Language Basics
What is a phoneme?
The smallest unit of sound in language.
What is psycholinguistics?
The field that studies how people use language to communicate.
What are negative sentences?
Sentences with “not” are harder to process.
What is Broca’s aphasia?
Difficulty producing speech.
What is the dual-route approach?
Reading method using both sound and visual recognition.
What is a morpheme?
The smallest unit of meaning in language.
Who is Noam Chomsky?
The scientist who believed language is innate.
What is passive voice?
This sentence type is harder to understand than active voice.
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
Difficulty understanding language.
What are inferences?
Drawing conclusions beyond the text.
What is syntax?
Rules that organize words into sentences
What is deep structure?
The underlying meaning of a sentence.
What is ambiguity?
A sentence with multiple meanings
What is the left hemisphere?
The brain hemisphere mainly responsible for language
What are schemas?
Knowledge that helps interpret text.
What is morphology?
The study of word formation from morphemes
What is surface structure?
The actual spoken or written form of a sentence.
What is syntactic complexity (nested structure)?
Complex sentences with embedded phrases.
What is fMRI?
Brain imaging technique that studies language activity.
What is metacomprehension?
Thinking about your own understanding while reading.
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in language.
What is the cognitive-functional approach?
The approach that focuses on meaning and communication in language.
What is incremental interpretation?
Using context to interpret meaning while reading or listening.
What are mirror neurons?
Neurons that activate when observing actions.
What is test anxiety?
Anxiety that negatively affects reading performance.