Language (exam 3)

language

a system of communication using symbols (sounds, gestures, or visual representations) to represent, transmit, and store meaning or information.

symbols

organized patterns of sounds, gestures, or visual representations that stand for concepts, ideas, or objects.

meaning

the ideas, concepts, quantities, feelings, identity, plans, or facts that symbols in a language represent.

phoneme

the smallest distinctive unit of sound in a language (e.g., vowels and consonants).

morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit in a language, including words or meaningful parts like prefixes and suffixes.

grammar

the system of rules that governs how words are used, including semantics (meaning) and syntax (sentence structure).

syntax

the rules for arranging words into grammatically correct sentences.

semantics

the system used to derive meaning from words and sentences.

receptive language

the ability to understand spoken or signed language, typically developing before productive language.

productive language

the ability to produce words, gestures, or sentences to communicate, starting with babbling and later evolving into speech.

babbling

early stage of speech development (around 4 months), producing sounds from multiple languages or gestures.

one-word stage

developmental stage (~12 months) when children start using single words to represent entire ideas or objects.

two-word / telegraphic speech

developmental stage (~18–24 months) where children combine two words, often leaving out smaller grammatical words (“See bird!”).

full sentences

stage (~2+ years) where children produce complete sentences and understand complex sentence structures.

critical period

an optimal time window in early development when language acquisition occurs most easily; after this period, learning language becomes much harder.

Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL)

a real-world example of language emergence where isolated deaf children developed a new, fully structured language when brought together in a school.

symbolic language

language in which symbols (words, signs) represent ideas or objects rather than directly imitating them.

generative language

the property of language that allows a finite set of symbols to create an infinite number of meaningful sentences.

Broca’s area

brain region in the left frontal lobe associated with speech production; damage can lead to non-fluent aphasia (difficulty speaking).

Wernicke’s area

brain region in the left temporal lobe associated with language comprehension; damage can lead to fluent aphasia (producing incoherent speech).

aphasia

impairment in language production or comprehension, usually caused by brain damage.

linguistic determinism / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

the idea that language shapes thought; mostly false, but language can influence memory and attention.

categorical perception

the phenomenon where people perceive speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories rather than continuous variations.

phoneme categorization

how speakers of a language learn to recognize and distinguish the sounds that are meaningful in their language.

sound symbolism

the non-arbitrary association between word sounds and meaning (e.g., “kiki” vs. “bouba”).

sensitive period

a time when the brain is especially receptive to learning language or other skills, even if learning is still possible later.

Skinner-Chomsky debate

discussion of whether language is learned through reinforcement (Skinner) or whether humans are biologically predisposed to acquire grammar (Chomsky).

Wug test

a famous experiment showing that children can apply grammatical rules to novel words they have never heard, supporting Chomsky’s theory of innate grammar.

language and thought

language can influence what we notice and remember, but thought also shapes language; they are interrelated rather than strictly deterministic.

predictive coding

the idea that the brain uses language expectations to predict incoming linguistic input.

left-lateralization

most language functions are located in the left hemisphere of the brain.

right-lateralization

some language functions (like prosody, intonation, and context) are processed in the right hemisphere.