Chapter 9 Language: A Cognitive Universal

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