M2 Lecture 15 Flashcards
Research examines what about bilinguals
how bilinguals control languages or keep them separate ¤ Bilinguals use sentences and executive control to determine the language to
activate
what is The bilingual ‘advantage’
Bilingualism are able to ignore irrelevant information better than monolinguals due to stronger executive control processes (Stroop task)
define language
shared symbolic system for communication
what does Symbolic mean in the definition of language
There are units that reference or
symbolize something else
how does language Functions to communicate
Translates thoughts
what part of the brain is used for language
Our brains are generally left lateralized for language
¤ Particular left hemisphere regions are specialized for particular language functions
are any aspects of language supported but the rust hemisphere
But some aspects of language are supported by the right hemisphere
¤ Broader language information
¤ Prosody
¤ The way something is said
¤ Mood and attitude ¤ Is this a question?
where is damage with Broca’s aphasia
Damage to the Left inferior frontal gyrus
what are the Symptoms of Broca’s aphasia
¤ Intact language comprehension
¤ Intact intellectual function
¤ Trouble producing fluent speech articulatory movements
¤ Ranges from deficits in generating meaningful speech (agrammatical) to generating all forms of speech depending on the amount of damage
First case discovered in 1861 was patient ‘Tan (for broca’s aphasia) explain it
¤ 30 year old male
¤ Intact mental functioning
¤ Could only speak one syllable (tan)
¤ Still tried to communicate (Gestures, tone, inflection)
¤ Autopsy revealed large lesion in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus
¤ More recent studies show this effect is not limited to speech (also seen in sign language; Hicock et al., 1999)
when was Wernicke’s aphasia Discovered
in 1874
what is Wernicke’s aphasia also known as
Receptive or fluent aphasia
where us damage in Wernicke’s aphasia
Damage to the superior temporal lobe
¤ Boundary between temporal and parietal lobe
what are the Symptoms of wenicke’s aphasia
¤ Troubles understanding or comprehending speech
¤ Produces random but fluent speech (a steady stream of words)
¤ “Word salad”
¤ A lot of non-words or invented words
¤ Unaware of their deficit
what are the types of Paraphasias
Verbal
Phonemic
Neologisms
what is Verbal Paraphasias
substitutes a word with something semantically related ¤ Shares meaning with intended word
¤ Swapping term brother with sister
what is phonemic Paraphasias
substitute or add speech sounds ¤ Also called literal
¤ Shares sounds with intended word
¤ Calling Crab Salad: Sad Cralad
what is neologism Paraphasias
substitute with a made-up word ¤ Real world examples: Staycation; Webinar
is Conduction aphasia common
no it is uncommon
where is the damage with Conduction aphasia
Damage to the pathway between Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
what remains intact and what is impaired with Conduction aphasia
¤ Intact speech comprehension ¤ Intact speech production
¤ Impaired speech repetition
essentially there is a Disconnection between language production and comprehension
what is Global aphasia
¤ Large lesions that cross multiple functional areas of the brain ¤ Both speech fluency and comprehension are affected
¤ Communication is very difficult, almost impossible
aphasia showed that language is localized where
in the brain
Producing meaningful sounds and comprehending language are supported
by different areas of the brain
explain The plasticity of language function
¤ Neuroplasticity in the brain after a left hemisphere stroke can help recover language function
¤ Areas around the damaged area or the right hemisphere can be recruited to over-take language function
¤ TMS or tDCS can be used to promote activity in these areas post- stroke as a form of rehabilitation
¤ A patient comes to the clinic with some language problems. You ask this person to name some common items. For example, you point to a pair of shoes for them to name and they respond “feet-houses”. What type of paraphasia does this output error represent?
a. Verbal
b. Phonemic
c. Neologism
d. None, this is a symptom of Broca’s aphasia
c. Neologism
what is Psycholinguistics
The branch of cognitive psychology interested in how we comprehend, produce, acquire, and represent language
what are The building blocks of language
Phonemes
Morphemes
Syntax
Semantics
what are Phonemes:
the smallest units in language
¤ combined to form morphemes
¤ e.g., /d/, /o/, /g/
what are Morphemes:
the smallest meaningful units of language
¤ e.g., /dog/
what is Syntax:
the rules that govern how words are arranged in a sentence
what is Semantics:
the meaning of words and sentences
who is One of the most important figures in linguistics
Noam Chomksy
what did Noam Chomksy believe
Language is innate
¤ Children learn language quickly and easily
Language needs to be understood by studying the
structure of grammar (syntax)
¤ “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”
what were Noam Chomsky’s two most popular beliefs
Transformational Grammar Innateness Hypothesis
what is Linguistic competence
Internalized system of rules used to understand language
¤ Underlying linguistic ability
¤ Phonology, syntax, semantic …
what is Linguistic performance
person’s basic linguistic competence mixed with cognitive factors (e.g., memory) and situational factors
¤ Real world output
The ability to recognize ambiguous sentences as syntactically correct
is this competence of performance
competence
Making a speech error: saying “I seen it in the last lecture”
is this competence of performance
performance
what does Transformational grammar focus on
linguistic competence
what is Transformational grammar
A theory for how language is represented and processed
¤ There is a system of formal rules
¤ We have a finite set of grammatical rules that can produce an infinite
set of sentences
¤ Rules of syntax are described in tree diagrams
is Finite state grammar accepted
it is too simple so no
what is Finite state grammar
A rule system for stringing together words that operates one word by one word in one direction
¤ There are a finite number of states and transitions between words. This limits the choices for the next state
¤ Models language at one level
what are the Transformational grammar parts
phrase structure rules and grammatical transformations
what is Phrase structure rules:
rewrite rules at the symbol level
what is Grammatical transformations
Rules that operate on the entire string to convert them to new strings
E.g., “The girl drives a car” can become ‘a car was driven by the girl’ by changing the structure in the tree via the verb tense transformation rule
Transformational grammar has what levels of representaton
2– Transformations specify how we transform meaning into words
Deep structure
Surface structure
what is Deep structure:
The meaning of the sentence ¤ semantics
what is Surface structure:
The order of the words of the sentence ¤ phonology
what is the point of levels of representation in transformational grammar
allows us to Interpret ambiguous sentences
‘Dogs are hard to please’
what are Ambiguous sentences
Those with sections that have different meanings depending on how it is interpreted
¤ Time flies like an arrow
¤ Fruits flies like a banana
¤ Two different meanings of a sentence can be extracted from the same surface structure
what is the The innateness hypothesis
idea that there is Universal grammar and we use Language Acquisition Device
what is Universal grammar
a common underlying system of rules for all languages
what is Language Acquisition Device
An innate set of language learning tools ¤ The ability to learn grammar is wired into the brain
¤ Opposite of a behaviourist view of language
what is the Support for the innateness hypothesis
Poverty of stimulus
explain Poverty of stimulus
The linguistic environment that a child is exposed is too deficient to let a child acquire language alone
¤ A child doesn’t hear enough language samples
¤ A child doesn’t hear language to learn from mistakes
¤ There must be something innate about language
what is some suggestion Against the innateness hypothesis
¤ Adult reformulations of children’s speech
¤ Children gather information from reformulations of an incorrect
sentence in which the structure and not meaning is corrected
‘Child: I want butter mine Adult: Ok, I will put butter on it
Child: I need butter on it’
¤ The brain has statistical pattern recognition devices that can learn rules ¤ Rules need not be innate
what are Current takes on Noam Chomsky’s ideas
¤ Universal grammar: “a system of categories, mechanisms and constraints, shared by all human languages and considered to be innate”
¤ The innateness hypothesis is not in favour
¤ Child’s linguistic environment is much richer than had been previously
believed
¤ The brain is designed to detect statistical regularities
is Syntax the only thing that can determine language
Syntax is not the only thing that can determine language ¤ Language shaping thought
¤ Language and reading
¤ Language in a social context
what is the nativist view on Language and thought
Language and thought are independent
what is the Linguistic relativity views on language and thought
Language determines how we think
give a Linguistic relativity example
Seeing a container marked “gasoline” is interpreted as dangerous
¤ Gasoline is flammable!
¤ Seeing a gasoline container marked “empty” will not interpreted as dangerous (or flammable) even though vapours are explosive
¤ This is because the word empty creates the concept of “void” - “non-explosive” or “safe”
¤ Language changes how we think/perceive
what is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
¤ Languages influences our experience and perceptions
¤ This means that differences between languages will be present on
non-linguistic tasks
¤ Linguistic determinism
¤ An extreme version is that a person’s thoughts are determined by language
¤ Early support: Hopi Indian Language does not have words or a concept of time, but this was later proven false
¤ A weaker version is that a person’s thoughts are influenced by language
¤ Both follow linguistic relativity
explain the Support for Sapir-Whorf: Color language
Colors that are more easily named are remembered better Davidoff et al 1999
¤ Berinmo tribe in Papua New Guinea: 5 color terms
¤ The color boundary between blue-green does not exist
¤ English speakers
¤ The color boundary for Berinmo words nol and wor does not exist
- Berinmo Tribe members were worse at picking the studied color from the blue/green pair •English speakers were worse to pick the studied color from the nol-wor pair
- Speakers cannot access colors if the color boundary isn’t in their language •Language shapes the quality of color memory
explain critiques Against the Sapir-Whorf: Color language
¤ English Language Speakers: 11 words for color
¤ Dani tribe in Indonesia: 2 words for color
¤ Two tasks:
¤ Name color patches (language label task)
¤ The Dani did this differently than English-speaking participants ¤ Match color patches (Categorize task)
¤ The Dani performed equal to the English participants
\
¤ Evidence that accessing color category information does not rely on spoken language
how is Language an Intrinsic frame of reference
Spatial relations are described between objects
¤ Leo is behind the directors chair
how is language a Relative frame of reference
Spatial relations are described relative to an observer’s viewpoint
¤ Leo is to the left of the chair
how is language an Absolute frame of reference
Spatial relations are described as an invariant set of coordinates
¤ Leo is west of the chair
How does a language’s way of describing space (frame of reference) affect how we think?
Properties of English and Dutch
¤ These languages have a preference for relative frame of reference
Properties of Tzeltal (Mayan Language)
¤ This language has no relative frame of reference, only absolute frames of reference
¤ Spatial information is described and remember as absolute coordinates ¤ north, east, south, west
¤ There is no systematic use of left and right
is reading a form of language
Reading is a newer form of language (5,500 years old)
what is Dyslexia
The processes for converting print to speech is impaired
what are the types of dyslexia
Surface Dyslexia
Phonological Dyslexia
what is Surface Dyslexia
¤Trouble producing irregular words
¤ Problems reading ‘Comb” or “Thought” ¤Reading happens letter-by-letter
¤Cannot match words to mental dictionary
what is Phonological Dyslexia
¤Trouble reading letter-by-letter
¤Readings happens by comparing whole words to mental dictionary
(lexicon)
¤Cannot read non-words
what is the Dual route model of reading
printed word –> mental dictionary (whole word) OR Grapheme-Phoneme Conversion (Letter by letter) –> speech
explain Language in a social context
Grice’s cooperative principle that suggest we infer unspoken meaning from ordinary conversations
¤ Based on the idea that speakers intend to follow rules of conversation & listener expect these rules are followed
what are the rules of conversation & listener expect these rules are followed
- Maxim of quantity: say no more than is necessary
- Maxim of quality : try to be truthful; stay on topic
- Maxim of relation: attempt to be relevant
- Maxim of manner: avoid ambiguity and be clear
¤ You are having a conversation with you friend and they are telling you a story about John and Helen. You don’t know who John and Helen are, and your friend doesn’t seem to take this into consideration when talking about them. What conversation maxim does this violate?
a. Relative
b. Manner
c. Quality
d. Quantity
a. Relative
what is Grice’s cooperative principle
¤ When a speaker violates these maxims, a listener may not be aware because
of they expect the speaker is following the cooperative principle
¤ This can explain why some people have problems with sarcasm detection
explain Gender style and language and women with pronunciation
Women have better pronunciation
explain Gender style and language and women with vocabulary
¤ Women use more adjectives than men
¤ Women use first person plurals more than men
¤ “We need to hurry”
explain Gender style and language and women with Intonation
¤ Women use a ‘reverse accent’ more than men
¤ End statements like questions
give a summary of this lecture
¤ Defining language
¤ Cases of aphasia
¤ The functional organization of language in the brain
¤ The structure of language
¤ Transformational Grammar – rules to structure language
¤ The Innateness Hypothesis – language is innate and universal
¤ Is thought dependent on language?
¤ Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
¤ Color memory and spatial frames of reference
¤ How does language work in the context of reading?
¤ Cases of dyslexia
¤ How do we use language in a social context?
¤ Conversation determines the language we use
