Linguistics Exam 3

Neurolinguistics

Study of brain function and structures that underlie language

Language is lateralized to the ___ hemisphere of the brain

left

Neurolinguistic methods

fMRI - measures brain blood flow/activity

EEG - measures electrical activity in brain

Psycholinguistics

Study of linguistic processing and/or performance – how we use linguistic knowledge in speech production and comprehension

• can offer some clues regarding how the brain processes and stores language

Garden Path sentences

• The horse raced past the barn fell.

• The old man the boat. (man = manage, verb)

• The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. (The cotton is what grows in Mississippi)

• The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.

• The girl told the story cried

The Stroop Effect

“Say the color of the word instead of the word”

Priming

Priming is when retrieval of a word/phrase is influenced by similar features of the preceding word (e.g., semantic, phonological, syntactic)

Phonological Neighborhood

Arcuate fasciculus

Broca’s Area + Wernicke’s Area

damage to these areas causes significant issues in speech and language

Aphasia

Acquired communication disorder

Results from neurogenic injury to the left cerebral hemisphere or neurodegenerative disease

Damage-deficit correlation

Classification of Aphasia

Fluent versus non-fluent

Repetition skills

Auditory comprehension

Types of Aphasia Chart

don’t need to know

Deficits under the aphasia umbrella

Anomia

Agrammatism

Impaired Repitition Abilities

Comprehension Deificts

Reading Defiicts

Writing Deficits

Anomia

Word-Finding Problems

• Paraphasias (semantically or phonologically related word, but an error)

• Neologisms (unrelated and/or non-real word)

• Circumlocution (round about way of describing something without actually saying it)

• Perseveration (unintentional repeating of same or recent word)

Agrammatism

sentence production deficits

Comprehension Deficits

single-word sentence, or discourse level

Reading Deficits

dyslexia or alexia

Writing deficits

Agraphia

Broca’s Aphasia

Nonfluent

Expression difficulties

• Perseveration

• Circumlocution

• Agrammatism

Aware of production difficulties

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Fluent

Syntax often relatively intact, but semantic meaning of sentences impaired

• Neologisms

• Paraphasias

Comprehension difficulties (self and others)

Aphasia resulting from an ____ can improve over time due to neuroplasticity of the brain and intervention through speech therapy

acute change (e.g., stroke or brain injury)

T/F: People with aphasia can regain language function

True

Therapy interventions do what?

Tailor intervention plans depending on the type of aphasia

• What is the deficit and what is the person’s goal?

Life Participation Approach to Aphasia

Focus on functional, personally relevant skills

• Restorative vs. compensatory vs. adaptive

Restorative

regain skills

Compensatory

strategies for lost skills

Adaptive

changing environment/communication partner behaviors

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

Due to underlying dementia (frontotemporal dementia)

Neurodegenerative

Area of brain impacted is language-related

Symptoms usually begin with word-finding difficulties + progress to impaired grammar (syntax) + auditory comprehension (sentence processing + semantics)

• Goal is maintenance, and planning to support future skill loss

SLP’s role in PPA

• Rehearsal of priority vocabulary

• Script training

• Compensatory strategies

• Medical ID card

• Non-speech communication (like AAC!)

• Education and counseling

Dialect

Any variety of a language that is shared by a group of speakers

Rule-governed

• Encompasses specific use of vocabulary, word forms (e.g., plural endings), sentence structure, and melodic patterns

Phonological differences

Morphosyntactic differences

Neutral term (no good/bad)

• One is not superior to another with regard to expression of language

Some may carry more prestige than others

Identity factors affect how we speak a language

• Age

• Education

• Class

• Race

• Ethnicity

• Gender

• Sexuality

• Etc

Central Pennsylvania dialect

Omit infinitive form to be

• “The car needs washed, the floor needs swept”

“Let” for “leave”

• “Let your cup on the table” (leave your cup on the table)

No rising intonation for questions

Dialect Evolution

Dialect Leveling - use of Mainstream American English (MAE) is increasingly prevalent across the country

• Use of MAE within the educational system

• Contact through broadcast media

Linguistic isolation – geographical or socioeconomic separation from other groups

Dialect Myths

• A dialect is a variety spoken by someone else

• All dialectal features are always distinct and noticeable

• Dialects arise from ineffective tries at speaking the correct form of the language

• Dialects are random changes from the “standard”

• Certain dialects are always viewed negatively

Dialect Facts

• Everyone speaks some dialect of a language

• Some dialectal features are shared by many different dialects

• Speakers of dialects acquire those features by interacting with members of the speech community in which they live

• Dialects are precise and show regular patterns

• Dialects are not inherently viewed negatively (or positively); prestige of any dialect is derived from the social prestige of its speakers in that context

Southern American English Distinguishing Syntactic Features

Velar fronting (running – runin’)

• “fixin’”

Lexicon: “y’all”

Vowel diphthongization

• adding a vowel (e.g., dress, guess, pet

• removing a vowel (e.g., “ah” - mah for “my” and hah for “hi”)

Word stressing (GEE-tahr)

The Drawl – elongated vowels

African American English (AAE)

Spoken by some but not all Black/African American people in the U.S.

English-speaking Puerto Rican teenagers in East Harlem, New York also use features of AAE

Believed to be derived in part from rule-based language structures of some African languages

• Plantation Creole commonly used by African Americans on plantations in the South

Pragmatics

Understanding and use of language in context

Language meaning at the discourse level

Also affects how we have conversations (e.g., turn taking norms)

Impacted by culture

Cultural Norms in Pragmatics Examples

Advertising in Japan is typically less comparative or directive, + appeals more to shared cultural values, compared to advertising in the U.S.

Eye contact with elders

How much children contribute to conversations with/directly question their elders

New York vs Californian turn-taking/overlap/space in speaking

Cooperative principle

Things we expect of each other in convo

• Quantity (info)

• Quality (truth)

• Relation (relevance)

• Manner (clarity)

Quantity (info)

The right amount (usually, not too little) of info for the current exchange

Quality (truth)

Not a lie, based on adequate evidence

Relation (relevance)

Relevant to the current discussion

Manner (clarity)

Not ambiguous or overly wordy (not too much)

Implicature

an inference based on an utterance within a particular context

• When one or more of the cooperative principles appears to be violated, something other than the literal meaning is implicated

Quantity Example

“The flag is white”

Assuming Grice’s maxim of quantity is being followed, what do you think the flag looks like? A plain white flag

What if it’s the Japanese flag? Grice’s maxim is broken (not enough info to know about red dot)

Quality Example

Aubie is the most decorated college mascot

Assuming Grice’s maxim of quality is being followed, what could you infer? Aubie is in fact the most decorated college mascot

I had substantive information to base that statement on, and didn’t just like Aubie a lot, and thus assume he must be the most decorated college mascot

Relation Example

Speaker A: 'Do you think Hannah is dating someone new?’

Speaker B: 'Well, she goes to Columbus most weekends.’

Assuming Grice’s maxim of relation is being followed, what could you infer? that the person she’s dating is in Columbus

What Speaker B said is relevant to the conversation – thus, that Hannah is dating someone new, and they live in Columbus What if Speaker B just walked up to Speaker A and said, “Hannah goes to Columbus most weekends.”"

Manner Example

Manner (clarity of expression)

“We’re learning about implicature in class. It’s when you imply something other than the literal meaning of what you say!”

Imagine you said this to your roommate who is a chemistry major. Is Grice’s maxim of manner being followed? Might be broken

What if you turned to another student in class right now and said this to them? Would most likely be intact

Flouting

appearing to violate a cooperative principle to add an inferred meaning to what you say

• When one or more of the cooperative principles appears to be violated, something other than the literal meaning is implicated

• To be polite (e.g., not say something negative directly)

• To add additional emphasis

• To tease someone (e.g., dad jokes)

• To draw attention to the absurdity of something (e.g., sarcasm)

Flouting Examples

Quantity (information)

• Speaker A: Do you know if there is any food in the fridge?

• Speaker B: Yes, I do know.

Quality (truth)

• Speaker A: I'm not sure about this new guy I'm seeing. He never messages me back, and I think he's talking to someone else.

• Speaker B: Sounds like a real keeper!

Relation (relevance)

• Speaker A: Will Tina go to the party?

• Speaker B: Is it hot in Alabama in July?

Manner (clarity)

• Speaker A: Did you like the song?

• Speaker B: Well, they certainly made a series of sounds, at different pitches, and in a certain order.

Hedging (CYA)

Acknowledging that you know that your statement may not be following the cooperative principles

• You may not be sharing enough information (quantity)

• You may be saying something that is inaccurate (quality)

• You may not be saying something that is directly related to the current conversation (relation)

• You may be saying something in a way that is unclear or overly wordy (manner)

Hedging Examples

Quantity (information)

• Speaker A: Is the soup vegetarian?

• Speaker B: All I know is that there isn’t any meat listed in the ingredients.

Quality (truth)

• I may be wrong, but I think Auburn students like football more than basketball.

Relation (relevance)

• Speaker A: I have a lot of studying to do this week!

• Speaker B: Oh, by the way, I’m going out of town after finals week.

Manner (clarity)

• I don’t know if this makes sense, but implicature is about saying words that mean one thing, but intending them to mean something different, but then assuming that the person you are talking to will understand that different meaning - and not the literal meaning - of what you said, based on shared cultural knowledge and context.

Speech Acts

Using language with intent - to do things

Using language not only to present info, but to carry out actions, or to provoke the listener to a certain action

What the speaker intends for their message to accomplish (e.g., requests, warnings, promises, apologies, greetings, etc.)

Locution

literal meaning of sentence

• Sentence forms (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory)

Sentence intent

may or may not align with the literal (locutionary) meaning

• illocution

• perlocution

Illocution

What the speaker intends their utterance to mean in context

Perlocution

How the listener interprets the meaning of the utterance in context

Locution vs Illocution Ex) “Taylor Swift is behind you”

Locution: “Taylor Swift is behind you.”

• declarative (just a statement)

Illocution: “Taylor Swift is behind you!”

• exclamatory (trying to get you to look)

Deictic words

Interpretable through context and/or the orientation of the speaker

• Pronouns (she, it, I)

• Demonstratives (this, that)

• Adverbs (here, there, now, today)

• Prepositions (behind, before)

Linguistic vs Situational Examples

Dina studied hard for the exam. She did well on it! —> Linguistic

Dina did well on it. (stated by the professor while grading exams) —> Situational

Our class is in RBD. This is the best building on campus. —> Linguistic

This is the best building on campus. —> Situational

The heart is the window to the soul. You can find someone’s true feelings here. —> Linguistic (if you are pointing at your head, it’s situational)

Our role as SLPs is…

NOT to make neurodiverse people look more neurotypical or culturally diverse people conform to dominant cultural norms

Pragmatics in Practice

Challenges understanding implicature or locution vs. illocution

Challenges using implicature/illocution in expected ways

Think about our examples with Sheldon

Challenges accurately using or interpreting deictic words/phrases

Challenges understanding or aligning (if one chooses to) with dominant cultural communication norms

Pragmatics can impact social interaction, education, employment, etc.

Our role as SLPs is NOT to make neurodiverse people look more neu