01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Language Acquisition Device, Pragmatics, Microexpression

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: ESTELLE MAYHEW

Document Summary

A system of communication using sounds and symbols according to grammatical rules: morphemes: smallest segment of a language. The word cannot be broken down any further without changing the meaning of the word: phonemes: the units of sounds that carry the meaning. Phonology: rules about structure and sequence of speech sounds. Semantics: vocabulary words and word combinations for concepts. Psychologists divide into two boards camps regarding human language learning. Nativists: believe that humans are born with a built in, brain based mechanism for learning language; a language acquisition device or a language instinct. Nonnativists: believe environmental input in combination with statistical learning capacities can account for language learning. Two areas vital for the processing and production of language. Broca"s area: is vital for using and understanding grammatical devices, prepositions, conjunctions, prefixes , suffixes. Wernicke"s area: appears to be important for naming objects and comprehending language. Stages of language development: productive (distinction receptive-expressive language)