Lecture 7 - Languge Comprehension Flashcards
(128 cards)
1
Q
What is language?
A
Language is a form of communication.
2
Q
How is the boundary of language?
A
When language is defined based on the function of communication, it is hard to identify the boundary of language.
3
Q
How can we differentiate human’s and animal’s language?
A
Complexity (in forms and rules) is the main factor that differentiates human’s and animal’s language.
4
Q
How many different languages are there in the world?
A
7000+ languages (according to Google)
5
Q
How can we calculate the number of languages in the world?
A
We need to define language like what is a language or dialect and how different the two languages should be to be considered as two different languages.
6
Q
How is the boundary to define languages?
A
The boundary to define two langues is very blurry, so it’s difficult to define the differences between two languages.
7
Q
How is the definition of language and dialect?
A
The definition of language and dialect is very fluid that there is no clear cut boundary between two languages
8
Q
What is phonetics?
A
- It is to study how speech sounds are produced (articulation system to produce the speech sound), transmitted (acoustic properties: how the sound looks like in terms of vibration in air) and perceived (auditory system: perceived by cochlea and receptors)
- It is about the properties of sound (produced, transmitted and perceived)
9
Q
What is a phoneme?
A
It is the basic unit of sound in human language (e.g. dog -> “d”, “o”, “g”)
10
Q
What is a phonology?
A
- It is about how elementary part speech sounds compose langauge
- to study how to understand the language part of sound
11
Q
What is prosody?
A
It is the non-phonetic speech elements that also carry information
12
Q
Examples of prosody
A
Stress, tone -> carry meaning of context and emotion
13
Q
What is morphology?
A
It studies morpheme (the basic unit of language) that carries meaning, about how it is *spelt and does not differentiate vowel or auditory information
14
Q
What studies how language are visually constructed (visual form)?
A
Orthography
15
Q
What studies the grammatical structure of sentences and the rules to combine basic elements of language to form larger chunks of information?
A
Syntax
16
Q
What is semantics?
A
Semantics is the study of meaning of langauge
17
Q
What is lexicon?
A
It is the collection of words and vocabulary
18
Q
What is lexeme?
A
It is a basic unit of meaning independent of word inflection
19
Q
What is pragmatics?
A
Pragmatics studies how context contribute to the meaning.
20
Q
Examples of pragmatics
A
Sarcasm and exaggeration
21
Q
What is the difference between speech processing and text reading in terms of the mode of processing?
A
Speech processing is auditory processing and text reading is visual processing
22
Q
What is the difference between speech processing and text reading in terms of the speed?
A
Text reading is faster than speech processing as the process of reading is not sophisticated and common
23
Q
What is the speed for text reading?
A
People can read 250 - 350 words per minute for text reading.
24
Q
What determines the speed for speech processing?
A
The speed for speech processing is determined by the speaking rate, while the normal speech rate is 120 - 200 words per minute.
25
Can you obtain the speed for speech processing?
No, the speed for speech processing **cannot be obtained** as the speed of speec his **not determined by the listeners**.
26
How much higher can the comprehension of speech processing be successful of the speech rate?
Comprehension can be successful at **two times or more** of the normal speech rate.
27
How is the capacity of speech processing, text reading and speech production?
Our capacity of speech processing is similar to the capacity of text reading, while it is higher than the capacity of speech production.
28
What can’t people produce speech at a higher rate?
People cannot produce speech at a higher rate as it is very **cognitive demanding** and that the entire articulatory system has an **intrinsic scale**.
29
What is the emergence order of text reading and language processing?
The ability of text reading is **developed later** than language processing.
30
is the emergence of writing earlier or later than speech?
The emergence of writing is presumably **later** than speech by comparison it tone scale of human evolution.
31
Can the content in text and speech be revisited?
Content in text can be revisited for **better comprehension** while content in **speech cannot** be revisited.
32
Is there space in text and speech?
Different from text having space between space, there is **no space** between in words in speech.
33
Why is adding a space in text c_____-e______________?
Adding a space in text is **cost-efficient** as it is useful for **differentiating** to **define words**.
34
Speech contains rich n___-l____________ information?
Speech contains rich non-literal information
35
What are the four stages in speech processing?
We can define speech processing into **decoding, segment, recognition, integration**.
36
What does the speech processing start with?
It starts with auditory input to hear things from ears.
37
What do you need to do after you hear things in speech processing?
You have to **select speech sounds** from all raw signals (Differentiate speech sounds from ambient sounds).
38
What do you need to do after receiving the signal of speech sounds in speech processing?
The brain should transform acoustic signals to extract abstract information to save things, and further have an **abstract representation** of things,
39
What is being done in word recognition in speech processing?
Activate lexical candidates, competition and retrieval of lexical information.
40
What is utterance interpretation in speech processing?
It is a **continuous form** of speech that has to be evolved from **syntactic analysis** and **thematic processing**.
41
What is the last stage of speech processing?
Integration into discourse model
42
What are the three contextual effects commonly exist in speech processing?
1. McGurk effect
2. Phonemic restoration effect
3. Ganong effect
43
What is speech dependent on?
Speech is dependent on **contextual** information.
44
What processing is speech processing about?
Speech processing is about **top-down processing** (using personal experience to infer things you are processing).
45
What is McGurk effect?
McGurk effect is about **multimodal sensory integration**
46
Perception of visual patterns can affect perception of what pattern in McGurk effect?
Perception of visual pattern affects perception of auditory pattern.
47
What is phonemic restoration effect?
It uses some **noise** to **mark the consonant**.
48
What is Ganong effect?
It is the tendency to perceive an **ambiguous** speech sound as a **phoneme** that would **complete** a real word.
49
What is the possible risk of Ganong effect?
The possibility to process a phoneme can **distort** a word in speech.
50
What are the three theories of speech perception?
1. Motor Theory
2. Trace Model
3. Cohort Model
51
What process is speech recognition as suggested in Motor Theory?
Speech recognition is fundamentally a process of **recognising** or **matching** the **motor programmes** that the speaker used to **generate the speech sounds**, as suggested in Motor Theory.
52
What do we imagine when we hear a speech sound suggested by Motor Theory?
When we hear a speech sound we are imagining the **process of producing the sound** that enables you to understand the word as suggested by Motor Theory
53
Suggested by Motor Theory, we use what system to recognise speech?
We use the **same system of speech production** to recognise speech so we try to **activate motor programme** to understand and perceive a certain word.
54
What anatomical features support the motor theory?
The **overlapping brain areas** between speech perception and speech production partly supports the motor theory.
55
What are the two examples of limitations of motor theory?
- Human babies can recognise speech **before** developing speech perception
- People with impaired speech ability can still perceive speech well
56
What are the limitations of motor theory?
The speech perception and speech production area should not overlap as people’s functions of speech perception and speech production are different.
57
What is motor theory related to as suggested by some scientists?
Some scientists find that it may be related to **mirror neuron**, which is activated when performing an action and when seeing others performing the same action.
58
How many levels and what levels are there in trace model?
There are three different levels in trace model, which are features, phonemes, and words.
59
What things are at the levels in trace model?
There are some **individual processing units**/ nodes at the three different levels: features, phonemes, and words.
60
How is the connection between levels in Trace Model?
The connection between levels operate in **both directions** and are always **facilitatory** so that explains **Ganong effect**
61
What happens when there are more similar features between two levels in trace model?
There will be a **greater activation** when there are **more similar features** between two levels.
62
What connections are there at the same level in trace model?
There are **inhibitory connections** among units or nodes at the **same** level that they compete each other in a **competition relationship**.
63
How are the activation level and strengths of interconnection between levels in trace model?
The nodes influence each other **in proportion to** their activation levels and the strengths of their interconnections (the facilitatory effect will be stronger or weaker based on the **similarity between levels**).
64
What happens when the excitation and inhibition spread among nodes in trace model?
As excitation and inhibition spread among nodes, a **pattern of activation/trace** is developed
65
What is the relationship of all activated words in trace model?
All **activated words** are involved in a **competitive process** in which these words would **inhibit each other**.
66
Which word will win the competition in trace model?
The word with the **strongest activation** will win the competition.
67
Which level of nodes facilitate which level of node in trace model?
The **low** level of nodes will **facilitate** the **high** level of nodes so the brain can understand the word.
68
What is **word-initial cohort** in cohort model?
Early in the **auditory** presentation of a word, all words **conforming to** the **sound sequence heard** so far become **active**. There is **competition** among the words to be selected.
69
What would happen for words within the model if they are inconsistent with the semantic or other context in cohort model?
The words within the cohort will be **eliminated** if they cease to match further information from the presented word or because they are **inconsistent with the semantic** or other context.
70
When can the processing ends in cohort model?
Processing continues until the **information from word** and **contextual information** permit **elimination** of all but one of the cohort words.
71
What is the uniqueness point in cohort model?
The uniqueness point is the point at which only **one word is consistent with the acoustic signal**.
72
What does the cohort model begin with?
After hearing a part of the sound, the brain will **activate all different candidates**, then use the **contextual information** (multiple information) to select the word.
73
What are the limitations of the cohort model?
- It is **not** a very **efficient** model
- if your brain needs to activate all candidates, it requires **a lot of energy** in the brain that is very **costly**
- you do **not** know the candidates are being listed by the brain at **which timepoint**
74
What does the reading systems framework start with?
It starts with the **visual input**.
75
How does the cognitive system process visual input in the reading systems framework?
The cognitive system will process visual input using **orthographic units** and **phonological unit**.
76
How is orthographic units and phonological units related?
The orthographic units and phonological units are **closely related**that you cannot activate reading only by looking at orthographic units without phonological units.
77
What can you do after processing the orthographic units and phonological units in the reading systems framework?
Word identification
78
What is being understood in **lexicon**?
You try to understand the **feature** of the word that you initiate the brain system to understand the **meaning, morphology and syntax** of different things.
79
What is the two subcategories of lexicon?
Argument structure (verbs) and Thematic roles (subject and object)
80
What is being identified in lexicon?
The information about **syntactic processing** is being identified in lexicon.
81
What do you do after identifying words in the reading systems framework?
You **understand the meaning** and form **selection**.
82
What understands the **syntactic/ grammatical structure** of a **sentence** and process the **internal structure** of the sentence?
Parser
83
What is to link information that you are currently processing to the **current situation**?
Situation model
84
What is the role of comprehension processes in the reading systems framework?
It is to understand the meaning and form selection.
85
What belongs to the comprehension processes?
Parser, text representation, situation model, and the interaction between, text representation and situation model with **inferences**.
86
What affect the lexicon and comprehension processes in the reading systems framework?
General knowledge
87
What are the two systems in linguistic and writing system knowledge?
Orthographic system and Linguistic system
88
What does orthographic system do?
Orthographic system maps to **phonology** by mapping the word unit to mapping of visual form.
89
What does linguistic system help analyse?
It analyses and understands different components including **phonology, syntax and morphology**.
90
What is required for reading?
It requires various kinds of **stored information**.
91
What is the types of information requires to be stored for reading?
Word meanings, General knowledge and Linguistic knowledge
92
Where are word meanings stored?
Word meanings are stored in a **lexicon**.
93
The order in which reading processes occur in f______. And what indicates that?
The order in which reading processes occur is **flexible**. This is indicated by the **bidirectional arrows**.
94
What is produced by the knowledge sources used by readers?
Readers uses the knowledge sources to produce **word identification** followed by text comprehension.
95
What processes are required for text comprehension in the reading systems framework?
Processes required for text comprehension include the **parser** (to work out the **syntactical or grammatical structure**) of each sentence, drawing **inferecnes** and producing a **situation model** (an integrated mental representation).
96
What processes are done during text reading?
Phonological processes are done during text reading.
97
What is activated during text reading
Phonological activity
98
What is phonological activity?
The inner voice when reading text
99
What question can prove the phonological processes during text reading?
Yes-No question
- you will think “rows” is rose as a flower at first point when reading it
100
What tracking can prove phonological processes during text reading
Eye-tracking
- more people will come back to the weird word with different pronunciation compared to the same pronunciation that is wrong as well
101
How is words immediately preceded by a **phonologically identical non-word prime** processed **below the level of conscious awareness**?
Faster with phonological awareness
102
What does priming word activate?
Phonological process of the word
103
What is word recognition?
An instance of complex visual pattern recognition
104
What kind of processing occurs at **word level**
Holistic processing as it can recognise word from the **unit pattern**.
105
How is the boundary between letter and word processing?
Not clear-cut
106
What is visual form area found associated with?
Word form processing
107
How do people process words?
People process word as a **whole holistically**.
108
What processing is word recognition similar to?
Face processing
109
What is parsing?
It is a cognitive activity related to **understanding** of the **syntactic and grammatical structure** of the **sentence** and try to **make sense** of a **sentence structure**.
110
How can you determine whether it is a correct answer/ whether you can make sense of a sentence?
Based on **syntactic structure**
111
How can you understand the sentence?
Analyse the **syntactical/ grammatical structure**
112
How do we process a sentence?
We put the sentence into a **structural information** to be identified in the brain instead of processing each word in the brain one by one.
113
Sentence is s_______________.
Sentence is **structured**.
114
What does sentence having different structures indicate?
Sentence is **flexible/variable**.
115
How are sentences variable?
We can use different ways to express our meanings using **different orders** of sentence structure.
116
Word order of sentence ______ across language.
Varies
117
How does word order of sentence varies across language?
As there are different sentence structures across language, we can come up with a conclusion that the evolution of language by different population does **not** need to follow the **same universal system**.
118
What evidence can we see from various word orders across language?
We can see the evidence of **human migration** about the original form of language.
119
Sentence structure is r__________
recursive
120
How can subject be separated into?
Noun phrase and Verb phrase
121
What can noun phrase be separated into?
Determiner and Noun
122
What can verb phrase be separated into?
Verb and Noun phrase
123
What can a sentence structure be decomposed into?
Structure line system
124
What is a recursive sentence structure?
It can **add different elements** to a simple sentence in an extremely **flexible and infinite** way given that the sentence is **comprehensible** and the whole **structure** is **correct**.
125
What is a prepositional phrase?
A **temporal/ spatial relationship** to describe the phrase.
126
What confines the length of sentence structure?
Working memory
127
Structure sentence can be a___________
Ambiguous
128
How can a sentence structure be ambiguous?
We can process language in an **infrequent/ rare case** and that a sentence can indicate **two meanings**.
