects an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence
Define
Biased dominance
when a word has more than one meaning, but with different dominances
Define
Broca’s aphasia
a type of aphasia characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language (spoken, manual, or written), although comprehension generally remains intact
Define
Causal inference
the process of drawing a conclusion about a causal connection based on the conditions of the occurrence of an effect
Define
Coherence
sense relations between single units (sentences or propositions) of a text. Due to these relations, the text appears to be logically and semantically consistent for the reader-hearer
Define
Common ground
a communication technique based on mutual knowledge as well as awareness of mutual knowledge
Define
Corpus
the main body or mass of a structure.
Define
Garden path sentence
a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader’s most likely interpretation will be incorrect
Define
Given-new contract
an approach where both the person involved in a conversation are attentive enough and referring to the common information known to both of them
Define
Inference
a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning
Define
Instrument inference
An inference about tools or methods that occurs while reading text or listening to speech
Define
Interactionist approach to parsing
theory about how humans parse sentences that states that both syntax and semantics work together to determine the meaning of a sentence
Define
Late closure
the principle that new words (or “incoming lexical items”) tend to be associated with the phrase or clause currently being processed rather than with structures farther back in the sentence.
Define
Lexical ambuguity
a writing error that occurs when a sentence contains a word that has more than one meaning
Define
Lexical decision task
a procedure used in many psychology and psycholinguistics experiments. The basic procedure involves measuring how quickly people classify stimuli as words or nonwords
Define
Lexicon
the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
Define
Morpheme
a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided (e.g. in, come, -ing, forming incoming ).
Define
Parsing
resolve (a sentence) into its component parts and describe their syntactic roles
Define
Phoneme
any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.
Define
Phonemic restoration effect
a perceptual phenomenon where under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard
Define
Psycholinguistics
the study of the relationships between linguistic behaviour and psychological processes, including the process of language acquisition
Define
Saccadic eye movement
rapid, ballistic movements of the eyes that abruptly change the point of fixation
Define
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
a hypothesis, first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience
Define
Semantics
the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning
Define
Situation model
a cognitive representation of the events, actions, and, more generally, the circumstances of the problem
Define
Speech segmentation
the process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or phonemes in spoken natural languages
Define
Syntactic coordination
the use of similar grammatical construction whenever two people exchange their statements within a conversation
Define
Syntactic priming
a form of positive priming, in that it induces a tendency to repeat or more easily process a current sentence that is similar in structure to a previously presented prime
Define
Syntax
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
Define
Syntax-first approach to parsing
proposed by Lynn Frazier. It is one the earliest approach to explain the parsing and garden path sentences. It states that when people read a sentence, their grouping of words into phrases is governed by a number of rules that are based on the syntax
Define
Visual world paradigm
a typical eye tracking study using participants’ eye movements to pictures in a display or to real objects in a visual workspace are monitored as they listen to, or produce, spoken language depicting the contents of the visual world
Define
Wernicke’s aphasia
a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language
Define
Word frequency effect
a psychological phenomenon where recognition times are faster for words seen more frequently than for words seen less frequently
Define
Word superiority effect
the phenomenon that people have better recognition of letters presented within words as compared to isolated letters and to letters presented within nonword (orthographically illegal, unpronounceable letter array) strings.
Definition
An inference that connects an object or person in one sentence to an object or person in another sentence
Anaphoric inference
Definition
when a word has more than one meaning, but with different dominances
Biased dominance
Definition
a type of aphasia characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language (spoken, manual, or written), although comprehension generally remains intact
Broca’s aphasia
Definition
the process of drawing a conclusion about a causal connection based on the conditions of the occurrence of an effect
Causal inference
Definition
sense relations between single units (sentences or propositions) of a text. Due to these relations, the text appears to be logically and semantically consistent for the reader-hearer
Coherence
Definition
a communication technique based on mutual knowledge as well as awareness of mutual knowledge
Common ground
Definition
the main body or mass of a structure.
Corpus
Definition
a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader’s most likely interpretation will be incorrect
Garden path sentence
Definition
an approach where both the person involved in a conversation are attentive enough and referring to the common information known to both of them
Given-new contract
Definition
a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning
Inference
Definition
An inference about tools or methods that occurs while reading text or listening to speech
Instrument inference
Definition
theory about how humans parse sentences that states that both syntax and semantics work together to determine the meaning of a sentence
Interactionist approach to parsing
Definition
the principle that new words (or “incoming lexical items”) tend to be associated with the phrase or clause currently being processed rather than with structures farther back in the sentence.
Late closure
Definition
a writing error that occurs when a sentence contains a word that has more than one meaning
Lexical ambuguity
Definition
a procedure used in many psychology and psycholinguistics experiments. The basic procedure involves measuring how quickly people classify stimuli as words or nonwords
Lexical decision task
Definition
the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
Lexicon
Definition
a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided (e.g. in, come, -ing, forming incoming ).
Morpheme
Definition
resolve (a sentence) into its component parts and describe their syntactic roles
Parsing
Definition
any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.
Phoneme
Definition
a perceptual phenomenon where under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be restored by the brain and may appear to be heard
Phonemic restoration effect
Definition
the study of the relationships between linguistic behaviour and psychological processes, including the process of language acquisition
Psycholinguistics
Definition
rapid, ballistic movements of the eyes that abruptly change the point of fixation
Saccadic eye movement
Definition
a hypothesis, first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Definition
the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning
Semantics
Definition
a cognitive representation of the events, actions, and, more generally, the circumstances of the problem
Situation model
Definition
the process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or phonemes in spoken natural languages
Speech segmentation
Definition
the use of similar grammatical construction whenever two people exchange their statements within a conversation
Syntactic coordination
Definition
a form of positive priming, in that it induces a tendency to repeat or more easily process a current sentence that is similar in structure to a previously presented prime
Syntactic priming
Definition
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
Syntax
Definition
proposed by Lynn Frazier. It is one the earliest approach to explain the parsing and garden path sentences. It states that when people read a sentence, their grouping of words into phrases is governed by a number of rules that are based on the syntax
Syntax-first approach to parsing
Definition
a typical eye tracking study using participants’ eye movements to pictures in a display or to real objects in a visual workspace are monitored as they listen to, or produce, spoken language depicting the contents of the visual world
Visual world paradigm
Definition
a type of aphasia in which individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language
Wernicke’s aphasia
Definition
a psychological phenomenon where recognition times are faster for words seen more frequently than for words seen less frequently
Word frequency effect
Definition
the phenomenon that people have better recognition of letters presented within words as compared to isolated letters and to letters presented within nonword (orthographically illegal, unpronounceable letter array) strings.
Word superiority effect
What is language?
System of communication using sounds or symbols
Expression of feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences
What are the main features of human language?
- Hierarchical system
- Components that can be combined to form larger units
- Governed by rules
- Specific ways components can be arranged
What are some examples of evidence that language is universal?
- Deaf children invent sign language
- All cultures have a language
- Language development is similar across cultures
- Languages are “unique but the same”
- Different words, sounds, and rules
- All have nouns, verbs, negatives, questions, past/present tense
What did Skinner believe about language?
Language is learned through reinforcement
What did Chomsky believe about language? What supported his ideas?
- Human language coded in our genes
- Underlying basis of all language is similar
- Support:
- Children produce sentences they have never heard and that have never been reinforced
What are the four areas of psycholinguistics?
Conprehension
Speech production
Representation
Acquisition
What is a lexicon?
All words a person understands
What is the smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function?
Morpheme
How many morphemes is there in these words?
Boys
Like
Unbelieveable
Boys: 3; Boy+s
Like: 1
Unbelievable: 3; Un+believe+able
What is the word superiority effect?
Letters are easier to recognise when they are in a word
Letters not processed one by one
Each letter is affected by context
What is a corpus?
The frequency and context of a word used in a specific language
What is the Lexicon decision task?
Read a list of words and non-words silently
Say “yes” when you read a word
How is the word frequency effect related to the lexical decision task?
Respond more rapidly to high-frequency words
While we read, we tend to look at ____-frequency words longer
While we read, we tend to look at low-frequency words longer
What is lexical ambiguity?
Words have more than one meaning
What are homonyms? Give an example
Words that sound the same but have a different meaning
e.g. Date
What are homograph? Give an example
Words than look the same but are said differently
e.g. read
How do we deal with lexical ambiguity?
Context clears up ambiguity after all meanings of a word have been briefly accessed
What is semantics? What is syntax?
Semantics: meanings of words and sentences
Syntax: rules for combining words into sentences
Which of these phrases have semantic and/or syntax errors?
My cat is lazy
My cat is Emperor of Rome
My cat is not sleep
Cat the lazy couch sleeping is on my
My cat is lazy: Semantics correct, syntax correct
My cat is Emperor of Rome: syntax correct but semantics incorrect
My cat is not sleep: Semantics correct but syntax incorrect
Cat the lazy couch sleeping is on my: Both semantics and syntax incorrect
What have ERPs shown about syntax and semantics?
Event-related potential and brain imaging studies have shown syntax and semantics are associated with different mechanisms
What is parsing? Give an example of incorrect parsing
mental grouping of words in a sentence into phrases
“We’re going to learn to cut and paste kids!”
What is the syntax-first approach to parsing?
Grammatical structure of sentence determines parsing
Late closure: parser assumes new word is part of the current phrase
Garden-path model
What is the interactionist approach to parsing?
Semantics influence processing as one reads a sentence
i.e. The spy saw the man with the binoculars
What are the three types of inference? What do they concern?
Anaphoric: connecting objects/people
Instrumental: tools or methods
Causal: events in one clause caused by events in previous sentence
What is a situational model?
mental representation of what a text is about
Describe this diagram
Results of Stanfield and Zwaan’s (2001) and Zwaan et al.’s (2002) experiments. Participants responded “yes” more rapidly for the orientation (in a) and the shape (in b) that was more consistent with the sentence.
True or False
Approximately the same areas of the cortex are activated by actual movements and by reading related action words
True
The activation is more extensive for actual movements
What information is provided in a given-new contract?
Given information
New information
New can then become given information
What is syntactic priming?
Production of a specific grammatical construction by one person increases chances other person will use that construction
Noam Chomsky suggested the following:
Select one or more:
a. Human language is encoded in our genes
b. The underlying basis of all language is similar
c. Language is typically learned through reinforcement
d. There is a critical period for language development in children
Noam Chomsky suggested the following:
Select one or more:
a. Human language is encoded in our genes
b. The underlying basis of all language is similar
c. Language is typically learned through reinforcement
d. There is a critical period for language development in children
A morpheme…
Options:
- Is one person’s entire vocabulary (also called lexicon)*
- Is smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function*
- Is any sound in a unit of speech that, if changed, changes the grammatical structure of the sentence*
- Is the shortest segment of speech that if changed, changes the meaning of the word*
A morpheme is smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function
_______________ is when a word has ______________
Options:
- A superiority effect*
- More than one meaning*
- Lexical ambiguity*
- Lexical singularity*
- A repetitive effect*
Lexical ambiguity is when a word has More than one meaning
Which of the following is the best example of syntactic ambiguity?
Select one:
a. “I saw my neighbour with a telescope”
b. “My cat yelled at me this morning it made me sad”
c. “I just had dinner with my parents, Michelle Obama and Donald Trump”
d. “I’m going to learn how to cook Grandma”
Which of the following is the best example of syntactic ambiguity?
Select one:
a. “I saw my neighbour with a telescope”
b. “My cat yelled at me this morning it made me sad”
c. “I just had dinner with my parents, Michelle Obama and Donald Trump”
d. “I’m going to learn how to cook Grandma”
True or false:
The given-new contract is when the listener correctly anticipates the speaker’s next sentence so that the speaker’s old information can become part of new information.
False
The Given-new contract is when the speaker constructs sentences so that they include: given information and new information, so that the new information can then become the given information.
True or false:
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states language influences thought.
True
