language - intro Flashcards
language hierarchy
phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences
(phonemes, morphemes, semantics, syntax)
what are phonemes?
single unit of sounds that changes meaning (Log v Dog).
about 40 in English
words are made up of…
morphemes - which are the smallest languages unit that carry meaning
words suffixes and prefixes
bound v unbound morphemes
bound = do not stand on their own (have a functional role)
unbound = words
inflectional and derivational morphemes
inflectional = add meaning to words (DISgruntlED)
Derivational = change grammatical class (ER)
content v functional morphemes
content: dog/ lecture/ food
functional: in/ of/ to/ by
content words
semantic processing relies on CONTENT words
- they map onto concepts (unit of semantic memory) = nouns, adjectives, verbs
syntactic processing relies on…
syntactic processing relies on processing FUNCTION words
- pronouns, conjunctives
Syntax
refers to the structure of language (sentences/ phrases)
rules for ordering words are learning implicitly
Broca’s Aphasia
problems with function words - uses mostly content words
Surface v Deep Structuring
Surface: organisation level of words
Deep: meaning of the sentence
“i saw a zebra flying over Africa” = 1 surface, 2 deep
Werenicke’s aphasia
when comprehension is more intact than ability to produce language. They appear to talk normally but content does not appear to make sense.
Often there are still intact abilities - automatic functions
Early Infant Speech production
Infants have a predisposition to tell the difference between human and artificial sounds.
- newborns can perceive many basic phoneme contrasts
- not restricted to the sounds in language they are growing up in
- At 3months - they have discrimination between animal and human sounds
Perception of consonant sounds become categorical…
ba & pa = 25msec in VOT
(VOT = time interval between release of consonant and onset of voicing)
detections of phonemic change…experiment
HAS - High Amplitude Sucking Technique
use operant conditioning - babies begin to know if they strongly suck dummy sound comes out. Used to see if babies can detect sounds
detections of phonemic change is modified by experience - depending on the language they grew up in
at what age do children fine-tune their perception to the language they are in?
9 months old
producing language (speech sounds)
infants…
cooing - 2months
reduplicated babbling (gagaga) - 6-7months
variagated babbling - 11-12months
at 10months babies sounds have adapted to the language it hears
why do infants make a limited set of sounds?
due to the shape of their vocal tract and the development of the motor cortex
at age 3 - harder sounds are produced
comprehension versus production
word comprehension (receptive vocab) precedes productive vocab by an average of 4 months.
initial acquisition rate fro comprehension is twice that of production, even phoneme production lags behind comprehension
The Vocab Burst
major increase in productive vocab acquisition rate after first 50 words are learned (18months)
when are words overextended?
1-25 words = 45% overextended
26-50 = 35%
51-75 = 25%
why does ‘the vocab burst’ occur?
- develop understanding of the symbolic nature of language
- develops more control over articulation
- easier retrieval
Overextension v Underextension
overextension: ‘dog’ refers to all cats and dogs
underextension: ‘dog’ only for family dog not other dogs
newer words are fragile so overextensions are more common when one has fewer words
how do youngsters learn to communicate beyond single words?
by using protowords & nonverbal functions of language
Holophrases
single word that stands for an entire statement
early sentences occur at
around 2 yrs old - they begin to combine words they have specific meaning relations they like to convey
pivot grammars
words frequently found in same position or occurred together alot
(possession, naming, attributes, actions)
problem - not always consistent using it
later syntactic development occurs at
4yrs old - syntax begins to resemble adult language
nativist views of language:
children are biologically predisposed to learn language - innate
- Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
- Language Acquisition Device - Chompsky
-Cognitive structures that are specific for language and underlying knowledge of syntax grows as child grows
3 prongs to nativist views
- Children acquire language rapidly
- Children acquire language effortlessly
- Children acquire language without being explicitly taught
Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
Pigins & Creoles
Pigins: inverted languages drawing from grammar and words from a group of languages
Creoles: when pigin is acquired as a nature langugage (children) it becomes more grammatically complex
Evidence for the Sensitive period for language includes..
Isolated Children and Deaf Signers
Genie
13yrs old when language learning really started - lateralization already started
- she could put out function words - not grammatically correct though.
- different rates of progress seen in acquiring words vs syntax
Deaf Signers
sign language developed like pgin - became more like creole
shows sensitive period of development
Word Boundaries
Babies categorise words - pick up on abstract patterns.
the distributional structure of language is what allows children to form these syntactic categories
Statistical learning
children look for a linger time at the novel sequence
Even though this information was put together in a sequence, they could work out some boundaries - bidak
- even came up with this artificial grammar during sleep
