Psychology of Language Exam 2 Flashcards
What is well-formedness?
The quality of a clause, word, or other linguistic element, that conforms to the grammar of the language of which it is a part; essentially, it makes sense given its grammar
What are the NP and VP in the sentence “The boy likes the girl”?
NP = the boy likes
VP = the girl
What are the NP and VP in the sentence “The man bit the dog”?
NP = the man bit
VP = the dog
What does it mean for sentence structure to be hierarchical?
Sentences are made up of words grouped into phrases, which are grouped into higher-level phrases, and so on
Ex. a verb phrase is made up of a verb, a noun phrase, and a prepositional phrase; a prepositional phrase is made up of a preposition and a noun phrase
How does sentence structure hierarchy determine meaning?
A sentence’s meaning can be changed depending on the structural component a word fills
Why are sentences like “She wants to discuss sex with John” ambiguous?
There’s ambiguity in what the noun phrase is, or what is being discussed
What are the two possible syntactic representations of the sentence “She wants to discuss sex with John”?
She could want to talk to John about sex, or she could want to talk about having sex with John
What does syntactic ambiguity tell us about syntax?
It demonstrates the power of syntax because it can generate many syntactic parses to the same sentences
What is the behaviorist account of language?
Language is a verbal behavior—to explain how people behave all you need is a stimulus/response
- Stimulus → response
- Hunger → “give me apple”
- If you give the right response you get the apple, if not
you may not get the apple
- You learn to associate them together
Sentences formed by associating words (adjacent)
- Give-me-apple
- A chain; one word associated with the next word
associated with the next word, and so on and so forth
What is center embedding?
The process of embedding a phrase in the middle of another phrase of the same type
What determines whether two sounds are different phonemes or different allophones of a single phoneme?
It depends on your language
Phonemes
Unique categories/buckets by which you organize speech sounds
Are two sounds always represented as different phonemes?
No
Allophone
Two sounds that realize the same abstract phoneme
English: /kh/ vs. / k/ are allophones (same phoneme)
Gujarati: /kh/ vs. /k/ are different phonemes
What is phonology?
Knowledge concerning the patterning of words (meaningful units) from meaningless elements; our knowledge concerning the sound structure of language
Phonological universality
Rules or constraints that are part of every grammar; linguistic constraints given through universal grammar
Phonological diversity
Languages differ in their building blocks and the patterns in which they arrange the building blocks
Two aspects of phonological diversity
The building blocks that make up a language and the patterns in which the building blocks are arranged
What is the difference between consonants and vowels?
Differ in constriction of airflow
Consonants: constriction of airflow
Vowels: less constriction
Consonantal features
Place (where airflow is constricted - tongue v. lip), manner (manner of constricting airflow - complete vs. partial), and voicing (whether vocal folds vibrate - /p/ vs. /b/)
Distinctive features
Features that contrast phonemes
E.g., voicing (of labials):
Distinctive in English (b vs. p)
Not distinctive in Arabic
Aspiration
A strong air burst that accompanies the production of a consonant
Place of articulation example
Air constricted at lip vs. tongue
Pill vs. Till
What is phonotactics?
Phonological patterns; the study of the rules governing the possible phoneme sequences in a language
What is a syllable?
An imaginary phonological unit, another bucket constructed by your brain
What are the constituents of the syllable?
Syllable
Onset and Rhyme
(from rhyme) Nucleus and Coda
Expletive infixation as evidence for the syllable
You infix an expletive between syllables when using the expletive to emphasize a word (sar-freaking-dine)
Words comprise syllables and affixes are inserted between syllables, not within
How are syllables shown to be abstract through language differences?
Speakers of different languages interpret the same acoustic input differently (one syllable or two)
What you “hear” as a syllable depends on your language
Syllables are “made” by your brain, not just ears, it’s your brain that imagines the syllables
How do Japanese speakers pronounce “Mac”?
“Macu”
How do word chains work?
Group words (female names, actions) → Sample one word from each group → Move to the next group
Each move depends only on the immediately preceding move
Can word chains generate simple sentences?
Yes
Why do word chains exhibit difficulties with other types of sentences?
You cannot control the number of loops; must loop back for as many items in the group
With what types of sentences do word chain grammars experience difficulties?
Center embedding and long-distance dependencies
What are long-distance dependencies?
Understanding a sentence depends on words at endpoints; the form of words that are not adjacent depends on the other word (ex. “The girls who live next door love music” - the ‘s’ at the end of ‘girls’ makes it ‘love’ and not ‘loves’)
Why do long-distance dependencies present a problem to word chain grammars?
Word chains can only form associations among adjacent words
How does syntax solve the problem of long-distance dependencies?
Syntax builds constituents recursively
What is recursion?
An element that is defined in terms of itself; a phrase can have the same phrase inside it; makes us perceive distance words as close (John….-—- Married Linda - physically distant, psychologically close [under the same sentence])
How does recursion help us perceive syntactic links between words that are physically distant?
Certain grammatical rules can be repeatedly applied, with the output of each application being input to the next
What is an auxiliary?
A verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs; helps out the main verb (is, have, will, may)
Sentence with a single auxiliary
A unicorn /is/ eating in the garden
Sentence with a double auxiliary
A unicorn [that /is/ eating a flower] /is/ in the garden
Has an embedded sentence
The 2 rules of question formation
Word order rule and structure-sensitive rule
Do both rules of question formation work for single auxiliary questions?
Yes
Do both rules of question formation work for double auxiliary questions?
No, only the structure-sensitive rule works
What is the challenge in discovering the right rule of question formation?
Poverty of the stimulus - Children do not hear double auxiliary sentences nearly enough to form these sentences on their own and learn which rule is correct through parent corrections
Do children acquire the word-order or structure-sensitive rule?
Sentence-structure (errors made do not follow the word order rule)
Poverty of the stimulus
To infer the right rule, children need to hear a certain type of input (ex. questions with double auxiliary), but the problem is that input is poor/limited (input is only single auxiliary)
How do children solve poverty of the stimulus?
Structure sensitivity is a UG principle; children will not consider the word order rule, and the problem of question formation never arises in the first place
Why do Japanese speakers pronounce “Mac” as “Macu”?
“Mac” is ill-formed because CVC syllable types are not allowed in Japanese, only CV, so another consonant is added to the end of the syllable to make it CVCV
What is repair?
A grammatical process that renders ill-formed syllables better-formed by inserting/deleting phonemes
Does repair affect the perception of syllable structure?
Yes, repairs are modality independent
What are the goals of Optimality theory?
Explain how languages differ from each other and how they are still similar to each other
Explain language diversity and language universals
How does grammar work in optimality theory?
Get input (ebzo) → Grammar takes it and generates representations (guesses about what you have heard) (ebzo, ebuzo, buzo) → Pick which one you actually heard based on which input incurs the least severe constraint violation
Based on optimality theory, how does Japanese grammar result in repair?
Markedness (NoCoda) is a constraint valued higher than faithfulness (fill or parse), so Japanese grammar would fill/parse in order to repair having a coda
How does the English grammar differ from the Japanese grammar?
English values faithfulness over markedness, whereas Japanese values markedness over faithfulness
How does Optimality theory explain the tension between language diversity and universality?
Languages have universal constraints (markedness/faithfulness), but they are diverse in how they rank them
What aspects of grammar are universal?
Constraints, preferring large sonority clines over small ones
What is the syllable hierarchy?
Some syllables are ranked better in our minds due to sonority levels
Describe the statistical tendencies associated with the syllable hierarchy
Lower/negative sonority clines are disliked compared to higher sonority clines
Sonority
Consonants have some phonological property on which they’re arraigned
Sonority levels
A hierarchical ranking of speech sounds (L = 3, B = 1)
Sonority distance
The distance from C1 to C2 in the syllable onset
What is the auditory/phonetic explanation of why English speakers misidentify ill-formed syllables?
The person simply misheard what was said/humans cannot hear that syllable
How does the auditory/phonetic account differ from the phonological account?
The person is not interpreting it as something different, they’re just not hearing it in the first place
What is the issue with the auditory/phonetic account as shown by Russian speakers?
Ill-formed syllables can be identified/heard by Russian speakers
What is the issue with the auditory/phonetic account as shown by printed words?
English speakers cannot encode ill-formed syllables, even when they’re reading a printed version
What is the sub-vocal articulatory (motor simulation) explanation of why English speakers misidentify ill-formed syllables?
Motor areas are activated in production and perception, so people may misperceive ill-formed syllables because they fail to simulate it
Perception of /p/ and /t/
Even when perceiving /p/ and /t/, not even speaking, the lip motor area and tongue motor areas are activated, respectively
Onsets
Sounds attached to the beginning of the nucleus
Coda
Sounds attached to the end of the nucleus
