Week 9 - Language Flashcards
The hierarchical nature of language (df)
Language consists of a series of small components that can be combined to form larger units.
The rule-based nature of language (df)
components of language can be arranged in certain ways (“What is my cat saying?” is permissible in English), but not in other ways
psycholinguistics
the field concerned with the psychological study of language.
Semantics
is the meaning of language.
lexical semantics.
The meaning of words
word frequency effect (df)
refers to the fact that we respond more rapidly to high-frequency words like home than to low-frequency words like hike.
So our ability to hear and understand spoken words is affected by: (4)
(1) how frequently we have encountered a word in the past;
(2) the context in which the words appear;
(3) our knowledge of statistical regularities of our language; and
(4) our knowledge of word meanings.
Lexical priming (df / occurs when)
Priming that involves the meaning of words.
Lexical priming occurs when a word is followed by another word with a similar meaning.
For example, presenting the word rose and then the word flower can cause a person to respond faster to the word flower because the meanings of rose and flower are related.
Meaning dominance (two subtypes)
Biased dominance: Words such as tin, in which one meaning (a type of metal) occurs more often than the other (a small metal container), is an example of biased dominance.
Balanced dominance: Words such as cast, in which one meaning (members of a play) and the other meaning (plaster cast) are equally likely, is an example of balanced dominance.
garden path sentences
Sentences which begin appearing to mean one thing but then end up meaning something else
Temporary ambiguity (cue: garden path sentences)
Garden path sentences illustrate temporary ambiguity, because first one organization is adopted and then—when the error is realized—the person shifts to the correct organization.
garden path model of parsing
States that as people read a sentence, their grouping of words into phrases is governed by a number of processing mechanisms called heuristics (rules that can be applied quickly). These rules are based on syntax—the structural characteristic of language.
The principle of late closure (cue: Garden path model of parsing)
States that when a person encounters a new word, the person’s parsing mechanism assumes that this word is part of the current phrase, so each new word is added to the current phrase for as long as possible
the constraint-based approach to parsing
The idea that information in addition to syntax participates in processing as a person reads or hears a sentence
subject-relative construction
When the subject of both the main clause and the embedded clause are the same.
E.G.:
Main clause: The senator shouted.
Embedded clause: The senator spotted the reporter.
The embedded clause is called embedded, because who spotted the reporter is inside the main clause
The senator is the subject of both the main clause and the embedded clause.
object-relative construction
When the subject in the main clause is the object of the embedded clause.
E.G.:
Main clause: The senator shouted.
Embedded clause: The reporter spotted the senator. In this case, the senator is the subject of the main clause, as before, and is also replaced by who in the embedded clause, but is the object in this clause.
The senator is the object because he is the target who was spotted. (The reporter is the subject of this clause, because he did the spotting.)
coherence (Cue: language)
The representation of the text in a person’s mind that creates clear relations between parts of the text and between parts of the text and the main topic of the story.
anaphoric inference
inference that involves inferring that both shes in the second sentence refer to Riffifi.
instrument inference
instrument inference.
Assumptions regarding instruments that are being used when vague references to them are made. E.g. “Shakespear wrote” would be quill based on what you know about the time.
causal inference
When you infer that the events described in one clause or sentence were caused by events that occurred in a previous sentence, and infer that taking the aspirin made her headache go away
Situation model (cue: reading)
When reading, one creates a situation model, with simulates the perceptual and motor (movement) characteristics of the objects and actions in a story
given–new contract
states that a speaker should construct sentences so that they include two kinds of information: (1) given information—information that the listener al-ready knows; and (2) new information—information that the listener is hearing for the first time
Common ground
the mental knowledge and beliefs shared among conversational parties
referential communication task
a task in which two people are exchanging information in a conver-sation, when this information involves reference—identifying something by naming or describing it
entrainment (cue: language)
synchronization between the two partners.
Can include: Conversational partners can establish similar ways of naming things, gestures, speaking rate, body positions, and sometimes pronunciation
Syntactic coordination
When conversational partners end up coordinating their grammatical constructions
syntactic priming
hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a sentence will be produced with the same construction
prosody (df)
the pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language
Congenital Amusia
patients who are born having problems with music perception
