Topic 10: Language

Aphasia

Loss of the ability to speak and understand language due to brain injury.

Morphemes

The smallest units of language that carry meaning.

(like words: talk or write) (or parts of words: pre-, post-, -ing, -ed)

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound combined to form words in language. Produced based on how we move our articulations.

Voicing

Sounds produced with a buzz or vibration by rapidly opening/closing vocal folds.

Manner of production

How airflow is restricted to produce different phonemes.

Place of articulation

Where air is restricted when producing language.

Speech segmentation

The ability to identify boundaries between words and phonemes in continuous speech.

Coarticulation

The overlapping of phonemes as the mouth prepares for the next sound.

Phoneme restoration effect

Perceptual illusion where we fill in missing speech sounds when they are covered by non-speech noises.

Top-down processing

Using stored knowledge and past language experiences to change what we hear.

Categorical perception

Perceiving continuous physical signals as distinct, discrete categories rather than a smooth spectrum.

McGurk effect

Perceptual illusion where visual input conflicts with auditory input and alters perception.

Visual dominance

Human perceptual tendency to prioritize visual input over other sensory modalities.

Generativity

Capacity to create an endless series of new combinations from fundamental sounds.

Syntax

Rules governing the structure of language production and element order.

Phrase structure rules

Rules defining the overall organization of sentences and how elements link.

Prescriptive rules

Rules that describe how language is supposed to be structured formally.

Descriptive rules

Rules describing phrase structure patterns typically used in everyday language.

Garden path sentences

Phrases leading to an initial wrong interpretation that must be corrected.

(e.g. the horse raced past the barn fell)

Active voice

subject performs the actions directly

(e.g. this essay is written by her)

Passive voice

subject receives the action

(e.g. this essay is written by her)

Extralinguistic context

The physical and social setting in which language is encountered.

Prosody

Rise and fall of pitch and pauses conveying meaning and emotion.

Pragmatic rules

Rules that govern how people actually use language in communication.

Nonfluent aphasia

Left frontal lobe damage (Broca's area), disorder where language is understood but cant produce (writing and speaking)

Fluent aphasia

Damage to wernicke's area, disorder where language is produced but is incomprehensible and can't understand speech or writing

Linguistic relativity

The notion that the language you speak guides your modes of thought.

Bilingualism benefits

Enhanced task switching skills and attention control gained from managing two languages.