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24 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is language? |
A system that relates sounds (or gestures to meaning) |
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Language only occurs in what species? |
Humans |
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How does language differ from communication? |
- Symbolic and arbitrary units of meaning (as long as we are in agreement, the word we use to call something is irrelevant- a lion growling will always mean anger) - Structured and meaningful (has grammar that we learn without formal training, comes automatically with language system) - Shows displacement (can talk about past, future, across lifespan) - Characterized by generativity (can combine words in countless ways, children don't learn in sentences, they learn in words and combine them how they want) |
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What is phonology? |
Individual sounds in language, smallest possible part of word Units of sound It's about the sound and not the spelling Example: /k/ phoneme is used in cat and kite Think of it as phonetics, sounding out each part of the word |
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What is morphology?
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Smallest unit of meaning Examples: dog or ing Morphemes can be free or bound |
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What is a free morpheme? |
stands alone, the entire word (i.e. dog) |
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What is a bound morpheme? |
changes meaning when attached to a word (i.e. -ing) |
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What are semantics? |
Study of words and their meaning Level of the full word- its definition Some words have multiple meanings Can be different in different contexts |
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What is grammar? |
Rules to structure a language Different across languages |
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What are pragmatics? |
How people use language to communicate effectively Social rules: changing language depending on who you're talking to We have learned this, we take into account pre-existing knowledge depending on who you're talking to Rules (pre-existing knowledge) helps us to overcome ambiguity, different sentences mean different things in new contexts Pragmatics involve the way we say a word, who we're talking to and what we're saying |
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What is a pidgin? |
Simplified version of language used by two groups (or more) to help communicate when they speak different languages An "almost language" |
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What is creole? |
Full language, often developed after 2nd generation born into it A stable language, it is natural and derived from a pidgin |
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Hawaiian People example |
Lots of people speaking different languages on a farm, created a pidgin that had elements from all different languages spoken and eventually became a full blown language 2nd generation: made it way more complicated by adding grammar, structure system and pragmatics |
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Nicaraguan Sign Language example |
Before 1970s, no deaf communities and no sign language system Deaf centre created and opened but it was failing Children started communicating with each other on their own, combing gestures they had from own family experience Took elements and combined them, made something very "Pidgin-like" Younger children but grammar into it Went from being a crude language to a sophisticated language |
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Children and Communication: Creating Languages |
Often 2nd generation/children creating grammatical systems Needed language before adolescence in order to speak it |
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Study: Newborn babies discriminating sounds Nazzi et al. 1998 |
Newborn babies less than 4 days old First sound they preferred was native language over non-native language Would suck on pacifier harder for native than for Russian Shows they became familiar with it in the womb Can they discriminate between 2 non-native languages? - French newborn babies 4 days old habituated to 1 non-native language repeatedly and measured sucking rate - Suck faster would mean they could hear a language clip, and faster sucking indicates interest - Rate decreased over time meaning habituation - Then presented different language and would dishabituate - Control would still be listening to same first language (the one experimental babies were habituated to) |
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Study: Newborn babies discriminating rhythmic structures |
English is a stress timed language French is a syllable stressed timing (flows smoother) Are babies just detecting a change in rhythmic structure? Experiment: 2 languages from same rhythmic class (Dutch and English) and no dishabituation was found Will dishabituate with two from different rhythmic structure languages |
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What is infant directed speech? (i.e. motherese) |
When you talk to an infant you are high pitched, have an exaggerated pitch contour, larger pitch range, slower more deliberate tempos, more rhythmic |
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Why do we use infant directed speech? |
It is instinctual Across languages and cultures it is universal Even people with no infant experience will do it |
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How do babies respond to infant directed speech? What is the benefit of infant directed speech? |
Even few days old prefer infant directed speech Captures their attention more, gets more linguistic cues, easier to segment words more easily because it is slow and rhythmic, helps to distinguish vowel sounds We are helping them learn by doing this |
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What does it mean that phoneme perception is categorical? |
Meaning that if you were to play a "ba" sound repeatedly and have it morph (change acoustically) into a "da" sound, there will never be a time where it sounds like both, it will be a distinct turn from bad to da It is a sudden change and it is not linear Babies perceive it this way too |
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Explain how phoneme perception undergoes perceptual narrowing |
<6 mo: discriminate native and non-native phonemes Newborns can tell d and b apart 6-12 mo: can't distinguish non-native sounds 12 mo: specialist in their native language |
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Phoneme Perception: Perceptual Narrowing Is it a sensitive period? |
Yes Reversal of perceptual narrowing with exposure Can't reverse it in adulthood |
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d |
d |
