PSYC 256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Teddy Bear, Stuffed Toy, Language Development
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LANGUAGE
Properties of Language
• Communicative
• Arbitrarily symbolic
• Generative (productive)
• Dynamic
• Regularly structured
o At multiple levels
Properties: Communicative
• Individuals can reliably send and receive information
Properties: Arbitrarily Symbolic
• No connection between symbol and concept
o Signs represent, but are not necessarily like, what they refer to
o Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe
• Principle of conventionality
o Meanings of words are determined by conventions
o Not random
▪ Teddy bear
• Principle of contrast
o Different words have different meanings
▪ Stuffed animal
Properties: Generative
• Using rules of language, an unlimited number of new utterances can be created
Properties: Dynamic
• Changes over time
o Allows for new developments with the creation of new words and ideas
Properties: Structured
• Regularity
o Governed by systems of rules, or grammar
• Discreteness
o Can be divided into recognizable parts
▪ Paragraphs, sentences, words, syllables, …
Structure of Language
• Levels of Analysis
o Phonology
o Morphology
o Syntax
o Semantics
o Discourse
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Levels of Analysis: Phonology
• Phone
o Physically discernible unit of speech sound
▪ 21 accents in 2 minutes
▪ Accents are invented
o > sound
• Phoneme
o /i/ /e/ /a/
o As in miss, mess, mass
▪ Bugs, bats
o Category of speech sounds that are clearly different and can change meaning
of spoken signal
o Different languages use different numbers and combinations of phonemes
o About 200 phonemes have been identified
o Tone (pitch)
o > sound with meaning
April 12, 2018
Levels of Analysis: Morphology
• Morpheme
o Smallest unit that denotes meaning within a particular language
▪ Adding an -s to make something plural
o Content Morphemes
▪ Convey bulk of the meaning
▪ E.g., charge in recharge or lift in lifted
o Functional Morphemes
▪ Add detail/nuance to content morphemes or help fit into grammatical
context
▪ E.g., re- in recharge or -ed in lifted
o How is it that we are able to segment words?
o Acoustic signal is continuous, and, where discrete, provides limited
information on word boundaries
o McGurk effect
▪ Bar vs far with different visual feedback
▪ Interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes is at work
• Stress patterns and rhythm of speech help distinguish words
• Regularities in own language to parse words
o Mondegreens- misheard word boundaries
▪ Song lyrics
▪ Bottom-up information fails us, top-down processing leads to
resolution of ambiguous lyrics
Levels of Analysis: Syntax
• Syntax
o The way in which users of a particular language put words together to form
sentences
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Properties of language: communicative, arbitrarily symbolic, generative (productive, dynamic, regularly structured, at multiple levels. Properties: generative: using rules of language, an unlimited number of new utterances can be created. Properties: dynamic: changes over time, allows for new developments with the creation of new words and ideas. Properties: structured: regularity, governed by systems of rules, or grammar, discreteness, can be divided into recognizable parts, paragraphs, sentences, words, syllables, . Structure of language: levels of analysis, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse. Levels of analysis: morphology: morpheme, smallest unit that denotes meaning within a particular language, adding an -s to make something plural, content morphemes. Levels of analysis: semantics: semantics, the study of meaning in language, how words express meaning. Levels of analysis: discourse: discourse, encompasses language use at the level beyond the sentence, such as in conversation, paragraphs, stories, the interactions between the context and language.
