Linguistics and Language Essay
What will be covered in this class? • How do we produce and recognize speech? • How do we perceive words, letters, and sentences? • How do we learn and recall information from texts? • How can we improve texts to make them easier to understand? • How does the brain function to process language? • What are the causes and effects of reading disabilities? • Is there language in other species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1) What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language? Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge • tacit: knowledge of how to perform something, but not aware of full rules • explicit: knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2) What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language?
How do we understand a lecture, read a book, hold a conversation? Cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking, learning Some definitions of basic components of language: Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences Syntax: The grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence or phrase Phonology: The sound pattern of language Pragmatics: How language is used in a social context Examples from psycholinguistics Parsing garden path sentences The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. 1) The defendant examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable 2).
The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehension The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things.
That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.
Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again.
Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Bransford & Johnson, 1973 Recall: No context: 2. 8 idea units out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards: 2. 7 idea units Context before: 5. 8 idea units Child language development How many words do you know? Hint: Dictionary has about: 450,000 entries Test high school graduates: How many words do they know?
About 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words. The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach children to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk?
Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language production • Sentence as the primary unit of language • Speech production is the transformation of complete thought processes into sequentially organized speech segments. Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) • Rejected the focus on mental processes • Measurement based on objective behavior (primarily in lab animals) • How does experience (reward and punishment) shape behavior?
B. F. Skinner: Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory: A sentence consists of a chain of associations between individual words in the sentence What’s wrong with the behaviorist approach? Noam Chomsky (1950s – present) 1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3) George picked up the baby.
4) George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The Poverty of stimulus argument: There is not enough information in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of children’s language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but on innate language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languages Even within languages there is diversity When are two languages different?
We speak the same language if we can understand each other Exceptions: Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages: The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? Why does there seem to be a “correct” English? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one dialect and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that one’s own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) Study by William Labov Interviewed African-American street youth You know, like some people say if you’re good an’ sh*t, your spirit goin’ t’heaven . . . ‘n if you bad, your spirit goin’ to hell.
Well, bullsh*t! Your spirit goin’ to hell anyway, good or bad. [Why? ] Why? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause, you see, doesn’ nobody really know that it’s a God, y’know, ‘cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and don’t nobody know it’s really a God. An’ when they be sayin’ if you good, you goin’ t’heaven, tha’s bullsh*t, ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven, ‘cause it ain’t no heaven for you to go to. • Place holders: “There” vs. “It” in the copula • Copula: “Is”, “Was” optional • Negatives: “You ain’t goin’ to no heaven”.
BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We don’t see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral: All languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes • All languages have words • All humans have ways of making sounds. • Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds • Phoneme: The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language? • English: 40 phonemes • Range: Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141.
Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are made up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The relationship between meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independent of any physical resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe Openness • New linguistic messages are created freely and easily • Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created. • Linguistic Productivity: The ability to understand and create an unlimited number of sentences.
The question studied by psycholinguists is “how to characterize and account for the creativity to construct and create an infinite number of sentences given the limited capabilities of the human brain” Duality of Patterning Language involves relating two different kinds of patterns or forms of representation • A phonological system • A semantic system These two systems use very different types of codes, although there is a phonological representation for each item in the semantic system Phrase structure Information on how a sentence is grouped into phrases. The quiet boy ate the red apple A set of Phrase Structure rules: PS 1 S (sentence) ————->NP + VP PS 2 NP (noun phrase)————->det + (adj) + N PS 3 VP (verb phrase) ————->V +NP PS 4 N (noun) ————->boy, dog, man, book PS 5 V (verb) ————->ate, broke, kissed PS 6 adj (adjective ————->quiet, red, happy, wormy PS 7 det (determiner) ————->a, the We use “lexical-insertion rules” to put words into the structure.
Phrase-structure rules provide a good account of phrase-structure ambiguity. They are broiling hens Morphology Morphology is the component of grammar that builds words out of units of meaning (morphemes) A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language How many morphemes? bird firetruck undereducated unmicrowaveability Insights from American Sign Language (ASL) Unlike speech, signs are expressed in visual or spatial form Do a lot of the same grammatical concepts hold? Arbitrariness ASL possesses iconicity signs can represent objects or actions to which they refer.
However, the degree of iconicity has declined over the years Duality of Patterning signs are composed of smaller elements that are meaningless Example: 3 parameters • 19 values of hand configuration. • 12 values of place of articulation • 24 values of movements Meaningless patterns can be combined in various ways to from ASL signs. What about “openness” and “discreteness” within ASL? Transformational Grammar (Chomsky 1950s) Language: an infinite set of well-formed sentences Grammar: A finite set of rules that generates sentences in the language How do we know that a grammar is a good theory of language? Three criteria: Observational Adequacy: A grammar is observationally adequate if it generates all acceptable sequences and no unacceptable sequences.
Descriptive adequacy: A grammar must also explain how a sentence relates to other sentences that are similar & opposite in meaning. The ball was caught by John John caught the ball The ball was not caught by John Explanatory adequacy It is possible for multiple grammars to attain observational and descriptive adequacy. Which is the correct/best one?
Children learning language are presented with many samples of language and must determine the grammar from these samples. There must be some innate language constraints that help children determine the correct grammar. There exist Linguistic Universals that are common to all languages.
The fact that there are similarities in languages is based on the fact that languages are determined by the nature of the mental structures and processes which characterize human beings A Grammar must explain the role of linguistic universals in language acquisition Deep and Surface structure Deep structure: The structure of the sentence that conveys the meaning of the sentence. Surface Structure: The superficial arrangement of constituents Deep structure ambiguity: A single surface structure that is based on two different deep structures Flying planes can be dangerous.
Phrase structure rules would not be able to account for the differences in meaning Sentences can have similar phrase structure, although their underlying structure is different: John is easy to please John is eager to please Sentences can different surface structure, but similar deep structure Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Transformational Grammar A two part process to derive a sentence 1) Use Phrase-structure rules to generate the underlying tree structure (deep structure) 2) Apply a sequence of transformational rules to the deep structure to generate the surface structure of the sentence Transformations occur by adding, deleting or moving constituents John phoned up the woman John phoned the woman up Phrase structure approach: Two different rules VP –>V + (particle) + NP VP –>V + NP + (particle) Each sentence is derived separately, using different phrase structure rules. Transformational grammar approach: One rule V + particle + NP –>V + NP + particle John phoned up the interesting woman John phoned the interesting woman up John phoned up the woman with the curly hair John phoned the woman with the curly hair up.
Restrictions on transformations The particle-movement transformation can not be applied to pronouns John called them up *John called up them Example 2: Passive transformation NP1 + V + NP2 –>NP2 + be + V + en + by + NP1 Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Psychological Reality of Transformational Grammar If using language is a process of converting the deep structure to the surface structure, then the number of transformation rules applied should affect how long it takes to process a sentence. However, experiments do not consistently show that this holds true Current theories of grammar Lexical-Function Grammar Made up of three components: a constituent structure, a functional structure, and lexical entries Constituent Structure: Similar to phrase structure Functional Structure: All the information needed for semantic interpretation John told Mary to leave Bill Predicate tell (subj, obj, V-comp) Tense Past Subj John Obj Mary V-comp predicate leave subj Mary obj Bill Lexical Entries Lexical entries contain information about: • the forms of the word • the kinds of sentences into which they fit, • arguments and semantic roles Mary kissed John John was kissed by Mary Entry for “kiss” includes underlying semantic structure kiss: (agent, patient).
Forms of the word kiss: agent = subject: patient = object (be) kiss: agent=object: patient = subject Major significance of LFG Most of the explanation of how we process language is based on the lexicon (where we store information about words) . Government-Binding Theory or Universal Grammar Chomsky’s view of innate grammatical mechanisms. In GB theory, grammar is modular. Grammar due to interaction of several independent subsystems, or modules. Each module is fairly simple and performs part of the task But all modules interact in order to constrain the rules made by the other modules in the grammar. Implications We all inherit a universal grammar that can be set to different parameter values.
These parameter values correspond to different languages. As we get experience with a language, we acquire these parameter values, and thus the language upon which it is based. Research methods in Psycholinguistics How do we observe, collect information on phenomena related to psycholinguistics?
Naturalistic Observation Observing information in a nonexperimental setting Slips of the tongue Phonological switching: Crushing blow –>Blushing crow semantic substitutes: blond eye for jaunatre hair. Terminology Acquisition The utilization of language after some time Data coming from naturalistic declaration Rich, but hard to investigate Controlled trials Goal: test an empirical hypothesis Hypothesis: A section will be easier to understand in the event that each section starts with a summary of what will become said. Independent Variable: Adjustable that is altered to test the hypothesis.
Reliant Variable: Variable representing the behavior we want to assess Control Parameters: Other parameters we need to control in order to begin to see the effect of the independent varying Subjects: Who will be going to participate in the test? Analysis: Exactly how know if there are differences bewteen both chapters? The Human Information Finalizing System What psychological components are involved in using language?
The Sensory shop Processes newly arriving information in the environment • Individual sensory stores for each and every sense • Information stored for a short duration The aesthetic sensory retail store Experiments by Sperling (1960) X M R T C N J P V F L N The partial report strategy Auditory physical store Test by Darwin, Turvey & Crowder (1972) 3 digits or letters auditorally shown to each ear canal and centre at the same time. Precisely what is the use of the sensory store? This maintains info long enough in order that we can carry out additional control to this.
Working memory space or short-run memory (STM) STM utilized to describe the simple fact that it retains information for the short time, whilst working memory space refers to the processing capacity. STM works as a momentary holding place for advanced decisions. Limited in size. Chunking Working recollection: there is a limited amount of processing capacity that can be used as you perform a problem Long-term memory Knowledge of how to do something, things we have learned, grammar rules, personal memories. All knowledge that is definitely not energetic.
Information that becomes active is recovered from LTM and put in STM. Whatever we study is first highly processed in STM and some of it is placed into LTM Episodic vs . Semantic Memory distinction Semantic storage • Arranged knowledge of words, concepts, symbols and things. motor abilities, general knowledge, space knowledge, social skills. • All information is usually organized semantically, but not tagged based on in order to was learned. Episodic recollection • Retains traces of events specific time and place. • Memory of personal encounters. Interaction among semantic and episodic memory. What does the organization of the information processing program have to do with language digesting?
Pattern Reputation Parsing/understanding content in functioning memory This really is a long sentence in your essay and yet in some way you can maintain it all in working memory The organization of Long Term Memory That cat performs really cool punk Serial vs . Parallel Processing Serial digesting: One procedure working at the same time Parallel Control: Multiple processes operating at a time Within a serial model of language digesting, individual modules would work one-by-one to process the information. A parallel style would admit the processes happen at the same time.
Parallel models while neurally motivated models of intellectual processes Top-Down vs . Bottom-Up processing Intellectual processing takes place at levels Bottom-up control is done in such a way that all finalizing occurs starting from the lowest level processes and proceeds onto the higher level processes Higher level processes tend not to influence the processing performed at the lower levels Top down digesting: Information with the higher levels influences processing at the reduced levels. Advantages and disadvantages of Top-Down processing Automatic vs . Controlled processes We have a limited amount of operations that we may do at a time. Controlled digesting: Processes that require a substantial amount of intellectual processing.
Programmed processing: Operations that do not really require a substantive amount of cognitive digesting. The position of practice in programmed processing The Stroop impact Putting it all together: Intellectual processes in action The novice accepted the offer before he previously a chance to examine his financial situation, which set him within a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. The Internal Lexicon How are words stored?
Exactly what they made up of? How are expression related to each other? How do we utilize them? Internal lexicon The manifestation of phrases in long term memory Lexical Access: Exactly how activate the meanings of words?
Facets of Meaning Research: The relationship between words and things on the globe Things in the world are referents of a phrase My doggie has fleas My puppy is from Mars However, not all guide can be planned to cement things Fuzy words: Take pleasure in, Justice, Equality Non existent objects: Unicorn, Martians Meaning is not restricted to real life, but also imaginary planets Sense: The relationship of a expression with other terms in the vocabulary Student at NMSU or Undergraduate for NMSU Synonymy (same meaning) Car Car Antonymy (opposite meaning) Cheerful Sad Incompatibility (do what contradict one another? ) Steve is happy vs . David is unfortunate Hyponymy (are they portion of the same category? ) Your dog is an animal, Bowser can be described as dog, Denotation vs . Meaning Denotation: The aim meaning with the word Significance: The element of the meaning past its explicit meaning Bachelor Spinster Hungry Starving The Mental Portrayal of Meaning The rendering of the which means of a expression is based on the semantic highlights of that term. We get the meaning of the word simply by learning the semantic features Children generate semantic faults Verbs of possession.
All of us understand more than the meaning, we now have knowledge of the relations between these words sold or paid provide vs . receive lose versus find Representative models: Some users of a category are better instances of the category than other folks Apple versus pomegranate What makes a model? More central semantic features What type of doggie is a prototypical dog Exactly what are the features than it? We are quicker at finding prototypes of any category than other members with the category Semantic Networks.
Words and phrases can be represented as a great interconnected network of sense relations • Each phrase is a particular node • Connections among nodes symbolize semantic associations Mental models: A model/understanding of how the world works and how pieces of calcado information suits with it. John is usually sitting in a chair. That chair is usually on a stand. The stand is green and round.
John features red hair. The structure of the Inner Lexicon How can these items of semantic details relate to each other? Semantic verification activity An A is actually a B An apple is a fresh fruit A robin is a parrot A robin is a creature A dog features teeth A fish has gills A seafood has down An apple provides teeth NMSU is in New Mexico Harvard is in A bunch of states Use time on verification tasks to map out the structure with the lexicon.
Types of the Lexicon Collins and Quillian Hierarchical Network unit Lexical items stored in a hierarchy, with features attached to the lexical entries Rendering permits intellectual economy Testing the unit Sentence Verification time Robins eat viruses 1310 msecs Robins include feathers 1380 msecs Robins have pores and skin 1470 msecs A category size effect: Subjects perform an intersection search Difficulties with Collins and Quillian version. 1) Effect may be because of frequency of association 2) Assumption that all lexical records at the same level are similar The Typicality Effect The industry more normal bird? Ostrich or Robin the boy wonder.
A whale is a fish vs . A horse can be described as fish Major conclusions with the model: 1) If a reality about a strategy is frequently encountered, it will be stored with that concept even if it may be inferred by a more isolated concept. 2) The more regularly encountered a well known fact about a concept is, a lot more strongly that fact will be associated with the idea. And the more strongly connected with a concept facts are, the more rapidly they are tested. 3) Verifying facts which are not directly placed with a strategy but that needs to be inferred needs a relatively number of years.
Spreading Service Models (Collins & Loftus) • Words and phrases represented in lexicon as a network of relationships • Organization is actually a web of interconnected nodes in which cable connections can represent: categorical associations degree of affiliation typicality Retrieval of information • Spreading activation • Limited amount of activation to spread • Verification occasions depend on closeness of two concepts within a network Framework effect in spreading activation models Present either: Tough is a offense or Libel is a criminal offense Then acquire verification moment for Robbery is known as a crime Themes faster when they see Tough than Libel. Why?
Advantages of Collins and Loftus model • Identifies diversity info in a semantic network • Captures complexness of our semantic representation • Consistent with results from priming research Lexical Get What elements are involved in locating information in the lexicon? Semantic Priming Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971) Lexical Decision Activity Prime Target Time Health professional Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Facts for associative spreading service. Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects examine and remember The doctor resented the book Task: “Was this word from the sentence you commited to memory? ” Primary Target Period None Book 667 msecs Doctor Publication 624 msecs Word Consistency Does term frequency play a role in lexical access?
Lexical Decision Activity: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, bad, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, chief excutive, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, record, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, efforts, garvola, match, sard, enjoyable, coin, maisle. Lexical Decision is dependent upon word regularity Eyemovement research: Subjects spend about eighty msecs for a longer time fixating in low-frequency terms than high-frequency words Morphological Structure Therefore we tape off the prefixes and suffixes of a phrase for lexical access?
Decision = Make a decision + ion Lexical Decision Tasks: Excellent Target Period Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Chausser 855 msecs Evidence to get associative distributing activation Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize A doctor hated the book Task: “Was this kind of word through the sentence you memorized? ” Prime Concentrate on Time non-e Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Term Frequency Really does word consistency play a role in lexical get? Lexical Decision Task: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awry, ecchymose, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match, sard, pleasant, coin, maisle.
Lexical Decision relies on word frequency Eyemovement studies: Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency phrases Morphological Framework So we all strip off of the prefixes and suffixes of any word pertaining to lexical gain access to? Decision sama dengan Decide & ion Lexical Decision Jobs: Presented themes with a pattern of words and phrases to study Examined the probability of realizing words over 14 days Performance systematically decays over time Adversely accelerated rot.
Bahrick (1984) Student’s preservation of spanish-english vocabulary products from zero to 50 years Power regulation of corrosion Review for the internal lexicon Aspects of which means: Reference and Sense Denotation and Connotation What is the mental representation of meaning? Models of the Lexicon Hierarchical Network Version Spreading Service Model What factors are involved in retrieving details from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Word Rate of recurrence Morphological Composition Lexical Unconformity Retention of lexical items.
