CSD 300 Midterm

Language

A conventional system of arbitrary symbols that is used universally by human beings for the purposes of communication

Why is language systematic?

It’s structured and follows grammatical rules that guide which kinds of words can connect to each other

Why is language conventional?

It’s standardized, there are agreed-upon labels for each object in a speech community

Why is language arbitrary?

The conventionalized symbols used in language are randomly linked to what they represent

• Exceptions are onomatopoeias and animal noises

Why is language universal?

All humans use some form of language, regardless of which language they use

Relationship between language and communication

• Language is a tool used for communication, but doesn’t always accomplish a goal of communication (ex. talking to ourselves)

• Communication is not always language

Why is communication not always language?

• It’s not always systematic (ex. babies crying)

• It’s not always conventional or arbitrary (ex. body language)

Requirements for fluency (5)

• Phonology: Pronouncing speech sounds correctly

• Morphology: Forming gramatically correct words

• Syntax: Forming grammatically correct sentences

• Lexicon: Immediately recalling word labels

• Pragmatics: Understanding humor and implications

• Having a continuous rate of speech

Acquired by age 4!

Phonology

Sound system that differentiates how sounds are represented mentally and the rules for combining sounds together (phonemes)

Phonemes

Meaningfully contrastive categories of speech sounds (phonology)

Allophones

Variations in pronunciations that group to one phoneme

Phonetics

Production of each specific speech sound (phones)

Phones

Each physical production variation of each sound, different versions of the same phoneme (phonetics)

Morphology

Formation of words as meaningful bits of language, some of which can be broken down into smaller meaningful pieces (prefixes, suffixes, root, etc.)

Phonotactic constraints

Rules about what types of sounds can go together and/or in different placements throughout a syllable

Morphemes

Smallest meaningful units of language, can be free or bound

Free vs. bound morphemes

• Free: Can stand alone and carry meaning

• Bound: Need to attach to other morphemes to carry meaning

Derivation processes

Combining morphemes to make words

• Acronyms

• Coinage (based on brand or product)

• Eponyms (based on proper names)

• Borrowing from other languages

• Blending (mashing two words into one)

Syntax

Grammatical arrangement of words, sentence structure

SVO vs. SOV vs. VSO languages (and what is English?)

• SVO: Subject-verb-object

  • English is SVO!

• SOV: Subject-object-verb

• VSO: Verb-subject-object

Semantics

Word or sentence meaning

• Rules that indicate things like if we say the word drink, the following object must be liquid

Lexical semantics

What individual words mean

Phrasal and sentential semantics

How combining words together into phrases and sentences yields menaing

Lexicon

Individual minds’ internal dictionaries

• Mapping connections between concepts and the combination of speech sounds

Similarities and differences between lexicon and traditional dictionary

Similarities

• Both contain grammatical categories (parts of speech)

• Both contain pronunciation information

• Both contain definition

Differences

• Lexicon is super complicated

• Lexicon involves imagery or sensory experiences

• Lexicon is very individualized between people

Pragmatics

How language is used depending on context and social conventions

• Ex. “Dyk what time it is?” → wouldn’t say yes/no, would reply with the time

• One of the most difficult things to accomplish for fluency

Soft palate (speech and swallowing functions)

Flexible, works to separate oral and nasal cavities

• Swallowing: Elevates to close nasal cavity so food doesn’t enter

• Speech: Tenses and lifts to direct airflow into mouth, helping produce specific sounds (/j/)

Hard palate (speech and swallowing functions)

Rigid barrier between oral and nasal cavities

• Swallowing: Offers stable surface to crush and move food toward throat

• Speech: Tongue presses against to articulate certain alveolar sounds

Epiglottis (speech and swallowing function)

Protective cartilage overtop of trachea

• Swallowing: Seals off trachea so food moves into the esophagus, not the airway

• Speech: Provides evidence for human VT being geared toward speech because its placement is dangerous for swallowing

Relationship between height, VT space, and resonance

• The more space we have in our vocal tract (directly correlates to height), the more resonant (loud) speech can be

Danger of larynx/epiglottis location

It’s very low compared to other animals

• In other animals, it’s right behind the VT making the seal after swallowing immedaite

• In humans, it takes a second to seal so choking is a serious risk → evidence our VT is meant for speech

Vocal cords (speech and swallowing functions)

Muscular bands inside larynx

• Swallowing: Closed when food passes through to block it from entering trachea

• Speech: Open, close, vibrate to produce sound

  • Vibration is voluntary but subconscious

Esophagus vs. trachea

• Esophagus: Carries foods and liquids from mouth to stomach

• Trachea: Airway

Evidence that human VT is perfect for lang production (4)

• Teeth: Upright, flat surface to push tongue against for speech sounds

  • If angled forward, it would make chewing easier

• Tongue: Thick, control over shape

• Lips: Flexible, control over shape

• Larynx: Lower than in other animals

Non-VT evidence that humans are wired for language (3)

• Human hearing system aligns with speech freqs

  • Other animals have higher frequency ranges

  • We’re better at distinguishing similar frequencies

• Humans are naturally social creatures, live alongside one another which requires communication

• Brain seems wired for language

Larynx development in childhood

• Born with epiglottises (and high larynxes) more alike to other animals, airway can seal quickly

• Oral cavity grows taller by 2-5 y/o (room for solid foods), increases risk for choking due to increased distance from larynx

Corpus callosum

Fibers that connect the two brain hemispheres

Contralateral connections

R side of brain → L side of body, vice versa

• Ex. Hearing something in R ear → L side of brain

• Strongest types of neural connections for humans

Which brain hemisphere is most important for language? How do we know?

Left

• Dichotic listening task → you’ll remember the R ear stronger (due to contralateral connections, the auditory info is sent to L side of brain)

Ispilateral connections

Same-sided connections between body and brain info

Left hemisphere responsibilities

Many language functions (structure, form, grammar, lexicon)

• Contains Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas

Broca’s area

Production of sounds and syntax, motor and grammar planning

• B’s aphasia: Can understand language but not produce it

• Next to motor cortex

Are patients with B’s or W’s aphasia more likely to go to speech therapy?

Patients with Broca’s aphasia

• They themselves understand what they’re trying to accomplish but get frustrated by not being able to do so (W’s A patients may be blissfully unaware)

Relationship between motor cortex function and body part

The bottom of the motor cortex controls the top of our bodies, vice versa

Wernicke’s area

Comprehension of speech, connecting sounds to meaning

• W’s aphasia: Production of fluent sentences of words that don’t seem connected or make sense, or of random sounds together as nonsense words

Right hemisphere responsibilities

Processes visual and spatial information

• Lang-specific functions: Prosody, emotion, pragmatics

Right hemisphere aphasia

Can produce and understand language, but might miss aspects involved with emotion and prgamatics → might sound monotone or pass over social cues

Brain size in humans vs. other animals

Ours is proportionally huge compared to others

• Great for processing language

• Makes birth very dangerous

How did we learn about language function in the brain?

Cases of disfunction

• Lesions → aphasia

• Dyslexia

• Split-brain patients

Split-brain patients and hemisphere connections

Have their neurons severed to prevent seizures for severe epilepsy

• Contralateral connections still happen but info isn’t able to be perceived consciously

• Ex. Able to hear word from L ear and not able to describe it with words (L hem) but can draw the concept (R hem)

• R hem can recognize concept but can’t make sense of it, needs to send it over to L hem to interpret

What is the cortex composed of?

Grey matter, a web of neurons

Neurons

Tiny neural cells that receive input and work together to fire and accomplish tasks

Synapses

Specialized junction between neurons where impulses pass to allow communication across brain areas

• Shortcut for connecting two pieces of frequently used info

Cortex growth and language development

• Growth peaks around 2 y/o

  • Exposure before then is very important

• 3 y/o is cutoff for “native bilingual” due to pruning

  • Autism can be first diagnosed around 18 mo due to large amounts of synapses staying later

• Synaptic pruning at 4 y/o

Synaptic pruning

Around 4 y/o, unused synapses begin being “pruned” or die when they’re unused, but remain if frequently used

• End up being expert at things like language and facial expressions (these synpases stay and get thicker/stronger)

Plasticity

When synapses get destroyed (injury), skills can be integrated to other synapses that aren’t being used

• Better in children who have extra synapses

Critical periods

Biologically determined hard deadline of learning info because the brain has never used synapses and therefore never will

• Ex. Putting blindfold on kitten during acquisition of vision critical period → they’ll be blind

Does language have a critical period

No, it has a sensory period around puberty, still possible to acquire/develop it but synapses will be more geared toward other skills you actually used beforehand

Sensitive period

A period of time when the brain seems primed to absorb new info, after which synapses die without use

Second language acquisition as evidence for sensitive period of language

• Age of immigrant’s immersion in a new language affects their eventual fluency level

  • Slope then cutoff for what level will be as adult

  • Study of Italian immigrants to Canada → age was a factor for foreign accent remnants but # of years in country had no effect

    • The older they were when arriving to Canada, the stronger accent they had

Sign language acquisition as evidence for sensitive period for language

• Deaf children exposed to ASL → develop grammatical ASL

• Deaf adults exposed to ASL only as adults → develop only ungrammatical ASL

  • Nicaragua deaf school adults had a rudimetary sense of language but weren’t fluent

Genie as evidence for sensitive period of language

She was a 13 y/o taken to social services whose parents deprived her of all interaction, resulting in severe underdevelopment

• She acquired language past the sensitive period (could learn words and put them together in sentences), but it was ungrammatical and unsystematic (unlike kids’ ungrammatical phrases)

• Complicated with abuse, neglect, and unknown other factors

Creolization

When languages are created by human beings

• Languages are changed during colonization, slavery, camps, etc

• If a language someone speaks isn’t common with others, they work together to create a new language rooted in each of their original ones

Pidgins

The first generation’s rudimentary communication system (early language) that a group of adults speak when societies are thrown together

• People communicate by combining elements from all languages they know

Creoles

Second generation after pidgins, becomes a full language system that is more grammatically rich

• When young children are exposed to pidgins, their brains are predisposed to look for grammar or fill in the gaps if we don’t find it

Nativist view on language development

Aka generativist, a position that attributes grammatical development in a child to universal tendencies and innate language systems in their brain

• If you give children a limited amount of input, they’ll fill in the grammatical gaps naturally

Empiricist view on language development

Knowledge and language are learned purely through experience, aka behaviorism

Social interactionist view on language development

Creolization happens because adults are simply motivated to communicate, it’s not a biological drive for grammar but simply for us to get our messages across effectively

Evidence for genetic part of language acquisition

• Language develops in similar milestones across cultures

• Individual differences can be inherited from families (rate of lang development for syntax and morphology)

• Language disorders are heritable (FOXP2)

FOXP2

Gene that coordinates which genes turn on during development, active in brain regions relevant to language

• Mutation here can lead to issues in procedural memory, sequencing, etc. → higher risk if family has mutation

Speech act

Using speech to do something, has three parts

• Perlocution

• Illocutionary force

• Locution

Illocutionary force

The intention of a speech act, you have to communciate something to someone else

• Ex. Promise, request, query

Locution

The form of a speech act

• Ex. Declarative, imperative, interrogative

Perlocution

The speech act’s effect on the listener

• The listener understands that the speaker wants something using communicative skills

Development of social communication (3 stages)

• Start with consequences (perlocution)

• Start to understand intention (illocution)

• Use language to share an intention (locution)

Perlocutionary stage

• Up to 10 mo

• Having wants, discovering consquences as a result of doing things

• Able to relate to an object/person, but not to both at once

  • Personal gestures OR looking at people’s faces

Illocutionary stage

• Starts at 10 mo

• Have intentions they can share with others through gestures and behaviors

  • Relating to another person about an object

  • Gaze following, communicative pointing, joint attention

Locutionary stage

Around or after their first word

• Using language to refer to things and verbally share their intentions

Gaze following

Watching where someone’s looking to participate in their understanding of another event in your shared environment

Joint attention

Combination of referring to objects and people

• Developed in illocutionary stage

• Responding or initiating

• Babies with disorders focus on the finger pointing rather than the direction it’s pointing to

• Predicts later language abilities (learning labels)

Responding vs. initiating joint attention

• RJA: Following others’ gaze/pointing

• IJA: Pointing/looking/producing verbal cues, knowing others will look

Wild children

Kids raised in the wild who aren’t exposed to language whatsoever can only pick up certain vocab after the sensitive period

Intentionality with gestures

Shown through eye contact during illocutionary stage

• Earliest gestures are “showing” and “giving”, explore social interactions

Protoimperatives vs. protodeclaratives

• Imperative: Pointing to get something, “give me X”

• Declarative: Pointing to show something, “look at X”

  • Only declarative pointing is predictive of later language development

Iconic gestures

Refer to objects, concepts, or attributes like phones, dogs, hot, big

• Widely understood

• End up being some of the first words children say

Phonetics vs. phonemic

• Based around sounds

• Based around phonemes

Minimal pairs

A set of two different words in a language that only differ by one phone, which identify that phones are meaning-contrastive and therefore separate phonemes

Contrastive distribution

Sounds are in CD if they’re different but can replace one another to make a minimal pair

• Phonemes are in CD with other phonemes

• If you replace a phone in the same position, you can hear the difference and it means something different

• Separate phonemes are in contrastive distribution because they’re meaningfully different

• Allophones are not in contrastive dist.

Contrastive distribution in children

Children don’t contrast sounds as much (ex. they say “dough” and “though” the same way) because they haven’t developed enough phonemes

Allophones

Phonetic realizations of a phoneme, where the use of one variation over another will not change a word’s meaning

• In complementary distribution

• Different versions of the mental idea of a letter

• Positionally restrictive, meaning you can only use certain allophones before/after certain sounds

  • Use /ɾ/ between two vowels

  • Use aspirated phones at beginning of word

  • Use unreleased phones at end of word

• Actual productions of abstract phonemes

Complementary distribution

When two sounds are never found in the same phonetic environment, they complement one another

• Allophones are in complementary distribution because they’re meaningfully the same

• Separate phonemes are not in complementary dist.

Research on very early (hours after birth) speech perception

Infants’ hearing is good enough to be able to hear speech

• Two weeks before babies are born, their heart rate accelerates hearing their mother’s voice opposed to a stranger’s

• Preference for mother’s voice and for vowels in their native language over others

High-amplitude sucking

Measures infant perception of sound with the rate and pressure of their suckling

• Babies like new sounds and get bored by repeated sounds (habituation)

• Can test a baby’s ability to distinguish sounds by habituating them to a certain sounds and seeing if they notice a new sound

Habituation

When babies get used to something, they don’t get excited about it anymore → slower suckling

Head-turn technique

Measures infant perception of sounds based on the fact that babies like sounds and toys

• Used with older babies

• Sound is repeated again and again, then a new sound becomes associated with appearance of a toy using classical conditioning

• If they anticipate the toy when hearing the new sound, that’s when you know they can perceive it

Perception of vowels vs. consonants in babies

• Birth → 2 mo: Vowel changes are easier to find

• After 2 mo: Vowels and consonants are all easily distinguishable

Categorical perception

Tendency to perceive separate sounds categorically, even though sounds actually occur on a continuum

• Infants are born with this differentiating ability but it’s affected by language exposure

• Can recognize phoneme boundaries across speakers, no matter the voice quality (can do this by 6 mo)

Perceptual tuning

Figuring out what sounds matter in phoneme groups

• Transformation from universal listeners → being able to distinguish phones in their own language better than other languages (losing the ability to distinguish in others)

• Happens around 8-10 mo

Universal listening

Babies are universal listeners until 8-10 mo when perceptual tuning happens

• They can distinguish between all phones no matter what language they’re used in

Infant-directed speech

Speaking to babies with exaggerated stress, pauses, and articulation

• Not the same as child-directed

• Debate over whether it’s necessary, unnecessary, or simple helpful

  • Not all cultures speak to their babies → not necessary

  • Can be helpful!