PSYC 2076 Chapter : Chapter 8
Document Summary
Language is a form of communication whether spoken, written, or signed that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them. infinite generativity endless number of meaningful sentences. Formal characteristics of language: phonology basic units of sound in language (phonemes), rules for combining sounds. Each language uses only a subset of the sounds that humans are capable of producing, and no 2 languages have precisely the same phonologies which explains why foreign languages may sound strange. Children must learn how to discriminate, produce, and combine the speech-like sounds of their native language in order to make sense of the speech they hear and to be understood when they try to speak. Morpheme smallest language unit that has meaning. Linguistic comprehension, aka receptive language understanding of language. Linguistic production, aka productive language use of language to communicate: comprehension precedes production.
