PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: African American Vernacular English, Noam Chomsky, American Sign Language

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Mark Juhasz

Document Summary

Language= a system that relates sounds (or gestures) to meaning. Languages expressed in speech, writing and gesture. Phonology: refers to the sound of a language. Morphology: refers to rules of meaning within the language. Semantic: the study of words and their meaning. Grammar: the rules used to describe the structure of a language. Morphology (putting phonemes together to make words). the most important element of grammar is syntax (rules that specify how words are combined to form sentences). Pragmatics: the study of how people use language to communicate effectively. Cognition: representing our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. Receptive language = understanding/input (understanding the words) > easier when younger. Expressing language = producing/output (how many words we can produce) Phonemes= the basic building blocks of language. Unique sounds that can be joined to create words. Can discriminate phonemes very early = 1 month. Ability to discriminate foreign phonemes declines: 6-12 months. Habituation: sucking on a soother to hear new phonemes.