week 7: Language

language

a system of communication using sounds or symbols to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas.

hierarchical nature of language

the idea that language consists of small components like sounds that combine into words and then into sentences.

rule based nature of language

the fact that there are specific ways we can arrange components to make sense.

psycholinguistics

the study of the psychological processes used to acquire and process language.

lexicon

all the words a person knows which is basically our mental dictionary.

lexical semantics

the study of the meaning of words.

word frequency

how often a word shows up in a language.

word frequency effect

the fact that we respond faster to high frequency words like home than to low frequency words like hike.

lexical decision task

a test where you have to decide as fast as possible if a string of letters is a real word or not.

speech segmentation

being able to tell where one word ends and the next begins when you hear someone talking

lexical ambiguity

when a word has more than one meaning like how bank can be a building or the side of a river.

lexical priming

when seeing or hearing a word makes it easier to respond to a related word later.

meaning dominance

the fact that some meanings of a word are used way more often than others.

biased dominance

when a word has two meanings and one is much more common than the other.

balanced dominance

when a word has two meanings that are used about the same amount.

syntax

the system of rules for combining words into sentences.

semantics

the meaning of words and sentences.

parsing

the mental process of grouping words into phrases to create meaning.

garden path sentence

a sentence that leads you down one interpretation but then turns out to mean something else.

temporary ambiguity

when the first part of a sentence could have multiple meanings until you hear the end.

garden path model of parsing

a theory that says we use only syntax at first to figure out a sentence and then use meaning only if we get stuck.

late closure

a rule in parsing where we assume each new word is part of the current phrase until it stops making sense.

heuristic

a simple rule of thumb that usually works but is not always right.

constraint based approach to parsing

the idea that we use both grammar and the meaning of words together at the same time to understand a sentence.

visual world paradigm

an experiment where researchers track where your eyes move while you look at a scene to see how you process language in real time.

subject relative construction

a sentence where the subject of the main clause is also the subject of the relative clause like the man who saw the dog.

inference

using your own knowledge to go beyond what is literally stated in a text.

narrative

a story that has a beginning, middle, and end with connected events.

coherence

the way a text makes sense by linking ideas across sentences.

anaphoric inference

an inference that connects objects or people across sentences like knowing a pronoun refers to someone mentioned earlier.

instrument inference

an inference about the tools or methods being used in a story like assuming a person used a hammer to drive a nail.

causal inference

an inference that one event in a story was caused by a previous event.

situation model

a mental representation of what a story is about rather than just a memory of the specific words.

given new contract

rule in conversation where you start with info the listener already knows and then add the new info.

common ground

the knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions that two people share in a conversation.

referential communication task

an experiment where two people have to talk to each other to solve a problem like arranging pictures in a certain order.

theory of mind

the ability to understand that other people have their own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings

entrainment

the process where two people in a conversation become synchronized in their speaking style and terms.

syntactic coordination

when two people in a conversation start using similar grammatical structures.

syntactic priming

hearing a specific sentence structure makes you more likely to use that same structure yourself.

prosody

the pattern of intonation and rhythm in how we speak which helps show emotion.

tonic

the main note in a musical scale that makes you feel like the music has come home.

return to the tonic:

the expectation in music that a song will end on the home note which is similar to how we expect a sentence to finish its grammar.

congenital amusia

a condition a person is BORN with where they cannot distinguish between musical notes or recognize melodies.

brocas aphasia (left frontal lobe)

a condition caused by brain damage that makes it very hard for a person to use grammar and structure even if they know what they want to say.

emoji

symbols used in digital communication to provide extra meaning or emotion since we lack prosody in text.