PSY270H5 Lecture Notes - Animacy, Soltyrei, Paul Mcfedries
Document Summary
Introduce the universal language requirements and different questions researchers ask about language. Examine language comprehension at 3 levels: words, sentences, texts and stories. Key themes: modular vs. domain general processing** Major theme when we talk about language- modular was first proposed to talk about language: bottom-up vs. top down processing. If something is modular, then it is not affected by processing. Is context always influencing language or does it only affect it sometimes, after the fact. Language, very broadly, is a set of rules used to communicate. Can be spoken or written (or signed: spoken is innate, written is learned- a human invention that came much later than spoken language, thus, they use different brain mechanisms and spoken processes. Language is a very complex skill that we master effortlessly. Hockett"s 6 universal characteristics of language- same in textbook but different name in textbook- it"s within brackets. Arbitrariness signal doesn"t resemble what it represents.
