Lecture 13: Language

Question 1

Importance of Language

Answer 1

• Vast expressive power
• Seen cross culturally
• Instinctual ability to learn language in humans
• Central to human life

Question 2

Language is not . .

Answer 2

Written Language

• Cannot pick up written language easily
• Arose very recently
• Not common cross culturally

Question 3

Language is not(2) . .

Answer 3

Thought
- Thoughts are seen in non-linguistic species (Monkeys add and subtract)
Non-linguistic thought in Humans
- Visuospatial thought
- Semantic/ Propositional networks
- Language constantly changes
- Language has ambiguity

Question 4

Language is not(3) . .

Answer 4

Perscriptive (proper) grammar

- Not how people “should” talk

Question 5

Chomsky contributions

Answer 5

1. Focused on creativity- the ability to form and understand new sentences and phrases
2. Language≠ syntax≠meaning
3. Syntax not linearly chained together(Sentences not made word by word)
4. Sytax = Hierarchical S= NP + VP >(V+NP+S)

Question 6

Hierarchical Sytax Structure

Answer 6

• Explains why sentences are not formed word by word
• Allows you to express and understand unfamiliar phrases (Colorless green ideas sleep furiously)
• Allows for the vast number of combinations
• Can make sentences endless
• Necessary for determining meaning, bc language can be ambiguous

Question 7

Limits of Syntax Structure

Answer 7

Structure not enough to describe meaning

• Different sub categories of verbs
• Not able to place important direct objects in structure

Question 8

Deep Structure

Answer 8

• theoretical construct that connects several closely related sentences together
• Assembled by phrase structure

Question 9

Surface Structure

Answer 9

Applying different phonological rules to the deep structure to properly articulate it
Done through a transformational rule
Surface+ Deep= Meaning

Question 10

Chomsky: Language Acquisition

Answer 10

• Children don’t memorize sentences
• Learn to generalize
• Apply grammatical rules generally( add ed for past, add s for plural)

Question 11

Poverty of the Stimulus

Answer 11

• Children are able to learn language with very little information or stimuli
• Must be some innate grammatical skills they employ to be able to learn language

Question 12

Critiques of Chomsky

Answer 12

• Hasn’t shown universal grammar skills cross-linguistically
• Hasn’t shown principles of UG are specific to language, and are not related to chunking or general cognition)
• Hasn’t shown non-behavioral learning models can’t acquire language

Question 13

Mental Lexicon

Answer 13

-Mental dictionary that has information on meaning pronunciation and syntactic characteristics

Question 14

“The arbitrariness of the sign”

Answer 14

Argument that words and their given signs are arbitrary because each person has their own life experiences that can differ completely from another

Question 15

Morphology

Answer 15

The syntax of words

The structure of language

Question 16

Phonology

Answer 16

The sounds of a language

Question 17

Language Interfaces

Answer 17

Articulatory System
- Larynx- Voice Box
- Vowels- pharynx, mouth, lips, nose, changeable resonance
-Consonant- lips, tongue, soft palate, noisy constriction of vocal tract
Perceptual System- Understanding the words in environment
Rest of the Mind( cognition and social pathology)

Question 18

Why is Speech Recognition Hard for Computers?

Answer 18

1. Acoustic variability of phonemes is caused by coarticulation (CAPE COD)
2. Illusion of Segmentation
3. Certain knowledge about culture and context is needed to infer the meaning

Question 19

Pragmatics

Answer 19

People use context, knowledge of the world and expectations over how people communicate to understand language

Question 20

Cooperative Principles

Answer 20

Assume that the speaker is trying to convey information truthfully and thoughtfully