Language part 1 Flashcards
LANGUAGE
* Problem:
How to efficiently and expressively
communicate information.
Importance:
is the basis for society. It allows us to interact with each other in a way that goes beyond our immediate surroundings
Challenge, LANGUAGE
The power of language lies in the seemingly conflicting needs for it to be shared between people and yet capable of expressing novel
ideas.
POWER OF HUMAN
LANGUAGE
Communicates information rapidly
Supports interactive social networks
Preserves knowledge beyond individuals
Accumulates wisdom across generations
References any time or place, real or imaginary
Encourages creativity through generativity and compositionality
HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION OF LANGUAGE.
- Sentence
- Phrase
- word
- morpheme
- Phoneme
Phonemes
Smallest speech unit
Varies by language
/l/ vs. /r/ (English, not Japanese)
Tones (Chinese), clicks (Xhosa)
10–150 per language
~44 in English, ~11 in Rotokas, ~109 in West !Xoon
Phonology rules: “pritos” okay, “fpitos” not
Morphemes
Smallest meaning unit
Made of phonemes
Prefixes, suffixes, roots, words
Thousands per language
Morphology rules apply
Plural: cat → cats (English), kaķis → kaķi (Latvian)
Words
Smallest stand-alone meaning unit
Made of one or more morphemes
Tens/hundreds of thousands per language
Syntax rules apply
“Happy child” (English)
“Niño feliz” (Spanish)
Phrases
Group of one or more words
Has a grammatical role
Nearly limitless in number
Syntax rules apply
“Joseph ate the apple.” (English, SVO)
“Yusif almani yedi.” (Azerbaijani, SOV)
SENTENCES
A set of words/phrases expressing a complete thought
Can convey statements, questions, exclamations, requests, commands, or suggestions
Nearly limitless in number
Can combine to form larger units (e.g., paragraphs)
Generativity of Language
We (including children) create new expressions by combining words in novel ways
Language learning cannot rely only on imitation, association, and reinforcement
We must learn grammar rules that enable generative use of language
Language is determined by an inborn biological program
SYNTAX & SEMANTICS( Grammar)
Rules governing language structure
Morphology: Combines morphemes into words
Syntax: Combines words into phrases and sentences
Semantics: Derives meaning from morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences
Relation between Grammar/Syntax and Meaning/Semantics
Syntax determines how words are arranged, while semantics provides the meaning behind these arrangements.
The structure (syntax) affects the interpretation (semantics). For example, word order can change the meaning of a sentence, like in “The cat chased the dog” vs. “The dog chased the cat.”
Grammatical but meaningless:
“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”
The sentence follows grammar rules but lacks clear meanin
Ungrammatical and meaningless:
Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.”
Both syntax and meaning are incorrect.
Grammatical and meaningful:
Colorful green ants crawl furiously.
Ungrammatical, but meaningful:
colorful green ants crawls furiously.
How do we figure out the meaning of a sentence?
- By looking at the underlying phrase structure of
sentences - Phrase: Organized grouping of one or more
words
Generative grammar
Rules specify what orders and combinations these roles can occur in
Example of Generative grammar rule
S—) NP VP
* NP —-) (Article) N
* VP—-) V NP
example of Problems with Relying on phrase structure alone. One phrase structure, two meanings.
The shooting of the hunters was terrible.
example of Problems with Relying on phrase structure alone, Two phrase
structures, one
meaning
The boy hit the ball
* The ball was hit by the boy
Surface structure
Phrase structure that applies to order in which words are actually spoken.
Deep structure
Fundamental, underlying phrase structure that conveys meaning.
Transformational grammar
Rules that transform deep structure into the varied sentences we actually speak/ write (surface structure)
Ambiguity
illusions for perception, ambiguity can provide insight into cognitive
processing of language.
Lexical Ambiguity
occurs when a word has multiple meanings, making a sentence unclear.
Syntactic Ambiguity
When same words can be grouped together into more than one phrase structure.
examples of Syntactic Ambiguity
The fisherman went to the bank. (Bank as in riverbank or financial institution?)
She can’t bear children. (Can’t tolerate kids or can’t have them?)
The duck is ready to eat. (Ready to be eaten or ready to start eating?)
He bought a light bulb. (Light as in weight or brightness?)
They are hunting dogs. (Dogs that hunt or people hunting dogs?)
Referential Ambiguity
When same word/ phrase can refer to two different things within a sentence.
REFERENTIAL AMBIGUITY examples
John grabbed his lunch, sat on a rock, and ate it.
Ambiguity: Did John eat his lunch or the rock?
Susan told Elizabeth that she had to write a paper.
Ambiguity: Does she refer to Susan or Elizabeth?
