Lecture 1 Flashcards
what is aphasia?
a disorder that effects how you communicate, it can impact your speech as well as the way you write and understand both spoken and written language
what is generativity (in language)?
the ability to produce sentences never before said, and to understand sentences never before heard
what is prevarication?
the deliberate act of deviating from the truth
what is sound symbolism?
the partial representation of the sense of a word by its sound, as in bang, fizz, and slide
what is syntax?
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language
what is broca’s area?
a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, of the brain with functions linked to speech production
what is a lexigram?
a single symbol that graphically represents a single word or concept
what is linguistic determinism?
the concept that language and its structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorisation, memory, and perception
what do I mean when I refer to something as egocentric?
someone’s inability to understand that another person’s view or opinion may be different than their own
what do I mean when I refer to something as allocentric?
a collectivistic personality attribute whereby people centre their attention and actions on other people rather than themselves
what is mentalese?
the language of thought; thoughts represented in the mind without words, especially complex thoughts built from simpler ones
how do Beattie & Ellis define communication?
when one organism (the transmitter) encodes information into a signal which passes to another organism (the receiver) which decodes the signal and is capable of responding appropriately
what is verbal communication?
spoken/written transmission of a message
= language, but also dialects, language of a group (e.g. AAVE)
what is non-verbal communication?
non-linguistic aspects e.g. body language, gestures, emoticons
language also has non-verbal elements (e.g. tone, rhythm, stress)
what is language?
a type of communication
a structure system of symbols (“words”) and the rules (“grammar”) by which they are combined
what makes a language?
a system…
to communicate thoughts, feelings, info
of arbitrary signs (words) that refer to things in the world, have meaning; (e.g. not just onomatopoeia)
to combine these signs (syntax)
what are Hockett’s 16 design features of language?
communication does NOT equal language
- vocal-auditory channel
- broadcast transmission and directional reception
- rapid fading
- interchangeability
- total feedback
- specialisation
- semanticity
- arbitrariness
- discreteness
- displacement
- productivity
- traditional transmission
- duality of patterning
define semanticity
words are symbols/signs that express meaning
define arbitrariness
no intrinsic relation between (most!) words and their meaning (but onomatopoeia); “whale” “microorganism”
define displacement
not tied to here & now, can talk about past, future, somewhere else; hypotheticals (if… then…)
define productivity/generatively
new language can be generated
a finite collection of sounds and words allows an infinite number of messages
as long as we obey the rules of the language, any message can be understood by other language users
define reflexiveness
we can use language to talk about language
explain sound symbolism
when individual sounds or clusters of sound can convey meaning
give an example of sound symbolism
“gl-“ words for shiny things
glisten, gleam, glint, glare, glam, glimmer, glaze, glass, glitz, gloss, glory, glow, and glitter
what is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
do people with a different language also think differently?
language shapes our thoughts
what are some language affects encoding in space?
English
egocentric: left, right, in front/back, next to,: relative frame of reference
allocentric: north, south,: absolute frame of evidence
what language affects did Boroditsky find with encoding in time?
english: think of time horizontally (the best is ahead/behind us)
mandarin: think of time vertically (next month = down)
what are some critiques of linguistic determinism?
Pinker: problem is equating language with thought
thought precedes language
universal “language of thought” (mentalese)
the impossibility of translation
