Language Comprehension (chpt. 9) Flashcards
Language
words stand for something
- phonetics/phonology the relation of sounds to the auditory perception of signs
- semantics the relation of signs to meanings
- syntax relations between signs
- progmatics relations of signs to people who use them
Syntax (encoding and decoding)
refers to the grammatical rules that govern how we organize words into sentences
how to break a sentence into two parts
Constituents
speech units replaceable by a single word rewrite rules used to analyze constituents. Evidence for the psychological reality of constituents people parse sentences at the same place. People hear a click as falling between constituents
Function vs. Content words
content =nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
function=articles, propositions, conjunctions,
Chomsky
transformational grammar developed by chomsky similar to rewrite rules syntactic rule to transform surface structure to deep structure surface structure sentences as spoken or seen deep structure is the basic intent of a sentence
surface and deep structure can be different and similar
transformational example neg. to pos.Deep structure needs to be different to surface structure to the whoe content. Deep structure is the meaning
Factor affecting comprhension
negatives, passive vs. active voice, nested structures the man the horse but was not hurt, ambiguity, surface structure ambiguity and deep structure
Aphasia
Neurolinguistics aphasia a problem in communicating caused by brain damage
Has difficulty communicating typically as a result of damage to the brain caused by a stroke or a tumor
Broca’s aphasia
site of damage: frontal lobe, back portion, symptoms difficulty expressing whole thought less of function words
characterized by an expressive language deficit or trouble producing language
Broca’s area typically leads to hesitant speech that primarily uses isolated words and short phrases
Wernicke’s aphasia
site of damage: temporal lobe, back portion, symptoms problems in speech comprehension, fluent but nonsensical speech production problems connecting word sounds with meaning impaired processing of some types of semantics
produces serious difficulties understanding language and instruction
Psycholinguistics
is an interdisciplinary field that examines how people use language to communicate ideas
Phoneme
is the basic unit spoken language, sounds a, k and th
Morpheme
is the basic unit meaning
Morphology
refers to the study of morpheme
Grammar
encompasses both morphology and syntax it therefore examines both word structure and sentence structure
Semantic memory
refers to our organized knowledge about the world
Pragmatic
refers to our knowledge of the social rules that underline language use pragmatics take into account the listener’s perspective
Surface structure
is represented by the words that actually spoken or written
Deep structure
underlying more abstract meaning of a senstence
transformational rules
to convert deep structure into a surface structure that they can speak or write
Cognitive functional approach
that the function of human language in everyday life is to communicate meaning to other individuals
Incremental interpretation
refers to the observation that when processing language we do not wait an entire sentence is spoken or read before making judgements about what it means
On line language processing measures
On line measures of sentence processing are designed to gauge the amount of difficulty one experiences as the linguistic signal unfolds unit by unit over time
Lexical ambiguity
refers to the fact that a single word can have mutiple meaning
Eye tracker
is a special camera that allows one to determine precisely where in a visual display someone is looking
Neurolinguistics
is the discipline that examines how the brain process language
Event Related Potential Technique
records brief fluctuations in the brains electrical activity elicited by the presentation on a linguistic stimulus precise information about the time course of linguistic processing events
Lateralization
means that each hemisphere of the brain has somewhat different functions
Mirror system
is a network involving the brains motor cortex are activated both when you watch someone perform in action and when you perform the action yourself
Dual route approach to reading
specifies that skilled readers employ both 1. direct access route and 2. an indirect access route
Direct access route
you recognize this word directly through vision without sounding out the words
Indirect access route
as soon as you see a word you translate the ink marks on the page into some form of sound before you can access a word and its meaning
Whole word approach
argues that readers can directly connect the written word as an entire unit with the meaning that this word represents
Phonics approach
states that readers recognize words by trying to pronounce the individual letters in the word
Whole language approach
reading instruction should emphasize meaning, and it should be enjoyable to increase children’s enthusiasm about learning to read
Discourse
inter related units of language that are larger than a sentence
Constructionist view of inferences
readers usually draw inferences about the causes of events and the relationships between events
