PSYC 100 Chapter Notes -Language Development, Universal Grammar, Bound And Unbound Morphemes

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jon Miller

Document Summary

A method of communicating information (ideas, thoughts, emotions, etc. ) A socially agreed upon, rule-governed system of symbols which are combined in ways that communicate ideas and feelings about any time or place. Semanticity: the extent to which a language can use symbols to transmit meaningful messages. Generativity: the combination of limited words and rules to convey a large range of ideas. Displacement: the ability to use language to convey messages not tied to the immediate context (time and place) Phonemes: distinct speech sounds that distinguish one word from another. Morphemes: formed by phonemes, smallest unit of meaning in language, free morpheme. Meaningful on their own; can stand alone as words: eg. Meaningful only when combined with other morphemes to form words: eg. Semantics: the relationship between words and their meanings. Syntax: grammatical rules for combining words to form phrases and sentences. Pragmatics: knowledge of the world as it relates to understanding and using language.