Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Language Acquisition Device, Language Acquisition, Universal Grammar

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Laura Fazakas- De Hoog

Document Summary

Mental representations- cognitive representations of the world, including images, ideas, concepts, and principles that are the foundations of thinking and problem solving. Language- a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possibly messages and meanings. Psycholinguistics- scientific study of the psychological aspects of language, such as how people understand, produce, and acquire language. Learning mechanism- i. e. rather than using trial and error, just ask someone. Sounds, written characters, system of symbols to represent objects, events, ideas, feelings, and actions. Grammar- set of rules that dictate how symbols can be combined to create meaningful units of communication. Syntax- rules that govern the order of words. Grammars of all languages share common functions (providing rules for how to change present tense into. Generativity- the symbols of a language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel.