Flashcards
Fanny Adrian CP 10
Cards in this deck (26)
- 110.1 In what way can language be compared to a 'codebook'?Language relies on the translation of an experience or idea into consistent and well defined auditory patterns. The language needs to be used in the same manner by the speaker and the listener, so it is like a common code for the transfer of ideas.
- 210.2 Label the figure displaying the hierarchy of linguistic units and state the main characteristic of each level.The largest linguistic unit is a sentence (A), which is a coherent sequence of words that expresses an idea of the speaker. Sentences are composed of phrases (B), which are logical word groups within a sentence. Words (C) are the smallest independent unit of a sentence. Words consist of morphemes (D), which are the smallest linguistic unit carrying meaning. Morphemes can either be 'free morphemes' that stand alone, like "talk", or they are added to free morphemes, like the past-tense morpheme "ed". A phoneme (E) is the smallest linguistic unit and the smallest meaningful unit of sound.
- 310.3 Name the three variables that determine how speech sounds are categorized.Speech sounds are categorized based on the manner of production, the place of articulation and whether a sound is voiced or not.
- 410.4 Explain what type of misperceptions occur most often in recognizing speech sounds.Misperceptions are often off by just one feature of speech sound, for example the "p" is often confused with "b", as in "pad" and "bad", where only the voicing is different but manner and place of production are the same. Sounds that differ by more than one feature, like "d" and "l", which are only similar in place of production, are more distinct and therefore less often confused with each other.
- 510.5 What is the normal speaking rate?The normal speaking rate is around 180 words per minute.
- 610.6 Explain what the phonemic restoration effect demonstrates with regard to speech perception.The phonemic restoration effect shows that speech perception is guided by broad background knowledge that relies on the context in which a word appears. For example, the 's' sound in the middle of the word 'legislatures' might be removed and replaced by brief bust of noise, but within the context of a full sentence participants report that they heard the full word 'legislatures', including the "s", accompanied by a burst of noise. Thus, the missing sound is inferred.
- 710.7 Explain what these two figures show, and what we can conclude from them.The upper figure, A, shows hypothetical identification data of 'pa' and 'ba' as a function of the voice-onset time. The left and right-most parts of the graph indicate the prototypes of both syllables, and if a graded categorization was used, the smooth lines in Figure A would be expected. However, actual identification data (figure B) indicates that participants seem to be indifferent to small variations in the sounds and they categorize a sound with a 10 ms or 15 ms voice-onset time (VOT), and that there is a sharp cut off between the identification of "ba" and "pa". This shows that people are indifferent to gradual variation, and demonstrates categorical perception.
- 810.8 What bits of information have to be stored for every word encoded in our mental lexicon?A speaker typically knows a word's phonological representation (i.e. the sound), it's orthography (i.e., spelling), it's syntax (i.e., how it can be used), and a semantic representation (i.e. the word's meaning).
- 910.9 Explain how the generativity of language is related to truly knowing a language.Someone who truly knows a language has not just memorized grammar vocabulary and phrases, but he or she is also able to flexibly create new forms within the language. For example, one can combine morphemes to create new words or adjust phonemes in order to modify new words, such as saying 'I've been hacked', as derived from the relatively new word 'hacking' related to online activity. Therefore, when one is able to apply principles of a language flexibly to create new combinations, then he or she truly knows the language.
- 1010.10 "Rules of syntax depend on meaning. This means that for a sequence of words to be accepted as a sentence, it has to have a meaning." Explain whether this statement is true or not.This statement is wrong. The sequence 'Colorless green ideas sleep furiously' (by Lewis Carroll) is a sentence, but it is not meaningful, because colorless things cannot be green at the same time and ideas do not sleep. However, the sequence is accepted as grammatically correct and therefore regarded as a sentence.
- 1110.11 Describe whether phrase structure rules are prescriptive (given clear rules) or descriptive (describing what is observed).Phrase structure rules are descriptive, because they describe strong regularities of a language, but they do not determine whether a sentence is considered "correct" or "incorrect".
- 1210.12 What does the example in the figure demonstrate with regards to the perception of language.The figure shows how presenting information in the correct phrase structure aids the reader. In the left panel the words are organized according to phrase structure, which makes reading more easy and faster than in the right panel, where the words are organized differently.
- 13Name the four guiding principles that are used when parsing text.Sentences will be parsed adhering to: (1) minimal attachment, (2) the assumption of active sentences rather than passives ones, (3) reliance on function words and (4) consistency with background knowledge.
- 1410.14 Does language learning depend on external input? Explain why or why not.Language learning is facilitated by input, but does not require input. Language develops independently of external factors, which is for example evident in deaf children, whose parents do not know how to sign and therefore cannot teach their children sign language. However, such children develop their own signs and invent a language that follows the same sequence as observed in ordinary language learning. Yet, external input can have a significant effect, for example on the speed with which a language is learned.
- 1510.15 Give two arguments that supports the existence of biological predisposition of humans for language.(1) Languages all over the world have the same basic structure and both verbal and sign languages follow a similar learning trajectory. (2) Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have trouble learning language and are impaired in their linguistic knowledge, in producing and in understanding many sentences, while they have normal intelligence. This suggests that language seems to be not only based on general sophisticated learning capacity of humans, but rather to be "wired into our brains" from the start.
- 1610.16 Describe what can be derived from over-regularization errors made by children.These errors indicate that children not only imitate wat they are hearing, but that they either apply linguistic rules in the process of learning language, or that they generate general rules while learning a language and apply these rules to broadly.
- 1710.17 Does being bilingual from an early age have an influence on executive control? Why?Children who are raised bilingually need to exert executive control in order to avoid confusion between the two languages. Bilinguals are usually capable in switching languages without mixing them up, and are therefore assumed to have better executive control than children not raised bilingually.
- 1810.18 Is it appropriate to examine language performance in order to assess someone's knowledge of a language?People often make linguistic errors even though they know better. The performance is not equal to someone’s competence, because performance can be limited by several factors, such as time pressure. Therefore, it is better to assess language competence, which stands for skills and knowledge under optimal circumstances, rather than performance in order to assess someone's knowledge of a language.
- 1910.19 Describe three different ways in which the airflow can be restricted and provide the corresponding name for sounds produced in that particular manner.Closing one’s lips results in “bilabial” sounds (e.g., [p], [b]).
Placing one’s top teeth to one’s bottom lip produces “labiodental” sounds (e.g. [f], [v]).
Positioning the tongue just behind one’s upper teeth generates “alveolar” sounds (e.g. [t], [d]). - 2010.20 Explain why speech in a foreign language often sounds incredibly fast.Without knowing the foreign language and the word boundaries, we are unable to segment the stream of speech. The perceptual illusion of “hearing” pauses doesn’t work, and thus does one hear a continuous flow of sound.
- 2110.21 Why is speech perception deemed complex despite the seemingly effortless comprehension of speech?The need for segmentation of a continuous speech stream, variations due to co-articulation and differences between speakers contribute to the complexity of speech perception.
- 2210.22 What strategy do people use to parse a sentence? Choose the correct option and explain. (A) One waits until a sentence’s end and then begins to figure out the phrase structure. (B) One parses a sentence as one hears/sees each word.B is correct. Parsing the sentence as each word arrives is more efficient than waiting until the end of a sentence. However, when parsing word-by-word, it’s not unlike that parse-errors will be made. Garden-path sentences are an illustration of this trade-off.
- 2310.23 Briefly describe the experimental results below and explain what they reveal.Participants were hearing three different types of sentences while the electrical activity of their brain was recorded. The black line represents electrical activity for sentences which were sensible and true (“The Dutch trains are yellow and very crowded”). The red line shows electrical activity for sentences which included a semantic violation (“The Dutch trains are sour and very crowded.”). Finally, the blue line depicts electrical activity for sentences which were sensible but false or in other words, contained a world knowledge violation (“The Dutch trains are white and very crowded.”).
As can be seen in the graph, sentences containing a semantic anomaly or violating world knowledge elicited the same N400 brain wave. Hence, world knowledge (in this case train color) is part of sentence processing from very early on, lending support to the notion that sentence parsing relies on many cues, including one’s background knowledge.
- 2410.24 In which ways does animal language differ from human language?Even though some animals have sophisticated communication systems, they are extremely limited – lacking the richness of human vocabulary and usually not exhibiting anything similar to the rules of syntax. Moreover, these systems are far from achieving the kind of generativity as observed in human language.
- 2510.25 What do cases of “wolf children” suggest about human language learning?Cases of “wolf children” suggest that human language learning does not only depend on a genetic predisposition, but also on an environment that facilitates the development of our language capacity.
- 2610.26 Choose the correct option and shortly argue why it is more plausible: (A) Language directly and uniquely shapes thought, forcing you into certain modes of thinking. (B) Language merely guides what you pay attention to, thereby shaping thought.Option B is correct. Language guides attention, but there are many other factors which do. In some circumstances, these other factors can erase the effect of language on cognition, demonstrating that the impact of language is neither irreversible nor permanent and consistent.
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- Psychologie Flashcards on Fanny Adrian CP 10, created by Adrian Mayer on 17/11/2017.
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