Week 12

Question 1

What are the two theories/approaches of language?

Answer 1

Continuity - Language evolved gradually from a system of calls and gestures of ancestors.

Discontinuity - Language is late developing and different from gestures and calls.

Question 2

What are the universal characteristics of language?

Answer 2

Semanticity; arbitrariness; discreteness; the duality of patterning; productivity; displacement.

Question 3

What is semanticity?

Answer 3

Language signals convey meaning.

Question 4

What is arbitrariness?

Answer 4

There is no resemblance between a symbol and the things it represents.

Question 5

What is discreteness?

Answer 5

Language symbols are discrete; they do not vary continuously.

Question 6

What is the duality of patterning?

Answer 6

Patterns in language signals occur at multiple levels. Phonemes, morphemes, words etc.

Question 7

What is productivity?

Answer 7

Language signals can be combined creatively into many novel expressions - never before said.

Question 8

What is displacement?

Answer 8

Language can communicate about things that are temporally and physically displaced - not in the current vicinity.

Question 9

What characteristics of language do bees show?

Answer 9

Semanticity, productivity and displacement but not arbitrariness, discreteness or duality of patterning.

Question 10

What is a morpheme?

Answer 10

The smallest units of language that carry meaning, e.g. un-

Question 11

What are free and bound morphemes?

Answer 11

Free - Morphemes that stand alone as words, e.g. help.

Bound - Morphemes must be combined with another morpheme; e.g. help-ful

Question 12

What are inflection rules?

Answer 12

Rules for changing the form of a word to fit its role in a sentence, e.g. -ed

Question 13

What are derivational rules?

Answer 13

Rules for changing the meaning of a word; e.g. help-er

Question 14

What is syntax?

Answer 14

The way we form words together.

Question 15

What is a proposition?

Answer 15

An expression that can be true or false within possible worlds.

Question 16

What are the three theories of semantics (meaning) and what is different about them all?

Answer 16

Truth-conditional semantics - meaning resides in propositions (an expression that can be true of false within possible words).

Conceptual semantics - meaning is the relationship between language symbols and mental concepts.

Cognitive grammar - language is the process of building mental models using basic-level concepts and image schema.

Question 17

Declarative memory can invoke either __ or __ memory?

Answer 17

Semantic; episodic.

Question 18

What role do schemes play in memory?

Answer 18

A reconstructive role.

Question 19

Ralph is suffering from progressive Alzheimer’s disease. He recently spent time in hospital to treat a fractured leg, injured in a fall in his bathroom. He has no memory of his hospital stay, which suggests he has developed which kind of amnesia?

Answer 19

Anterograde

Question 20

You are comparing what you’ve read about the latest action movie with images you can recall from its advertising promo, and trying to decide whether to go see the movie. This is an example of how you might use your __ component of working memory.

Answer 20

Central executive.

Question 21

Children make errors like “mouses” and “goed” versus ‘mice’ and ‘went’ because they __ the rules of grammar.

Answer 21

Overgeneralise.

Question 22

When a child makes an error like saying “I like to run, yesterday I ranned to the park”. This is an error in what

Answer 22

Application of inflectional rules of the lexicon.