Language Learning Flashcards
Semanticity?
to convey meaning that is relatively stable
Arbitrariness?
the form of the signal is not inextricable tied to meaning
Displacement?
The ability to talk about things not temporally, spatially or emotionally present
Productivity?
The infinite capacity to produce and understand meaning from finite units
Traditional transmission?
The social learning between generations
Interchangability?
The ability of speakers to produce any message that they can understand
Met-communication?
The language used to talk about language
How do behaviourists think language is learnt?
In the same way as any other behaviour (S-R-C)
How does Chomsky’s nativist approach suggest we acquire language?
Predisposed as humans (not animals- in our genes)
Innately
Not explicitly learned
WHat are 2 types of languages that dont use a fixed grammatical structure?
Pidgin Creole languages (eg. australian kriol)
What are the developmental stages of language acquisition?
pre-speech
babbling
one-word utterances
productive speech
When is the sensitive period of language learning?
before puberty (before lateralisation)
At the age of university how many words do we know?
about 50,000
Lexicon?
mental dictionary of words
Phonology?
the pronunciation of the word
Orthography?
Written form of the word
Semantic?
Meaning of the word
WHat are the 2 areas of the brain dedicated to language?
Broca’s area
Wernicke’s area
WHat is Broca’s area associated with?
Comprehension of meaning
What happens when Broca’s area is damaged?
Production aphasia
What is Wernicke’s area of the brain responsible for?
fluency
What occurs when Wernicke’s area of the brain is damaged?
Comprehension aphasia of conveying meaning
Shape bias?
The tendency to generalise the meaning on the basis of shared shapes rather than other properties (colour, texture etc.)
Words are recognised better than?
Other syllable combinations
Both spoken and written language involve
Interpreting perceptual stimuli in terms of meaning
Syntax?
grammar/ rules
Prosody?
Rhythm and tone
Pragmatics?
Content and social rules
What are the 3 differences between written and spoken language?
Word boundaries are either clear (written) or unclear (speech)
Signal remains (written) or is lost (speech)
Prosodic and non verbal cues (speech) or not prosodic and no non-verbal cues (written)- instead punctuation.
Brain damage patients with deficient inner speech can identify ________ errors but not _________ errors
semantic
syntactic
What is inner speech important for?
Working memory - the ability to order words in a sentence
What does the capacity theory suggest?
That individuals with higher working memory have a faster processing time of words.
What does working memory correlate to?
Reading comprehension
Verbal intelligence
Greater mass of grey matter in the cortex positively correlated with?
Second language proficiency
What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Linguistic relativity) state?
Language defines and confines our experiences of the world and our thoughts
What is Linguistic universalist?
The opposite of linguistic relativist in which all linguistic/cultural manifestations of temporal experiences exhibit clearly the properties and effects of an underlying universal structure of experience
