CSD - Chpt 1 & 2 Test

Covers chapter 1 & 2 - language development and Building blocks of language

what is language? (def)

system of __conventional__ spoken or written __symbols__ used by people in a shared culture to __communicate__ with one another

language is a system of symbols…

language is a code, consisting of a system of syllables called morphemes

morphemes?

smallest units of language of that carry meaning; they are combined to make words

Relationship between a word & its \[blank\] is arbitrary?

referent (aspect of the world to which the word refers)

System of language is conventional… what does __conventional__ mean?

means language is governed by rules

* so conventions govern how a linguistic community arranges sounds into words
* conventions (rules) allow members of a lang. community to use language with one another as a tool for expression

What does it mean when we say “language is *dynamic*”?

language is always changing

* ex: different slang terms change over time

Language is a tool for human communication… define __communication__?

process of sharing info, such as thoughts, feelings, and ideas among two or more persons

What does it mean when we say “Language as a module of Human Cognition”?

language is a representational tool people use for thinking, and second permits people to communicate their thoughts to other individuals

how did language emerge?

* emerged as a cultural and social evolution, rather than biological
* emerged due to __increase in size of human communities__ and complexity of social dynamics increased
* neural circuity responded and adapted language as a specialized part of human mind

brain uses language as a representation tool to…

* store info
* carry out cognitive processes ( higher-level lang. skills) such as:
* reasoning
* hypothesizing
* memorizing
* planning
* problem solving

what is Modularity Theory?

cognitive science theory about how human mind is organized within the structures of the brain

modules?

specialized problem-solving devices in brain that respond to info of a restricted type

* modules are either __domain specific__ or __domain genera__l

domain specific modules

process only very specific types of information, such as depth perception within the visual system (occipital lobe)

domain general modules

very large modules that carry out tasks such as memory & reasoning, as well as domain-specific modules

* some scientistic believe general modules and specific ones work together in brain

What is questions surrounding modularity?

does human brain contain modules OR is the brain itself a generalized module in which all parts work together to process info?

Some lang. theorists argue that the human brain contains…

large number of lang. specific modules, each of which processes specific types of linguistic info

what is an MRI( Magnetic Resonance Imaging)?

function: used to see which part of brain lights up for different language tasks - shows specific module of brain that’s “talking to one another” after a given stimulus

* fMRI shows which part of the brain is getting extra oxygen rich blood; indicated that a specific region must be doing a lot of work

what is an EEG( Electroencephalograms)?

function: tells us order that we process language in OR what happens when in the language process

* do not tell us the location of where things are happening in the the language process

Speech

neuromuscular process by which humans turn language into a sound signal and transit it through the air or other medium to a receiver

Hearing (Auditory System)

sensory system that allows speech to enter into & be processed by the brain

speech involves precise activation of muscles in 4 systems?

respiration, phonation, resonation, articulation

model

a way to represent an unknown event on basis of the best current evidence governing the event

3 stages for model of speech production

1. perceptual target
2. motor schema
3. speech output

perceptual target (perceptual event)

initiates start of speech process with mental, abstract representation of the speech stream to be produced : /m/ /a/ /m/ /a/

* provides the **code** of what is to be produced by speech

Phonemes

code or smallest unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning

* ex: word MAMA has 4 phonemes - /m/ /a/ /m/ /a/

Motor Schema

neurological brain systems produce a rough plan of the abstract representation.

* This plan organizes the phonemes into syllable chunks ex: /ma/ /ma/

Speech Output

plan is sent to major muscle groups involved with speech production, which stimulates the production of speech or speech output

* airflow, vocal fold vibration, and oral cavity movements are finely manipulated to carry out motor schema and create speech

Feedback

ongoing feedback throughout the speech production

* process relays info about speech output back to origination of the perceptual target and motor schema

does language depend on speech?

Language does not depend on speech because people can share language via other means (written, ASL, etc)

Does speech depend on language?

speech DOES depend on language because speech would be a series of meaningless noises without language

true or false: speech and language are largely independent process?

True

Hearing (Audition)

is perception of sound, and it includes both general auditory perception and speech perception

Acoustics?

study of sound

What are 4 acoustic events that are involved in the transmission and reception of speech?

1. creation of a sound source
2. vibration of air particles
3. reception by the ear
4. comprehension by the brain

1. creation of a sound source

sets in motion series of events - creates a disturbance (sets vibrating air particles into motion)

2. vibration of air particles

air particles set in motion by sound source move back and forth within medium

* speed (frequency) and distance between the particles in motion (intensity) carries info about frequency and intensity between sender & receiver

3. reception by the ear

ear is designed to carry info from air particles into body

4. comprehension by brain

auditory centers of the brain (left hemisphere) translate auditory info sent through the ear to the auditory nerve

* speech sounds are carried to speech and lang. centers of brain for comprehension

speech perception

refers to how brain processes speech and language

auditory perception

more general term describing how the brain processes any type of auditory info

4 basic processes of communication?

formulation, transmission, reception, comprehension

sender

formulates and then transmits the info he/ she would like to convey

receiver

takes in and then comprehends the info shared by the sender

formulation

process of pulling together your thoughts or ideas for sharing with another person

transmission

process of conveying these ideas to another person

reception

process of receiving the info from another person

comprehension

process of making sense of the message

symbolic communication (referential communication)

individual communicates about a specific entity and the relationship between the entity and its referent is arbitrary

* ex: the young child who says “bottle” to request something to drink is communicating symbolically
* some communication is not symbolic and is constrained to a particular space and time

preintentional communication

occurs when other people assume the relationship between a communicative behavior and it’s referent.

* ex: a cat’s purr and a baby’s cry

intentional communication

relatively precise in its intent and the relationship between the communicative behavior and its referent is NOT arbitrary

iconic communication

forms of intentional communication that are very transparent

* clear relationship between the message and its referent
* ex: when an infant points to a bottle, the act is intentional and iconic

3 essential components to model of communication?

Linguistic feedback, nonlinguistic feedback (extralinguistic), paralinguistic feedback

linguistic feedback

includes speaking, such as “I totally agree” or vocalizing “mm-hmm”

nonlinguistic (extralinguistic) feedback

use of eye contact, facial expression, posture, and proximity

paralinguistic feedback

use if pitch, loudness, pausing, all of which are superimposed over the linguistic feedback

communication breakdown

sender and receiver use feedback to prevent one of these from happening

conversational repair

used to fix the breakdown

Major purposes of communication

* instrumental
* regulatory
* interactional
* personal
* heuristic
* imaginative
* informative

instruemental

used to ask for something

regulatory

used to give directions/ direct others

interactional

used to interact & converse socially

personal

used to express state of mind/ feelings

heuristic

used to find out info/ inquire

imaginative

used to tell stories/ role play

informative

used to provide organized description of an event/object

major domains of language?

form, content, use

form

how words, sentences, and sounds are organized and arranged to convey content

content

refers to the meaning of language - the words used and the meaning behind them

use

pertains to how people draw on language functionally to meet personal and social needs

components of form?

morphology, phonology, syntax

components of content

semantics

components of use?

pragmatics

phonology

refers to rules of a language governing the sounds that make syllables and words

allophones

are the subtle variations of phonemes that occur as a result of contextual influences on how phonemes are produced in different words (ex: the differences in aspiration in the two /p/ s in __*pop*__

phonotactics

each language has rules governing how sounds are organized in words = phonotactics

* Ex: /g/ never directly follows /s/ or /l/ at the beginning of a syllable

morphology

pertains to rules of language governing the internal organization of words

* allows us to add specificity to lang, and to expand vocab exponentially using a relatively small core of words (base vocab.) and morphing them into a much larger pool of word families

grammatical morphemes

don’t change the meaning of a word, but makes the word more specific; also words that serve grammatical purposes

* ex: like - liked, liking

derivational morphemes

will ALWAYS be bound! Change a words syntactic class (part of speech/ grammar) AND/OR the semantic meaning of the word

* Ex: like - @@dis@@like, @@un@@like,
* friend - friend@@less@@ (noun - adjective)

syntax

refers to rules of lang. governing the internal organization of sentences

semantics

refers to the rules of language governing the meaning of individual words and word combos. It allows us to know the meanings of words, how many meanings a single word might have, whether phrases have both literal and figurative meanings, and which words go together conceptually

pragmatics

pertains to the rules governing language use for social purposes, and is a synonym for the term *social communication*

pragmatic rules govern…

linguistic, extralinguistic, and paralinguistic aspects of communication, such as word choice, turn taking, posture, gestures, facial expression, eye contact, proximity, pitch, loundness, and pauses

remarkable features of language?

* acquisition rate
* universality
* species specificity
* semanticity (displacement)
* productivity

acquisition rate

sheer acquisition rate of language makes it difficulty to study

* infants go from understanding no words to then having a vocab of several hundred owrds at about 24 months (2 yrs old)

critical period (sensitive period)

years of early language acquisition: from birth to puberty

* window of opportunity exists during which lang. develops most rapidly and with the greatest ease

universality

all persons around the world apply the same cognitive infrastructure to the task of learning language, and that this cognitive infrastructure is particularly suited to the task of developing symbolic representations for objects and actions

* way children learn language and the time points at which they achieve certain milestones appear to be fairly invariant among global lang. communities

species specificity

although animals can learn sequences of complex actions, the hierarchical complexity of human language far exceeds the capabilities of the most sophisticated nonhuman primates

semanticity (displacement)

human language allows people to represent events that are decontextualized, or removed from the present, to share what happened before this moment or what may happen after this moment

* allows people to represent the world to others, a remarkable capacity shared by no other species

productivity

describes the principle of comb - specifically the combo of a small number of discrete units into seemingly infinite novel creations

* this feature of lang. is unique to humans because the units of nonhuman communication systems cannot be recombined to make new meanings.

language differences

general term that describes the variability among language users. The may differ in the number of words they understand, the length of their sentences, the types of words they use, and the way they share lang. with other people during conversation

major factors that help explain lang. difference among individuals

dialects, bilingual, gender, genetic predisposition

dialects

natural variations of a lang. that evolve within specific cultural or geographic boundaries.

* these variations affect form, content, use

bilingualism

when kids acquire/ learn two or more languages

simultaneous bilingualism

children develop their two languages concurrently

sequential bilingualism

children develop one language initially, then acquire a second language later

gender

little girls have an advantage over little boys in language development

* they usually begin talking earlier and develop their vocabulary at a faster rate
* boys are more likely to have language impairment

twin studies…

one method researchers use to estimate the contribution of genetics to language development, as well as the heritability of language disorders

environmental aspects that seem to figure most prominently in the young child’s language development are…

quantity and quality of lang. experienced

caregiver responsiveness

refers to the promptness, contingency, and appropriateness of caregiver response to children’s bids for communication through words or other means

* higher degrees of this during infancy and early toddlerhood are associated with accelerate rate of lang. development in children

children with language impairment…

show significant difficulties in the development of language, typically achieving lang. milestones more slowly than other children, and exhibiting long-standing difficulties with various aspects of lang. form, content, use