The nature of language
What is communication?
the exchange of thoughts and feelings, including nonverbal gestures or facial expressions which can be used to embellish or indicate.
What is a phone?
the smallest unit of speech sound, single vocal sound
cooing, babbling, one-word utterances, two-word utterances, basic adult sentence structure
Greater speed of reading is at the expense of
comprehension
What is aphasia?
impairment of language functioning caused by damage to the brain
What is language?
the use of organized means of combining words in order to communicate
What is a morpheme?
the smallest unit that denotes meaning within a particular language
What is the McGurk effect?
our ability to match lip movements with our perceived perception of semantics
the assertion that the speakers of different languages have different cognitive systems that influence the way they think about the world
What are the different types of aphasias?
Wernicke's (impairment in language comprehension), Broca's (impairment in language production), global (impaired comprehension and production), anomic (difficulty naming objects or retrieving words)
What are some examples of nonverbal communication?
facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact
What is syntax?
the way in which users of a particular language put words together to form sentences
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
dictionary definition vs emotional overtones and non-explicit meanings
What are linguistic universals? Give an example?
characteristic patterns across all languages of various cultures and relativity
What is autism?
developmental disorder characterized by abnormalities in social behavior, language, and cognition
What are the 6 properties of language?
communicative, arbitrarily symbolic, regularly structured, multiplicity of structure, generative/productive, dynamic
What is a lexicon?
an entire set of morphemes in a given language
What is it called when someone speaks in "simple" language so that you can understand better?
Child-directed speech: comes up with foreign languages or if people are hard of hearing
What are the four types of bilingualism?
additive, subtractive, simultaneous, sequential
Patient Tan could only say the word tan. Which aphasia did he have?
brocas area
What is the principle of conventionality?
Words mean what we tell them to mean
What is the difference between phonemics and phonetics?
one studies the phonemes of language while the other studies how to produce or combine speech sounds to represent them with written symbols
In what ways is communication different between domestic and wild animals?
training/reinforcement vs a sense of danger, safety and other basic emotions
any metaphor
What are some ways in which we study neuropsychology and find out about which brain structures do what?
lesions show us where deficits come from, neuroimaging