Chapter 9: Introduction to Language and Language Comprehension Part 2

Language I

Syntactically ambiguous sentences

A sentence structure without punctations are considered as _____________.

Lexical Ambiguity

This refers to the fact that single words can have multiple meanings.

Syntactic Ambiguity

This refers to the fact that there can be more than one possible grammatical interpretation of a sentence.

Context

The driving force in the way we interpret language as we encounter it in the real world.

Eye-tracker

A special camera that allows one to determine precisely where in a visual display someone is looking.

Good-enough Approach

According to this, we frequently process only a part of a sentence during language comprehension. It also emphasizes that people do not work hard to create the most accurate, detailed interpretations of every sentence.

Heuristic

A general rule that is typically accurate.

Neurolinguistics

A discipline that examines the underlying neurological structures and systems that support language and language-related processes.

Aphasia

A person with this condition has general problems with communicating, typicall as a result of damage to the brain.

Broca’s Area

Located towards the front of the brain, particularly in the left hemisphere. It is also called the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (LIFG). Damages to this area usually results to hesitant speech primarily using isolated words and short phrases.

Broca’s Aphasia

An expressive-language deficit wherein individuals have difficulties producing language. They may also experience problems with language comprehension.

Wernicke’s Area

This is located towards the middle side of the brain, particularly posterior to the superior temporal gyrus. A damage to this area typically produces difficulties with understanding language.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

People with this condition have severe problems with language comprehension, and they cannot understand basic instructions. They may also have difficulties with language production, resulting in wordy and confused speech.

Stroop Effect

This happens when people take a long time to name the ink color of a word when that color is used in printing an incongruent word.

Language-localizer Task

A technique that compensates for the problem of individual differences in brain size.

Lateralization

Each brain hemisphere has somewhat different functions.