AP Psych - Mod 36: Thinking and Language

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

phoneme

the smallest distinctive sound unit in a language

morpheme

the smallest unit that carries meaning in a language

word or prefixes

grammar

a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others in a language

babbling stage

stage of speech development where infants spontaneously utters various sounds (4 months)

one word stage

stage in speech development (age 1-2) where a child speaks mostly in single words

two word stage

(age 2) child speaks mostly in two word statements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage where a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs "go car"

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage

Broca's area

area in frontal lobe (left hemisphere) that helps control language expression / directs muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke's area

a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; left temporal lobe

linguistic determinism

the strong form of Whorf's hypothesis, that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us

linguistic influence

idea that language affects thought / our thinking and world view is relative to our cultural language