Lecture 8- Does language transfer information? Flashcards
Does language fully capture what it’s a situation model?
No, this is what implicature and inference is all about. The language requires context to carry its full meaning
and this is thus why we say language is situated.
What is the basic sequence of events to transfer information from one person to another?
- Start with an idea in your head
- Transfer down to lips resulting in muscle movements
- Vibrate the air around your muscles propagating it to the next person’s ear
- Receives the auditory information
- Sends it up to the brain for neural processing/ decoding
- Idea conveyed
Put in order of the path out from head to producing speech:
Phonology Acoustics Morphosyntax Speech production Situation model
Situation model Morphosyntax Phonology Speech production Acoustics
Put in order of the path of receiving info to interpreting it in the brain:
Phonology Acoustics Morphosyntax Speech production Situation model
Acoustics Speech production Phonology Morphosyntax Situation model
(Opposite to path ‘out’)
What did Shannon, C. contribute to this area of research?
He looked at measuring the amount of information we could send based on this model of signaling information between people
What happens as the possibilities of information that could be sent goes up?
Its harder to ‘choose’ a correct answer, to interpret what the person is saying. Communication needs to be clearer and thus more information is transferred.
What were the three rules Shannon came up with in terms of transferring information?
- The more choices the more info needed
- Should be able to add info up
- Probabilities should add up to 1 (info doesn’t just disappear)
What are the three equations used to convey Shannon’s three rules?
- The more choices, the more info needed
p(x) - Should be able to add info up
p(x1)+ p(x2)+p(x3) ➔ σ 𝑝(𝑥i) - Should all add up to 1.
➔ σ 𝑝 (𝑥i) log(p (xi))
Note all the numbers and i’s next to x are in subscript, also the sideways d is sigma (means sum of)
What is another more scientific word for the information that is transferred?
Entropy
How does the complexity of the situation relate to how much entropy is needed to be transferred? How does this relate to the size of the model?
-Complex situation means more information/entropy
to send. Big model.
-Less complex situation (e.g. if there is a pattern) means
less info/entropy to send. Small model.
What does a pattern allow?
- A pattern lets you compress information (when encoding)
- A pattern lets you predict
- A pattern lets you learn
Less entropy needs to be sent/communicated
What is situation model?
A compressed version of an actual situation.
If language transfers entropy then how do you measure information in language? What do you ‘‘count’’?
Could be:
- sounds/phonetics
- Words/morphemes
How does the frequency of a word relate to how easy it is to hear?
More frequent info+ if its been said recently means it is easier to find+ interpret in brain.
If language is encoding what is learning to speak?
Learning to encode and decode
