PSYC 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: American Sign Language, Language Acquisition Device, Benjamin Lee Whorf
Document Summary
Chapter 8: language and thought: language: turning thoughts into words. Cognition: the mental process involved in acquiring knowledge. Language consists of symbols that convey meaning, including rules for combining those symbols and can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages. Language is symbolic: people use spoken sounds and written words to represent object, action, event, idea. Language is generative: a limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways to generate an endless string of messages. Language is structured : there are rules that govern certain arrangement into phrases and sentences. Smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually. Some speech units are represented by combination of letters. Morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language (it works like suku kata) Semantic: concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations. > word"s meaning may consist: detonation (dictionary meaning) and connotation (emotional overtones and secondary implication)
