PSYCH 2H03 Chapter 10: Language

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19 Mar 2016

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Chapter10:Language



Summary

● Languagehasahierarchicalstructureunitsateachlevelare

assembledtoformthelargerunitsofthelevelabovethem

● Ateachlevelofhierarchythere’sendlessrecombinationsoftheunits,

thesecombosaregovernedbyrulesthatexplainwhysomecombosare

rareorevennotallowed

● Languageisgenerative→anyuserofthatlanguagecanaddnewparts

● Adifferentsetofprinciplesdescribeshow,momentbymoment,people

interpretthesentencestheyhearorread;inthiswaypeopleareguided

byprocesseslikesyntax,semantics,andcontext

● Insentenceinterpretationpeopleusea“compileasyougo”strategy,try

tofigureouttheroleofeachwordasitarrives→efficientbutcanleadto

error

● Human’slanguageskillismadepossiblebecauselargesectionsofour

brainsaredevotedtolanguage

● Languageinfluencesarethoughts,shapesourexperienceandcognition

TheOrganizationofLanguage

● Languagereliesonwelldefinedpatternsinhowwordsareused,how

thosewordsareputintosentences

● Thisisahierarchy

● Atthehighestlevelofthestructurearetheideasintendedbythe

speaker,typicallyexpressedthroughsentencescoherentsequences

ofwordsthatexpressintendedmeaning

● Sentencesinturnarecomposedofphrases,madeupofwordsmadeup

ofmorphemesthesmallestlanguageunitsthatareabletocarry

meaning

● Somethinglike“talk”or“umpire”wouldbeamorphine,othermorphemes

canbebound



ontothesefreemorphemeslike“ed”of“s”tomaketalks

orumpired

● Morphemesareconveyedbysoundsorphonemeswhicharethe

smallestunitofsoundthatcandistinguishwordsinlanguage

● Withineachlevelpeoplecancombineandrecombineunitstomake

novelpatterns

Phonology

● Thehierarchycanbeusedtoexaminelanguage

● TheProductionofSpeech

○ Noiseisproducediftheairflowoutofthelungsisalteredor

interrupted,allowshumanstomakemanysounds

○ Twoflapsofmuscleinthelarynxcalledvocalfolds/cordsthat

canberapidlyopenedandclosedtovibrate

○ Thisiscalledvoicing

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○ Soundcanalsobemadebynarrowingtheairpassagewaywithin

yourmouth→hissingforexample

○ Variousdifferentwaysofsound/speechproductiondependingon

howtheairflowisrestrictedmannerofproduction

○ Anotherwaytodistinguishbetweensoundsthatare

voiced/producedarethoseproducedbythevocalfoldsandthose

thataren’t

○ Alsotheycanbecategorizedaccordingtowheretheairflowwas

restrictedplaceofarticulation

■ E.x.whenproducingan[f]youplaceyourbottomteethon

yourupperliptomakelabiodentalsounds

■ Butwithsoundslike[p]and[b]youcloseyourlipsmaking

bilabialsounds

○ Thiscategorizationschemeletsusdescribeanyspeechsoundin

termsofafewsimplefeatures

○ Thesefeaturesofsoundproductionarecombinedand

recombinedtomake40orsophonemesinEnglish,butthis#is

differentindifferentlanguages

● TheComplexityofSpeechPerception

○ Ourdescriptionofspeechsoundsinvitesasimpleproposalabout

speechperception

○ Eachspeechsoundcanbedefinedbyafewfeatures,butdoes

allthelistenerhavetodoisidentifythem?

○ Speechperceptionismorecomplicated→soundisairpressure

changesreachingtheear,onceisgetstherespeechperception

begins

○ Thefirststepisspeechsegmentationweareonlyableto

segmentwordsthatweunderstand,whichiswhyforeign

languagessoundsegmentedtous

○ Speechperceptionisalsocomplicatedbycoarticulation→

referstothefactthatinproducingspeechyoudon’tutterone

phonemeatatime,thephonemes“overlap”whenyousayone

phonemeyou’realreadygettingreadytosaythenext

○ Thisoverlapmakesspeechproductionquickerandmorefluid,

butitchangesthepatternofeachsoundwhenthesoundis

influencedbythesoundthat’sabouttobesaid

○ Difficulttodiscernonedistinctpatternforeachdifferentphoneme

○ Aidstospeechperception

■ Theneedforsegmentationinacontinuousspeech

stream,thevariationscausedbycoarticulation,the

variationsfromspeakertospeakerallmakespeech

perceptioncomplex

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■ However,wealwaysmanagetoperceivespeech

accuratelyandeasily

■ Thespeechencountereddaytodayisverylimitedin

range,weallknowthousandsofwordsbut½ofthewords

weactuallyuseareacommon50words

■ Speechperceptiondoesn’trelyonstimuliyoureceivebut

isguidedbythecontextinwhichthewordissaid

■ Yousupplement



theinputwithpersonalknowledge

■ Inthephonemicrestorationeffectresearchersrecord

somespeechandmodifywhatthey’verecordedby

removingsomesoundandreplacingitwithsomenoise

■ E.x.removingthessoundinlegislatures

■ Whenparticipantsheardthistheyinsistedtheyhadheard

thecompleteword,notaburstofnoise

■ Theyusedcontextratherthansensoryinput

■ Anotherexperimenthadresearchersrecordcommon

sentencesandhaveparticipantstryandidentifythewords

inisolation

■ Whenonlythewordswerepresentedtheyonlycorrectly

identified½ofthewords,butwhenrestoredtooriginal

contextitwaseasytoidentifyallthewords

○ CategoricalPerception:peoplearemuchbetterathearingthe

differencesbetween



categoriesofsoundsthanhearingvariations

within



acategoryofsounds

■ Canhearthedifferencebetween[g]and[k]butnotone

[p]soundfromaslightlydifferent[p]sound

■ Whenstimulusisshiftedgraduallyfrom(forexample)[ba]

to[pa]theresearchersexpectedagradedmembership

pattern

■ However,somewhereinthemiddletherewasanabrupt

shiftwheresuddenlytheparticipantsheardonorthe

otherdistinctly

■ Seemsthatyourperceptualapparatusis“tuned”to

provideyouwithjusttheinfoyouneed

● CombiningPhonemes

○ Englishreliesonjustafewdozenphonemesbuttheycanbe

combinedtomakethousandsofdifferentmorphemeswhichcan

becombinedinturntomakethousandsofwords

○ Therearerulesgoverningthecombosthatcanbemadethough

○ Forinstance“tl”canonlyexistattheborderbetweensyllables

○ However,thisisalimitonEnglish,notonwhatthehumanear

canhear

○ OtherlanguagesroutinelyusecombosnotusedinEnglish

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PSYCH 2H03 Chapter 10: Language

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