PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Bound And Unbound Morphemes, Speech Perception, Face Perception
Document Summary
Language is a system that relates sounds (or gestures) to meaning. It has arbitrary units and is therefore symbolic. It shows displacement one can communicate about events distant in time and space, not just here and now. It is characterized by generativity- one can produce an infinite number of utterances from a language vocabulary, provided that one follows the structure. Phonology- refers to the sounds of a language. All different words in english are constructed from about 45 different sounds. Morphology- refers to rules of meaning within the language. Semantics- the study of words and their meaning. Grammar- refers to rules used to describe the structure of language. The most important element of grammar is syntax; rules that specify how words are combined to form sentences. Pragmatics- the study of how people use language to communicate effectively. We use a simple vocabulary and short sentences when communicating with a 5 year old.