Language - Chapter 9

Question 1

Define the structure, localization, and use of language.

Answer 1

Structure: using grammar as a system of rules and principles to follow that allow for specific properties of the expression
Localization: different physical mechanisms, regions in the brain
Use: expression of thought, social relationships, communication ideas, clarifying

Question 2

Why can we not say that animals are speaking a language to each other?

Answer 2

Humans defined what language is and we don’t know enough about how animals speak so it won’t fit into our definition.

Question 3

What are the 4 main characteristics of language?

Answer 3

1. Regular: governed by a system of rules
2. Productive: there is an infinite combination of things to be expressed
3. Arbitrariness: there is a lack of necessary resemblance between words and what it refers to (the word dog doesn’t feel or sound like a dog but we called it that as it is a symbolic meaning)
4. Discreteness: a system can be subdivided into recognizable sections (sentences - words - syllables - letters)

Question 4

What are the 5 key characteristics of the structure of language?

Answer 4

1. Phonology: phoneme is the smallest unit of sound we can make
2. Morphology: morpheme is the smallest unit of sound we can make that has meaning
3. Syntax: this is the rule for how we put sentences together (structure)
4. Semantics: giving meaning to words and phrases
5. Pragmatics: all the social rules of language (not interrupting someone when they are talking)

Question 5

What are the 5 parts of the semantic aspect of language?

Answer 5

Anomaly (why cant you say certain phases)
self-contradictions (knowing something isn’t true) ambiguity (based on the context of the meaning)
synonym (not old enough is saying too young)
entailment (uncle is also assuming that its a male)

We acquire all these things without consciously learning them

Question 6

What are pragmatics?

Answer 6

Social rules that we acquire unconsciously from our environment

Question 7

Explain the 2 main problems with speech perception.

Answer 7

1. language is continuous (when hearing a foreign language, we just hear a continuous flow of words and are not able to break it up into individual words)
2. A single phoneme sounds different depending on the context (hear things based on your expectations) (Baby and bunny have the same first phoneme but because of the context given by the rest of the word, you interpret it differently)

Question 8

What are the 2 main traits to define a natural language?

Answer 8

Regular (using grammar as a rule system) and productive (infinite combinations can be expressed)

other characteristics can include arbitrariness and discreteness

Question 9

Define grammar for the language.

Answer 9

Grammar is going to refer to the set of rules that are followed to produce proper sentences. They might not always be the most polite way of speaking, but the way of speaking forms intelligible and recognizable phrases of the language.

Question 10

Describe linguistic competence and performance

Answer 10

Competence refers to the underlying linguistic knowledge that lets people produce and comprehend the language.

Performance would reflect linguistic competence only under completely ideal conditions that can never be achieved (examples of not ideal conditions are when you are tired, environment changes, lapse of memory)

Question 11

Define phonetics and phonology.

Answer 11

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and phonology is the study of the systemic ways in which speech sounds are combined and altered.

Question 12

How do consonants and vowels differ?

Answer 12

Vowels: they work by obstructing airflow and changing your mouth shapes and the position of your tongue

Consonants: using involve closing part of your mouth and they differ in the place of articulation (manner of airflow).

Question 13

What diagram is used to explain how syntax is used in language?

Answer 13

A labelled tree diagram nad it depicts the categorical constituent structure of the sentence. This can help you see what changes can be made to the sentence and how moving around words can affect it.

Question 14

What is the lexical-insertion rule?

Answer 14

This allows the insertion of words (lexical items) into the structures generated by the phrase structure rules.

Question 15

Define truth conditions.

Answer 15

They are the circumstances that are put on a sentence that make something true or not.

Question 16

What 3 things are required in order to understand the meaning of the sentence?

Answer 16

1. meaning of each word
2. syntax of the sentence
3. truth conditions

Question 17

What are the 5 different kinds of utterances?

Answer 17

Assertive (asserting one’s beliefs), Directive (instructions from speaker to listener), commissives (commit the speaker to later action), expressive (psychological states), and declarations (utterance is itself the action)

Question 18

What are the things that we do and don’t pay attention to when understanding someone’s speech?

Answer 18

We pay attention to certain acoustic properties, which will make a difference in the meaning, and we won’t pay attention to things like pitch and accent as they are not meaningful and don’t change the way we interpret the message.

Question 19

Describe how the context effect can work.

Answer 19

This effect describes how visual cues can affect how sound is perceived. This is shown by a number of studies showing how speech perceptions is subject to a number of other context effects. This is also shown to be used as something to help people perceive the text and give background to the message.

Question 20

What were the 2 kinds of speech error that occur?

Answer 20

1. errors with showing meaning relations (using a finger instead of the toe)
2. errors that showed formed relations (using guest instead of goat)

Question 21

Define lexical ambiguity.

Answer 21

This occurs with words that have two meaning (examples is back, body part of to go back somewhere)

Question 22

Define saccade.

Answer 22

Jumps between fixations when reading

Question 23

What is the eye-mind hypothesis?

Answer 23

The interpretation of each word occurs during the time it is fixated. The time spent on each fixation provide information about ease of interpretation.

Question 24

What is the propositional complexity fo a sentence?

Answer 24

It is the number of basic ideas being conveyed. The more propositions there are, the harder it will be to process.

Question 25

Describe the given-new strategy.

Answer 25

Given: this part of the sentence contains n info that is familiar from the context, proceeding info, or background knowledge.

New: This contains unfamiliar info

*people will search their memory for information corresponding to the given info and then update their memory by incorporating the new information.

Question 26

How does context help in how we interpret language?

Answer 26

Similar to visual perception, context helps our interpretation of sounds and words, but can also create illusions.

Question 27

Describe the context effect for acoustic.

Answer 27

Perception of speech is context-sensitive and the stimuli around us have a big impact on how we will perceive sounds. Can include phonetic (how words sound), lexical (word meaning) and semantic levels.

The same sound can be heard in multiple different ways based on the context you put the word in.

Question 28

Describe the McGurk effect.

Answer 28

This effect is explaing that what you see will always override what you hear, no matter is you try to stop it. YOur brain does this automatically as your visual field will always dominate your linguistics.

You see the word Ba and hear the word Ba, but when the person changes their mouth to look like they are saying Fa, you also think that they are saying Fa even when its been the same Ba sound all along.

Question 29

Describe the Whorfian hypothesis.

Answer 29

The language you know shapes the way you think about the events in the world around you. Language is tied to thinking (for example is that you can tie a subject to a certain language and only think about it in that language) Linguistic Relativity

*believed that growing up and learning and speaking will determine how one perceives the worlds and organizes the info about their thoughts on the world

Question 30

Describe the Modularity hypothesis.

Answer 30

This is stating that some cognitive processes, like perception and language, are modular and can be disconnected from each other. All meanings for an ambiguous word will be activated when hearing but then your context will context to the word and disambiguate the word to the proper meaning in that specific context.
1. domain-specific: can operate with certain input
2. Informationally encapsulated: operates independently of the belief and other available info to the processor (operate independently of other processes)

Question 31

Define aphasias.

Answer 31

A collective deficit in language comprehension and production that results from brain damage

Question 32

Define Broca’s Aphasia (expressive).

Answer 32

• produced halting and not properly formated speech
• motor dysfunction with producing the proper sounds to create the words
• difficulty comprehending reverse sentences
• damage to the left frontal lobe of brain (connected to the motor cortex, where the mouth would be)

*inside their mind, the proper sentences and words are being created, but the deficit is producing those thoughts properly.

Question 33

Define Wernickes Aphasia (receptive).

Answer 33

• cannot comprehend simple commands
• lack of comprehension, but words are produced but there is not coherent forms to the language
• damage to the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere

*inside their mind, they cannot think with proper grammar and it seems to be messed up, but they are able to fully produce these thoughts but it doesn’t make sense because the thoughts are messed up.

Question 34

Define the 4 other types of aphasias.

Answer 34

Anomia: naming object deficit
Alexia: visual language impairment (reading, sounds like dyslexia)
Agraphia: inability to write
Alexia without agraphia (pure alexia): can write, but cannot read what they have written

Question 35

Define the 4 other types of aphasias.

Answer 35

Anomia: naming object deficit
Alexia: visual language impairment (reading, sounds like dyslexia)
Agraphia: inability to write
Alexia without agraphia (pure alexia): can write, but cannot read what they have written