PSYC 2650 Study Guide - Final Guide: Frontal Lobe, Vocal Folds, Qualia
Document Summary
Language use relies on consistent and well-defined patterns patterns in how individual words are used, patterns in how words are put together into phrases. At the highest level of the structure are the ideas intended by the speaker, or the ideas that the listener derives from the input. These ideas are typically expressed in sentences: a sequence of words that conforms to the rules of syntax (and so has the right constituents in the right sequence) Words are composed of morphemes: the smallest language unit that carries meaning. Psycholinguists distinguish content morphemes (the primary carriers of meaning) from function morphemes (which specify the relations among words) Some morphemes are units that can stand alone, and they typically refer to particular objects or ideas or actions (ie. talk . Other morphemes are bound onto these free morphemes and add information crucial for interpretation (ie. ed or s )
