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Language I
October 23, 2008
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Why is Language Important?
• Represents unique form of abstraction in human species
• Language influences perception and memory
• Relevant to the form and manner of information storage
• Relevance to thinking and problem-solving is unquestioned
• Chief means of human communication
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Key Terminology
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Phonology
: (the way sounds function in the language) basic
unit = phoneme
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single speech sound
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English has about 45; 9 make up half our words
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dimensions:
voiced (“a”); unvoiced (“s”); fricatives (“sh”), plosives (“t”); place of articulation (palate v. lips)
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Morphology
: (study of the internal structure of words) basic unit = morpheme
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smallest unit of meaning (words, parts of words, etc.)
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free (e.g., “old”, “the”) vs. bound (e.g., “er”, “ist”)
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over 100,000 words formed by morpheme combinations
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Semantics
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(study of meaning)
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denotation vs. connotation
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words as economic labels; link between language and concepts
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Syntax
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(study of rules that govern combination of morphemes in phrases and sentences; interdependency)
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prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar
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“Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for”?
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Linguistic Relativity
• Whorf (1956)
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Language determines or influences thinking
• Miller and McNeill (1969)
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Strong hypothesis
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Language determines thinking
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Weak hypothesis
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Language influences perception
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Weakest hypothesis
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Language influences memory
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Evidence
• Regional/cultural differences in language
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Hanuxoo have 92 different names for various types of rice
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Could be that language evolution enables fine distinctions among types of rice
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Could be that different environmental conditions influence the things people think about
• Colour categorisation
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Heider (1972) – color categories are universal – Dani (2 colors) v. American errors similar
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Failures to replicate (Roberson, Davies, and Davidoff, 2000)
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Influence of language (English vs. Berinmo) on choice of similar pairs of stimuli by English and
Berinmo participants.
Data from Roberson et al. (2000).

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Evaluation
• Harley (2001, p. 87)
– “There is now a considerable amount of evidence suggesting that linguistic factors can
affect cognitive processes. Even colour perception and memory . . . show some influence
of language.”
• The evidence supports the weak and the weakest versions
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Language Comprehension
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Speech Perception
• Input rapid (
≈
10 phonemes/sec)
• “Non-invariance” - speech sounds affected by sounds which proceed and follow;
also different voices
• Segmentation problem - how to separate sounds in a continuous flow
• Use of prosody
• Definite left-hemisphere advantage
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Auditory Word Recognition:
Basic Processes
Auditory Word Recognition:
Basic Processes
• Bottom-up:
processing of individual phonemic features
• Top-down:
conceptual processing
– phonemic restoration effect:
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probably affects response bias, not sensitivity


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- Fall '08
- Staff
- Grammar, language comprehension, Auditory Word Recognition, Visual Word Identification
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