Week 7 Language

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

system of communication using sounds or symbols. Used to express feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences.

Question 2

What are the two factors which make human language more creative and complex than animal language?

Answer 2

Organised into the Hierarchal System of Language

• components can be combined to form larger units –> creating familiar concepts and understanding
• ‘languages are unique but the same’ –> different words/ rules, all have nouns, diff tenses
• communicate multiple ideas in one sentence/ have more complex messages

Governed by rules
- grammar

Question 3

Explain language acquisition B.F Skinner 1957

Answer 3

• learned through reinforcement

Question 4

Explain language acquisition according to Chomsky

Answer 4

1957

• language is present in our genes
• studying the properties of our mind
• underlying basis of all language is similar
• revolutionised psychology, behaviourism was popular at time

1959

• Children produce sounds they haven’t learned or haven’t been reinforced
  e. g. “I hate you dad/mom” –> they have picked up the rules of the words. Understanding of rules comes from genetics

Question 5

Define psycholinguistics

Answer 5

the psychological process by which humans understand and process language - comprehension, speech production, representation (phrases) and acquisition (learning)

Question 6

Define lexicon

Answer 6

all words a person knows/ can understand - including correct usage, sounds

Question 7

Define phoneme

Answer 7

shortest segment of speech - if changed, it changes meaning of word

Question 8

Define morpheme

Answer 8

smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function. e.g. for the word “boys” first morpheme is boy (meaning young male child) second morpheme is “s” (meaning multiple young male children).

each added morpheme changes the meaning of the word. e.g. like, un-like, un-like-ly