Language

Question 1

What are the Building Blocks of Language?

Answer 1

Phonology: Sound patterns of a language.
Syntax: Rules for word order and sentence structure.
Semantics: Meaning of words and sentences.
Syntax can exist without semantics

Question 2

What is Finite-State Grammar?

Answer 2

Suggests a limited set of rules govern language.

Question 3

Noam Chomsky’s Theory

Answer 3

Finite grammars are too simplistic.
Language is hierarchical and generative.
Phrase Structure Rules: Define sentence composition.
Grammatical Transformations: Convert one sentence structure into another (e.g., active → passive voice).

Question 4

Linguistic Nativism (Innateness Hypothesis)

Answer 4

Chomsky: Humans have an innate universal grammar.
Evidence:
Brown & Hanlon (1970): Parents don’t consistently correct grammar.
Poverty of Stimulus: Children learn complex grammar without explicit correction.

Question 5

Linguistic Empiricism

Answer 5

Parental Reformulations:
Parents rephrase children’s incorrect speech, leading to self-correction.
Happens 50-70% of the time.
Role of Teachers:
Syntactic development improves more during the school year than summer.
Complexity of teacher speech affects language growth.

Question 6

Saccades

Answer 6

Small, rapid eye movements.

Question 7

Fixations

Answer 7

Pauses between saccades.

Question 8

Regressions

Answer 8

Leftward movements when re-reading.

Question 9

Moving Window Paradigm

Answer 9

Tests how much visual information is needed for reading.
Perceptual Span: ~17-20 characters, more to the right of fixation.

Question 10

Boundary Change Paradigm

Answer 10

Tests what kind of parafoveal information is used.
Longer fixation on unexpected words.

Question 11

Reading Comprehension & Working Memory

Answer 11

Reading span test: Recall last words of sentences.
Higher span → Better comprehension of complex sentences.
Listening span also predicts comprehension.