sound patterns
Phonetics
categorizing sounds
Phonology
sounds grouped to form words
Morphology
roles of combining words to sentences
Syntax
study of meaning (words and sentences)
semantics
how we use language to accomplish goals; how people understand indirect statements
pragmatics
around the world, people have different ways of referring to things
arbitrariness
languages always occur at 2 levels (meaningless physical signs and meaningful symbols) ex: C.A.T.S letters=unit, word = element
duality
idea that our mental representation of events somehow influences the words/sentences we use
structure dependence
languages always involve patterns that repeat across circumstances; ex: Bill is sleeping or is bill sleeping
patterning
we can talk about things that aren't physically present; ex: Tomorrow it will be sunny
displacement
idea that languages are embedded/passed on culturally
cultural transmission
generate new sentences that have never been generated previously
productivity
The Four Necessary Components
of Language
semantic, syntax, medium, pragmatics
performs a computation of the overall message and relies on an understanding of categories of words provided by the angular gyrus.
semantic
rules for how words/sentences should be formed; allows speakers to distinguish tense, mood, and aspect
syntax
mediums of communication
spoken language, written, gesture, voice, phonological system (alphabets and symbols), and syllabary system (syllables)
writing systems
phonological (or alphabetic) system, syllabary system, logographic systems (entire word picture/Chinese)
Ex: Taking turns talking is an example of? This includes limits of what is spoken about, how to speak, and listening expectations
pragmatics
if a child hears a word in isolation, they assume its referring to an object (noun). Birdie does not refer to how happy the speaker is about seeing a bird; it is about the bird itself
reference principle
assumption that if you hear a novel word, its referring to object as a whole (rabbit, not rabbit tail)
whole object principle
each object has a name and only one name (name refers to only that object). a 4-year-old might protest when you call your mother mom because that's the name of her mother!
non-redundancy of words principle (mutual exclusivity)
explain the link between utterances and what is understood from them.
gricean maximus
people say enough to convey what they mean, but no more
The maxim of quantity
one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence
The maxim of quality
one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
The maxim of relation
we assume our convo partners aren't trying to be confusing/unclear
The maxim of manner
Human languages reflect only ____ of the possible
syntactic arrangements.
half
rhythm, the stress, and the intonation pattern (singsong quality) of the voice
Prosody
interactions between infants and caregivers
Turnabout
Children learn language by using these things
locate and name, demand, negate, describe, indicate possession, modify, and question
Just when 4-year-old children are demonstrating competence with their native language and increasing their vocabularies at a rapid rate, they show a decline in ability to handle syntactic irregularities in their language. ex: a 4-year-old who correctly cr
regularization
Damage here results in fluent but meaningless phrases. Individuals with ____ have more difficulty than those with Broca's aphasia in keeping the themes of the sentences straight when the sentences have a simple syntax
Wernickes area
perform syntactic analyses on the incoming stream of words and communicate this back to Wernicke's area. The person looks at the picture and describes what he or she sees. Someone with ______might say: "Dog tree . . . girl arms . . . cat sleep . . . boots
Broca's area
Unlike most girls who possess two X chromosomes, girls with ______ are born with only one X chromosome. This results in a number of overt physical, cardiac, and hormonal difficulties.
Turners syndrome
The language you speak unconsciously shapes your thinking about the world.
Whorf
pretend about situations that we know to be false, as in "If I had studied for the test, I would have gotten a good grade.
Counterfactual reasoning