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Chapter 10: Language; By: Jenny Tran (Biological Mechanisms for language…
Chapter 10: Language; By: Jenny Tran
Parts of Language Organization
Sentence
coherent sequences of words that express the intended meaning of the speaker
Words
Morpheme
smallest language units
Phoneme
smallest unit of sound
Rules of Syntax
Prescriptive
rules describing how language is supposed to be
Descriptive
rules characterizing the language as it is ordinarily used by fluent speakers and listeners
Garden-Path Sentences
initially led to a interpretation but this interpretation is wrong
Ex: The old man the ship
Misinterpretation due to temporary ambiguity
we also commit to one interpretation early on
Sentence parsing
process of assigning words to a phrase structure
Influences:
Syntax
try to use simplest phrase structure
tend to hear active voice than passive
EX: the secretary applauded for his efforts
Background knowledge
people try to parse sentence in a way that makes sense to them
Extralinguistic Context
the physical and social setting in which you encounter the sentence
Prosody
rise and fall of speech intonation, pattern of pauses
reveals mood, direct listener's attention
Pragmatics
how language is ordinarily used
Aphasia
Broca
language production
non fluent: adequate verbal comprehension but unable to produce language
Here....head.....operation....here....speech...
Wernicke
Comprehending language
fluent: able to talk freely but say little or have little meaning
"Oh I'm taking the word the wrong way to say, all the barbers here whenever they stop you
Biological Mechanisms for language
Learning without exposure
children can still learn language when communication with adult limited
deaf: invent their own gestural language and teach language to other people, invented language shows many formal structures seen in existing language.
Specific Language Impairment
normal intelligence, no problems with muscle movements needed to produce language
slow to learn language, throughout their lives have difficult understand and producine sentences
Over-regulization errors
children learn that you can just add -ed to make past tense
tend to over rely on this
"Yesterday I runned."
Recognition Studies
listen to tape recording, designated sequence "bidaku" as a worde
no surprise when infant heard bidaku, recognized the sequence of syllables despite absence of cues
FOX 2 Gene
people with mutation in this gene have impaired language learning
Semantic bootstrapping
children rely on their knowledge of semantic relationships as a basis for figuring out syntax
Limits
wolf children
none could be rehabilitated to use language, some did learn to say some words
language learning may be dependent on human genome and human environment
Linguistic Relativity
idea that people speak a different language think differently
differences between cultures:
language has a direct impact on cognition
language guides what you pay attention to
ex: color perception