Understanding Words and Sentences Flashcards

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1
Q

What does the brain have?

A

An underlying system that it uses to categorise and organise words hierachally

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2
Q

What is a free morpheme?

A

A single word - can’t be broken down any smaller to have a meaning
only one basic unit of meaning - non-decomposable

e.g. dog

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3
Q

What are bound morphemes?

A

Complex words - can’t stand on its own

e.g. dogs

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4
Q

When do children learn morphology?

A

As the acquire language
the wugg test
even without seeing words before, can still combine them with what you know to produce the correct word

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5
Q

What is the mental lexicon?

A

2 ways that words are stored: storage vs computation

full listing - words must be looked up in the lexicon as whole words
full parsing - words must be decomposed into elements, words are broken down and stored into the smallest word with rules next to them

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6
Q

Are words stored as wholes or broken down?

A

Some are stored as wholes and some are broken down depending if the word is regular or irregular

idiosyncratic words must be stored e.g. find - found, there is no rule so just have to store found

fully transparent words - walk - walked, don’t need to store it as recreate it by adding an ending

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7
Q

What is a dual route model?

A

Both direct lookup and computation used

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8
Q

What affects whether storage or computation is used?

A

Frequency of the word

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9
Q

Why does frequency of a word affect the mental lexicon?

A

If a complex word is common enough, it can eventually become lexicalised

e.g. home+work = homework (compound) - this eventually becomes its own word

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10
Q

What does lexicalisation mean?

A

Stored on its own as a word

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11
Q

How go test whether frequency aids lexicalisation?

A

Whole compound - homework
Constituents - home and work

if response time changes depending on whole compound - shows it has been lexicalised

if response time changes depending on constituent frequency - shows the constants are accessed during processing

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12
Q

Evidence to support frequency aiding lexicalisation

A

Eye tracking with compound word - gaze was influenced by all 3 frequencies, shows dual route

no escape from morphemes - all words are stored in pieces no matter how complex they are

interaction between whole compound and constituent frequencies - readers integrate multiple strategies, use both ways and which one gets there first, is the interpretation that you use

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13
Q

Why is evidence conflicting?

A

Different techniques:
Eye tracking
MEG
Reaction times

Different types of constructions:
Afflixing
Inflection
Compounding

Different influences:
Frequency
Family size
Meaning

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14
Q

What is language designed for?

A

Communicating

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15
Q

What is a maximally expressive language?

A

Having a different word for each unique event, thing, person, action etc

advantage - minimal room for misunderstanding
disadvantage - overload with unnecessary detail - communication becomes impossible

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16
Q

What is an efficient language?

A

Principle of parsimony - avoid needlessly multiplying entities, most use out of the smallest number of rules

17
Q

What is the principle of parsimony?

A

Using the most out of the smallest number of rules, units

18
Q

What does too much efficiency lead too?

A

Ambiguity

e.g. fluffle for small furry animals, efficient and only one word to remember but not clear what you are referring too

19
Q

What is the balance between?

A

Expressiveness
Efficiency
language relies on contextual, cultural, social knowledge to fill in the gaps

20
Q

What is it called when you strike a balance?

A

Linguistic economy

21
Q

Verb system: how do we know who is doing the action?

A

Option 1: conjugate - add morphemes to the verb to mark the subject - different ending for each person doing an action, diff in languages e.g. see, sees

Option 2 - word order

22
Q

Word order in different languages

A

English - right, the subject always comes before the verb
e.g. ‘I see the girl’

German: less rigid word order, verb is marked so the subject can move

23
Q

What does word order do?

A

Minimise ambiguity but doesn’t eradicate it

‘I saw an elephant in my pjs’ who was wearing the pjs?

24
Q

How do you resolve ambiguity? (2 resolutions)

A

Garden path sentence - the default reading of the ambiguous section doesn’t turn out to be the right reading by the end of the sentence, so go back and re read happens in headlines - crash blossoms

Clause order control and comma control, once you put a comma in, you can understand what a sentence means

25
Q

What is the problem with comprehenders?

A

They can be insensitive to discrepancies between the interpretation they obtain and the one that is appropriate given the content of a sentence - people work on sentences till they reach a point where it subjectively makes sense to them and then they stop trying

26
Q

Is linguistic economy any good?

A

Yes - it is a good enough interpretation

27
Q

What is linguistic economy?

A

Intensifies the meaning of a word by adding stressors