Speech and Language Flashcards

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1
Q

Define language

A

Language is characterised by a system of visual and or vocal symbols which have meaning to both the user and the recipient, Harvey 2012

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2
Q

What is a syntax? What kind of words show it?

A

Syntax is the grammar rules of sentences and function words show it.

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3
Q

What is semantics and what kind of words illustrate it?

A

Semantics is the meaning if the sentence, illustrated by content words

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4
Q

What are affixes and what do they do?

A

Affixes can be prefixes or suffixes on the end of words and they alter grammatical function of words

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5
Q

What is word class?

A

Word class is the grammatical categories of words

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6
Q

What is the typical word order in sentneces?

A

SVO: subject verb

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7
Q

What are errors in speech usually?

A

Errors ins pecch are usually grammatical and not confusing word classes

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8
Q

What are the three grammars suggested by Chomsky 1965?

A

Chomsky suggested 3 grammars:

  • generative grammar
  • second grammar
  • surface grammar
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9
Q

What is generative grammar?

A

Generative grammar is the rules by which speakers ideas can be transformed into the final product

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10
Q

What is second grammar?

A

second grammar is what a person intends to say, deep strutures which the brain must turn into the approiate structure

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11
Q

What is surface grammar?

A

thisis the final spoken product

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12
Q

How do we know and store the meaning of words in our heads?

A

The meaning of words is defined by memories we associate with them, we reconise them when we hear them so there must be a mameory store storing auditory represtations of words. Soemone says something and then we find it in our mental lexicon and so we can access the semantics of the word

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13
Q

Is there a universal language?

A

Gesture is part of the universal language

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14
Q

Does gesture aid or worsen understanding?

A

It is thought that gesture alongside speech improves our comprehnsion of intention of the speaker.Kelly et al 1999 found participants in the gesture condtion were mre than twice as likely to get the nature of an indirect request.

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15
Q

What is psycholinguistis?

A

Psycholinguistics is the branch of psychology that studies verbal behaviour, the role of human cognition in language aqquisitionand comprehension,

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16
Q

What is phonology?

A

Phonology: sound system of speech

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17
Q

What are phonemes?

A

Phonemes: the smallest unit of sound that still contributes to the meaning of a word

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18
Q

What is voice onset?

A

Voice onset time is the delay between the initial sound of a voiced consonant and the onset of vibration in the vocal cords.

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19
Q

Are all changes in sound phonemic?

A

No not all changes in sound are to do with phonemes, pitch, elongation or shortening letters during speech are non phonemic changes

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20
Q

Discuss our perceptual system in terms of distinguishing between phonemes

A

Our perceptual systems see things in a categorical way. So we are bad at perceiving phonemes in the boundary where they are changing but we are good good at perceiving changes across the categories

21
Q

What are the three aspects to making consonants?

A

Making consonants:

  1. voice (vocal cords vibrate or not)
  2. place (where in the vocal tract it takes place)
  3. Manner (how the air moves out of the vocal tract)
22
Q

Give three types of consonant that result from changing manner

A
  • stop consonant where air flow is stopped
  • nasal consonant where air comes out the nose
  • fricative where air can get through but is turbulent as they produce a narrow constriction
23
Q

Give 6 places where production of consonants can take place

A
  • bilabial
  • labiodental
  • alveolar (alveolar ridge)
  • palatal
  • velar (uvulum)
  • Interdental
24
Q

What are the three aspects of making vowels?

A
  • height, the vertical position of the tongue
  • backness, how far back in the mouth the tongue is
  • roundness, the shape of the lips
25
Q

What are formants?

A

the frequency bands of speech sounds produced by the vocal cords and other physical features of the head and throat.” Properties of a soundwave which give us important cues to work out what the speaker is communicating.

26
Q

What is frequency in terms of speech sounds?

A

Frequency is how rapid or slow the vocal cord vibration is

27
Q

Does the brain need a single cue or multiple cue to decipher speech?

A

The brain needs multiple cues to decipher speech the most accurately, like seeing someones face o being told to look out for a word in a series of distorted speech sounds.

28
Q

Why do babies posses so much potential with language?

A

They possess a lot of potential as they can perceive differences in phonemic categories that adults cant. categories are language specific.

29
Q

What age do babies stop being sensitive to all language categories and how can we test this?

A

By 12 months they become sensitive to only their native categories and we can test this using a pacifier nipple, seeing whether they change sucking with different categories

30
Q

What are the three hypothesis for native vs non native language discrimination?

A
  • Native language recognition hypothesis says infants recognise words which belong to their language
  • General language discrimination hypothesis says infants can recognise sentences from different language due to recognising varying sounds
  • rhythm based language hypothesis says new borns are sensitive to prosody and so distinguish based on intonation and rhythm of speech
31
Q

What are three ways to test speech perception in young children?

A
  1. high amplitude sucking procedure
  2. Head turn preference procedure
  3. Preferential looking procedure
32
Q

Describe the high amplitude sucking procedure

A

High amplitude sucking procedure
pacifier nipple attached to a polygraph to assess the strength of the sucking. To control differences in baseline sucking rates they calibrate the polygraph to how strong the infants suck when there is no stimulus. new sound sucking rate increases (novelty) whereas if you play the same sound continuously the sucking rate slowly declines back to baseline as the sound is no longer novel.

33
Q

Describe head turn preference procedure

A

head turn preference procedure
When presenting children with new or old words it is observed how long they spend orientated towards them. Children tend to spend longer looking at familiar words

34
Q

Describe preferential looking procedure

A

They show children images on a screen and play a word that matches one of the images. They measure how long they look at the images and whether they look at the correct image for the word being played to them.

35
Q

What are 3 types of preverbal communication in infants

A
  • Rejection, facial expressions, vocalisations ans gestures indicating displeasure
  • Request, using gestures and vocalisations to indicate they want something
  • Comment, pointing or handing things to the carer accompanied by a vocalisation
36
Q

discuss first words

A
  1. infants babble
  2. make phonemic sounds
  3. recognise the phonemic sounds in others speech and make associations between the way their mouth moves
  4. try to say these words as they know hey van make some of the phonemes
37
Q

Why are infants incapable of learning the rules of syntax?

A

Locke 1993

  • lack of cognitive development
  • small vocab
  • short term working memory is limited
38
Q

Do infants first words tend to be content words or function words?

A

First words tend to be content words as they are emphasised in adult speech and they are things they can see in their environment

39
Q

Why is inflection a difficult rule to learn?

A

It is not explicitly taught

40
Q

What happens once a child learns a grammar rule?

A

They tend to apply the rule to everything wrongly

41
Q

What is fast mapping? Is it specific to the language area of the brain?

A

Fast mapping by carey and bartlett 1978 refers to how quick children are at learning new content words. There is evidence it is not specific to the language areas of the brain.

42
Q

What are errors children make with meaning?

A
  • over extension where they learn a word and classify too many things as that
  • Under extension where they learn a word and then don’t classify enough things as that
43
Q

What is the language acquisition device?

A

The lanagauge acciqusiion device was an idea proposing that language is innate and we cannot prevent its acquisition (pinker 1984). The device must embody universal grammar basics as children re constantly getting examples of bad grammar and speech (as adults do not speak well) yet they still learn the correct grammar and speech. This device is part of a general theory of cognitive structures which are responsible for language.

44
Q

What are the 4 assertions of the language acquisition device?

A
  • • Children make hypothesis about the correct grammar in their brain and then these rules are confirmed or dis-confirmed when they hear adults speak.
  • An innate device guides hypothesis formation (certain sentences, phrases etc they will never entertain)
  • The device makes reinforcement unnecessary and provides motivation for learning language
  • The critical period for language learning is childhood, after this its harder to learn language
45
Q

Criticisms of the language acquisition device

A

reinforcement
o This can be seen in day to day situations, children do get grammar wrong and parents do provide corrections by repeating back the correct sentences
o They do need reinforcement as Bonvillian et al 1976 found children with deaf parents could not learn language by simply overhearing it on the radio and the TV
Hypothesis about grammar
o isn’t testable
- Children may not actually be following the complex adult rules but learn simpler, less general, less scientific rules about specific words

46
Q

Support for language acquisition device

A

Newport and Supalla 1987 found the earlier they started teaching deaf children sign language the better they could communicate
It is widely thought there is a critical period seen in case studies like genie

47
Q

what is the difference between simultaneous bilingualism and successive?

A

Simultaneous bilingualism is learning two languages at the same time naturally and spontaneously. whereas successive bilingualism is when the second language is learnt after the first

48
Q

Do bilinguals have better or worse executive functioning?

A

A meta analysis by lenthn et al 2018 found no difference despite previous research suggesting there is.

49
Q

Possible health benefit of bilingualism?

A

It is thought they are less susceptible to altheimers disease;more protected against cognitive decline