Module 1 Flashcards
(39 cards)
What is the scope of studying language from a psychological perspective? Why is it particularly relevant to psychologists?
Topics in the psychology of language can include: * linguistic models * animal communication * sign/gestural language * evolution of language * neural mechanisms * speech production and perception * semantics and internal lexicon * discourse (conversation) * language acquisition * written language and reading * disorders of language * language and thought * pragmatics and speech ‘acts’ * language and self-concept * and many other language related topics!
particularly relevant to psychologists as many experiments rely upon language to convey instructions and collect data from participants
Why is naming a good example of the complexity of studying language from a psychological perspective?
Funk says “the process of naming, as a dynamic process, defines who we are, as well as the world in which we interact. Naming is an action, and because all action occurs in a political context, naming is a political action.”
Where do names ‘come from’? Is the origin of a word important to its current meaning? Can the meaning of a name change? What about the name of a pet? Why is a trans* person changing their name important to their identity? Why do people who get legally married sometimes change their last name? Or not? Why do marketers use focus groups to name new products? Why do political parties work on naming themselves with their slogans?
The questions I posed are all about the complexities of the use of language in human cognition and behaviour.
What is metalinguistics?
In the book “Frames of Mind”, the psychologist Howard Gardner points out another very important use of language: “to use language to reflect upon language, to engage in ‘metalinguistic’ analysis”. We ask what specific words mean, consider how word meanings have changed, compare languages, and many other aspects of metalinguistics.
What is metalinguistic awareness?
our conscious awareness of how language works
An aspect of human cognition that might separate us from animals who communicate well
It takes time to develop a high level of awareness, but every normal adult has metalinguistic awareness - it includes our feeling about the “correctness” of language that comes from listening and speaking it
Tells us, for example, that word order makes a difference in English: a Venetian blind and a blind Venetian are two different things
The underlying “rules” we use to construct sentences seem implicit and out of awareness
All languages are rule-governed but the rules differ from language to language
What are phones?
The smallest unit of sound (a single vocal sound)
the smallest vocal sound that can make a difference in meaning in a language is called a ______________. How many of these does English have?
phoneme
English has about 40 phonemes consisting mainly of consonants and vowels
Our discrimination is good __________ phoneme categories but poor _________ phoneme categories.
across
within
What is the smallest unit of language that carries linguistic meaning? What do these include?
morpheme
Include root words, suffixes, and prefixes (the word unbaked has three morphemes)
What is the difference between content morphemes and function morphemes?
The words that convey the bulk of the meaning are referred to as content morphemes,
which are contrasted with function morphemes (add details to the meaning of the content morpheme or help adapt it to the context of the sentence in which it occurs) – the suffix -ism, the prefix anti-, the conjunction and, and the article the are function morphemes
What do morphological rules tell us?
how to combine morpheme stems and words in the acceptable order
What is our knowledge of morphemes called?
Lexicon
The average adult English speaker has a lexicon of over 80,000 morphemes and a vocabulary or repertoire of words (over 100,000) assembled from combinations of morphemes
What is semantics?
the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, and sentences
Also refers to relationships between words in the lexicon
What is syntax?
refers to the way a language permits users to assemble words to form phrases and sentences
What is the difference between prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar?
Prescriptive grammar: prescribes standard for a “right” way to speak or write
Descriptive grammar: contains the rules that are needed to produce sentences in the language
–this is what psycholinguists mean when they speak of grammar
–Also accounts for the relationships between sentences: for example, it shows how active sentences are related to passive sentences (e.g., The coffee was spilled by Bob vs. Bob spilled the coffee.)
What is the highest level (largest units) of language analysis?
Discourse
– the multisentence language used in conversations, dialogues and narratives
What is lexical ambiguity?
Refers to the quest of how we find the “right” meaning when a word has more than one meaning
Also operates on the sentence level (e.g., Bob shot the robber in his underwear – does this phrase in his underwear refer to the Bob or the robber?)
What is arbitrary reference?
Without arbitrary reference, the symbol might have to resemble its referent (i.e., a cowlike symbol would be used to represent a cow). This symbolic language system affords abstraction, which allows us to talk about things that are not in the immediate context or that do not exist at all.
What were the differences between Wundt’s and James’ views on language?
Wundt: Structuralist
–Used language as a means of studying the mind
–Developed a theory of speech production using the sentence as the unit of analysis
–Regarded production as a sequential process that begins with a complete or whole thought that becomes sequentially organized and articulated
–Reasoned that the comprehension process was essentially the same as production but in reverse (proceeding from sound segments to the complete thought)
James: Functionalist
–Interested in what people do with language and thoughts, rather than the structure of the mind
–Pragmatic reasoner (the belief that the value of knowledge depended on its usefulness)
–The question of language function has carried over into research on discourse
What was the ‘Skinner-Chomsky’ debate in the history of psycholinguistics?
Around the middle of the 20th century, the behaviourist view was losing support. It could not account for certain behaviours such as the forgetting of previously learned responses.
Another key objection was the inability of behaviourists to account for the learning of language – cognitive psychology emerged as a dominant explanation for learning. They think of humans as active information processors, storing information as it is encountered and incorporating it with existing mental representations.
Skinner’s book (1957) proclaimed that speech was a product of operant learning process such as reinforcement, extinction, and generalization
Chomsky critically reviewed Skinner’s book in 1959 and successfully challenged its assumptions with a rationalist argument that the potential for language was an inborn or innate mental capacity because children’s patterns of language acquisition were too systematic to be the product of parents’ operant conditioning.
What is the “Pinkerian superpower”?
Language
–“Simply by making noises with our mouths, we can reliably cause precise new combinations of ideas to arise in each other’s minds.”
–“a common language connects the members of a community into an information-sharing network with formidable collective powers.”
–Language allows us to transcend the boundaries of time and geography
What are the four components of metalanguage?
paralanguage,
prosody,
proxemics, and
body language
What is paralanguage?
refers to sounds we make without specific semantic meaning, yet they do have some meaning in the context of communication and concurrent language. For example, yawns, groans, sighs, gasps, inhales, giggles and clearing your throat.
What is prosody?
The way in which speech sounds are produced is also part of meaning, this is called prosody, which includes the rate of speech, the rhythm, pitch, and volume, all are part of the ‘message’.
Prosody can influence the context, but also convey direct meaning by emphasizing what words in a sentence are of most importance.
For example, “There is a DOG running down the street” vs “There is a dog running down the STREET.” Prosody can indicate that the utterance is a question (with a rising tone at the end), an emphatic statement, or even sarcasm or a joke.
What is proxemics?
This term was coined by the psychologist Edward Hall. He was researching the way in which people manage the space around them and in particular between themselves and others. The ‘comfortable’ distance in any situation can be influenced by many factors, such as overall type of situation (e.g. work, public talk, friendly dinner, romantic encounter, etc.), number of people and their gender, and of course culture.
I mention proxemics in the context of language, because the proxemics of any encounter can be part of the meaning of the utterance. If I lean into your personal space and make a quiet comment, that act will convey not just the meaning of the utterance but it will also convey meaning about the type of relationship we have, and even about the nature of the comment
