LANGUAGE Skyline, Psych 100, Meghan Fraley, PhD

What is Language? ¨  A system of symbols used to communicate ideas

among two or more individuals. ¨  Must be learnable by children, spoken and

understood by adults, and capable of expressing ideas that people normally communicate in a social and cultural context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9shPouRWCs

Phonemes Morphemes Content morphemes

Function morphemes Rules of syntax Tree diagram Phrase structure

description

Definitional theory of word

meaning

Semantic features

Prototype theory

Family semblance structure

Prototypes Subject Predicate

Proposition Semantic role Case markers Garden path Basic-level words Superordinates Subordinates

American Sign Language (ASL)

Crib bilingualism Aphasia

Specific language

impairment (SLI)

Whorfian hypothesis

Key Terms

1.  Sound Units 2.  Morphemes and Words 3.  Phrases and Sentences

The Building Blocks of Language

Speech Units ¨  Phonemes: Smallest units of

sound ¨  Morphemes: Smallest units of

sound that convey meaning

Holophrastic and Telegraphic Speech

Bottle!

Holophrastic speech refers to the use of single words to express whole phrases and sentences!

Rules of Syntax ¨  The regular principles

governing how words can be assembled into sentences, and also describing the structure of those sentences

Tree diagram depicting phrase structure

1.  The Meaning of Words 2.  The Meaning of Sentences 3.  How We Understand

How Language Conveys Meaning

1.  Language Acquisition Rates 2.  The Social Origins of Language Learning 3.  Discovering the Building Blocks of Language 4.  The Growth of Word Meaning 5.  The Progression of Adult Language

How We Learn a Language

Language Development/Reading ¨  Stages of language

development ¨  Theories of language

development ¨  Dyslexia

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007 Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)

Language Development ¨  Prelinguistic Stage (crying,

cooing, and babbling) ¨  Linguistic Stage (single-

utterances, telegraphic speech, and learning the rules of grammar)

Stages of Language Development

Crying (newborn) Cooing (6wk-3mo) Babbling (4-6mo)

Word Comprehension (9-10mo) Echolalia (9-10mo) First words (13 mo:

10-15mo)

Holophrasic Speech (12-18mo) • Phoneme (unit of speech) • Morpheme (meaning unit) • Median expressive vocab: 50 words

Telegraphic Speech (18-24mo)

•  Median vocab: 200 words

Childhood Language Development

18 to 24 months

Telegraphic Speech

300 to 400 words

1.5 to 2.5/3 years

Vocabulary Growth: 50 words a month

36 months: 1,000 words

3-4 word sentences

2.5-5 Years

Grammatically Correct Sentences

Questions, negatives, passive voice

School years

Metalinguistic Awareness

6 or 7 recognize words are different than the concepts they represent

Use words humorously

Theories of Language Development ¨  Nativist View

¤  Chomsky ¤  Innate Language Acquistion Device (LAD) ¤  Learn in same sequence without formal

instruction

¨  Nurturist/Behavioral View ¤  Interaction with environment ¤  Imitation and reinforcement

¨  Interactionist View ¤  Nature and Nurture Combination ¤  “Motherese” ¤  Adults responde with extension ¤  Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: speakers of

different languages think differently

Universal Grammar ¨  Language Acquisition

Device ¨  Chomsky

Bootstrapping ¨  Semantic bootstrapping

¤  Use knowledge of word meaning to inferm grammatical category

¨  Syntactic bootstrapping ¤  Using grammer knowledge to learn

the meaning of new words ¨  Prosodic bootstrapping

¤  Prosody (pitch, etc) to make inferences about syntax

¨  Morphological bootstrapping ¤  Knowledge about morphemes to

deduce syntax or meaning

Language Structure ¨  Surface structure

¤  Organization of words, phrases, and sentences

¨  Deep structure ¤  Underlying meaning of

sentences ¨  Speaking involves

transforming deep structure (meaning) into surface structure (grammatical sentences)

Language Development Errors

Underextension Overextension

1.  Wild Children 2.  Isolated Children 3.  Language without Sound 4.  Language without a model 5.  Children Deprived of Access to Some of the

Meanings 6.  Children Exposed to More than One Language:

Bilingualism

Alternative Language Learning

Bilingualism and Bilingual Education ¨  Early studies: Bilinguilism leads to cognitive

deficits ¨  Current research: Bilingual do as well or better

¤  Cognitive flexibility ¤  Cognitive complexity ¤  Analytical reasoning ¤  Metalinguistic awareness

¨  Benefits may be temporary ¨  Education:

¤  Mixed results ¤  Language minority students in high-quality

programs may do better than those in English only programs

Second-Language Acquisition ¨  More difficult for

adolescents and adults ¨  Exposure during

childhood, more likely to speak with native accent

Code Switching ¨  Alternating languages

during conversation ¨  Switch to native

language: express better, establish rapport, express attitude toward listener

1.  When the Nature and State of the Brain is Changed 2.  The Sensitive Period 3.  Language in Nonhumans

Changed Endowments

Critical and Sensitive Periods ¨  Critical Periods

¤  Specific time most sensitive to influences

¤  Specific event must occur or it will not occur at all

¤  Lorenz: Gosling imprint 12-17 hours ¤  For humans, probably only with

physical development ¨  Sensitive Periods

¤  Human development ¤  Event has most impact ¤  i.e. attachment and language

Brain Damage & Language ¨  Broca’s aphasia is an

inability to speak fluently without effort and correct grammar. Speech is halting and agrammatic.

¨  Wernicke’s aphasia is a comprehension dysfunction. Speech is fluent and effortless but also semantically vacuous.

Left for Language ¨  90% of the population is left-

hemisphere dominant. ¤  Right- handedness and left

localization of Broca’s and Wernicke’s are universal, at least in males.

¤  Left-handed individuals may present with left, mixed, or in some cases right language representation.

¨  Females show more bilateral language representation.

The language zone extends far beyond Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas in neocortical and subcortical regions.

Contrasts to Animal Communication ¨  Only language uses symbols to represent objects. Words

are detached from their referents unlike the calls of a bird or chimpanzee. Displacement in space and time is thus possible with language.

¨  Productivity is ability to create novel sentences that can be understood by other speakers of the language. Although chimps can learn ASL and sign novel expressions, there is a vast difference in productivity.

1.  Languages have many similarities and differences 2.  How Language Connects to Thought 3.  Do People Who Talk Differently Come to

Understand the World Differently? 4.  How Can We Study Language and Thought?

Language and Thought

Language and Thought

•  Language determines how we think

Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis

•  Language and thought are independent

Nativist •  Language is

dependent on thought

Piaget

Gender and Language Style

• Establish dominance • Gain attention • Give orders • Talk longer •  Interrupt more

Boys

• Provide support • Demonstrate attentiveness • Ask questions • Attach tag questions

Girls

Dyslexia ¨  Deep Dyslexia

¤ Mistakes words for similar meaning

¨  Surface Dyslexia ¤ Must sound out words

¨  Phonological Dyslexia ¤ Can’t read nonwords aloud

¨  Neglect ¤ Misreads first or last half of

word

Most Important Terms

MITs Morpheme

Phoneme

Semantics

Syntax

Telegraphic Speech

Applications: Semantics & Pragmatics

Semantics Semantics What the words mean

Syntax How words are assembled into propositions

Phonology How the words are pronounced

Pragmatics How language is actually being used day to day

Semantics: The study of meaning, how people mentally represent the meaning of words and images

The manner in which speakers communicate their intentions depends on the social context. Direct speech acts (e.g., command: “Open the window!”) may be socially awkward. Indirect speech acts assume the guise of a different speech act to achieve the same result (e.g., inform: “It is really hot in here.”)The cooperative principle guides conversations so that speakers utter appropriate statements. We speak audibly, use language understood by the listener, and follow the rules. Listeners draw appropriate inferences called conversational implicatures. For example, if I say “I am out of gas” you might say “There’s a gas station around the corner.”

Nonviolent Communication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX4N0VryiC4