Linguistics Flashcards
1
Q
How is human language different from animal communication systems?
A
Discrete Infinity (Many individual units to infinitely express oneself) (Many different sounds to make many different words to make infinite sentences)
Displacement (We can talk about the present, past, future, things that are fiction or abstract)
Language is fundamentally cooperative
2
Q
Important characteristics about language
A
Native speakers (Learned as infants)
One can use it to speak about everything
Recognized by a group as their language
3
Q
Are sign languages languages?
A
Yes.
4
Q
Types of people without language
A
Wolf children (Children who grew up without biological parents or language)
Physically and psychologically abused people
Aphasia
5
Q
Continuity based theories
A
Theories about origin of human language that attribute it to evolving based on animal communication systems.
6
Q
Discontinuity based theories
A
Disagree with continuity based theories about human language evolving based on animal communication systems. Something unique happened in the development of human beings to allow for it.
7
Q
Why are languages different?
A
They are primarily a marker of identity, rather than communication systems.
Subpopulations of native speakers of a language may over time speak the language differently from others, leading to the creation of new languages.
8
Q
Is it plausible that all languages in human history have derived from one common ancestor language?
A
Yes.
9
Q
Language family
A
a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family
10
Q
Language branch
A
Group of languages within language family that are even more closely related and quite similar. Ex: Germanic and Romance Language Branches in Indo-European Language Family
11
Q
Isolated language
A
Language not similar or related to other languages like Basque.
12
Q
Reasons why languages are similar?
A
Historical roots of languages (like Romance Languages and their similarities)
Physical reasons (Humans have similar bodies and brains regardless of culture)
13
Q
Building blocks of sign languages
A
Parameters
And these parameters are the handshape. That is used to articulate the sign. The movement that the hand makes in the articulation of the sign. The location, where is the hand located. Is it located in space, on the body, on the head.
Also the orientation of the hand, so do the fingers point upwards or to the front. What about the orientation of the palm, that can also be distinctive.
14
Q
Is linguistic diversity increasing or decreasing? Are language deaths usually reversible?
A
Decreasing. Languages, especially indigenous ones, are dying off as the last speakers die.
Unfortunately, when languages die off, they usually cannot be revived.
15
Q
What influences whether a language is considered its own language or a dialect?
A
Political and social factors.
Ex: Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are essentially the same language, but due to animosity among the groups, they are considered separate languages.)
16
Q
mutual intelligibility
A
a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort
17
Q
Why does mutual intelligibility fail as a criterion to distinguish languages?
A
It can be tough to determine whether a variety is either a dialect or a language.
Speakers of language A may understand speakers of language B, but not vice versa.
Dialect continuum
Also languages themselves change over time (Geoffrey Chaucer and George Bush probably would not understand each other although they both speak English)
18
Q
Dialect continuum
A
a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be. This is a typical occurrence with widely spread languages and language families around the world, when these languages did not spread recently. Some prominent examples include the Indo-Aryan languages across large parts of India, varieties of Arabic across north Africa and southwest Asia, the Chinese languages or dialects, and subgroups of the Romance, Germanic and Slavic families in Europe. Leonard Bloomfield used the name dialect area. Charles F. Hockett used the term L-complex.
19
Q
EGIDS
A
Ranking system to determine how endangered and widely used a language is.
20
Q
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
A
an alphabet developed in the 19th century to accurately represent the pronunciation of sounds in languages
21
Q
Vowels v consonants
A
Vowels are pronounced with no impediment in airstream.
Vowels are in every syllable while consonants are not.
22
Q
Classifications of sounds by place of articulation
A
Labial sounds (Produced with participation of lips)
Alveolar sounds (Produced with tip of tongue at roof near front teeth)
Velar sounds (Flat surface of tongue touching roof towards back of mouth)
Besides English, other languages have other places of articulation for sounds
23
Q
Classifications of sounds by manner of articulation
A
Plosives (Sound like explosions like “/p/”)
Fricative (Produced by closing mouth, but not completely, so some air can still slip through a narrow channel) (Ex: /f/ sound)
Nasal (involves usage of nose to make sounds as well) (If you make a sound on mirror and see condensation, it’s a sign you used the nose)
Sonorant (Sounds in which airflow is completely unimpeded like /a/)
24
Q
Classifications of sounds by voicing
A
Sounds either use vocal cords or not.
25
According to some linguists, what are consonants that seem to occur in (almost) all languages? Vowels?
M and T because of such easy pronounciation.
A, I, U (very easy to pronounce and distinguish from each other)
26
How many consonants are out there?
It's hard to say because it's a very large size.
27
Are there typically fewer vowels than consonants in a language? Why?
Yes. Function of consonants is to produce meaning and comprehension while vowels are grammatical. There's many different words with different meanings, but that's not the case with grammatical constructions. Also, consonants involve making obstructions in mouth, which there are many ways to do so.
28
Atoms of language. What are the implications of this assumption?
Features that constitute sounds.
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Voicing (Are vocal cords vibrating or not)
Implications: Phonological activity (One sound->another sound, one feature->another feature), Speech Errors (See other card), Path of acquisition of languages children may take. (See other card)
Symmetry of IPA table for consonants of languages.
29
Do languages change?
Yes, sounds come and go from a language, and the way they are pronounced can change over time.
30
How to study changes in languages over time?
Compare languages with similar roots like (English with German and Dutch) and analyze spelling in the languages.
31
Types of changes in languages
Internal (Children don't speak a perfect copy of the language when learning it from parents. Each generation changes the language when they inherit it.)
External (Contact with other cultures, leading to borrowing aspects from other languages like words.)
32
What happens when people try to pronounce a word in another language, but don't have all the sounds in their own language to pronounce it?
They find the closest sounds in their own language to make the pronounciation.
Ex: Bach (Ba -chuh) (German)
An English speaker will say Bach (Ba-k) instead of -chuh.
33
Phonological activity
In languages, sometimes one sound changes into another sound. As a result, features of the sounds change such as voicing, place or manner of articulation.
Look at the following example which I took from Turkish. What you see here is various words in two different cases, a nominative, that's the NOM, and a dative, that's the DAT case. For instance, in Kalip or Kalib-a, in Kanat or Kanad-a. There's a t versus a d, or a p versus a b. In these cases, t becomes a "voiced" d and "p" becomes a voiced "b"
34
How do phonological features help us understand the ability of a child to acquire language?
Children acquire certain features for the purposing of making sounds first (such as labial and plosive) and acquire others over time.
Example is English:
So, children first learn plosives, voiceless, labial and coronal features.
They later acquire the nasal feature. Then, fricatives.
35
consonant inventory
set of consonants used in a language
36
What is are some challenges in determining the consonant inventory of a language
Determining whether certain syllable beginnings or endings are combinations of distinct sounds or one distinct sound. (Ex: Is the "ch" in the syllable "chip" as a distinct consonant or a combination of two or more distinct sounds?)
Including consonants from words borrowed from other languages
37
Where can languages with small consonant inventories be found?
Those with smaller than average consonant inventories predominate in the Pacific region (including New Guinea), in South America and in the eastern part of North America, with particular concentrations of “small” inventories in New Guinea and the Amazon basin.
38
Where can languages with large consonant inventories be found?
Those with larger than average consonant inventories are particularly strongly represented in Africa, especially south of the equator, as well as in an area in the heart of the Eurasian landmass, but are most spectacularly concentrated in the northwest of North America.
39
Size principle
According to the “size principle” (Lindblom and Maddieson 1988) smaller consonant inventories will tend to contain only those consonants which are in various ways inherently simpler (perhaps because they involve smaller movements to pronounce them, or are easier for a listener to distinguish from other sounds). Consonants which are inherently more complex will be found in larger inventories.
40
Morpheme
individual units used to make words
41
affix
type of morpheme; Prefixes and suffixes
42
Base word
Main morpheme besides prefixes and suffixes in words.
Lovely
Love (base) + ly (suffix)
43
Isolating languages
Words tend to have just one morpheme in such languages. Language has very few affixes.
44
Agglutinative languages
Words have more than one morpheme in such languages. (Affixes are assigned to bases etc.)
45
Fusional languages
Similar to agglutinative languages. Bases of words can change as well.
In Arabic, kitab is book. Kutub is books. No affixes are added. The base (the only morpheme) is just changed. Kitabat is to write. -at is suffix.
46
Polysynthetic languages
Languages that express what would be sentences in other languages in just one word.
Ex:
English: I can’t hear very well
Iñupiak-inuktitut: Tusaatsiarunnanngittualuujunga
tsiag– (“well”), –junnag– (“to be able to”), –nngit– (negative form), –tualuu– (“a lot”), –junga (marker of the first person and present tense).
47
Word order (Subject, object, verb)
How the subject, object and verb of a sentence are ordered in a language.
There are six combos: SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, OVS.
48
Word order (Adjective, noun)
How adjective and noun are ordered in a sentenced.
Noun-adjective or adjective-noun
In some languages, it is noun-adjective. Like in French, hommes homme bleus (Blue men).
49
Word order (Prepositions)
How prepositions are ordered in a sentence. In some languages, preposition is after the noun. In this case, they are called postpositions.
Ex: Liisan Kanssa (With Lisa)
50
Word order tendencies among languages
In languages where verb is before object, adjective is usually after the noun. Language also has prepositions.
In languages, where verb is after object, adjective is usually before noun. Language has postpositions.
51
Question words (word order)
Some languages have question words at beginning of sentences.
Others have question words in place where it is supposed to be.
Japanese (SOV): John what eats? (Since we are asking about the object John is eating, we put it in the object place of a sentence in the Japanese language. In this case, the second place of a sentence since sentence order is subject, object, and then, verb.
52
How do children learn word boundaries in first language?
Repetition of individual words from parents
Over time, realize certain sounds go together more often than others.
53
Most frequent subject, object, and verb word orders in languages of world?
Why?
SOV and SVO (Both are 90% of languages), VSO (8 or 9% of languages)
Naturally, humans seem to like to express the subject before an object in any sentence.
54
Hypotheses for why humans naturally prefer to express the subject before the object?
Innate grammer (which prefers to express subject before object)
The way we perceive the world and processes in our brain causes us to think about the subject first doing the verb and then, the object being acted upon when expressing or thinking about some occurrence.
55
Why do some languages have the less frequent word orders?
The development of the history of those languages is such that it would have led to those word orders being more convenient for usage.
56
Sociolinguistic classifications of languages
Genetically: Classifying languages into families and groups etc.
Geographically: Classifying dialects (even of different mother languages) by the area they are spoken in
Classifying speakers of a specific language by social variables like age, gender, social class (as such factors determine how people will speak the language)
57
Idiolect
a person's individual version of a language.
Ex: My own version and way of speaking English
58
Sociolect
Dialect of language based on social variables like social class or gender
Ex: Dialect of Spanish spoken by Upper-class Mexicans
59
Labow study gender differences and explanation
Women: negatively sloping line; Because girls learn the language of their mom and change the language through interactions with other girls in their peer groups.
Men: Staircase graph; Boys learn the language of their mother, and that's it. After that, they don't really change the way they speak.
From ages 20 to 50, men largely talk the same because being in careers requires conformity and behaving similarly unlike women. At the time of this study, men mainly had careers compared to women.
60
Face
the positive public image you seek to establish in social interactions
61
Politeness Theory
Created by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson
There's two types of face: negative and positive.
Negative: Want of a person for his or her actions to not be hindered by others.
Positive: Want of a person to be appreciated by others.
62
Face-threatening acts
Acts that threaten a person's negative or positive face. (Possible to be mitigated.)
63
Waggle Dance
Used by bees to communicate with one another where food sources are. Bees dance at angle relative to the sun, to locate the food source to fellow bees.
64
How did language come about?
So the question of the origin of language rests on the
differences between human and chimpanzee brains,
when these differences came into being, and under
what evolutionary pressures.
65
Difficulties in studying how humans began to speak language.
Languages don't leave fossils to examine. Fossil skulls only show the anatomy of the brain but not what it could do.
66
To what degree are precursors of human language ability are
found in animals.
There is indeed some consensus that apes'
spatial abilities and their ability to negotiate their
social world provide foundations on which human language and communication could be built.
67
To what extent does human language derive from other human abilities not shared by primates?
Some researchers claim that everything in language is built out of other
human abilities: the ability for vocal imitation, the ability
to memorize vast amounts of information (both needed
for learning words), the desire to communicate, the
understanding of others' intentions and beliefs, and the
ability to cooperate. Current research seems to show
that these human abilities are absent or less highly
developed in apes. Other researchers acknowledge the
importance of these factors but argue that hominid
brains required additional changes that adapted them
specifically for language.
68
phonemes
Distinct sounds in a language.
69
Phonology
System of distinct sounds used in a language.
70
Cognate
The term “cognate” is used for words in related languages that have the same origin.
Here’s an example: the English word water corresponds to the German word Wasser. These both come from the Proto-Germanic word *watar. Water and Wasser are therefore cognates.
71
Allophone
Allophones are a kind of phoneme that changes its sound based on how a word is spelled. Think of the letter t and what kind of sound it makes in the word "tar" compared with "stuff." It's pronounced with a more forceful, clipped sound in the first example than it is in the second. Linguists use special punctuation to designate phonemes. The sound of an l, for instance, is written as "/l/."
Ex: Aspirated team vs unaspirated steam in English. Differences in aspiration of t.
72
Did human language come about in stages or all at once?
Some researchers said it came all at once through a big change in how humans communicate.
Others suggest it came in stages with development occurring from one hominid to the next.
Theory: In early stages, sounds were used to indicate objects and actions. In order to increase vocabulary, distinct sounds are combined into sequences (words) to express a variety of different ideas. This would require changes in the way the brain controls the vocal tract and possibly in the way the brain interprets auditory signals.
The next plausible step along the line would be to take these words and form sentences, although the sentences would be rather basic and rudimentary. Not complex yet. Ex: 'me Tarzan, you Jane'
Later on, in these sentences, various grammatical devices would be used like tense markers and relative clauses.
73
How do features of sounds play a role in understanding speech errors?
Sounds of languages get interchanged. (Saying blake fruid instead of brake fluid)
Features of sounds get interchanged (Saying Cedars of Lemadon instead of Cedars of Lebanon) (A nasal m is switched for non-nasal b)
74
Feature
manner of articulation, voicing, and place of articulation of sounds. They are atoms of language.
75
Atoms of language. What are the implications of this assumption?
Features that constitute sounds
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Voicing (Are vocal cords vibrating or not)
Implications: Phonological activity (One sound->another sound, one feature->another feature), Speech Errors (See other card), Path of acquisition of languages children may take. (See other card.)
Symmetry of IPA table for consonants of languages.
76
If a person wants to say a word in another language, what will happen if their language does not have one or more sounds to pronounce that word?
They will use the closest sounds.
For example, English person saying bach.
We don't have the "ch" sound in German, so we'll use "k" as it is the closest. So, we'll say "Ba-k" instead of "ba-ch".
77
Why are Australian languages and New Guinean languages so similar in consonant inventory size?
Theory is New Guinea and Australia were once connected by Sahul Shelf (a land bridge). Today's speakers of Australian languages' ancestors migrated from New Guinea to Australia.
78
Why do the languages of Northwest North America have such large consonant inventories?
There is no evidence that these languages have similar genealogical roots and there is no evidence that large consonant inventories can be explained by word borrowing between languages despite deep cultural contacts and ties.
79
Why do so many Bantu languages have large consonant inventories?
Several Bantu languages (part of the larger Niger-Congo family) in the southern part of the continent, such as Zulu and Yeyi, are known to have enlarged their consonant inventory by borrowing clicks and other sounds which they did not previously use from languages of the Khoisan group, which already had many consonants
80
Where are languages with average size consonant inventories found?
Languages with average size consonant inventories are found in most areas of the world, suggesting that this size truly is a representative of something typical for spoken human languages.
81
Challenges in determining vowel inventory of languages? How do linguists resolve these issues?
Whether a diphthong is two vowels combined, or one distinct vowel on its own
Whether a nasalized vowel is a separate, distinct vowel from the non-nasalized version.
The length of vowels. For example, in Tlingit (Na-Dene; Alaska), the word written t’a /t'a/ means ‘king salmon’, whereas t’aa /t'aː/ means ‘board, plank’. Such a long vowel might be considered to be two copies of the same vowel in succession, as the spelling suggests, or be thought of as a single unit.
Long and short variants of the same vowel are always counted once, nasalized vowels do not add to the inventory as long as a non-nasalized counterpart occurs
82
nasalized vowel
Vowels that require using the nose to pronounce.
bon (b-oh nasal) cafe vs bon (b-uh-n) ami
83
Diphthong
A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.
Ex: ou in clout
84
How phoneticians differentiate vowels?
Phoneticians recognize three properties which contribute to the most basic quality or “timbre” of a vowel sound. These are its height (roughly, how open the jaw needs to be to make the vowel), its position in a front-to-back dimension (roughly, whether the tongue needs to be pushed forward, remain more or less in the position in which it rests during normal breathing, or be pulled toward the back of the mouth for that vowel), and the lip position (whether the lips are pushed forward and narrowed or not).
85
Of surveyed languages, what's the average vowel inventory? Lowest? Highest?
Average: Just below 6. Lowest: 2. Highest: 14.
86
Geographical distribution of languages with average vowel inventory
languages with average inventory sizes are the most widely scattered. In just a few areas, southern Africa being one, they occur almost to the exclusion of the other two types.
87
Geographical distribution of languages with low vowel inventory
Languages with small inventories are frequent in the Americas. Australia.
88
Geographical distribution of languages with high vowel inventory
Africa is strikingly marked by a zone right across the "middle belt", roughly between the Equator and the Sahara, in which large vowel inventories predominate. This belt encompasses languages belonging to three major families, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic.
interior Southeast Asia and southern China, New Guinea, Europe
89
In languages, do consonant inventory and vowel inventory quantities seem to be inversely related?
No.
90
Vowel harmony
In some languages, words cannot contain front vowels and back vowels together.
91
Vowel harmony and large vowel inventory relationship.
Africa is strikingly marked by a zone right across the "middle belt", roughly between the Equator and the Sahara, in which large vowel inventories predominate. This belt encompasses languages belonging to three major families, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic. The relatively large number of vowels in these languages seems to be associated with the prevalence of patterns of vowel harmony in the same area.
The European area also includes a number of languages with vowel harmony restrictions on the distribution of their vowels, such as Finnish and Hungarian, as well as Turkish and its relatives (which extend well into Central Asia and to western China).
92
How do babies pronounce words differently from adults? Why?
They make "mistakes". So for example they, they would say guck for duck or tike for strike or, oo for shoe, something like that.
It's the big question. It's possible they don't have the grammar necessary yet to not make those "mistakes".
93
According to linguists, what is a word?
It's hard to define. They are arguing over this to this day.
94
Is spacing good criteria for determining words?
No, because this criteria works for written language, but what about spoken languages? When languages are spoken, especially those without writing systems, how do you define word boundaries when people speak their sentences?
In sentence, "Sun is yellow." Why is yellow one word and not "is yellow"? How would those word boundaries be defined?
95
One word represents one concept. Why is this criteria flawed for determining a word?
How do we determine what is considered a single concept for the purpose of distinguishing words from one another?
96
Why is pronunciation a flawed criteria for determining words?
Because it's arbitrary.
Take the word "passionfruit". Normally pronounced, there is no interruption.
However, if a weird person decides to impose an interruption on the word like saying "pass" and then "sionfruit". Does that mean passionfruit is now two different words?
It is a very indefinite criteria for determining what is a word.
97
When classifying languages by morphology? Is it a neat classification?
No, oftentimes, languages are a mixture of the classifications.
98
Morphological classifications
Isolating
Agglutinative
Fusional
Polysynthetic
99
Why may languages share similar properties in terms of word order, morphology etc.?
1. Ancestrally related
2. Languages borrowing from each other due to contact between their speakers.
3. Language universals (Ex: Languages that have verb-subject-object order also have prepositions before the noun regardless of where the languages are located. Welsh shares this characteristic with Tongan.)
100
Linguistic typology, genetic and areal classifications.
Have these classifications been confused with another before by Linguists?
Linguistic typology: Classifying languages based on shared language universals
Genetic classification: Classifying languages into families based on ancestry
Areal classification: Classifying languages based on similarities with other languages due to interactions between speakers of languages, leading to borrowing of features and other elements between languages.
They have. For example, Armenian was classified as an Iranian language due to Armenian borrowing from Iranian languages. Areally, they should have been classified together, but not in the same family, as they are genetically different and derive from different ancestor languages.
101
Sprachbund
a group of languages that share similarities resulting from language contact and borrowing among themselves.
102
What is the subject in the sentence 'Rice is being cooked by Mary'?
'Rice' is the subject of this sentence. When you change the word 'rice' into 'potatoes' the verb changes, but if you change 'Mary' into 'Mary and John' the verb does not change:
(a) Potatoes are being cooked by Mary.
(b) Rice is being cooked by Mary and John.
103
Verb and subject relationship in sentence.
Verb changes when subject changes.
Ex: John eats.
I eat, ('eat' instead of 'eats')
104
Venneman's classification of languages. Criticisms?
Dependent-head languages (word orders: object-verb, possessor-noun, adjective-noun, noun-postposition)
Ex: Possessor-noun (Adam's house) Adam is possessor of noun, house.
Head-dependent languages (verb-object, noun-possessor, noun-adjective, preposition-noun)
This classification is too extreme as there are too many languages that do not neatly fit in this classification and have a mixture of characteristics between the two categories.
No inclusion of subject in word order classifications, only object and verb,
105
What is meaning in linguistics?
It's hard to know. Philosophers have argued about this for ages.
106
Semantic meaning
Literal meaning of a sentence.
"I have no money." means the person is making a claim about his or her financial situation that they have no money.
The semantic meaning of a sentence is testable, meaning you can determine if the person who says the sentence is telling the truth or not. Maybe checking the person's pockets for money etc..
107
Pragmatic meaning
What the speaker wants to achieve by speaking a sentence.
Pragmatic meaning depends on the context of the social situation where the sentence is being said.
The speaker has a specific thing he or she wants to convey to a receiver of that sentence. Maybe, a request. Maybe, the speaker intends to inform.
Ex: "I have no money." Speaker may say this because he or she wants to indicate he or she cannot pay for dinner. Maybe, he or she is promising that he or she will not given allowance to someone.
108
Clause
a group of words that contains a subject and a verb that have a relationship. Can be a sentence.
Ex: "If I go to town" "I love ice cream"
109
subordinate clause
A clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence
It cannot save the few WHO ARE RICH.
WHO ARE RICH is subordinate clause.
110
matrix clause
Clause that contains subordinate clause
It cannot save the few WHO ARE RICH.
WHO ARE RICH is subordinate clause. Matrix clause is It cannot save the few WHO ARE RICH.
111
Color names and language relationship
Languages differ in color names. Some languages have three colors. Some languages use one word for two colors such as "green" and "blue". There are colors in some languages that may not exist in other languages such as "orange".
112
Languages use different ______ to make sense of the world.
Categories
Ex: Different colors, Some languages have multiple words for different types of snow while in English, we have just one word for snow.
113
If languages do "have" colors, in what order do the color names exist? Why?
All languages have words for black and white. They distinguish between dark and light colors.
Afterwards, if a language has further color names, it will have a name for red.
If there is a fourth term, it will be for green or yellow.
If there is a fifth term, it will be for green or yellow, depending on whether the fourth term is green or yellow.
Then, if there is another term, it will be for blue.
This order reflects the structure of the human eye which allows us to see these colors more easily in order from red to green or yellow to blue.
114
Language universal. Criticism?
Principles and features of language that apply to almost all languages.
Language universals are often created from an ethnocentric (Western standpoint) viewpoint. Linguists create these language universals using Western cultures as models.
To what extent can we see aspects of human language are universal? Are they based in human biology?
Also, to what extent are languages influenced by surrounding cultures, nullifying the notion that aspects of these languages fit into broader linguistic universals?
Ex: Colors are universal in the sense that all languages have color names, but these color names differ from language to language, meaning that there has to be influence from surrounding cultures.
115
Debates over colors in linguistics
Do speakers of languages with relatively few color terms find it difficult to distinguish between colors?
Experiments say speakers can make same distinctions as speakers of languages with more color terms; however, the latter maybe quicker in identifying differences due to the fact that they use the diverse color terms of their language in daily life.
116
Why is it impossible to count the number of color terms in a language?
It depends on what concepts we consider to be colors or not. Also, in a language, some speakers may have a greater variety of vocabulary of colors than other individuals.
117
When counting the number of words a language has to describe a specific concept, why is it difficult to do so?
It depends on how we define that concept, and accordingly, what terms and words fall under that concept to be counted.
Also, in a language, some speakers may have a greater variety of vocabulary regarding that concept than others.
118
Difference between scientific terms and everyday language.
We can create precise definitions for the former, but not the latter.
119
Can we come up with a precise, semantic meaning for objects like "book" or "bicycle"? Why?
No, because there will always be a counterexample to poke holes in that definition.
Linguists don't seem to know, which is why semantics is one of the more mysterious fields in linguistics.
120
Head vs Dependent
Possessive phrase? Adpositional phrase? Verbal phrase?
Head: Determines what type a phrase is.
Dependent: Modifies head. Cannot occur in phrase without head.
Possessive phrase: A phrase describing possession. (Ex: A man's dog) In possessive phrase, head is object being possessed. (Dog) Dependent is possessor. (Man)
Adpositional phrase: A phrase with prepositions or postpositions. (Ex: In the house) (Head: In) (Dependent: house)
Verbal phrase: A phrase with verb and object. (Ex: He screwed him over.) (Head: screw) (Dependent: him)
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Dependent-marking
In languages, this occurs when the dependent of a phrase is modified (usually with an affix) in relation to the head.
Ex: In a possessive phrase, take "man and dog". Modify man to "man's" with "'s" to create "man's dog".
In Russian, Na (On) + stol (table). Add e to stol to create stole. (adpositional phrase)
So, in Russian, it will be na stole.
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Head-marking
In languages, this occurs when the head of a phrase is modified (usually with an affix) in relation to the dependent.
Peter haz (Peter and house in Hungarian)
Peter haza (Peter's house) (add "a" to end of head to indicate possession)
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pro-drop language
Languages where you can drop pronouns in certain situations often due to the way the verb is conjugated, the pronoun is inferred.
Ex: Te quiero (I love you) instead of yo te quiero (Because the conjugation for querer is for the pronoun "I") (It is implied in conjugation)
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Does greater conjugation of verbs correlate with a language being pro-drop?
No. Ex: For each pronoun in German, the verb has to be conjugated, but still cannot drop pronoun.
"Ich liebe". Cannot just say "liebe".
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Configurationality
Languages characterized by strict word order compared to other languages.
Ex: English is a largely configurational language.
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Meta-Linguistic Awareness
the ability to consciously reflect on the nature of language
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Duality of Patterning
Characteristic of languages
Individual sounds (or handshapes in the case of sign languages) in themselves do not have meaning but the create meaning when combined to create words that signify various concepts.
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Combination of Forms
When sounds (or handshapes in the case of sign languages) are combined to create meaningful units, words.
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Arbitrariness of the Sign
Characteristic of languages
Words (or signs in sign language) do not have any inherent, or logical connection to the concepts they seek to describe. In fact, the connection is rather arbitrary.
Ex: "Police" is a rather arbitrary signifier to describe the concept of a group of people whose duty is to protect their communities from crime.
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Reflexivity
The ability of humans to use language to talk about language.
Characteristic of languages
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free morpheme
A morpheme that can stand alone.
Ex: Rabbit, house (roots)
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Compound
Two or more free morphemes combined.
ex: Rabbit hole, Doghouse (Dog+house)
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Bound morpheme
A morpheme that cannot stand alone.
Ex: Suffix (-ly), -ceive in (receive or deceive) (root)
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Infix
an affix (usually kind of another root) inserted within the root morpheme of a word
Ex: Halle-fucking-lujah. fan-flaming-tastic
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Circumfix
An affix that is two parts rather than just a prefix or just a suffix
Ex: enlighten
En- and -en at the ends of light
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Suppletion
Taking a word and completely replacing it to represent a concept similar to that word but slightly different.
Ex: go -> went (for past tense)
good->best, better (to
express greater degrees of
good)
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Example of morphemes being used to signify subject and object in sentence.
Latin:
hospes leporem videt. (The host sees the rabbit)
hospitem lepus videt. (The rabbit sees the host)
-em at the end of a root signifies the object of the sentence. And the lack thereof signifies subject.
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grammaticality
The state or attribute of a sentence obeying the rules of grammar
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Substitution test
In a sentence, if a single word can be substituted for a group of words, and the sentences meaning is preserved, that means the group of words form a constituent.
Ex:
The group of Phillies fans love you.
They love you. (Still grammatically correct.)
Group of Phillies Fans will function as one constituent.
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Cleft construction
It's_________that/who________. sentence construction
It's Taylor who I am meeting.
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Cleft test
A cleft is a kind of sentence that has the form: It is/was ____ that … To use the cleft test, we take the string of words that we're investigating and put it after the words It was/is, then leave the remaining parts of the sentence to follow the word that.
If the cleft construction is grammatically correct, then the group of words is a constituent.
Ex: I love you. Let's investigate "love you".
It is loving you that I do.
This is grammatically correct. So, I love is a constituent.
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Grammar
the way we arrange words to make proper sentences
For example:
Incorrect: “Every girl must bring their own lunch.”
Correct: “Every girl must bring her own lunch.”
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Subject-predicate relationship
Every complete sentence contains two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject.
I love you.
I is subject. Love you is predicate.
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Constituents
a linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or clause. For instance, all the words and phrases that make up a sentence are said to be constituents of that sentence. A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase, or clause.
For example, in the sentence: "My dog Aristotle bit the postal carrier on the ankle," the constituent parts are the subject, made up of a Noun Phrase ("my dog Aristotle"), and the predicate, a Verb Phrase ("bit the postal carrier on the ankle").
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How does diaspora contribute to creation of new languages?
When they come to a new place, the diaspora may maintain the older aspects of their language while back home, the language is changing rapidly.
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Deaf-community sign languages
Created by groups of deaf people to communicate with one another. These people are often of different backgrounds but ended up in a similar setting like a school or moved to a new city.
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Village sign languages
Languages that form in small communities with high levels of genetic deafness.
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How do sign languages increase the language count?
Sometimes, languages such as sign languages have existed for a long time, but only recently, have been recognized as distinct languages by researchers.
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Can signed languages be created as combinations of other signed languages?
Yes, between deaf-community and village sign languages.
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What happens when identity and politics determine what is considered separate languages or dialects?
The speakers of the different varieties seek to reinforce the differences and often push them in different directions.
Ex: Hindi borrowing words from Sanskrit while Urdu borrowing words from Arabic.
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How does identity and politics lump languages together?
Sometimes, governments for purposes of national unity consider various different languages to be one language.
Ex: The 7 different languages of China are considered to be different dialects of Chinese despite lack of mutual intelligibility.
Governments sometimes suppress languages as well.
Standardized languages
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Standardized languages. Why do they exist?
Governments create a standardized version, based on how upper-class people in their capitals speak.
These standardized dialects are often taught to school children at the expense of local dialects of the language.
Governments do this to create an image of unified national identity.
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Language ideologies. Why are they significant?
Beliefs about language (“Indian English is an identifiable entity”) and feelings about
language (“Indian English is funny”) such as the ones introduced here are commonly
referred to as “language ideologies.”
They often influence what may be considered a language or a dialect.
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Access to resources impact on counting languages.
Language count is under-counted because some languages we know more about and are aware about than others due to availability of resources.
Some languages have a lot more access to money than others to create these resources.
Ex: English is well-documented as there are dictionaries, English-language media etc.. Other languages may not have that.
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How can politics affect whether languages can exist or not?
Pressure put by government to suppress languages.
Ex: Boarding and residential schools in US and Canada. Native American children were taken away from their communities and forced to speak only English.
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Language Revitalization
an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one.
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Language Documentation
Documenting a language working with elders when for one or more generations it has not been passed down.
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Language nest
an immersion-based approach to language revitalization in early-childhood education.
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Immersion schools
Schools in which all academic subjects are taught in a target language.
Used to revitalize target languages.
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Linguistic Justice
Trying to get recognition and support for a specific language in order to revitalize it.
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Guy Deutscher on linguistic relativity.
Disagrees with Whorf's assertion that language constrains on what thoughts we may have. Language simply obliges us to think certain thoughts habitually.
Ex: Chinese doesn't have past or future tenses in the way English does, but that does not mean the Chinese do not understand differences between past. present and future tense. Unlike English speakers, they are not merely habitually obliged to consider past, present or future when describing an action unlike English where we say "I went", "I go", or "I will go".
In Matses, an Amazonian language, they have different verbal forms to indicate how you know something to be true. If you want to tell someone how many children you have, there is a verbal form to indicate you directly saw how many children you have, or that you inferred how many children you have. So, in Matses, speakers have to habitually think about how they know something to be true unlike English, where people just say "I have x number of children" and that's it.
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McWhorter on Deutscher's arguments on linguistic relativity.
Dismissive of evidence provided by Deutscher.
Oftentimes, it's culture that influences language, not language that influences culture, and thus, worldviews.
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Speech act
speech act is something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well.[1] For example, the phrase "I would like the kimchi; could you please pass it to me?" is considered a speech act as it expresses the speaker's desire to acquire the kimchi, as well as presenting a request that someone pass the kimchi to them.
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Cooperative Principle
Grice's theory explains how and why conversations tend to succeed rather than fail. Grice's theory is based on the idea of cooperation; he suggests that speakers inherently want to cooperate when communicating, which helps remove any obstacles to understanding. In order to facilitate successful communication, Grice says that when we talk, it is important to say enough to get your point across, be truthful, be relevant, and be as clear as possible.
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Grice's Maxims
This brings us to Grice's 4 Maxims. These are the four assumptions we make when talking with other people.
Maxim of Quality: They will tell the truth or what they think is the truth.
Maxim of Quantity: They will give sufficient information.
Maxim of Relevance: They will say things that are relevant to the conversation.
Maxim of Manner: They will be clear, pleasant and helpful.
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Implicature
something the speaker suggests or implies with a sentence, even though it is not literally expressed.
Take for example the following exchange:
A (to passerby): I am out of gas.
B: There is a gas station 'round the corner.
Here, B does not say, but conversationally implicates, that the gas station is open.
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Strategies languages use to promote politeness
Adding short words (such as please or lah in Malay) in sentences
Making requests in question form. (Could you pass me that?)
Create different verbs or words to ensure politeness (vous exists in French to be formal and polite to people of certain statures)
Implicatures
Being indirect (asking or hinting at certain requests to be fulfilled rather than ordering) (Would you close the window and "Brr! It's chilly!' vs. Close the window!)
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High-involvement conversation style
People who speak quickly, interrupt regularly or engage in simultaneous speech, expect to be interrupted, talk more loudly at times, and simply talk a lot are characterized as having ‘high involvement’ conversational styles.
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High-considerateness conversation style
This describes those who are more conscious of both people taking turns talking. People who converse in this style are hesitant to interrupt and perceive others’ interruptions as domineering or rude. They’re more likely to stop talking in response to an interruption than someone with more of a high involvement style. They are also apt to speak at a more measured pace and moderate volume and speak less overall than those with a high involvement style. They have a higher tolerance for silence and are therefore more likely to lose their focus and/or take offense if interrupted while they pause
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What demographics may influence how people speak in a language group, and the dialects that exist?
Race, gender, sexuality, education, social class, age etc..
Ex: Black ASL and White ASL due to racial segregegation.
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Observer's paradox
When dealing with linguist researchers studying dialects and the way people speak, subject participants may code-switch the dialect and style of speaking.
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How did William Labow avoid the observer's paradox in New York City experiment on usage of letter "R"?
He went out on the street to different stores to observe how people pronounced the "r" sound rather than conduct an experiment in a university setting.
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Code-switching
Switching dialects/languages and styles of speaking depending on who you speak with.
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How do researchers navigate observer paradox?
By studying the groups that share their own dialects.
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Linguistic discrimination
Discriminating against someone based on dialect or their style of speaking, or if they speak a different language.
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Changes to English at end of 1100s? Between 1400 and 1600?
Dropping many suffixes.
Changes in vowel pronunciation (Great English Vowel Shift)
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Language re-analysis
New speakers of a language mistake one word for another word. Can create new changes in language.
Ex: Napron in English later became apron because it sounded like to some "an apron". So, people just ran with "apron".
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Example of how languages change to work better for speakers.
Changes in third person pronouns from Old English
heo->she
hie->they
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Language contact
When languages in the same area influence each other.
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Language convergence
When languages become similar to each other. Can happen as a result of language contact.
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Language divergence
When languages become more distinct from each other. Can happen as a result of language contact as groups may want to establish distinct identities.
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Pidgins vs creoles
a language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common.
A pidgin becomes a creole when it becomes a language learned by the children of the next generation (when it has become a native language).
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How do creoles historically come about?
Western colonization, which is reflected in why Western-based languages seem to dominate the vocabulary in creoles that have been created.
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Diachronic analysis
Research that looks at how languages change over time based on studying the texts of those languages.
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Synchronic analysis
Studying differences in languages or dialects at the same point in time
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Comparative reconstruction
The process of piecing together a probable common ancestor language for a set of languages from existing records.
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Proto-language
A probable common ancestor language. May serve as the basis for a language family.
Ex: Proto-Germanic
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noun phrase
A noun phrase is a group of two or more words headed by a noun that includes modifiers.
the man with her
the dog
the group of them
these delicious cookies
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verb phrase
Verb+noun phrase
He loves these delicious cookies.
loves is verb. these delicious cookies is noun phrase.
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determiner
Definite article : the.
Indefinite articles : a, an.
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those.
Pronouns and possessive determiners : my, your, his, her, its, our, their.
Quantifiers : a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough.
Numbers : one, ten, thirty.
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preposition
A preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object. Some examples of prepositions are words like "in," "at," "on," "of," and "to."
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recursion linguistics
Ex: "The rabbit on the moon in the solar system in the milky way in the universe on Friday hopped."
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Create syntax trees
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Hyponym-Hypernym
Hypernym (A word). Hyponym (A type of that word)
Hypernym: Dog, Hyponym: Chihuahua
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Semantic relationship
Relationships between the semantic meanings of words.
Ex: Black and white are opposites. So, their semantic relationship is antonyms.
Black and color are hyponym and hypernym.
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Polysemy
Some words have multiple meanings like bank. (It could mean the coast of a river or a place where people store money)
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Do all languages have the same delineated semantic lines?
No.
Ex: To know in English, connaitre (to know someone) and savoir (to know something) in French.
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Can words shift their meanings over time?
How can euphemisms drive language change?
Yes, they can narrow in meaning. They can broaden in meaning. Sometimes, their definitions may completely change.
Words can change meaning because we need a euphemism for another word or concept. That euphemism will get associated eventually with the meaning of that word or concept and so a new euphemism will be needed. This changes words in languages over time.
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Prototype theory. Weaknesses?
Prototype theory is a cognitive psychological theory that suggests that when people categorize objects, they do so based on how similar the object is to a prototypical (or ideal) example of that category. They don't need definitions to determine whether an object meets the criteria of a definition, and thus, is a hyponym of that corresponding word or not.
For example, we have an idea in our head of what a chair looks like, and look at other objects and determine them to be chairs or not, depending on how similar or different they are from our prototype. We don't characterize objects as chairs or not based on definitions of chairs.
Works with content words, but not function words.
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Content words
Content words are typically nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
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Function words
Function words are words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships into which the content words may fit. Words like "of," "the," "to,"
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Predicate calculus
Used to figure out the functions that function words serve.
Ex: All is a universal quantifier.
A is an existential quantifier.
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Universal quantifier vs Existential quantifier
Quantifiers that apply to nouns
Universal: Every (like Every American), All (like All Americans)
Existential: Most (like Most Americans), A (A Mexican)
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Taxonomy
a system of classification
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Theories on relation between language and brain.
The way languages work has been influenced by the brain.
The brain has adapted to the fact that we use languages.
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Wernicke's aphasia
Affects wernicke's area. So, affects speech comprehension.
Can speak fluently and grammatically correctly, but sentences make no sense.
Cannot connect words with the objects they represent. If I show glasses, they do not connect it to the word "glasses", but when I say word glasses, they don't understand what I am referring to.
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Broca's aphasia
Affects broca's area. Speak non-fluently and ungrammtically.
Unlike Wernicke's aphasia, they can connect words to objects that they mean to denote. They just cannot speak properly.
Instead of saying "Put glasses on", they may say "Put glasses" or "glasses put".
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Arcuate fasciculus
Connects Wernicke's and Broca's areas.
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Conduction aphasia
Affects Arcuate fasciculus. People speak fluently, grammatically correct and sentences make sense, but when asked to repeat words or sentences of what they just said, they struggle.
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Production errors
Errors made in speech
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Spoonerism
words or phrases in which letters or syllables get swapped.
Ex: Tease my ears (Ease my tears)
Production error
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Tip of tongue experience
You are trying to recall a familiar term, but you cannot retrieve it.
Production error
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Mixed metaphor
To create an example of a mixed metaphor, simply cut and paste sections of two incompatible metaphors. Consider some ways mixed metaphors can pop up to ridiculous effect.
Ex: When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm.
Production error
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Tip of the fingers
In signed languages, cannot remember the handshape for a particular word.
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Kiki bouba experiment
Showed that people associate certain sensory properties like (sharpness, bumpiness etc.) with different phonemes.
This has implications that names for various objects are not arbitrary, and that this may factor in how different objects are assigned different names and words in a language.
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Priming experiment
Used to test how closely related words are in the brain by giving a word to study participants, and then, studying response times when participants hear other words. The faster the response, the more closely related a word is to the initial word.
Say "dog". If afterward you say "cat" and "green", and there is faster response to "cat", that means "cat" and "dog" are closely related compared to "green".
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Gating experiments
Saying or showing part of instead of a whole word for the participants in the study to figure out what word is trying to be conveyed.
How much of the word onomatopoeia needs to be said before a person knows that onomatopoeia is the intended word to be communicated?
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Eyetracking
Observes what people are thinking when they read or look at things.
Eyetracking shows that we often don't finish reading sentence to conclude what is going on. We figure out what's going on as we read the sentence. This means when we read garden-path sentences, we may think one thing before realizing the sentence means something else.
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Garden path sentences
Sentences where if not fully read can lead you to misinterpret the sentence.
Ex: The man who hunts ducks out on the weekends.
At first, when you read this, it seems the subject is a man hunting ducks, but when you keep reading, the sentence talks about a man who happens to be a hunter "ducking out" during the weekends.
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EEGs and language
Used to measure when brain is engaged in language-related activities in the brain through surges in electrical activity in brain.
Not great mapping where activity is happening in brain.
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fMRIs and language
Measures where language-related activity is happening in brain, but not when it is happening.
Does this by measuring which parts of the brain are there increased oxygen levels.
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Types of writing systems in languages
Phoneme-based (Ex: Latin alphabet)
Syllable-based (Ex: Kana in Japanese)
Morpheme-based (Ex: Han in Chinese)
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How is spoken language produced?
To produce sounds, air must come from the lungs through the vocal cords through the mouth.
The tongue and mouth move to articulate different sounds.
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Articulatory features of sign language
Handshapes
Location of handshapes (Ex: same handshape for mother and father. Put handshape on forehead for father. On chin for mother.)
Palm orientation (Ex: Are palms facing up? Down?)
Movement of handshapes. (Ex: Is movement a straight line? Is movement a circle?)
Expression/Non-handshape-related signs (Ex: Furrowed eyebrows to answer a yes or no question)
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Bilabial sounds
Sounds made by closing both lips.
Ex: "p" sound
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Labiodental sound
Sounds made using bottom lip and top teeth.
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Engma
Represents "ng" sound as in "sing" or "ring".
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What do white IPA boxes represent? Gray IPA boxes?
Sounds that have yet to be discovered in the given language.
Sounds that linguists do not believe that humans are not capable of producing.
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Co-articulated consonants
consonants produced with two simultaneous places of articulation
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Non-pulmonic consonants
Consonants that aren't made with air flowing out of lungs.
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Implosive consonants
A stop consonant pronounced with the breath drawn in. Not a click.
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Ejectives
Non-pulmonic consonant. Air flows out from vocal tract.
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Clicks
Type of non-pulmonic consonant. Common in languages like Xhosa, Zulu etc..
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vocal tract
the lips, tongue, throat, and even nose
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High vowel
pronounced with the tongue arched toward the roof of the mouth
/e/ (Feet)
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Low vowel
produced with the tongue relatively flat and low in the mouth and with the mouth open wide
/ae/ (Chaplin)
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Front vowel
Front of tongue is arched.
/ae/ as in Chaplin
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Back vowel
Back of tongue is raised
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Rounded vowel
Lip rounding is the ability to protrude one's lips and bring them together into a circular shape.
Vowels like this are /u/ as in scooter.
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Vowel length
How long vowel is produced for?
In "si" in Spanish and "see" in English, the latter is produced longer despite sounding the same.
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Vowel tone
Changing vowel by changing tones.
Ex: Mandarin. The word "ma" means different things depending on the tone of "a".
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Graphemes
Symbols that make up a language's writing system.
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Alphabet
Writing systems where graphemes represent phonemes
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Why do alphabets usually not have enough symbols to represent each sound in a language?
1. Some phonemes are modified by accent marks to create new phonemes, and are not necessarily represented in the alphabet like the cedilla in many languages.
2. It's hard to ask people to change how the write. Knee used to be (k-nay) yet the "k" still is in the word.
3. Words often borrowed from other languages and spelling conventions are here to stay.
4. Spelling is standardized across language, but spelling varies. Running is correct, but some people say "runnin" in English.
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Abjads
Writing systems in which consonants get graphemes, and vowels do not as they are primarily unwritten.
Ex: Arabic, Hebrew and other Semitic languages.
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Syllabary
Writing system in which graphemes represent syllables
Ex: Devanagari
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Logographic
Writing system in which graphemes represent words or morphemes
Ex: Mandarin
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What influences writing systems?
The medium used to record writing systems influence the way they look.
Stone carving Latin influenced the angular look of Latin letters.
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Proto-writing
Writing systems used in ancient times to represent specific concepts, but not expressed in whole sentences.
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Bronze Age development of writing
Invention of cuneiform
Most likely influenced other writing systems in Bronze age mediterranean civilizations like hieroglyphics and phoenician alphabet, greek and latin alphabets.
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Writing development in Ancient China
Oracle bone scripts set the stage for the development of modern Chinese characters.
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Writing development in Mesoamerica
Olmec writing influenced writing systems in other Mesoamerican civilizations like Zapotec, Aztec and Maya.
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How do writing systems change?
Sometimes, languages borrow writing systems from other languages and modify them to their own convenience. Ex: Many English letters have roots in Phoenician alphabet.
Some writing systems are created from scratch. Ex: Cherokee syllabary, Hangul
Writing systems may be changed for political reasons. Ex: Ataturk changed Turkish writing system from Arabic to Latin system.
Changing alphabets between dialects. Ex: Noah Webster got rid of "u" in British English "colour". So, in American English, it is "color".
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Was spelling always standardized and consistent?
No, Shakespeare spelled his name 6 different ways. Only with Printing Press did spellings for words became consistent and standardized.
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Aspiration (linguistics)
When you puff air out when pronouncing a word.
When you pronounce team, you can feel air being puffed on your hand if you put it in front of your mouth.
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How does aspiration influence phonemes?
If an aspirated version of a phoneme can make a meaningful change in words, the phonemes are considered different.
Ex: unaspirated t in tal (lake) in Nepali vs aspirated t in tal (plate) in Nepali. unaspirated and aspirated t are different phonemes.
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Assimilation
the process by which one sound is made similar in its place or manner of articulation to a neighbouring sound
Ex: In Paris being pronounced "Im paris" because n is alveolar in pronunciation while m is bilabial and so is p.
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Dissimilation
the process by which one sound is made more different in its place or manner of articulation to a neighbouring sound
Ex: Pronouncing cardamom as cardamon
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Epenthesis/Insertion
Phonological process in which sounds are added when people pronounce words
Ex: Bread becomes b-uh-read. Umbrella becomes umbr-uh-ella.
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Deletion
Phonological process in which sounds are deleted when people pronounce words.
Ex: Pronouncing almighty as a'mighty. and as an'. (Of Mice and Men)
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Methathesis
Change sounds positions in words when pronouncing them.
Ex: aks for ask. perscription for prescription.
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Voiceless stops letters
p, t, k
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High-amplitude sucking
When babies are engaged and attentive to something, they suck pacifiers faster. If bored, slower.
This process helps babies learn phonemes.
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When do babies lose ability to distinguish between sounds of all languages?
6 to 12 months
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Critical period. Debate? Implications?
an ideal period for acquiring languages in a person's life (The first few years of a person's life)
Linguists debate from when to when is the critical period.
Children will have a much easier time acquiring multiple languages than adults.
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Language deprivation for deaf children vs no language deprivation
No language deprivation means language skills of deaf children will progress at same stages as non-deaf.
If deprived of signed language or learning it very late such as in adolescence, can lead to cognitive difficulties. Signed languages must be taught to them from the beginning.
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Language transfer
Prevalent in adults. Our existing language skills influence our ability to learn other languages.
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How do most people learn languages?
In mid- to -late childhood or adolescence without formal schooling
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Receptive multilingualism
When you can understand other languages but cannot speak them.
Ex: I know English. I understand Hindi, but do not speak it.
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Heritage language
a language that someone learns in the home as a child, but that may not not fully develop because the person uses a different language in other situations in their life.
Navajo kid speaking English everywhere outside the home.
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Natural Language Processing
Programming computers to do language-related tasks like text-to-speech, search engines, translation websites etc..
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Why are ASL to English gloves flawed?
1. Sign language involves more than the use of hand signals that the gloves seek to detect for handshapes.
2. There are many more signs in sign language to represent different ideas and concepts than letters. The gloves can only detect the letters of the alphabet being represented in handshapes.
3. Sign languages use alphabets to borrow technical terms, not basic vocabulary.
4. It translates spoken language to signed, but not vice versa.
273
Natural language processing challenges
Computers may be able to do basic language-related functions, but not complex functions like situations where there are nuances in how words are pluraled.
Ex: Child-children
274
Machine learning and language
Showing computers a whole bunch of information called training data, and training them to conduct language-related tasks based on patterns in training data.
275
Supervised learning
Machine learning with paired training data such as Words and their definitions, words and their audio pronunciation etc.
276
Unsupervised learning
Machine learning with one input in training data. (Ex: A bunch of text in English or a bunch of audio in Mandarin)
277
Which do researchers prefer? Supervised or unsupervised learning?
A mixture of both.
278
Historical Bias
When a program is biased towards one language over others.
Ex: Translating non-gender Turkish pronouns into genderized English pronouns like she, he etc..
279
Training data
the data you use to train an algorithm or machine learning model to see patterns and then, conduct tasks automatically like humans.
280
Representation bias
Many languages are not represented in training data.
281
Measurement bias
The training data may reflect as a style of language that is not necessarily used in everyday usage today.
Ex: Using Bible texts as training data
282
Aggregation Bias
Machine learning will not work well for a bunch of different languages or dialects.
Ex: An English text-to-speech program, created by machine learning processes, will not function well if a bunch of different dialects of English are used as training data.
283
Evaluation bias
Researchers in machine learning use metrics that do not track how useful a potential language-based product or program from machine learning will be to users.
Ex: Measuring a product based on it usefulness to English speakers, but not speakers of other languages.
284
Deployment bias
When a machine learning-based product was released for reasonable purposes, but has now been misused.
Ex: Using style analysis tools made from machine learning to out whistleblowers.
