Language and thought

Language Regularity

Language follows a system of rules, such as grammar

Language Productivity

The ability to create new words and sentences

Language Arbitrariness

Words do not necessarily have a natural connection to their meanings

Discreteness

Language is organized into smaller units that combine to form larger units

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound that distinguish words

Morphemes

The smallest units of language that carry meaning

Words

Combinations of morphemes that have meaning

Sentences

Groups of words that express a complete idea or meaning

Language Production

The process of creating spoken or written language

Language Comprehension

The process of understanding spoken or written language

Generativity

The ability to combine language units to create new words and sentences

Prescriptive Rules

Rules describing how language is supposed to be used

Descriptive Rules

Rules describing how people actually use language

Chomsky's Theory

Humans are born with a natural ability to learn language, rather than learning only through conditioning

Language Acquisition Device

An inborn mechanism that helps humans learn language

Universal Grammar

The idea that all human languages share basic underlying grammatical rules

Critical Period

A period early in life when the brain is especially prepared to learn language

Cooing

Babies make vowel sounds like "ooh" and "aah" during their first 6 months

Babbling

Babies experiment with different speech sounds, beginning around 5–6 months

One-Word Utterances

Babies begin saying single words around 12 months.

Two-Word Phrases

Children begin combining two words around 18 months

Sentence Development

Children typically begin forming sentences around ages 2½–3 years.

Perceptual Narrowing

Babies gradually lose the ability to distinguish unfamiliar language sounds around 10–12 months

Home Sign

A gestural communication system developed by deaf children without access to sign language

Specific-Language Impairment

Difficulty developing language skills despite otherwise typical development

Overregularization Errors

Applying grammar rules too broadly, such as saying "goed" instead of "went."

Sociocultural Theory

The idea that children learn language through interactions with other people

Mirror Neurons

Neurons that activate when performing an action or watching someone else perform it

Child-Directed Speech

Speaking to children using higher pitch, simpler sentences, and more emotion

Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) Phenomenon

Knowing a word but temporarily being unable to remember it.

Factors Affecting TOT

Frequency of word use, how recently it was used, and aging.

Language and Aging

Some language abilities stay stable or improve, while hearing and word retrieval may become more difficult

Linguistic Determinism

The idea that language determines how people think and perceive the world

Linguistic Relativism

The idea that language influences how people think but does not completely determine their thoughts.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The idea that language shapes or influences thought; its strongest form is linguistic determinism

Aphasia

A disruption in the ability to produce or understand language

Broca's Area

Brain region associated with speech production

Broca's Aphasia (Expressive Aphasia)

Difficulty producing fluent speech due to damage to Broca's area

Wernicke's Area

Brain region associated with language comprehension

Wernicke's Aphasia (Receptive Aphasia)

Difficulty understanding language, even though speech may sound fluent.

Hierarchical Organization of Knowledge

Organizing information into categories and smaller subcategories

Visual Imagery

Creating mental pictures of objects or experiences

Mental Rotation

Mentally turning an object to imagine how it would look from another angle