HESP150 -UNIT 1

Psycholinguistics

The study of the psychological factors involved in the perception, production, and acquisition of language

Theoretical linguist

someone who provides detailed descriptions and analysis of the structure of language

Computational linguist

someone who writes and implements computer programs to explore the data structure of human language or to simulate how humans might learn and use language

Neurolinguist

scientists who study how the physical brain relates to language behavior

Cognitive Neuroscientist

someone who studies the brain and how this complex organ carries out the mental operations that are required for learning or using language

Biolinguist

Someone who looks deeply into our biological makeup to understand why our species seem to be the only one to use language to communicate

Language typologist

someone who collects data samples from many different modern languages

Historical linguist

someone who reconstructs extinct ancestors and establish the connections and relationships among existing language

QALMRI

Question, alternatives, logic, method, results, inferences. A framework used in research to structure the scientific inquiry process.

Nativist view

The view that not only are humans genetically programmed to have a general capacity for language, particular aspects of language ability are also genetically specified.

Anti-nativist view

The view that the ability of humans to learn language is not the result of a genetically programmed ‘language template’ but is an aspect (or by-product) of our extensive cognitive abilities, including general abilities of learning and memory.

Vocal-auditory channel

Language is produced in the vocal tract and transmitted as sound. Sound is perceived through the auditory channel

Broadcast transmission and directional reception

Language can be heard from many directions, but it is perceived as coming from one particular location

Rapid fading

The sound produced by speech fades quickly

Interchangeability

A user of a language can send and receive the same message

Total feedback

Senders of a message can hear and internalize the message they’ve sent

Specialization

The production of the sounds of a language serves no purpose other than to communicate

Semanticity

There are fixed associations between units of language and aspects of the world

Arbitrariness

The meaningful associates between language and the world are aribtrary

Discreteness

The units of language are separate and distinct from one another rather than being part of a continuous whole

Displacement

Language can be used to communicate about things that are not present in time and/or space

Productivity

Language can be used to say things that have never been said before and yet are understandable to the receiver

Traditional transmission

The specific language that’s adopted by the user has to be learned by exposure to other users of the language; its precise details are not available through genetic transmission

Duality of patterning

Many meaningful units (words) are made by the combining of small number of elements (sounds) into various sequences.

Prevarication

Language can deliberately be used to make false statements

Reflexiveness

Language can be used to refer to or describe itself

Learnability

Users of one language can learn to use a different language

Cerebral cortex

the outer covering of the brain’s cerebral hemispheres

aphasia

any language disruption caused by brain damage

Broca’s aphasia

aphasia characterized by halting speech and tremendous difficulty in choosing words but fairly good speech comprehension

Wernicke’s aphasia

aphasia associated with fluent speech that is well articulated but often nonsensical, and enormous difficulty in understanding language

Brodmann areas

areas of the human cerebral cortex that are distinct from each other anatomically and in cellular composition

subcortical

refer to the internal regions of the cerebral hemispheres, those lying beneath the cerebral cortex

Vozel based lesion symptom mapping

a statistical technique in which individual points in a three-dimensional brain scan image that show evidence of brain damage are correlated with diminished performance on a behavioral test administered to participants undergoing the brain scans

brain lateralization

the specialization of the brain’s right and left cerebral hemispheres for different functions

corpus callosum

a bundle of nerual fibers that connects and transfers information between the two hemisphers of the brain

dichotic listening

experimental task in which subjects listen to spoken words over headphones with a different word spoken into each ear

Whorf Hypothesis

The hypothesis that the words and structures f a language can affect how the speakers of that language conceptualize or think about.

Overspecification

The degree to which a language’s morphological system attaches semantic information about an event to a word stem

Exoteric languages

languages spoken by linguistic communities that tend to be large and diverse

Esoteric

Languages spoken by linguistic communities that tend to be small and insular