language - intro

Question 1

language hierarchy

Answer 1

phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences

(phonemes, morphemes, semantics, syntax)

Question 2

what are phonemes?

Answer 2

single unit of sounds that changes meaning (Log v Dog).
about 40 in English

Question 3

words are made up of…

Answer 3

morphemes - which are the smallest languages unit that carry meaning

words suffixes and prefixes

Question 4

bound v unbound morphemes

Answer 4

bound = do not stand on their own (have a functional role)
unbound = words

Question 5

inflectional and derivational morphemes

Answer 5

inflectional = add meaning to words (DISgruntlED)
Derivational = change grammatical class (ER)

Question 6

content v functional morphemes

Answer 6

content: dog/ lecture/ food
functional: in/ of/ to/ by

Question 7

content words

Answer 7

semantic processing relies on CONTENT words
- they map onto concepts (unit of semantic memory) = nouns, adjectives, verbs

Question 8

syntactic processing relies on…

Answer 8

syntactic processing relies on processing FUNCTION words
- pronouns, conjunctives

Question 9

Syntax

Answer 9

refers to the structure of language (sentences/ phrases)

rules for ordering words are learning implicitly

Question 9

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 9

problems with function words - uses mostly content words

Question 10

Surface v Deep Structuring

Answer 10

Surface: organisation level of words

Deep: meaning of the sentence

“i saw a zebra flying over Africa” = 1 surface, 2 deep

Question 10

Werenicke’s aphasia

Answer 10

when comprehension is more intact than ability to produce language. They appear to talk normally but content does not appear to make sense.

Often there are still intact abilities - automatic functions

Question 11

Early Infant Speech production

Answer 11

Infants have a predisposition to tell the difference between human and artificial sounds.

• newborns can perceive many basic phoneme contrasts
• not restricted to the sounds in language they are growing up in
• At 3months - they have discrimination between animal and human sounds

Question 12

Perception of consonant sounds become categorical…

Answer 12

ba & pa = 25msec in VOT
(VOT = time interval between release of consonant and onset of voicing)

Question 13

detections of phonemic change…experiment

Answer 13

HAS - High Amplitude Sucking Technique

use operant conditioning - babies begin to know if they strongly suck dummy sound comes out. Used to see if babies can detect sounds

detections of phonemic change is modified by experience - depending on the language they grew up in

Question 14

at what age do children fine-tune their perception to the language they are in?

Answer 14

9 months old

Question 15

producing language (speech sounds)
infants…

Answer 15

cooing - 2months
reduplicated babbling (gagaga) - 6-7months
variagated babbling - 11-12months
at 10months babies sounds have adapted to the language it hears

Question 16

why do infants make a limited set of sounds?

Answer 16

due to the shape of their vocal tract and the development of the motor cortex

at age 3 - harder sounds are produced

Question 17

comprehension versus production

Answer 17

word comprehension (receptive vocab) precedes productive vocab by an average of 4 months.

initial acquisition rate fro comprehension is twice that of production, even phoneme production lags behind comprehension

Question 18

The Vocab Burst

Answer 18

major increase in productive vocab acquisition rate after first 50 words are learned (18months)

Question 18

when are words overextended?

Answer 18

1-25 words = 45% overextended
26-50 = 35%
51-75 = 25%

Question 18

why does ‘the vocab burst’ occur?

Answer 18

• develop understanding of the symbolic nature of language
• develops more control over articulation
• easier retrieval

Question 19

Overextension v Underextension

Answer 19

overextension: ‘dog’ refers to all cats and dogs
underextension: ‘dog’ only for family dog not other dogs

newer words are fragile so overextensions are more common when one has fewer words

Question 20

how do youngsters learn to communicate beyond single words?

Answer 20

by using protowords & nonverbal functions of language

Question 21

Holophrases

Answer 21

single word that stands for an entire statement

Question 22

early sentences occur at

Answer 22

around 2 yrs old - they begin to combine words they have specific meaning relations they like to convey

Question 23

pivot grammars

Answer 23

words frequently found in same position or occurred together alot
(possession, naming, attributes, actions)

problem - not always consistent using it

Question 24

later syntactic development occurs at

Answer 24

4yrs old - syntax begins to resemble adult language

Question 25

nativist views of language:

Answer 25

children are biologically predisposed to learn language - innate

• Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
• Language Acquisition Device - Chompsky
  -Cognitive structures that are specific for language and underlying knowledge of syntax grows as child grows

Question 26

3 prongs to nativist views

Answer 26

1. Children acquire language rapidly
2. Children acquire language effortlessly
3. Children acquire language without being explicitly taught

Question 27

Language Bioprogram Hypothesis

Answer 27

Pigins & Creoles

Pigins: inverted languages drawing from grammar and words from a group of languages

Creoles: when pigin is acquired as a nature langugage (children) it becomes more grammatically complex

Question 28

Evidence for the Sensitive period for language includes..

Answer 28

Isolated Children and Deaf Signers

Question 29

Genie

Answer 29

13yrs old when language learning really started - lateralization already started

• she could put out function words - not grammatically correct though.
• different rates of progress seen in acquiring words vs syntax

Question 30

Deaf Signers

Answer 30

sign language developed like pgin - became more like creole

shows sensitive period of development

Question 31

Word Boundaries

Answer 31

Babies categorise words - pick up on abstract patterns.

the distributional structure of language is what allows children to form these syntactic categories

Question 32

Statistical learning

Answer 32

children look for a linger time at the novel sequence

Even though this information was put together in a sequence, they could work out some boundaries - bidak
- even came up with this artificial grammar during sleep