PSY 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Determinism, Vocal Folds, Phoneme
Document Summary
Unlike the communication exhibited by other animals, human language is much more flexible. We would not have the society and technology that we have without language and the communication that language permits. Language is also important because it is one of the few things that distinguishes humans from other animals. Other animals have forms of communication, but these forms of communication are limited when compared to human language (honeybees and vervet monkeys are examples): properties. To understand human language, we need to understand the different levels, or parts, of language: 1. phonemes. A phoneme is a single speech sound, and phonemes make up the basic unit of spoken language. For example, in english we have 46 different phonemes which are produced by different patterns across the lips, tongue, teeth, and vocal cords: 2. morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest unit of language that is meaningful.
