Ling1010 Exam Ii

Front 1

Localization of Function

Back 1

 Different part of the brain responsible for different cognitive functions
o Hearing
o Spatial Reasoning, etc.
 There are parts of the brain dedicated to language function

Front 2

THALAMUS

Back 2

 Part of the ‘Reptillian Forebrain’
 Central relay station for sensory information

Front 3

HYPOTHALAMUS

Back 3

HYPOTHALAMUS
 Part of the mammalian Limbic System (memory-formation, emotions)
 The ‘Four F’s’:
o Feeding
o Fighting
o Fleeing
o Mating

Front 4

CEREBRUM: CEREBRAL CORTEX

Back 4

 The Latin ‘cortex’ means ‘bark’
 Cortex is the surface of the brain, a.k.a. grey matter
 This is where information computation happens

Front 5

Four lobes of cerebral cortex:

Back 5

Occipital lobe
Parietal lobe
Temporal lobe
Frontal lobe

Front 6

Occipital lobe:

Back 6

vision

Front 7

Parietal lobe:

Back 7

spatial reasoning; body sensation (touch, pain, limb position)

Front 8

Temporal lobe:

Back 8

hearing, vocabulary

Front 9

Frontal lobe:

Back 9

high-level motor control; grammar.

Front 10

2 Brain areas for language are

Back 10

Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area. When they are
damaged, linguistic functions are impaired.

Front 11

Lateralization of Language

Back 11

In about 97% of right-handed males, language function is lateralized to the left
hemisphere. In women/ left-handed males, language areas tend to be more
symmetrical (left and right hemispheres).

Front 12

Aphasia

Back 12

Aphasia is language disruption caused by damage to the brain. The damage in
different parts of the brain results in different kinds of disruption. The disruption
tells us what function that part of the brain normally has.

Front 13

BROCA’S APHASIA (Paul Broca, 1824 - 1880)

Back 13

 Agrammatic (many grammatical errors)
 Slow, effortful speech
 Grammar impaired in both speech and comprehension

Front 14

Broca’s Area

Back 14

This part of the brain is closely associated with grammatical rules; not associated
with understanding the meaning of content words.

Front 15

WERNICKE’S APHASIA (Carl Wernicke, 1848 - 1904)

Back 15

 Fluent speech, but deprived of content
 Word-finding problems (made-up words substitute words that they can not
find)
 Difficulties in understanding others

Front 16

ISOLATION APHASIA

Back 16

 Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, and connecting tissue spared
 Damaged connections to other areas of the brain
 Difficulty initiating speech
 Repetition (‘echolatia’) with grammatical correction

Front 17

Lateralization of Aphasia

Back 17

One study found that left hemisphere damage caused aphasia in
89% of men
77% of women.

Front 18

PLASTICITY

Back 18

 The ability of healthy brain tissue to ‘take over’ function of damaged tissue
 Plasticity begins to decline around age five
 In adulthood, plasticity is extremely limited

Front 19

BRAIN IMAGING

Back 19

 Imaging of healthy, functioning brains confirms that Broca’s and
Wernacke’s areas are involved in normal language function
 Techniques: PET, MEG, MRI.

Front 20

CRITICAL PERIOD

Back 20

 A ‘window of opportunity’ during which input must be received for normal
development.
 Lenneberg proposed in the 1990’s that there is a critical period for
language.

Front 21

Binocular vision in cats

Back 21

For cats there is a critical period of visual input (4 weeks to 4 months). Cats who
do not receive appropriate input during this period will never see correctly.
Monkeys (macaques) and humans also have a critical period for binocular
vision. Early correction of visual problems (e.g. cataracts) is crucial.

Front 22

Critical period in songbirds

Back 22

Songbirds, such as the zebra finch, have a critical period for inout in their species’
song. Deprivation or delayed exposure causes various disruptions by species.

Front 23

DELAYED FIRST LANGUAGE

Back 23

 ‘wild’ children;
 Genie;
 Some deaf children
Without linguistic input in childhood, eventual language development is impaired.

Front 24

The Case of Genie

Back 24

 Severely abused and neglected
 No linguistic input until age 13
 Learned some words and combinations
 Did not learn many aspects of language.

Front 25

Deaf children

Back 25

 Some are exposed to sign language;
 Some succeed with oral language;
 Others:
o cannot access oral language
o are not exposed to sign language for some years;
o begin exposure to sign language in later childhood.

Front 26

EFFECTS IN ENGLISH

Back 26

Late first language learners have greater difficulty with learning (written)
English as a second language. They have problems, especially with complex
syntax (sentence structure) and morphology.

Front 27

CRITICAL PERIOD EFFECTS ON SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Back 27

 SLA (second language acquisition) generally higher with earlier exposure;
 Most noticeable effects in phonology / morphology.

Front 28

THE EFFECTS If first or second language input is delayed:

Back 28

 Language learning is effortful;
 Foreign accents are usual;
 There is incomplete mastery of tacit rules.
This is consistent with the Nativist view, namely, the view that language is a
biological ‘organ’.

Front 29

THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

Back 29

The Human brain is a real-world computing device. Therefore, the human brain
can be simulated by a (sufficiently powerful) digital computer.

Front 30

ENGINEERING

Back 30

Artificial Intelligence – programming computers to solve the problems that the
human brain can solve.
 Machine Vision
 Robotics
 Natural Language Processing

Front 31

2 types of SCIENCE

Back 31

Cognitive Psychology
Generative Grammar

Front 32

Cognitive Psychology –

Back 32

computationally explicit models of mental processes

Front 33

Generative Grammar –

Back 33

computationally explicit models of linguistic competence

Front 34

Two factors GENERATION PROCEDURE

Back 34

Input – (none)
Output – Infinite list of grammatical sentences

Front 35

FORMAL GRAMMAR

Back 35

Formal grammars can be used to build generation procedures that model linguistic
competence.

Front 36

A formal grammar is

Back 36

a set of symbols and rules that generate strings of symbols.

Front 37

A string is

Back 37

just a finite sentence of symbols:
o Set of symbols, e.g.: A, B, C, D, S.
o One symbol is chosen as the initial symbol, e.g.: Initial symbol = S
o Rewrite rules: e.g.: S  A C ‘Wherever S occurs it can be replaced by AC’
o Nominal compound rule is a rewrite rule: N  N N

Front 38

HOW A FORMAL GRAMMAR WORKS

Back 38

1. Computation begins with Initial Symbol
2. Rules apply in any order until no further rule applies
3. We say that the formal grammar generates the resulting string

Front 39

RECURSION
of Formal Grammar

Back 39

A formal grammar is recursive if it has a symbol X that can be rewritten as a string
containing X.

Front 40

PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR
A formal grammar that

Back 40

(i) generates (all and only) the grammatical sentences of a language, and
(ii) captures native speakers’ knowledge of how words are grouped into phrases.

Front 41

Symbols:

Back 41

categories and lexical items

Front 42

Initial symbol:

Back 42

the symbol for a sentence

Front 43

Rules:

Back 43

rewrite rules that give the structure of linguistic phrases

Front 44

The result of computation in formal grammar is

Back 44

a grammatical sentence.

Front 45

Phrase structures goal

Back 45

to be able to precisely characterize the structure of sentences

Front 46

Phrase structure trees: Root node

Back 46

the top node in a tree (undominated)

Front 47

Phrase structure trees: Branches

Back 47

the lines connecting nodes

Front 48

Phrase structure trees: Undominated

Back 48

no branches above the node only below it

Front 49

Phrase structure trees: Terminal elements

Back 49

the actual words

Front 50

Phrase structure trees: Terminal nodes

Back 50

nodes that dominate no other nodes

Front 51

Phrase structure trees: Intermediate nodes

Back 51

branches above and below them

Front 52

Phrases

Back 52

-Words that belong together in a sentence
-

Front 53

Determining Phrases

Back 53

Substitution test; a pronoun can be substitute for some group of words

Front 54

Phrasal categories are

Back 54

determined by their heads

Front 55

The head is

Back 55

the kind of element the phrase generally must include, e.g.:
N(noun)
V(verb)
A(adjective)
P(preposition)

Front 56

The head of a sentence is Inflection

Back 56

the information about the tense (=time) of the sentence

Front 57

A declarative Sentence is

Back 57

an Inflection Phrase (IP)

Front 58

Phrase Structure (PS) Rules:

Back 58

- tell how to make tree diagrams
- trees represent our intuitions about groupings
- represent knowledge about which groupings are possible

Front 59

A declarative phrase is

Back 59

an Inflectional Phrase (IP)

Front 60

Inflection

Back 60

The information about the tense
(=time) of the sentence.

Front 61

PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

Back 61

 PS rules tell how to make tree diagrams.
 PS trees represent our intuitions about groupings.
 PS rules represent knowledge about which groupings are possible.

Front 62

PHRASE COMPONENTS

Back 62

 Phrases must contain a head.
 Phrases may also contain a complement and a specifier.

Front 63

X’-THEORY

Back 63

XP  (Specifier) X’
X’  X (Complement)

Front 64

X’-THEORY AND ACQUISITION

Back 64

X’-Theory significantly simplifies the task of acquiring PS rules. Instead of having
to learn a new rule from scratch for each category, children just fill in the X’
template.

Front 65

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

Back 65

 PS rules are part of Generative Grammar.
o Computationally explicit models of linguistic competence.
 Descriptive adequacy.
o Generate all and only the grammatical sentences of the language.

Front 66

POTENTIAL INADEQUACIES

Back 66

Undergeneration
Overgeneration

Front 67

Undergeneration

Back 67

Failure to generate some grammatical sentences of the
language.

Front 68

Overgeneration

Back 68

System generates sentences that are ungrammatical

Front 69

PS GRAMMAR AS A FORMAL GRAMMAR

Back 69

1. Symbols: terminal elements and categories.
2. Initial symbol: IP.
3. Rules: PS rules conforming to the X’ principles.

Front 70

SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS

Back 70

 The PS rules constitute the syntax of a language;
 The rules that interpret phrases are the semantics

Front 71

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR Goal:

Back 71

Correctly represent tacit knowledge that native speakers have of their
language.

Front 72

DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY
A property of a particular (PS) grammar

Back 72

 Generates all (and only) grammatical sentences;
 Accurately reflects speakers’ intuitions about ambiguity, substitution, etc.

Front 73

EXPLANATORY ADEQUACY
A property of a theory of grammar, rather than an individual grammar

Back 73

 The ability to account for observed cross-linguistic variation;
 The ability to account for the uniformity of language acquisition in children.

Front 74

PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS THEORY
Principles:

Back 74

Aspects of language that are universal to all human languages, and which are potentially
innate

Front 75

PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS THEORY
Parameters:

Back 75

Points of permitted variation across languages

Front 76

X-BAR PRINCIPLES

Back 76

 All phrases have an X’ level and a head X;
 Phrases can have a complement;
 Phrases can have a specifier.
The skeleton of phrases is the same, even when they lack a complement or a specifier.

Front 77

PARAMETER SETTING
English

Back 77

 Specifier appears to the left of X’: XP  (Specifier) X’
 Complement appears to the right of X: X’  X (Complement)

Front 78

PARAMETER SETTING
Head-final language

Back 78

 Specifier appears to the left of X’: XP  (Specifier) X’
 Complement appears to the left of X: X’  (Complement) X

Front 79

NATIVIST EXPLANATION

Back 79

 Some properties of language are built in (innate), others have to be learned
(experience)
 In-built properties: properties that are the same in all languages
 Parameters: limited role for experience.