Chapter 9 and 10

LANGUAGE

Updated: 2006-04-06

I. GENERAL PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

Language has six properties that many psychologists accept as definitional. Language is (p. 312):

communicative
arbitrary
- except for onomatopoeia
meaningfully structured
multiply structured
productive
dynamic.

Language In Its Own Words

Phones, phonemes, phonemics, & phonetics
- 100 phones or sounds possible
  - but no language uses them all
- Phonemes are distinguishable sounds of a language (p. 315)
  - all languages have differents sets of phonemes, i.e., !
- English phonemes tend to be vowels or consonants
- Phonemics is the study of the phonemes found in the various languages (p. 316)
- Phonetics is a written system for representing sounds. (p. 316)
Morphemes, lexicon, and vocabulary
- Simplest units of sound with meaning (p. 317)
- Affixes incluce Prefixes and suffixes (p. 317)
  - a-, -ing
- Types
  - content morphemes: convey meaning, functional morphemes: add detail an nuance, and inflections: word endings or or beginings with meaning.
- Lexicon
  - total set of morphemes a person knows
  - 80,000 morphemes (p. 317)
- Vocabulary (Sternberg does not distinguish between lexicon and vocabulary)
  - number of words a person knows
  - hundreds of thousands of words
Syntax
- How speakers put sentences together
  - word order syntaxes (like English)
    - in English, a noun phrase, verb phrase (or a predicate) are combined into sentences
  - word ending syntaxes (like German or Latin)
    - in German or Latin, words may be strung together in any order as long a the suffixes are correct

II. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Stages of Language Acquisition
- The stages are:
  - (1) prenatal responsivity to human voices,
  - (2) postnatal cooing,
  - (3) babbling,
  - (4) one-word utterances,
  - (5) two-word utterances,
  - (6) telegraphic speech,
  - (7) basic adult sentence structure (by age 4)
- Characteristics of language acquisition in newborns
  - Mothers' voices are preferred by newborns,
  - Post partum infants move while spoken to and they reflect the mood of their caretakers.
- Cooing
  - all infants coo in the same way regardless of culture, language, hearing impaired or not.
  - all infants discriminate all of the possible phones
- Babbling
  - infants can only distinguish sounds of their own language after 9 months of age
- Vocabulary and Syntax
  - By 18 months, children typically possess a vocabulary of 3-100 words
  - overextensions are common
    - i.e., all four-legged animals, for example, are called "doggie
  - At around 30 months, children begin to combine words into two-word utterances or telegraphic speech
  - tremendous increase in vocabulary
  - understanding and use of syntax
  - general understanding and use of complex words and sentences.
  - By age 10 no differences exist between children's' and adults' speech.

III. SEMANTICS: THE STUDY OF MEANING

Semantics
- Definition
  - study of meanings of words.
- Theories of Meaning
  - Componential theory or definitional theory
    - meaning comes from the defining features of a concept (e.g., bachelor = male, unmarried, adult).
  - Prototype theory
    - characteristic features and prototypical aspects of a concept, are a better way to understanding meaning.

ANIMAL LANGUAGE

Jane Goodall and Chimps
R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner and Washoe (a chimp)
David Premack and Sarah (a chimp)
Herbert Terrace and Nim Chimpsky (a chimp)
Sue Savage Rumbaugh and chimps speaking "Yerkish"
Penny Patterson and Koko (a gorilla) http://www.koko.org
Not really language, per se. More like complex symbolic communication, at best or, mimicry, at worst

IV. PRAGMATICS AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS: LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT (Chapter 10 topics)

Pragmatics
- Higher level of analysis
- Concentrates on sociolinguistics, proxemics, and other elements of discourse (e.g., modifications to speech as a function of context).
- Speech errors
  - slips of the tongue are among the most common.
    - Freud believed they revealed the workings of the unconscious mind.
    - modern cognitive theoristsbelieve they provide of the workings of the mind in processing language
- Types of slips of tongueFromkin (1973)
  - anticipation--use element too early
  - perseveration--use element apt earlier but not now
  - substitution--use wrong element
  - reversal--switch language elements (Spoonerisms)
  - malapropisms--same sound but different meaning
  - insertions--additional sounds
  - different types not caused by the same level of neural processing
- Direct Speech Acts--uses of speech
  - representative--believe proposition is true
  - directive--get listener to do something
  - commisive--commitment to later action
  - expressive--statement about a psychological state
  - declaration (or performative)--brings about a new state of affairs
- Indirect Speech Acts
  - Abilities
  - Desire
  - Future Action
  - Reasons
- Conversational Postulates
  - Maxim of Quantity--just enough information
  - Maxim of Quality--tell the truth
  - Maxim of Relation--keep conversation relevant
  - Maxim of Manner--keep conversation simple and clear
- Gender and Conversation--Deborah Tannen
  - men
    - communicate information
    - maintain status
    - talk about future action
    - use language to solve problems
    - fear loss of independence
    - men talk more overall, but more in public
    - more activity, less conversation
  - women
    - talk to create and support relationships
    - talk for its own sake
    - establish intimacy
    - seek emotional support through language
    - women talk less, but more at home
    - less activity, more conversation

V. LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

Linguistic Relativity
- Syntax
  - Languages differ widely in their syntactic structures
  - Do syntactic differences cause cognitive differences?
    - Linguistic determinism states that language structure does affect cognition deeply
    - Linguistic relativity proposes that language creates differing cognitive systems that lead to differing views of similar concepts.
    - Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
      - i.e., Eskimo words for snow
Linguistic universals
- Color labelling
  - Only 11 color names suffice
    - black
    - white
    - red
    - yellow,
    - green
    - blue
    - brown
    - purple,
    - pink
    - orange
    - gray.
- Different languages use anywhere from two to all 11 names
- As colors are added to a lexicon, the pattern is the same.
- Exemplar or prototype colors were used similarly by different cultures
Bilingualism
- Additive bilingualism
  - second language is learned alongside a strong original one
  - cognitive functioning is increased
- Subtractive bilingualism
  - second language replaces the original one
  - cognitive function is decreased.
- The greater the competence is in both languages, the greater the cognitive benefit.
- Diglossia
  - High status formal language and low status everyday language co-exist:
    - Immigrant populations
    - Colonial legacies (Africa, South America)
Mental representation
- dual-system hypothesis proposes
  - two language systems exist in brain
- single-system hypothesis asserts.
  - one language system supports both languages
Oxymorons
- Pairs of words with contradictory meanings.
  - friendly fire
  - fresh frozen
  - live recording
  - no comment
  - this page left intentionally blank
- See: http://www.oxymorons.info/reference/oxymorons/definition.asp

VI. READING AND WRITING

Writing Systems
- Logographic
  - symbols and morphemes correspond (i.e., Chinese and Japanese kanji)
- Syllabic
  - symbols and syllables correspond (i.e., Japanese kana, Akkadian, and Mayan)
- Alphabetic
  - symbols and sounds correspond (i.e., Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, and others)
  - English also uses logographic symbols: &, @, $, *, and many others
Reading
- Saccades--eye movements during reading (3-4/second)
- Backward saccades slow reading
Perception in Reading
- Eye-voice span--how much ahead eyes lead voice in oral reading
  - Cnsnts r mr mprtnt t cmprhnsn thn vwls.
  - a ou ee y?
- English is Tough
  - This poem shows how hard reading English can be.
- Direct lexical access
  - Do readers go straight from written word to its meaning? (Whole word)
- Phonological reading
  - Do readers sound out words first? (Phonics)

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at

Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod

are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the

rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it

wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey

lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I

awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

Writing
- Prewriting
  - Getting ready to write
    - know your audience
    - break writing into smaller pieces
- Drafting (or Composing)
  - Actually writing thoughts down
    - pencil and paper
    - pen and paper
    - typewriter
    - word processor
- Revising (or Editing)
  - Self editing
    - meaning
    - style
    - grammar
    - spelling
  - Editing by others
    - social aspect of writing
    - give-and-take
- Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
  - Lynne Truss' best selling book on grammar!
  - See: http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/

NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

Aphasia
- Wernicke's--problems with meaning and understanding
- Broca's--problems with language production, comprehension preserved
- Global--highly impaired comprehension and production, lesions to both Wernicke's and Broca's areas
- Anomic--inability to name objects or retrieve words
Autism
- Developmental disorder with social abnormalities
- Repetitive and stereotyped behaviors
- Failure to develop speech often
- Echolalia--repetition of speech

Lecture Outlines

Read these for more information about topics covered in class

Communication versus Language

Properties of Language

Sales Success

Esperanto

Vocabulary Development

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