Language and speaking

Question 1

language =

Answer 1

an exchange of information, set of spoken/written/signed words combined to communicate meaning, requires understanding of syntax

Question 2

what makes learning a language difficult?

Answer 2

depends whether it is your 1st or 2nd language

Question 3

what is required to make language special to humans?

Answer 3

syntax

Question 4

all animals use speaking (vocal-auditory channel) to communicate. what complex aspects do only humans use?

Answer 4

duality of patterning (grammar), specialised adapted speech organ, comprehension (interchangeability)

Question 5

describe the Sapir-Whorf theory

Answer 5

humans complex language makes us think in a more complex way that sets us apart from other animals. so the way we think is because of the language we use (however less popular theory now)

Question 6

describe research that looks at how colour perception is affected by language

Answer 6

looked at how we categorise different shades of ‘blue’, in russian they have different words for different shades. this affects an individuals ability to perceive those colours so do we see the same thing?

Question 7

what affects ability to remember items on a list?

Answer 7

word order in a language

Question 8

if you speak a language that is front loaded this means you are ____ at remembering things from the front of the list. if your language has most meaning at the end of sentences then you’re more able to remember things at the ____ of the list

Answer 8

better, end

Question 9

what is language based on?

Answer 9

mental representations

Question 10

describe the mental representation process for COMPREHENSION of language

Answer 10

in the brain when listening to speech, you activate your existing mental representations that match the sound you hear > link it to meaning > output = comprehension

Question 11

describe the mental representation process for PRODUCTION of language

Answer 11

when trying to speak to someone, you activate the concept (thing you want to say) > have to link the concepts to the sounds and syntax that represent the concept words > get meaning across > output = production

Question 12

accessing words and representations of words ‘inside the box’ to either comprehend or produce speech =

Answer 12

mental lexicon

Question 13

speaking and writing are examples of?

Answer 13

production

Question 14

reading and understanding are examples of?

Answer 14

comprehension

Question 15

what are the building blocks of language?

Answer 15

semantics, syntax, morphology, form (phonology > sound), speech

Question 16

semantics =

Answer 16

meaning/concept

Question 17

to express a concept word, semantics has to link with ____ and ______

Answer 17

form, syntax

Question 18

what model best describes semantic memory structure and how?

Answer 18

associative network model, semantic relatedness > activation of one concept sparks activation of related concepts in memory

Question 19

how is the mental lexicon linked to semantic memory?

Answer 19

in mental lexicon (store of words) activate things related by sound, written down and meaning

Question 20

syntax =

Answer 20

grammar (different word orders in different languages)

Question 21

smallest meaningful unit of sound =

Answer 21

morphemes

Question 22

collection of sounds that combined have meaning =

Answer 22

free morpheme

Question 23

suffix =

Answer 23

morpheme at end of word

Question 24

prefix =

Answer 24

morpheme at beginning of word

Question 25

inflix =

Answer 25

emphasis

Question 26

within form, what is the sound system of language?

Answer 26

phenology

Question 27

constituent sounds that are put together to build up into words =

Answer 27

phonemes

Question 28

roughly how many phonemes are there in english?

Answer 28

40

Question 29

what symbol is used to represent a sound?

Answer 29

/ | can be more than 1 letter if it represents a single sound

Question 30

orthography =

Answer 30

writing system

Question 31

visual representation of a phoneme, can be made up of a number of letters or 1 letter =

Answer 31

graphemes

Question 32

why we choose a certain language =

Answer 32

pragmatics

Question 33

what does pragmatics depend on?

Answer 33

context, meaning, emphasis, vocabulary, who's being addressed

Question 34

what are Grice Maxims rules of conversation? (quantity, quality, relation, manner)

Answer 34

don't include more info than necessary, truthful communication, relevant to topic, avoid ambiguity

Question 35

what do cases of aphasia allow us to see?

Answer 35

where different language processes may be located in the brain

Question 36

what area is specific to producing speech?

Answer 36

Broca's area

Question 37

what area is specific to comprehending speech?

Answer 37

Wernicke's area

Question 38

what is the evidence that producing and comprehending speech are DISTINCT PROCESSES?

Answer 38

it is possible to be able to comprehend but not speak and vice versa

Question 39

how many words do we speak p/s?

Answer 39

2-3

Question 40

how many words do we speak p/min?

Answer 40

150-200

Question 41

why does speech contain 'ums', 'ers', pauses and hesitations?

Answer 41

in the mental lexicon we have huge amount of info that is activated when speaking and listening so makes sense that speech can be disfluent. our brain filters out this disfluency when hearing speech.

Question 42

how are the building blocks formed when writing language?

Answer 42

activate concept > link to phenological sound representations > link to semantic meaning > activate syntactic elements > activate the orthographic text

Question 43

what is the process in the mental lexicon that occurs unconsciously when a word is activated?

Answer 43

spreading activation

Question 44

what types of relevant concepts can be activated from the word 'tiger'?

Answer 44

other cats (semantic), other words that sound similar (phonological), orthographic

Question 45

how does spreading activation work?

Answer 45

causes a ripple effect from one word or concept activated in the mental lexicon through the SEMANTIC, PHONOLOGICAL, ORTHOGRAPHIC RELATEDNESS

Question 46

how does spreading activation cause an underlying process of competition? give an example

Answer 46

huge level of info is activated so is competing for attention and selection. e.g. activate word 'tiger' in mental lexicon but may say the word 'lion' as it is activated strongly

Question 47

in response to activation of a concept:

Answer 47

related words are activated in the mental lexicon and activated words compete for selection

Question 48

what are the measures for competitive processes with selection of concepts?

Answer 48

hesitations in speech, blend errors, tip of the tongue states

Question 49

what are the different methods used to test speech production?

Answer 49

timing of speech onset/hesitations/pauses, speech errors, tip of the tongue state

Question 50

what might a delay in initiating speech show?

Answer 50

language processing problems

Question 51

In the study conducted by Schacter et al (1991) testing hesitations in 2 lecturers subjects, why were more 'ahs' and 'ums' found in speech for humanities lecture compared to natural science lecture?

Answer 51

humanities talks about related concepts, synonyms, words that share meaning whereas science might have less words that mean the same thing in their mental lexicons. humanities = more words activated > more competition for attention > less fluid speech. science = less activation > less competition > more fluid speech

Question 52

idea that you know what you want to say but retrieve the wrong word to say it =

Answer 52

speech errors

Question 53

why does a larger number of words in the lexicon result in more hesitations?

Answer 53

concepts compete for articulation | measurable by level of fluid speech produced

Question 54

what do Vigliocco & Hartsuiker (2002) estimate how many time a speech error occurs?

Answer 54

every 500 sentences

Question 55

what would the WORD slip of the tongue be for 'the prong of a fork'?

Answer 55

the fork of a prong

Question 56

what would the MORPHEME slip of the tongue be for 'sliced thinly'?

Answer 56

slicely thinned

Question 57

what would be the PHONEME slip of the tongue for 'york library'?

Answer 57

lork yibrary

Question 58

what would be the CONCEPT slip of the tongue for 'spoon and fork'?

Answer 58

spork

Question 59

do exchanges usually come from the same or different category?

Answer 59

same

Question 60

what does the fact that we switch across whole words with word errors suggest?

Answer 60

there is a word level of processing

Question 61

what speech errors are produced from sematics?

Answer 61

conceptualisation, semantic blend errors ('spork')

Question 62

what speech errors are produced from syntax and morphemes?

Answer 62

formulation, syntactic and morpheme exchange (switching the morphological elements of words)

Question 63

what speech errors are produced from articulation?

Answer 63

word and phoneme exchange e.g. forks of a prong, lork yibrary (exchange complete words or parts of words)

Question 64

what are some of the rules with speech errors?

Answer 64

exchanges or blend errors result in 'legal' non words (make sense to say e.g. spork not fpoon), phoneme combinations are restricted by rules

Question 65

idea of knowing what you want to say but you can't retrieve the word to say it =

Answer 65

tip of the tongue state

Question 66

what can result in hesitation or tip of the tongue state?

Answer 66

interference from conflicting info > activation and competition between related terms BLOCKS retrieval of the target word

Question 67

what were Smith & Tindell's results in their tip of the tongue experiment?

Answer 67

looked at competition in mental lexicon. found activation of related information (anchovy) interferes with access of target information (anatomy). found activation of unrelated information (failure) doesn't interfere with access of target information (baggage) SHOWS THAT RELATED ITEMS COMPETE FOR ACTIVATION