Week 9 - Language

Question 1

The hierarchical nature of language (df)

Answer 1

Language consists of a series of small components that can be combined to form larger units.

Question 2

The rule-based nature of language (df)

Answer 2

components of language can be arranged in certain ways (“What is my cat saying?” is permissible in English), but not in other ways

Question 3

psycholinguistics

Answer 3

the field concerned with the psychological study of language.

Question 4

Semantics

Answer 4

is the meaning of language.

Question 5

lexical semantics.

Answer 5

The meaning of words

Question 6

word frequency effect (df)

Answer 6

refers to the fact that we respond more rapidly to high-frequency words like home than to low-frequency words like hike.

Question 7

So our ability to hear and understand spoken words is affected by: (4)

Answer 7

(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.

Question 8

Lexical priming (df / occurs when)

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Meaning dominance (two subtypes)

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

garden path sentences

Answer 10

Sentences which begin appearing to mean one thing but then end up meaning something else

Question 11

Temporary ambiguity (cue: garden path sentences)

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

garden path model of parsing

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

The principle of late closure (cue: Garden path model of parsing)

Answer 13

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

Question 14

the constraint-based approach to parsing

Answer 14

The idea that information in addition to syntax participates in processing as a person reads or hears a sentence

Question 15

subject-relative construction

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

object-relative construction

Answer 16

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.)

Question 17

coherence (Cue: language)

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

anaphoric inference

Answer 18

inference that involves inferring that both shes in the second sentence refer to Riffifi.

Question 19

instrument inference

Question 20

instrument inference.

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

causal inference

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Situation model (cue: reading)

Answer 22

When reading, one creates a situation model, with simulates the perceptual and motor (movement) characteristics of the objects and actions in a story

Question 23

given–new contract

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Common ground

Answer 24

the mental knowledge and beliefs shared among conversational parties

Question 25

referential communication task

Answer 25

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

Question 26

entrainment (cue: language)

Answer 26

synchronization between the two partners.

Can include: Conversational partners can establish similar ways of naming things, gestures, speaking rate, body positions, and sometimes pronunciation

Question 27

Syntactic coordination

Answer 27

When conversational partners end up coordinating their grammatical constructions

Question 28

syntactic priming

Answer 28

hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a sentence will be produced with the same construction

Question 29

prosody (df)

Answer 29

the pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language

Question 30

Congenital Amusia

Answer 30

patients who are born having problems with music perception