Language Exam 3 Flashcards
Language
spoken written or signed words combined in order to communicate meaning.
Phonemes
in any given language the smallest distinctive sound unit.
Morphemes
: smallest units in a language that carry meaning. May be part of a word like a prefix.
Grammar
the rules by which we put these things together. Derive meaning from sounds(phonemes) and how to combine words into phrases(morphemes). The rules of the language.
Development: Babbling
Beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.
Telegraphic speech first 2 years:
Talking through verbs and nouns no adjectives (want milk, pet cat, go car).
Theory of language development – critical period
Critical period: The first couple years of life seem crucial to exposing kids to language
Biology: Aphasia
Language disability due to damage to the brain. Usually caused by the left hemisphere damage to either the Broca’s area(impaired speaking) or Wernicke’s area(impairing understanding.
Biology: Broca’s Area:
Control the expression of language, in the frontal lobe. If people have a stroke, they have a hard time making words and talking. They can understand but for them to be able to reply it tends to be harder. Expression is impaired.
Biology: Wernicke’s area:
language comprehension of understanding language, located in the left temporal lobe. Produce speech easily but what they say doesn’t make sense. Difficulty in language comprehension. Comprehension is impaired.
Thinking & language
(relation of thought and language)– linguistic determinism, linguistic relativism
Linguistic determinism:
Language determines the way we think. If we don’t have a word for something we can never have a concept of it.
Linguistic relativism:
Language influences the way we think.
