Linguistics and Language Essay

Language Comprehension Language Production Language Acquisition Psycholinguistics is a outgrowth of cognitive science What impart be covered in this class? How do we produce and actualize speech? How do we perceive words, letters, and sentences? How do we learn and recall information from texts? How can we improve texts to h quondam(a) them easier to understand? How does the brain function to process lyric poem? What are the hunting expeditions and effects of reading disabilities?Is there dustup in early(a) species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1)What knowledge of manner of singing is needed for us to use phraseology? Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge tacit knowledge of how to perform something, but not aware(p) of full rules explicit knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2)What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language? How do we understand a lecture, read a book, hold a conversation? Cogni tive processes perception, memory, thinking, learning Some definitions of basic components of language Semantics The meaning of words and sentencesSyntax The well-formed arrangement of words in a sentence or phrase Phonology The sound approach pattern of language Pragmatics How language is used in a social context Examples from psycholinguistics Parsing garden path sentences The initiate accepted the deal earlier he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. 1) The defendant examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable 2) The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehensionThe social function is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be enough depending on how ofttimes there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack o f facilities, that is the next stair otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do withal few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not depend important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another vista of life.It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but hence one never can fall apart. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Bransford & Johnson, 1973 Recall No context 2. 8 cerebration units out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards 2. 7 idea units Context before 5. 8 idea units Child language development How ma ny words do you know? breathing place Dictionary has about 450,000 entries Test high school graduates How many words do they know? or so 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every(prenominal) 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach kidskinren to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk? Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner party A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language productionSentence as the primary unit of language Speech production is the transformation of complete thought processes into sequentially make speech segments. Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) Rejected the focus on mental processes Measurement based on accusative behavior (primarily in lab animals) How does experience (reward and vi ndicatement) shape behavior? B. F. Skinner Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory A sentence consists of a chain of associations mingled with individual words in the sentence Whats wrong with the behaviorist approach?Noam Chomsky (1950s present) 1) Colorless grand ideas sleep furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3)George picked up the baby 4)George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The Poverty of stimulus argument there is not enough information in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of childrens language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but onborn(p)language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languagesEven deep down languages there is diversity When are two languages different? We speak the same language if we can understand each other Exceptions Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? Why does there seem to be a correct English? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one barbarism and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that ones own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) Study by William Labov Interviewed African-American pathway youthYou know, like some people say if youre good an sh*t, your spirit goin t promised land . . . n if you bad, your spirit goin to hell. Well, bullsh*t Your spirit goin to hell anyway, good or bad. Why? Why? Ill tell you why. Cause, you see, doesn nobody really know that its a God, yknow, cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and dont nobody know its really a God. An when they be sayin if you good, you goin theaven, thas bullsh*t, cause you aint g oin to no heaven, cause it aint no heaven for you to go to. Place holders There vs. It in the copula copula Is, Was optional Negatives You aint goin to no heaven BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We dont see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral completely languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes All languages have words All humans have ways of making sounds. Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds Phoneme The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language?English 40 phonemes Range Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141 Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are made up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The kin amongst meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independe nt of any physical resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe nudity New linguistic messages are created freely and easily Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created.