Language

Question 1

what is a language?

Answer 1

the ability to communicate complex ideas, share our internal thoughts and emotiohns and plans for the future

Question 2

how would Chomsky define language?

Answer 2

a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements

Question 3

how would Harley define language?

Answer 3

a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate

Question 4

what are the branches of linguistics?

Answer 4

1. pragmatics: the study of language in context
2. semantics: the study of meaning and relationships of words
3. syntax: the study of the arrangement of words and phrases
4. phonetics: the study and classification of speech
5. phonology: the study of sounds
6. morphology: the study of words and how they are formed

Question 5

what are the 5 characteristics of language?

Answer 5

1. symbolic: uses symbols that don’t carry meaning, meaning is assigned arbitrarily
2. displacement: can speak about abstract things or things not physically present
3. structured: follows rules, has grammar
4. generative: can use finite elements to make infinite meanings
5. multiple levels of organization: organized hierarchically from ounds to words to sentences

Question 6

how can the symbols of letters/words be represented differently?

think about the senses

Answer 6

1. written: visual
2. spoken: auditory
3. tactile: braile
4. gestures: sign language

Question 7

explain the displacement characteristic of language

maybe provide an example

Answer 7

we can describe things that are not physically present
- warn about a threat
- hopes & dreams
- plan for the future

Question 8

explain the hierarchy of language

Answer 8

sentence can be broken down into phrase -> word -> morpheme
-> phoneme

Question 9

what is a phoneme?

Answer 9

the smallest unit of sound in a language

Question 10

do phonemes carry meaning?

Answer 10

not usually

Question 11

do

how many phonemes are there in the english language?

Answer 11

44

Question 12

what is phoneme parsing?

Answer 12

the process of categorizing or separating individual phonemes from seemingly continous sounds

Question 13

what is coarticulation?

Answer 13

how a phoneme is pronounced depends on what comes before or after

Question 14

how do we parse phonemes?

Answer 14

cues! visual cues/context clues like the rest of a sentence or somebody’s mouth movements
example:
- the moon rises at _usk
- the walrus is missing a _usk

Question 15

what is the McGurk Effect?

Answer 15

• seeing someone speak (visual information) changes they way you hear the sound
• when someone dubs a video of a mouth moving with a different sound, a third phoneme can be heard (not the word mouthed nor the one dubbed)

Question 16

what is a morpheme?

Answer 16

the smallest unit of meaning in a language
- can be words but not the same thing
- prefixes, suffixes

Question 17

is un- a morpheme or a phoneme?

Answer 17

morpheme
- it is a prefix

Question 18

how many morphemes in ‘dog’?

Answer 18

1

Question 19

how many morphemes in ‘baker’

Answer 19

2 (bake and er)

Question 20

how many morphemes in ‘dogs’?

Answer 20

2 (dog and -s meaning multiple)

Question 21

how many morphemes in restudied?

Answer 21

3: re- study-ed

Question 22

what is syntax?

Answer 22

the grammatical rules and structure that give meaning to sentences

Question 23

why does “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” make more sense than “furiously sleep ideas green colorless”

Answer 23

“colorless green ideas sleep furiously” follows english’s synatic rules of
ADJ + ADJ + NOUN + VERB + ADVERB

Question 24

what does syntatic ambiguity rise from?

Answer 24

1. misinterpretation of words
2. segmentation issues
3. garden path structure

example: squad helps dog bite victim
complaints about N

Question 25

what is a garden path sentence?

Answer 25

sentence that is grammatically correct that initially suggests one interpretation which turns out to be wrong or a dead end - i.e 'the old man the boat', 'the cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi'

Question 26

what is extralinguistic context?

Answer 26

things outside of syntax and words themselves that change meaning - movements and gestures - prosody - pragmatics

Question 27

# define prosody

Answer 27

how we pronounce or emphasize words ex. i never said *she* stole the money vs i never said she stole the *money*

Question 28

# define pragmatics

Answer 28

how we use words, context in which we say them, and what's left unsaid

Question 29

what is the behavioristic view on language acquisition?

Answer 29

operant conditioning -> language - trial-and-error learning

Question 30

what is wrong with the behavioristic view on language acquisition?

Answer 30

fails to explain: - universal timeline in language development - similar language ability despite different upbringings

Question 31

what are the principles of language acquisition (Chomsky)

Answer 31

abstract rules, grammars; the innate language mechanism, ready to understand any syntax (light swithches)

Question 32

what are the parameters of language acquisition?

Answer 32

the variables that determine which syntax. learned through exposure

Question 33

what is the word segmentation problem?

Answer 33

infants need to extract words from fluent speech in order to build their vocabulary - infants are sensitive to the statistical patterns contained in sequences of sounds

Question 34

what are the stages of language learning?

Answer 34

1. cooing: uttering sounds, early infancy (first 6 months) 2. babbling: uttering fewer sounds (ma-ma-ma, da-da-da) 3. one-word: entire morphemes (mama, water) 4. two-word: putting syntax together to create meaning ('want water", "look doggy")

Question 35

what is a critical period?

Answer 35

the language exposure period that children kind of need to learn a language entirely

Question 36

are language and thought dependent? | three answers

Answer 36

1. functionally distinct 2. partial dependence 3. cogntiively inseparable

Question 37

why is it that hebrews can click the buttons for earlier and later much faster when earlier is on the right?

Answer 37

Hebrew is read right to left

Question 38

what is the linguistic relativity hypothesis? (Sapir-Whorf)

Answer 38

1. strong version: thought and language are completely intertwined 2. weak version: language influences how people think

Question 39

what is global aphasia?

Answer 39

severe language deficit (often production and comprehension)

Question 40

can patients with global aphasia solve basic math problems?

Answer 40

yes

Question 41

can patients with global aphasia understand theory-of-mind?

Answer 41

yes, they can understand what another person is thinking

Question 42

how does grammatical gender affect perception/cognitive bias?

Answer 42

Germans and Spanish describe a bridge differently based on their language (big and dangerous vs. beautiful and elegant)

Question 43

True or False: If different languages have different words to describe colors, then people who speak those languages should perceive the colors differently

Answer 43

False. Color categorization is genearlly universal

Question 44

Can animals learn language?

Answer 44

Language seems to be uniquely a human ability - animals can communicate in some ways, but aspects of language are limited like displacement, generativity, syntax