language Flashcards
based on random choice rather than any reason or system
Arbitrary
we have to talk about this for a while for a specific purpose, but let’s avoid thinking about how awful it is
Euphemism
I want you to think about just how awful this is
Dysphemism
Mammals: when suddenly injured or confined, emit sudden angry noise to startle attacker
Humans: also triggers language system- aggressive words with negative affect
Rage-circuit theory
language influences our thoughts and the way we perceive and experience the world
Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis
the smallest unit of sound that contains information; often a word, but some words contain multiple morphemes
morpheme
We can break morphemes into its constituent sounds
phonemes
the rules that govern how sentences are put together; also known as grammar
syntax
refers to the meaning of each individual word
semantics
the infant makes a wide range of drawn-out sounds that combine consonants and vowels; often includes rhythm and inflection, so that the infant may sound as though he’s asking a question or involved in a conversation
babbling
about one and a half to 6 years; vocabulary increases rapidly and most children have mastered the major aspects of language
language explosion
the ability of infants to discriminate between any sounds they’re tested on; includes sounds from non-native languages
Universal Phoneme Sensitivity
occur when children apply a rule too broadly, and can occur at the level of meaning or syntax
overextensions
occur when children apply a rule to a specific object only
underextensions
Noam Chomsky has argued that language develops rapidly due to an innate mechanism
Language Acquisition Theory (LAD)
when a forager is successful in finding a source of food, the honeybee returns to the hive, and performs a waggle dance to communicate the location of the food to other bees
the waggle dance
4 criteria of language
symbolic, arbitrary associations, productive, rule governed
words whose sounds are associated with their meanings
Onomatopoeia
Language is designed to use a small number of components to produce and understand a wide range of symbols
productive
Allow various languages to use different sounds to label the same item
Arbitrary associations
With the limited set of sound combinations and words in a language, a potentially infinite number of expressions can be made, including completely novel expressions
rule-governed
The meaning that is produced through the use and combination of certain words and morphemes
semantics
the loss of universal phoneme sensitivity, occurs when individuals begin to specialize in a particular language and suggests that this is somewhat inherent but shaped by early experiences such as infant directed speech
perceptual narrowing
occurs when someone typically suffered a stroke or head injury that gas damaged areas in the left hemisphere involved in motor control of speech
Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS)
