module 9 Flashcards
What are symbols and an example?
arbituary pairings b/w sounds & their reference
- human language is fundamentally a symbolic system
- e.g. word dog doesn’t have some intrinsic connection to the thing it stands for
What is generativity and an example?
can take finite number of words & express infinite number of ideas
- e.g. “green rabbits hop thru the night on their way to school”
- never heard statement but could produce, imagine and comprehend it
What are phonemes?
smallest unit of sound recognisable as speech rather than random noise
- e.g. consonants & vowels
- each language has unique set of phonemes: not all languages use all phenomes
What are morphemes?
smallest meaningful units of language
examples:
- me, giraffe
- but unfairly has 3: un, fair, ly
- all have grammatical content: all 3 have meaning that contributes to meaning of word unfairly
- texting has 2: text & -ing
What are semantics?
tells meanings of individual words and how words combine to convey larger meanings
What is syntax?
rules governing how words are combined to form meaningful phrases & sentences
What are pragmatics?
concerned w/ how we use language to convey intended meaning within particular social context & figure out others’ intended meanings
involves taking into account:
- inferred goals & motivations of speaker - status of those involve in speech act - other nonlinguistic cues to intended meaning (e.g. situational constraints, gestures & tone of voice)
What is the Quinean reference problem?
all object labels are inherently ambiguous as to the referent of term
- word learning constraints allow us to narrow range of possibility what a speaker is referring to
- use linguistic context to infer meaning of novel word: grammatical & syntactic cues
- pragmatic cues: the way person speaks (intonation)/gestures made help us figure out what a novel word refers to
What is whole object bias?
tend to think label refers to entire object & not a part
What is mutual exclusivity?
each label applies to one & only one object; each object has one & only one label
What is basic level bias?
tend to think that word likely refers to object’s basic level rather than to other levels
What are constraints when learning the meaning of a new word and an example of each? (perceptual)
biases toward certain interpretations of words that arise from way perceptual system naturally carves up world into distinct objects & events
e.g. shape bias: objects of roughly the same (different) shape are assumed to have the same (different) name
What are constraints when learning the meaning of a new word and an example of each? (conceptual)
make some kinds of categories/relationships seem more “natural” to label
e.g. whole-object bias: preference for labeling whole, bounded objects rather than objects’ parts/their relationships to other things
What are constraints when learning the meaning of a new word and an example of each? (pragmatic)
goals & beliefs attributed to speaker may guide child’s understanding of what word means
e.g. mutual exclusivity: assume that each object in a language has only one label
What is the phonological development of these abilities?
- before birth to adolescence
- learn to differentiate (perceive) sounds of native language
- learn to produce sounds of native language
- much perceptual phonological development complete by 10 months
