Week 8 Language

Language Overview

• Language: A system of symbols and rules that allows us to communicate.

  • Characteristics:

    • Utilizes arbitrary symbols

    • Has a hierarchical structure

    • Unique to humans

Types of Language

• Modes of Language:

  • Speech

  • Writing

  • Reading

  • Perception

  • Production

Studying Language

• Key Areas of Language Study:

  • Semantics: The study of meaning.

  • Syntax: Rules governing word order (grammar).

  • Pragmatics: How language is used in real-world contexts.

  • Phonology: Examines how sounds relate to languages.

Stages of Language Development

Early Stages (Harley, 2008)

• 0-6 weeks: Vegetative Sounds

• 6 weeks: Cooing

• 10 weeks: Laughter

• 10 weeks - 6 months: Vocal Play

• 6-10 months: Babbling

Later Stages (Harley, 2008)

• 10-18 months: Single word utterances

• 18 months: Two word utterances

• 2 years: Telegraphic Speech

• 2 years 6 months: Full Sentences

Language Development Assumptions (Markman, 1989)

• Whole Object: Child attaches the label to the entire object.

• Mutual Exclusivity: Once a child knows the name for an object, they will not apply a second label.

• Taxonomic: Child labels the category rather than just an exemplar.

Speech and Units of Language

• Speech:

  • Phonemes: Smallest units of sound that differentiate utterances.

  • Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning.

    • Example: "recharge" has two morphemes: "re-" and "charge."

  • Words: Smallest meaningful unit that can stand alone.

  • Phrases: A few words forming a conceptual unit.

  • Sentences: Assembled groups including noun phrases (NP) and verb phrases (VP).

  • Discourse: Longer, connected blocks of language (e.g., a conversation).

Producing Sound

• Sound Production Mechanism:

  • Initiated from the larynx.

  • Filtered through:

    • Vocal tract

    • Soft and hard palate

    • Lips, tongue, pharynx, and jaw.

Speaking and Listening Process

1. Speaker has an idea to convey.

2. Speaker organizes and converts thought into a grammatical utterance.

3. Commands sent to motor areas of the brain to prepare articulators.

4. Acoustic signal produced and received by the listener.

5. Listener decomposes the message into parts and accesses the meaning.

Speech Production Model (Levelt, 1999)

• Conceptualization: Formulating what to say.

• Formulation: Deciding how to express the message via language tools.

• Articulation: Using articulators to create speech sounds.

Speech Segmentation Problem

• Challenge: Determining where words end and begin in spoken language.

  • No natural pauses between words.

Decoding Speech Study (Pollack & Pickett, 1964)

• Methodology: Recorded natural conversations, participants identified sections under conditions: individual words vs. sequences.

• Outcome: Demonstrates the influence of top-down processing on basic speech perception tasks.

Phonemic Restoration Effect (Warren, 1970)

• Observation: Missing phonemes in speech were undetected by listeners.

• Suggests that semantic and syntactic knowledge enhance speech perception (knowledge-driven).

Motor Theory of Speech Perception (Liberman et al., 1967)

• Speaks to the use of mouth movements to understand spoken messages.

Cohort Model (Marslen-Wilson, 1990)

• Activation Process: Early in speech, cohort words matching the incoming signal are activated.

• Activation can decrease over time leading to the elimination of words until one candidate remains.

Reading Mechanisms

Questions About Reading

• What does it mean to read a word?

  • Familiarity?

  • Access pronunciation?

  • Access word meaning?

Problems of Reading

• Verbal Ability: Develops early and effortlessly.

• Reading Ability: Acquired later; requires explicit skills.

Process of Reading

• Reading involves:

  • Extracting meaning from print and matching to lexical memory.

• Lexicon Components:

  • Orthographic, phonological, semantic, and grammatical representations of known words.

Automaticity in Reading

• Adult readers demonstrate quick, seemingly effortless reading (average ~300wpm).

• Evidence from Stroop effects indicates that word meaning is often automatically accessed.

Orthographic Uniqueness Point (OUP)

• Effect on Reading Speed:

  • Early OUPs may be processed faster than late OUPs due to position within the word.

Summary of Language: Speech and Reading

• Both are impacted by bottom-up and top-down processing.

• Automatic processing leads to faster access of word representations.

• The relationship between serial and parallel processing in reading may be more complex than previously thought.