Lecture 16: Language

Question 1

Properties of Language

Answer 1

○ Mostly arbitrary; the same words in different languages often do not sound like each other
○ Symbolic: Words symbolize something else (an object)
§ This does not include function words
○ Generative/Productive: You can generate many combinations of words to convey new ideas. You do not need to have heard a sentence before to understand it

Question 2

Kiki vs. Bouba Example

Answer 2

□ Scientists discovered aliens on mars, there were two artiifacts with the names “Kiki” and “Bouba”
□ People generally agree which is called which, so its not totally arbitrary
□ The sounds of some words convey a little bit about the meaning, but this is an exception, not the rule

Question 3

Phonemes

Answer 3

the smallest pronounceable unit of a language
They are different in different languages

Question 4

Morphemes

Answer 4

the smallest unit of a language that conveys meaning
○ Prefixes and suffixes count here, though they are not complete words
○ Morphemes can be entire words though
○ Location is important (steam vs. teams)

Question 5

Words

Answer 5

a step up from morphemes, also convey meaning
○ Could be combinations of morphemes or single morphemes

Question 6

Phrases

Answer 6

organized groupings of words

Question 7

Syntax

Answer 7

Rules that determine word order

Question 8

Ambiguity

Answer 8

Results when the same wording corresponds to more than one meaning

Question 9

Lexical Ambiguity

Answer 9

When one word can have more than one meaning

Question 10

Syntactic ambiguity

Answer 10

when words can be grouped together in more than one phrase structure
§ “Pat talked about partying with Jerry Springer,” did he talk about him partying w/ JS, or was he talking to JS

Question 11

We process language by:

Answer 11

1. Hearing sounds
   2. Identifying phonemes from sounds
   3. Identifying morphemes and words from phonemes
   4. Lexical access (remembering what the words mean)
   5. Put the words into phrases and figure out phrase structure
   6. Compute the meaning of the sentence based on its words and structure
   7. Figuring out how the sentence fits into the context of the conversation

Question 11

Sentences

Answer 11

Combinations of phrases

Question 12

McGurk Effect

Answer 12

○ The phonemes you hear depend on the visual input
§ Ba vs. Fa example
○ In most conversations, people around the world look at some part of the persons face
○ This has only been demonstrated for speech sounds
§ More consistent with hypothesis that speech perception is special than ordinary

Question 13

N400 and ERP

Answer 13

• N400 (negative 400ms) is an ERP (event related potential) response to an unexpected words
  ○ Typically is a negative voltage peaking around 400ms after the word
  ○ Happens when an unpredictable word comes into a sentence; it makes your brain work harder to process the word
  ○ Reacts to the statistical likelihood of words, not their semantic context
  § A grape is a flashlight results in N400
  § A grape is a fruit does not

Question 13

Cloze probability

Answer 13

How often does the final word finish that particular sentence?
○ If it is low, it doesn’t match the prediction, and more processing is needed

Question 14

Interaction of Syntax and Semantic (reversible vs. irreversible sentences)

Answer 14

○ “The cat chases the dog: is comprehended easier than “the dog was chased by the cat” (reversible)
○ “The ice cream was eaten by the policeman” and “the policeman ate ice cream” are comprehended in the same way (irreversible)

Question 15

Swinney Experiment

Answer 15

○ Subjects heard a sentence and were shown words or non-words on a screen after the word bug
§ They were either shown the word ant, spy, or sew
§ Ant and spy were reacted to equally as fast, whereas sew was slower
§ However if the word was shown after a second or so, the related word that made the most sense had the quickest reaction time (ant)
○ Conclusion was that we initially get the priming of both meanings
○ After time passes, the word primes only the relevant meaning

Question 16

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 16

Difficulty with production, slow halting speech. Simple grammar, no function words, comprehension is largely intact

Question 17

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 17

Fluent speech but makes little sense. Made up words, word substitutions, difficulty with comprehension.

Question 18

Properties of Language

Answer 18

• Communicative: Languages permit communication between individuals
  
  • Arbitrary: There is no reason that certain sounds/words mean certain things, and in that way language is arbitrary
  • Structured: Language is structured, and that structure is not arbitrary. “The boy ran from the dog” and “the dog ran from the boy” are different
  • Generative: The basic units of language can be used to build a limitless number of meanings
  • Dynamic: Language is not static, it is always changing as new words are added and grammar slowly changes. New languages are created and some die out

Question 19

Psychologist’s Definition of Grammar

Answer 19

A set of rules that describes the permissible sentences that can be constructed in a language

Question 20

Universal Grammar

Answer 20

Rules to which the grammars of all languages must adhere

Question 21

Competence

Answer 21

People’s knowledge of grammar

Question 22

Performance

Answer 22

The way people actually talk regardless of technical grammar rules

Question 23

Word-Chain Grammars

Answer 23

Propose that grammatical sentences are constructed word by word, with the speaker selecting the net word based on the associations of the rest of the words in the sentence
○ Problematic because there are a lot of possible word combinations that make sense, and even some that don’t but make grammatical sense

Question 24

Phrase Structure Grammar

Answer 24

A system of grammar that represents sentences as hierarchies, PSG suggests that each node of the hierarchy is a phrase that represents a sentence part (verb phrase, noun, noun phrase, adjective, etc.)
○ There are sentences that are structured differently but have the same meaning, and those that are the same in structure but different in meaning

Question 25

Surface Structure

Answer 25

The order of words in a sentence

Question 26

Deep Structure

Answer 26

The meaning of a sentence