Psychology 2410A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: 18 Months, Fast Mapping, Pragmatics
Document Summary
Language is a form of communication whether spoken, written or signed that is based on a system of symbols. Consists of words used by a community and the rules for combining them. All human languages must have infinite generativity and organizational rules. Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules. Phonology the sound system of a language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be combined e. g. in english we have sounds sh, ch, but not zx or cx. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound e. g. k sound in cat. Morphology the rule system that governs how words are formed in language. A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning it is a part of a word that cannot be broken up any farther e. g. helper - help, er, ing, s, tion,