Chapter 8 - Language

Affective Priming

A process where exposure to one stimulus influences the emotional response to a subsequent stimulus.

Anomic Aphasia

A type of aphasia characterized by difficulty in finding the right words, particularly nouns.

Anticipation Error

A type of speech error where a later part of a word or phrase is produced prematurely.

Aphasia

A language disorder caused by brain damage, affecting speaking, understanding, reading, or writing.

Bilingualism

The ability to use two or more languages fluently.

Broca’s Aphasia

A type of aphasia associated with damage to Broca's area resulting in non-fluent speech.

Broca’s Area

A region in the frontal lobe involved in speech production and language comprehension.

Cognitive-Functional Linguistics

A theoretical approach emphasizing the connection between cognitive processes and language use.

Common Ground

Shared knowledge, assumptions, or beliefs between individuals, crucial for effective communication.

Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion

A theory proposing that emotions are constructed through cognitive processes interpreting bodily sensations.

Content Morphemes

Morphemes that carry meaning, typically nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Creole Language

A stable natural language developed from a mixture of different languages.

Critical Period

A theoretical window of time during early development when certain skills must be learned.

Curse of Knowledge

A cognitive bias where individuals struggle to imagine what it’s like for someone who lacks their knowledge.

Deep Structure

The underlying syntactic structure of a sentence representing its core meaning.

Fast Mapping

The process by which children learn the meaning of a word after brief exposure to it.

Finite State Grammars

A type of grammar where the next state is determined by the current state and input.

Function Morphemes

Morphemes that serve a grammatical function, like prepositions and articles.

Garden Path Sentences

Sentences that first appear grammatically correct but become confusing due to temporary ambiguity.

Generativity

The ability of a language to produce an infinite number of sentences from a finite set.

Global Aphasia

A severe form of aphasia involving significant impairments in both production and comprehension.

Grammatical Morpheme

Morphemes contributing to the grammatical structure of a sentence.

Kindergarten Path Sentence Effect

A phenomenon where sentence structure complexity affects children's comprehension ease.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

A hypothetical mechanism enabling humans to acquire language naturally.

Lexical Access

The process of retrieving a word from the mental lexicon for speech or writing.

Lexical Decision Task

An experimental task to determine if a string of letters forms a valid word.

Markov Models

Mathematical models describing systems where the next state depends only on the current state.

Mental Lexicon

The mental store of knowledge about words, including meanings and pronunciations.

Modular

The concept that certain cognitive processes or abilities are distinct and operate independently.

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

Morphology

The study of the structure and form of words.

Mutual-Exclusivity Constraint

A cognitive principle suggesting that each object has one name.

Native Language Magnet Effect

A phenomenon where infants’ sensitivity to speech sounds becomes attuned to their native language.

Negative Evidence

Information about what is not grammatically correct in a language.

Noun Phrase

A phrase centered around a noun, typically including a determiner and modifiers.

Orthographically

Referring to the written representation of language.

Overgeneralization

A language error where a child applies a rule too broadly.

Parse

To analyze a sentence’s syntactic structure and grammatical relationships.

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish words.

Phonemic Restoration Effect

The phenomenon where listeners can 'fill in' missing phonemes in speech based on context.

Phonetic Categories

Distinct groups of sounds in a language perceived as similar by speakers.

Phonologically

Referring to the sounds of language.

Phonology

The study of the sound system of a language.

Phrase Structure

The hierarchical arrangement of words and phrases in a sentence.

Pidgin Language

A simplified language developed for communication between speakers of different native languages.

Poverty of the Stimulus

The theory that children learn complex language aspects despite insufficient exposure.

Pragmatics

The study of language use in context.

Productivity

The ability to create and understand an infinite number of new sentences.

Prosody

The rhythm, intonation, and stress patterns of speech.

Psycholinguistics

The study of the mental processes involved in language production and comprehension.

Recursion

The ability to embed structures within similar structures for complex sentences.

Referential Communication Task

A psychological task where individuals must convey information clearly.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

A theory suggesting language shapes thought and perception.

Semantic Priming

The phenomenon in which one word makes it easier to recognize or process a related word.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language.

Shape Bias

The tendency of children to generalize object names based on shape.

Speech Errors

Mistakes made in speech production, such as slips of the tongue.

Speech Segmentation

The process of identifying word boundaries in continuous speech.

Spreading Activation Models

A theory suggesting activating one concept in memory spreads to related concepts.

Surface Structures

The specific syntactic form of a sentence.

Syntax

The rules governing the structure of sentences in a language.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

A feeling of knowing information but being unable to retrieve it.

Transformational Grammar

A theory of syntax focusing on transforming deep structures into surface structures.

Tree Diagram

A graphical representation of syntactic structures.

Universal Grammar

The theory that all human languages share a common underlying structure.

Usage-Based Linguistics

An approach emphasizing the role of usage in shaping linguistic patterns.

Verb Phrase

A phrase consisting of a verb and any accompanying objects or modifiers.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

A type of aphasia resulting in fluent but nonsensical speech.

Wernicke’s Area

A region in the left temporal lobe involved in language comprehension.

Whole-Object Constraint

A principle suggesting children assume a new word refers to a whole object.

Williams Syndrome

A rare genetic disorder with cognitive impairments but strong language abilities.

Word Frequency Effect

The phenomenon where responses are quicker to high-frequency words than low-frequency words.