Language Production

Question 1

define language

Answer 1

a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate

words are symbols - the rules specify how words are ordered to form sentences

Question 2

functions of language

Answer 2

• communication (obtain/convey/record information)
• social interactions (make and maintain relationships, to influence behaviour)
• emotional expression
• the power of sound (onomatopaeia, singing)

Question 3

Discuss language and identity

Answer 3

Physical identity (voice types, physical condition, age, gender)
Psychological identity (personality and voice stereotypes)
Geographical identity
Social identity

Question 4

Discuss physical identity

Answer 4

–> Men: the level drops sharply at adolescence and then increases again from 40 years of age.
–> Women: the level is stable during middle age, decreasing later

Question 5

Discuss psychological identity

Answer 5

Personality and voice stereotypes
- language can change as a function of personality and voice stereotypes, example = Eysenck’s theory of personality raits

• 4 colours represent the four ancient greek temperaments
  –> two dimensions (stability/instability) and (extraversion/introversion)

Question 6

Geographical identity, social identity, etc

Answer 6

Pragmatics: meaning in context of discourse
Semantics: literal meaning of phrases and sentences
SYntaz: phrases and sentences
Morphology: words
Phonology: phonemes
Phonetics: speech sound

Question 7

Language comprehension vs production

Answer 7

Comprehension = input
- the ability to understand language input
- process of decoding meaning rom linguistic input using contextual information and knowledge of the world

Production = output
- the creation of language (either spoken or written)

Question 8

5 major differences between speaking and writing

Answer 8

1. speech is time bound and transient; writing is space-bound and permanent
2. speech = less time for planning, writing = more planning time
3. speech: receive immediate verbal and non-verbal feedback, writing: not immediate
4. speech: well suited to social functions, writing: well suited to communicating facts and ideas
5. speech: writers have direct access to what they have produced so far, speech = don’t have access

Question 9

What are the aspects of what most models agree on?

Answer 9

Meaning (semantics)
Word form
Sounds (phonemes)
results in speech

Meaning (semantics)
Word form
Letter (graphemes)
Writing

Question 10

Discontinuous vs cascaded = continuity of flow of activation

Answer 10

Discontinuous (discrete, serial): completing the process at each state before moving on

Cascaded: not only the phonemes of the target word, but the phonemes of the competitors are activated

Question 11

Direction of flow of activation

Answer 11

Feedforward (& cascaded): theories may allow activation to only spread in one direction –> unidirectional

Interactive: allows feedback from a later to an earlier level (up and down)

Question 12

Dell vs Levelt

Answer 12

Dell –> a model where activation cascades between levels and its interactive
- interactive (cascading) - has a lot more information, semantic and phonological neighbours

Levelt –> a model where activation is discrete and non-continuous (does not cascade) and feedforward (unidrectional / i.e. no interaction)
- activation only of target phonemes

Question 13

Spoken word production errors: dissociated the accounts

Answer 13

• speech errors are important - slips that relate to the word we are trying to say
• provide insights into the mechanisms of speech production
• speech errors are generally similar to the target words

Question 14

Examples of speech errors

Answer 14

• semantic substitution: correct word replaced by one with similar meaning
• phonological substitution: correct word is replaced by a word or nonword that has similar sounds
• exchanges of words
• substitution of sounds: correct letter is replaced by another (from another word in the sentence)
• exchanges of sounds: sounds are switched within or between words
• mixed errors: share both sounds and meaning with the target

Question 15

dissociating the accounts - lexicality bias in phonological errors

Answer 15

–> lexicality bias is the idea tthat your are more likely to produce a word than a non-word
more likely in a short word than a long word too

Interactive activation accoutns:
- patterns of phonemes that correspond to nonwords can become active, but those patterns that correspond to nodes at the lexical level - will receive more support in terms of continuing activation from the lexical level
Discrete/feedforward accoutns:
- relies on monitoring

Question 16

Aphasia

Answer 16

disorder of language, acquired as the result of brain damage

Causes : damage to those areas of the brain that control language

Most people have trouble finding and/or producing the words they want to say - might substitute an incorrect word or make errors on the sounds of the word, or might be problems with putting words together to form sentences

Question 17

What are the traditional syndromes of aphasia

Answer 17

Broca’s aphasia (primarily affects expressive language –> osterior left inferior frontal gyrus)

Wernicke’s aphasia –> primarily affects receptive language - posterior superior temporal gyrus

Question 18

Problems with language localisation

Answer 18

Language network is a wide distributed system
Metaanalysis of activation peaks from 128 functional neuroimaging studies

Language is not a single entity
Individual variability

Question 19

Cognitive neuropsychological approach to aphasia

Answer 19

• patterns of breakdown also used to test prediction from theories
• speech production errors
• monitoring