PSYO 1012 Lecture 9: The Nature of Language

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYO 1012
• Professor: Stevens Leanne

Document Summary

The nature of our language allows our creative genes. Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in a language, which do not necessarily have to work on their own (ex. email-able, cat-s) Phonemes: the smallest units of sound in a language, which rarely every have meaning of their own (ex. e-m-ai-l), not to be confused with letters. Syntax: rules for arranging words and symbols into sentences (ex. Grammar: entire set of rules for combining symbols and sounds: both the syntax and morpheme combinations are part of this. I will send the monkeys the information about the mailable junipers . Example of how we have an in nitely creative system that is shown through creating new sentences. Language units goes from sentence > phrases (the players) > words (the - players) > Protolanguage, used by earlier species of homo: rudimentary language or also known as paralanguage, words without syntax/word order, single words or possibly 2 word combinations.