PSY 357 Language exam 1 gvsu

linguistics

the field that studies the structures and use of language

cognitive psychology

the field of psychology that studies mental processes and representations

psycholinguistics

the field that studies the manner in which the human mind processes language

cognitive science

the interdisciplinary field that studies minds and mental processes

semantics

meaning of words

syntax

word order

phonology

sounds of language

pragmatics

social uses of language

analytic introspection

Wilhelm Wundt: participants were trained to describe their mental experiences while performing some task. Behaviorists did not like it.

empiricism

humans are blank slates at birth

Watson: observe human behavior

Skinner: Verbal Behavior; language is learned through imitation and reinforcement

nativists (rationalists)

children are equipped with innate knowledge

Chomsky: critique of verbal behavior; language is more than reinforcement because children can say novel utterances

the decline of behaviorism

Skinner wrote Verbal Behavior. Chomsky wrote Critique of Verbal Behavior.

poverty of the stimulus argument

position that children do not receive enough data to acquire language simply from what they hear

they must have innate language-learning abilities

linguistics use...

intuition- a rationalist methodology

psycholiguists use...

empirical methodology

behavioral- observing behaviors

physiological- relationships between stimuli, brain responses, and behavior

Derivational Theory of Complexity (DTC)

if transformational grammar theory explains the way humans process language, then we can predict how difficult it will be for people to understand sentences (more transformations = more time). This ran into problems and psycholinguists split from linguistics until the 1980s

productivity

finite set of symbols (40 phonemes) but can build infinite variety of utterances due to grammatical rules and phonemes

duality of patterning

(phonemic rules) limited phonemes can create huge number of meaningful morphemes/words

inflectional morphology

(small changes) rules for changing form of a word to fit its role in the sentence

derivaional morphology

(big changes) rules for combining morphemes so the meaning or category is changed

phrase structure rules

rules for combining words into phrases

recursion

creating an endless sentence by using phrase structure words

phoneme

distinct unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another

morpheme

smallest meaningful unit of speech

morphology

study of the forms of words

syntactic ambiguity

the structure of the sentence makes it possible to interpret multiple ways

semanticity

signs convey meaning

arbitrariness

no inherent relationship

discreteness

no continuity of meaning

displacement

ability to communicate abstractly

sequentiality

order of words is important

American sign language is...

more iconic than English, but is becoming more abitrary

surface structure

final order of words that we see

deep structure

underlying structure from which meaning is computed

transformational grammar is a theory of...

competence

Transformations work at the deep structure to produce a surface structure

wanna contraction

cannot be used when there is a trace between want and to

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

The dentist (t1) was invited (t1) by the actress to go to the party

independent variable: strings of letters shown

independent variable: word presented at trace position or non-trace position

dependent variable: reaction time of related vs. unrelated word at the trace position or non-trace position

if traces are real: shorter reaction time for tooth at trace position and same reaction time for both wors at non-trace position

Bresnan lexical functional grammar

all the information we need to understand a sentence comes from the words themselves. The words build the syntax

Chomsky transformational grammar

grammar structure comes before words

Jackendoff parallel architecture theories

syntax is an equal part in creating a sentence along with semantics and phonology

vervet communication capabilities

vervet monkeys produce various danger calls

the quality seen in both situations of teaching chimps ASL is

spontaneity of communication

Lucy

was raised as a human, then lived with unknown chimps. She signed "please help out" years after last using ASL

Washoe

was taught ASL by the Fouts

Loulis

learned ASL from Washoe

Goodall's claim about language

abstraction is achieved through spoken language

*it is a cognitive issue that animals cannot communicate at our level, not a communication modality issue

example of productivity seen in animals

Washoe said "water bird"

human split from chimps and bonobos

6 million years

encephalism

2-3 million years

brain growth allowed for Broca's and Wernicke's areas and humans used gestures

enlargement of pharynx

50-150,000 years ago

allowed humans to make speech sounds

mutation of FoxP2 gene

50-150,000 years ago

enlargement of Broca's area allowed syntax

FLB

faculty of language in the broad sense

memory, conceptual ability

animals also have this

FLN

faculty of language in the narrow sense

recursion

against FLN

it must have arisen quickly, this goes against Darwinian theory

syntax/recursion is a central component and Chomsky released his minimalist theory at the same time

Jackendoff suggested that animals can see patterns (recursion)

linguistic determinism

thought is dependent on words (subvocal speech)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

strong level: thoughts are determined by language

weak level: thoughts are influenced by language

Rosch's color categorization study

Dhoni tribe performed as well as English speakers

failed to support the weak hypothesis

English/Chinese bilingual categorization study

supports the weak hypothesis

Roberson's color categorization study

supports the weak hypothesis (different cultures have different labels for colors)

British 8 color words

Berinmo 5 color words

fearless Smith

paralyzed vocal folds and could still think in words. Demonstrated that thinking is more than subvocal speech

Strong version of Whorf hypothesis

thoughts are determined by language

Orwellian

language explains all variance in thought

weak version of Whorf hypothesis

thoughts are influenced by language

language explains some variance in thought

context-conditioned variation

phoneme production changes depending on the neighboring phonemes

Consonants and vowels have intra-speaker variation

categorical perception

the perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories

the primary factor in determining if someone hears /p/ or /b/

voice onset time

25ms+ /p/

-25ms /b/

McGurk Effect

when visual information and auditory information are in conflict, perceivers use both sources of information

Armadillo example

demonstrates phonemic restoration and top-down processing

when the signal is incomplete we fill in the gaps

motor theory

we perceive speech according to how we imagine ourselves doing it

against:

infants cannot speak but discriminate better

mouths move differently in combinations

most lasting effect: we have one system of comprehension and production

top-down processing

sentence context- pronunciation is identifiable in context

learned language context- foreign languages sound unbroken because the rules are unknown

phonemic restoration- we perceive the signal to be complete by filling in the gaps

bottom-up processing

individual phonemes are combined

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment

Osterhour and Swinney's lexical decision experiment