Language production

Question 1

Language production

Answer 1

The processes we use to convert thought into language output by speaking, writing or using sign language.

Is conceptually driven, top-down processes reflect the influence of higher order cognitive processes such as thoughts, beliefs and expectations.

Question 2

Genie Wiley

Answer 2

• Was abused and isolated from a young age.
• Got physically abused when she tried to speak, isolated from family and from other language sources such as television, radio etc.
• Was found at 13 years.
• When she was found her language developed differently than expected.
• She lacked over-extension which is how children typically categorise words e.g. They can use the word “pen” for crayons, pens and pencils while Genie sought out words that would help her differentiate between similar words.
• She was also delayed in combining words together, didn´t start combining words until she had learned 200 words.
• Content words: words that provide meaning to a sentence, differ from function words that serve a grammatical function in a sentence
• Her sentences had content words but lacked syntax.

Question 3

Genie Wiley key issues

Answer 3

• She had issues with grammar that would suggest that there´s a critical time period one should be exposed to language in a social context.
• Her language reflects that she has trouble using the vocabulary she has to create sentences
  Her case shows that language acquisition relies on both input from the environment and biological makeup

Question 4

Language and thoughts: arguments for them being separate

Answer 4

William´s syndrome:

Relatively intact language but impaired cognition, but language is still below the norm.

Specific language impairment:

Primarily language is affected but not other cognitive processes.

Question 5

Language and thoughts: arguments for them being linked

Answer 5

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:

• It says that our thoughts are shaped by our native language.
• Implies that pre-speaking thoughts is categorically different.
• Implies that people with different native languages think different.

“About how fast were the cars going when they ___ each other?”

Question 6

Language universals

Answer 6

• 6000 languages wordwide
• 10% will remain in 100 years
• large diversity, difficult to categorize and identify these features
• there are exceptions
• consonants and vowels
• combine basic sounds into larger units
• nouns
• verbs
• combine words in a meaningful way
• express who did what to whom
• questions
• structure dependent
• express sentences as negatives
• allow recursion (the use of a rule within itself, embedded sentences)

Question 7

Hoeckett´s design features for language

Answer 7

Charles Hockett created a set of 16 design features of human language that distinguishes human languages from animal communication systems.

Animal communication systems have some of the design features, but only human language has all 16.

• Interchangeability: One can be both the sender and the reciever, the speaker role is interchangeable.
• Arbitrariness: the way a words sounds usually does not relate to the meaning of the word.
• However with Cwiek´s expirement with bouba and kiki, people assigned bouba to the soft blob and kiki to the shape with sharp edges. This was replicated by different groups around the world.

Semanticity: Words have meaning. One can find semanticity in certain animal calls like the vervet monkeys that use a system of predator alarm calls with distinct calls for different animals. The calls are more likely to be used when there are other vervet monkeys around, and especially around kin. Using specific calls for specific threats is called functional reference.

Question 8

Phonemes

Answer 8

The smallest meaningful sound unit within language.

Phonemes don´t represent physical sounds, but are rather abstract representations of the phonological units of a language, a subjective category that makes sense for the speakers of the language.

Question 9

Morphemes

Answer 9

Smallest units of meaning

Question 10

Phones

Answer 10

Basic speech sounds

Question 11

Allophones

Answer 11

Phonetic variants of the same phoneme.

Different phones that are treated as the same phoneme are called allophones.

Question 12

Phonotactic rules

Answer 12

The combinations of sounds are permitted in a language

Question 13

Free morphemes

Answer 13

Can occur on their own

Question 14

Bound morphemes

Answer 14

Don’t carry meaning unless it’s attached to a free morpheme

Question 15

Function words

Answer 15

Do the grammatical work in a sentence, closed class of morphemes.

Question 16

Content words

Answer 16

Open class words that can be altered or invented as usage changes

Question 17

Semantics

Answer 17

The study of meaning.

The meaning of words and morphemes and the relationship between the words we use and the objects they refer to in the world.

Question 18

Syntax

Answer 18

How words come together, what is the grammar and what are the rules.

The structural organization of a language: non phrase + verb phrase

Language is productive

Recursion

Question 19

Language is productive

Answer 19

Sentences can be generated every time. They´re produced, no stock sentences in memory.

Question 20

Recursion

Answer 20

Repeated application of a rule

Question 21

Discourse

Answer 21

Multi-sentence speech and includes dialogue, conversations and narrative.

Question 22

Pragmatics

Answer 22

The understanding of the communicative functions of language and the conventions that govern language use

Question 23

Cultural variability VS Universal system

Answer 23

The universal system: predicts that most language will use minimal-gap-minimal-overlap

Talking practises differ between languages and culture.

Participants were asked yes/no questions and it would differ how long it took for people to answer the questions, based on what language they were speaking.

Although there were differences in turn-taking patterns, the differences were small. The data support strong universals in turn-taking patterns.

Question 24

Deception

Answer 24

What does lying look like?
- Longer pauses, slower speech and more speech disturbances

Research from missing persons videos:

• Vagueness, gaze aversion. head shaking

Question 25

Tip of the Tongue (TOT)

Answer 25

A temporary inability to access a word from memory.

• Most common with proper nouns
• A feeling of knowing
• Retrieval of some features of the word whether it be semantic or phonetic
• Bilinguals have it more often even if they sign as they second language, which suggests it’s not just about phonetics

Question 26

Lexeme

Answer 26

Basic lexical unit that gives the word´s morpho-phonological properties

Question 27

Lemma

Answer 27

An abstract word form that contains syntactic and semantic information about the word.

Question 28

Modular theories of speech production

Question 29

Serial theories of speech production

Answer 29

Serial theories of speech production propose that speech progresses through a series of stages, with different processing in each stage.

Question 30

Levelt´s model (serial theory)

Answer 30

• Serial theory
• Theory focuses on lexical access aspects of speech production.

STAGES:

1. Lexical selection: lemmas are selected.
2. Morpholocial encoding: Morphemes are selected. TOT phenomena can happen since lemma are selected, but the specific phonological form isn’t available. In languages that have gendered nouns, the gender of the word might be available at this stage.
3. Phonological encoding: syllables
4. Phonetic encoding: sounds are selected
5. Articulation: speech is ready for output

• Self-monitoring at multiple levels through the processing stages.
• Has two stages of selection, three of encoding and articulation as the final stage.
• Accounts for much data on speech production.
• Shows how speech might be monitored so that errors can be corrected.
• Since it´s a modular account, feedback is limited.
• Sometimes, a target word and error share both form and meaning information, saying rat instead of cat: this means that there´s interference from lower to higher levels.

Question 31

Interactive theories of speech production

Answer 31

• Based on connectionist principles, which implies that cognition is made out of networks of neuron-like units that get activated and inhibited.
• Processing is parallel: information is processed at the different level at the same time
• Processing is interactive: activation from one level can affect processing at other levels
• Accounts for many speech errors.
• Accounts for speech errors produced by people with aphasia.
• Blanken et al. Reported a mixing of word selection and word form access in a German patient with aphasia, that supports an interactive account.
• Mixed errors: target words and the error share form and meaning information suggesting that feedback occurs

Question 32

Dell´s model (interactive theory)

Answer 32

FOUR STAGES:

• Semantic level: where conceptualize what we want to say
• Syntactic level: where the structure of the sentence is devised
• Morphological (word) level: the morphemes that make up the target words are selected
• Phonological (sound) level: the sounds that make up the words are activated
• The connections between the stages allows for both top-down spreading (a word unit activating the phonological units at the stage below) and bottom-up spreading (semantic units at the layer above)

Question 33

The six stages of lexical access, interactive

Answer 33

1. Semantic units get activated by an external source (e.g. Information from vision in a picture naming task)
2. Activation spreads through the network
3. Word unit with highest level of activation is selected and linked to syntactic frame for the sentence, in the appropriate placement. Once the word is placed in the frame, its activation reduces to zero.
4. When the time is right, based on the slot in the syntactic frame the word is assigned to, the phonological information activates. If a single word is produced, selection of the word triggers the phonological information.
5. Activation continues to spread, but phonological units linked to the selected word become more highly activated.
6. The most active phonological units are selected, and these are linked to slots in a phonological frame for the word; this allows the correct phoneme to drop into the correct slot in the word so that the sounds are output in the correct order.

Question 34

Lateralization of function

Answer 34

When a function is lateralized, it refers to one cortical hemisphere being dominant for that function. The left hemisphere is dominant for language.

• Sensory information that comes into one side, is processed in the opposite (contralateral) side.

Question 35

Broca´s aphasia

Answer 35

• An acquired language disorder characterized by non-fluent speech, reduced speech output and problems with grammar processing.
• Broca´s area named after french doctor Paul Broca who localised language to the left hemisphere and speech production to the area
• Paper by Marc Dax 1836 is now acknowledged as the first to identify the left hemisphere as the language centre
• Study of patient with aphasia Leborgne: reduced speech output and lost control over right arm and leg, suggesting the impairment was in the left side.

It has now been discovered that there are some comprehension problems with Broca´s aphasia, when there´s more complicated syntax.

Question 36

Wernicke´s aphasia

Answer 36

• Damage to Wernicke´s area
• Charactirized as being a fluent aphasia: fluent but meaningless output and repetition errors
• Fluent aphasia is when patient´s speech is fluent but not meaningful
  Function words and grammatical structures intact, problems with content words

Question 37

Double dissociative aphasias

Answer 37

• Wernicke´s aphasia: patient is fluent but doesn´t make sense, function words intact
• Broca´s aphasia: not fluent, but makes sense, content words intact
  This doesn´t tell the whole story, might be issues with the connections/bonds between areas or something else

Question 38

Lateralization of function -> Split brain phenomenon

Answer 38

• The corpus callosum is a band of fibres connecting the two hemispheres. If it´s severed one can isolate the functions of the two hemispheres.
• One can sever them surgically to treat epilepsy.
• If the corpus callosum didn’t develop properly, the differences between the two functions becomes more visible.
• When the band is severed during commissurotomy the two hemispheres become independent of each other
• Since the left hemisphere controls language this causes interesting situations such as, if a split-brain patient is told to name an object blindfolded the patient will be able to name the object if it´s in his/her right hand, but not the left one.
• This is because the left hemisphere is the hemisphere that controls the right hand, and the left hemisphere is the language centre.
• When placed in the left hand, the participant cannot name it but is able to match it to other objects. When asked about it the participant might invent a reason for why they matched it that way.

Question 39

After Leborgne´s death

Answer 39

• Damaged by infection, which left a large abscess in that region.
• Broca concluded that the Broca´s area was responsible for speech production
• Leborgne´s deficit was severe, leading people to question whether he had global aphasia: acquired language disorder involving extreme impairment of language function.
• Dronkeres and colleagues: MRI scanning of Leborgne after his death showed lesions in the medial regions of the brain in addition to the surface lesions reported by Broca. This suggested that global aphasia might be the right diagnosis.
• Broca´s aphasia is considered to be Non-fluent aphasia, because it effects the patient´s speech output
• Function words are affected/compromised