Chapter 19 Flashcards
(154 cards)
phonemes
- fundamental language sounds
- individual sound units whose concatenation produces morphenes

morphemes
smallest meaningful units of words, whose combination forms a word
base, affix, inflection
base
morpheme
ex: do in undo
affix
morpheme
ex: un in undo, er in doer
inflection
morpheme
ex: ing in doing, s in girls
lexicon
- memory store that contains words and their meanings
- collection of all words and their meanings - does not include conceptual knowledge
syntax
- words strung together in patterns that conform to the rules of grammar
- appropriate choice of verb tense
semantics
meaning connected to words and sentences
prosody
- tone of voice
- can modify the literal meaning of words by varying stress, speech, and rhythm
discourse
- highest level of language processing
- stringing together sentences to form a meaningful narrative
to produce sound
enables human’s to produce sound consists of two sets of parts
- source
- filters: the length and shape of vocal tract determine sound characteristics
- Air exhaled from the lungs drives oscillation of the vocal cords, also termed the vocal folds, located in the larynx. The acoustical energy generated then passes through the vocal tract and finally out to the nostrils and lips.

vocal cords
folds of mucous membrane attached to the vocal muscles
larynx
voice box, organ of voice
speech anatomy in humans vs apes
- human oral cavity is longer than in other apes
- human larynx is situated much lower in the throat

four core skills underlie human language:
- categorizing
- category labeling
- sequencing behaviors
- mimicry
categorization
of human language
- brain must determine which of myriad kinds of sensory information reaching the cortex corresponds to a given object in the external world
- Assigning tags to information makes it easier to perceive the information itself and to retrieve it later when needed
- ventral visual stream: (coursing through the temporal lobes) participates in object categorization
- dorsal stream: may also participate in object categorization by making relatively automatic distinctions between objects such as plant versus animal, or human versus non-human
ventral visual stream
(coursing through the temporal lobes)
participates in object categorization
dorsal visual stream
may also participate in object categorization by making relatively automatic distinctions between objects such as plant versus animal, or human versus non-human
labeling categories
- categorizing system can stimulate the production of word forms about that concept (the category)
- it can also cause the brain to evoke the concepts in words
- means of organizing events and relations
categorization
color blind
- a man who was once a painter but is now colorblind, can know and use the words, labels, for colors, even though he can no longer perceive or imagine what those labels mean
- lost his concept of color, but his words can still evoke it
categorizationn
brain lesion pts
- retain their perception of color, and thus the concept, but have lost the language with which to describe it
- experience colors but cannot attach labels to them
labeling a category includes:
and anatomy
- identifying it: temporal lobes
- organizing information within the category: function of the motor cortices in the frontal lobe within dorsal visual stream
sequencing behavior
language
- Left hemisphere structures, associated with language, have a fundamental role in ordering vocal movements, such as those used in speech
- can also sequence face, body, and arm movements to produce non-verbal language
- Sequencing words to represent meaningful actions likely makes use of the same dorsal stream, frontal cortex circuits, that sequence motor action more generally
mimicry
language
fosters language development
- from birth, babies show a preference for listening to speech over other sounds
- When they begin to babble, they are capable of making the sounds used in all languages.
- also mimic, and subsequently prefer, the language sounds made by people in their lives
- In the formative years, children may add as many as 60 new words each day to their vocabularies.
- mirror neurons of the motor system respond when we see others make movements and also when we make the same movements
- mirror neurons in the cortical language regions may be responsible for our ability to mimic the sounds, words, and actions that comprise language






















