Phonemes & Morphemes
What is a free morpheme
A morpheme that can stand alone as a word, e.g., 'cat'.
What does syntax govern in a language?
The structure and order of words in a sentence.
At what age do infants start cooing?
Around 2 months.
Who argued that language acquisition is learned through reinforcement and imitation?
Behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner
What is aphasia?
A language impairment caused by brain damage
What is the difference between a phoneme and a morpheme?
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound; a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in language.
What is 'overgeneralization' in language development? Provide an example
Applying a rule to an exception, e.g., 'goed' instead of 'went'
What is universal grammar, and who proposed it?
An innate grammatical structure shared by all humans; proposed by Noam Chomsky
Where is Wernicke’s area located?
In the temporal lobe
What is a bound morpheme? Provide an example.
A morpheme that cannot stand alone, e.g., 'un-' or '-ed'.
What is an example of a syntactically correct but semantically nonsensical sentence?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
What is telegraphic speech, and when does it typically occur?
Two-word sentences like 'want cookie,' seen at 18–24 months
What evidence supports the interactionist perspective of language development?
Language requires both biological predispositions and social interaction
What kind of language deficits occur with Wernicke’s aphasia?
Difficulty understanding language and producing meaningful speech
How many phonemes are in the word 'psychology'?
9 phonemes
What is a 'garden path sentence'? Provide an example.
A sentence that misleads the reader, e.g., 'The old man the boats.
What happens to unused phonemes in language development?
They are pruned, meaning they are no longer distinguished
What is generativity in language theory?
The ability to create infinite novel sentences and ideas.
Which hemisphere is typically dominant for language?
The left hemisphere
Identify the morphemes in the word 'unhappiness' and explain their roles.
'Un-' (negation), 'happy' (root), '-ness' (state of being).
Explain the difference between semantic ambiguity and syntactic ambiguity
Semantic ambiguity relates to word meaning; syntactic ambiguity relates to sentence structure
What is the critical period for language acquisition?
Up to around age 12
Explain the linguistic relativity hypothesis
Language influences thought, proposed by Sapir and Whorf
What role does the angular gyrus play in language processing?
It helps with reading and writing processes