PSY 111 Language Oct 2014

8/10/2019 PSY 111 Language Oct 2014

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Language


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Defining Language

Two aspects of language

Production

Thought Expression

Comprehension

Expression Thought


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Level 1: Speech Sounds

Phonemes

minimal unit that distinguishes words

most basic units of sound

language specific


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Example of Phonemes

/p/: pit vs /b/: bit

/k/: cut vs //: gut

/m/: map vs /n/: nap

/s/: sap vs /z/: zap


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Level 2: Word Units

Morpheme

any linguistic unit that carries meaning

smallest unit of sound that has a meaning

may or may not be complete words


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Examples of Morphemes

run + n-ing = running

cut + t-ing = cutting

Un + kind = unkind

Un + like = unlike

Un + welcome = unwelcome


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Tests

Are the following phonemes or morphemes ?

1. sh

2. s 3. ing

4. d

5. ed


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Level 3: Sentence Units

Phrases or sentences

Organization of words

Proposition

Subject

Predicate (description)


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Identify the subject and the

predicate

The man was tired and angry.

Gina was lost.

Henni is very intelligent


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Sentences often divided into phrases:

Noun phrase

Focus on subject and description of subject

Eg: The funny kangaroo Verb phrase

Focus on action

Eg: . Jumped highly and quickly.

Wilkes and Kennedy (1969)

English speakers automatically divide the sentence into

phrases and process each part separately


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Syntax

the system of rules for combining words and

phrases to form grammatically correct

sentences

Syntactic analysis

defines the accurate associations and relationshipsbetween words in a sentence


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The honest mans son was always

caught cheating.

Syntactic Analysis

who was honest?

Man = Honest

who was caught cheating?

Son = Caught Cheating


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Syntax

vsGrammar


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This guy, very honest one, but I

tell you, his son, always cheat one-

lah.

Bad grammar but clear syntactic analysis

Rules of language broken; but content is

clear


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The cheating fathers son was not

as honest as him.

Syntactically ambiguous sentence

Difficulty dividing phrases

Difficulty forming associations between nouns

and verbs

Who was cheating?

Who was not as honest?

Who is him?


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Comprehension Activity


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Bransford and Johnson (1973)

Importance of Context


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Neural Basis of Language


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Brocas Area

Location = posterior frontal lobe

Function = syntactic stage of production

uhm Psaycholigy am study .

Very.. intarastyes.


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Wernickes Area

Location = temporal lobe

Function = production and comprehension

of words (morphemes) and concepts

Yes, I love sealing psychology. I find it

really making.


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Caramazza and Zurif (1976)

Syntactic analysis test

The lion that the tiger is chasing is fat.

Who is fat?

Brocas aphasics struggle with more complicated

syntactic analysis Wernickes aphasics struggle with word

comprehension


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Zurif, Carramazza, Myerson and Galvin,

1974)

Test for conceptual deficits

Word triads

Wernickes aphasics struggle more thanBrocas aphasics


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Pigeon

PoodleChicken


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Chair

GreenTable


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Conduction Aphasia

Unable to repeat sentences

Connection between comprehension andproduction is damaged


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Development of Language


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Phonemes

Children sensitive to discrimination of phonemeslinked to their language

Eimas (1985) Rate of sucking (DV)

Discrimination of new sounds (rate of sucking increases)

6 months = not language specific

1 year old = language specific (eg. Japanese cannotdiscriminate /l/ and /r/


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Words and Concepts

Begin using words = 1215 months

Nouns

People

Animals

Toys

Body parts

Household items


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Over-extension of concepts

Papa to all adult males

Doggy to all furry animals

Puppies to all baby animals

Rice to all food


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Vocabulary

15 months = 25 words

6 years = 15,000 words

25 - 40 months

Sudden increase childs vocabulary


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Sentences

16 months30 months

From single word speech to two word phrases

bed to my bed; food to eat food

30 months onwards

More complete syntax and grammar

eat food to I want to eat food


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How is Language Learnt

Imitation

Repeat words what they hear

Family, TV


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Conditioning (operant)

Rewarded for attempting to speak attention

Rewarded for correct choice of words Attention

Recognition of meaning = get what they ask for

Rewarded for correct grammar (sentence

construction) Verbal praise

Correction when wrong


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Hypothesis Testing

Notice patterns of language (see Slobins

Operating Principles, 1971).

rules of syntax and grammar

Over-extension of principles: Examples

ed played vs waked runned s snakes vs gooses mouses

fy clarify vs smallify biggify


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Critical Periods for Language

Acquisition

Phonemes (12-24 months)

Affects accents and pronunciation

Includes bilingual and multilingual

Syntax and Structure (8-12 yrs)

Affects sentence construction


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Language and Thought

Language as the building blocks of thought

Concepts

Represent a class (so that we do not have to treatevery thing in the world as unique)

Objects

Species

Activities

Categorization

When we assign items to a concept


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Hierarchies of Concepts

Many levels of classification

Usually there is a basic level

First levels learnt by children

Used most frequently by people


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Animals

MammalsReptiles

Sea based Land based

Whales Cats

Wild Domestic


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How do we categorize?


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Example 1: What is a mother?

List properties


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Example 2: What is a chair?

List Properties


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How do we categorize

Well defined concepts

Eg. Mother

Female Has a child

Rule based

categorization Rely less of mental

prototype

Fuzzy concepts

Eg. Chair

Too many rules Rules too abstract

Similarity based

categorization Create mental

prototype


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Learning about Concepts

Explicit learning

Taught rules about a concept

food is ..

this is a type of food


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Experience

Exemplar strategy

Exemplar = stored example of a category

New object = compared to exemplar to gaugesimilarity

If similar = new object is now added to stored

exemplars


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Children tend to use examplars/prototypes

rather than core properties/rules

Keil and Batterman (1984)

Description of robber


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A. A smelly, mean man with agun in his pocket who came and

took your TV set because your

parents didnt want it anymore

and told him he could have it.


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B. A friendly cheerful woman who

gave you a hug but then took

your TV away without permissionand will not return it.


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Children aged 5-9yrs = more likely to

define A as the robber

Used prototype of robbers

Only at age 10 = more likely to define B as

the robber

Used core/properties focused

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PSY 111 Language Oct 2014

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