Week One - Key Terms & Concepts Flashcards
What is language?
A system of symbols that convey meaning of shared rules
A form of communication whereby there is transmission from one source to another
What is linguistics?
Structure of language
- describes language
What three things do psychology of language conventionally address?
Comprehension
Production
Acquisition
What are Phonemes?
Smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning
What are Phonetics?
Speech sounds and how they’re articulated (physical properties of sounds and how they’re said)
What is Phonology?
How sounds are used and categorised within a language (the category that a sound fits in)
What is Phonotactics?
The rules for combining sounds within a language
In English, what can prosody do?
Can distinguish grammatical contrasts
- “I won the prize”
What are Morphemes?
Smallest units of meaning (tree + s = 2 morphemes)
What are the 2 types of morphemes?
Free & Bound
What are free morphemes?
Can stand alone e.g., thumbprint
What are bound morphemes?
Can’t stand alone but can still add meaning e.g., ing
What are Semantics?
Literal meaning
Content Vs Function words?
Content: Hold content and meaning that is easy to define eg., plum
Function: Help sentence but don’t have an easy to describe meaning e.g., by and to
What is Syntax?
Rules for combining words into sentences
What are Pragmatics?
Language in real-world context (guides use of language in context eg its cold in here)
What is register?
Appropriate level of written/spoken language for a given situation
What is Discourse?
Verbal or written interaction longer than a single utterance (evaluated in terms of particular context and prior knowledge)
- “its 8.15”
What is metalinguistic awareness?
Thinking about language as a system
Difference between spoken, written and sign language in terms of culture?
Spoken: all cultures
Written & Sign: some cultures (differs in representation
Why did language evolve?
Evolved to communicate existing cognitive representations
Did not arise in single step
Where did language arise?
In Broca’s area
What did a changing skull shape allow?
The articulatory apparatus to develop
What are Hockett’s Design Features of language?
• Vocal-auditory channel: Communication occurs by
producer speaking and receiver hearing.
• Broadcast transmission + directional reception: Signal
travels out in space, but localised by listener.
• Rapid fading: Signal rapidly disappears.
• Interchangeability: Speakers can both receive and
transmit message; anyone can say anything.
- Complete feedback: Speakers can access their productions.
- Discreteness: Vocabulary is made of discrete units.
- Tradition: Can be both taught and learned.
• Duality of patterning: Meaningless basic units gain
meaning when combined into sequences.
• Specialisation: Energy of signal is irrelevant to meaning.
• Semanticity: Signals have meaning; relate to features
of the world.
• Learnability: The speaker of one language can learn
another.
• Prevarication: Language provides the ability to lie and
deceive.
What are the 3 Hockett’s design features that are mainly specific to humans?
Semanticity
Learnability
Prevarication
What are the 3 Hockett’s design features that are ONLY unique to humans?
Arbitrariness: neutral symbols that don’t resemble what they stand for.
Displacement: The system can refer to things remote in time and space.
Reflectiveness: We can communicate about the communication system itself
Openness/creativity/productivity: The ability to invent new messages.
What is animal communication dependent upon?
Context and stimulus
No animals seem to have both what?
Duality and displacement
Don’t have semanticity
Explain Kanzi the Bonobo?
Learned incidentally
Produced some well-ordered meaningful conversations
What was Kani similar to?
Showed similar complexity to deaf children
How did Kanzi use language?
In a goal-oriented fashion i.e., requests
At best, what can animals learn?
Protolanguage
Dolphins learned?
Visual cues to language, but syntactic abilities very limited
African grey parrot could?
Produce and understand short word sentences
Washoe (female chimp) speech showed?
Semanticity, limited displacement, apparent creativity
