Chapter 9: Language: Nature and Acquisition

1. Chapter 9: Language: Nature and Acquisition

2. Psycholinguistics • The study of acquisition, storage, comprehension, and production of language

3. Language • Organized way to combine words to communicate • Language is unique to humans • A communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited

4. Four Areas in Psycholinguistics • Linguistics • Emphasis on universals of language • Neurolinguistics • Emphasis on brain changes during language use • Sociolinguistics • Emphasis on relationship between language and society • Computational linguistics • Emphasis on computer models of natural language

5. Properties of Language • Communicative • Arbitrarily symbolic • Regularly structured • Structured at multiple levels • Generative • Dynamic

6. Communicative Property • Language is used to communicate • Communication has meaning • Individuals can send and receive information

7. Arbitrarily Symbolic • No connection between symbol and concept • Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe • Principle of conventionality • Meanings of words are determined by conventions • Principle of contrast • Different words have different meanings

8. Generative Property of Language • Using rules of language can create an unlimited number of new utterances

9. Dynamic Nature of Language • Allows for new developments with the creation of new words and ideas • Blog • Online diary meant to be read by others • Spam has a new meaning • Weird meat in a can • Unwanted email • Shut Up! Has new meaning • One meaning is to quit talking • YouthSpeak for “Really?”

10. Structure of Language • Phonology • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics • Pragmatics

11. Phonology • Phoneme • Smallest unit of speech • Sounds of language • /s/ /f/ /t/ /l/ /ae/ represent the sounds common in English • Different languages use different sets of phonemes

12. Morphology • Study of word structure • Morpheme • The smallest unit that denotes meaning Root words Prefixes Suffixes Cake Chair Boy Pre- Non- Un- -ly -ist -ness

13. Morphology • Content Morphemes • Word that conveys the core of the meaning (e.g., attractive, happy) • Function Morphemes • Add nuances to core meaning (e.g., unattractive, happiness) • Lexicon • Entire set of morphemes for a language

14. Syntax • Rules used to put words together for a sentence • Sentence = Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase • Noun phrase [NP] • Contains a noun and relevant descriptors • Verb phrase [VP] • Contains at least one verb and possibly objects it acts upon

15. Semantics • The study of meaning in a language • To best understand semantics, read the following sentences: The honest umbrella is in the garage. The salty craftsman appreciate the quality of the product. Cindy slept badly due to the sniffing dream. • Knowing that the sentences do not make sense is your knowledge of semantics

16. Language Comprehension • Three primary approaches • Speech perception • Grammatical structure approach • Discourse macro-level analysis

17. Speech Perception • We hear sounds • Put sounds together to form words • Comprehend the phrases of another’s sentences • Understand the ideas being conveyed • Often done with slurred, accented, or incomplete speech input

18. Speech Perception • Coarticulation: Phonemes overlap in time so: • Context can interfere with speech signal • Variability in speech signal • No one-to-one correspondence between the acoustic stimuli and the speech sounds we hear • How do we recognize sounds in a way so a stable set of phonemes is perceived?

19. Speech Perception is “Ordinary” • Phonetic refinement theory • Analyze auditory signals • Then go to higher level processing using context to help figure out what is heard

20. Phoneme Restoration Effect • Warren & Warren (1970) • It was found that the *eel was on the axle • It was found that the *eel was on the shoe • It was found that the *eel was on the orange • It was found that the *eel was on the table • * was a cough but it was heard as the missing phoneme implied by the context

21. Speech Perception is “Special” • Evidence of categorical perception • Continuous dimension perceived as discrete • Sudden break between categories • No discrimination within categories Discrete = Actual perception Continuous = Actual sounds

22. Categorical Perception • Voice onset time (VOT) • The time between the beginning of the pronunciation of the word and the onset of the vibration of the vocal chords • "ba" your vocal chords vibrate right from the start • "pa" your vocal chords do not vibrate until after a short delay

23. Categorical Perception • The sounds "ba" and "pa" differ on the continuous dimension of VOT • Listeners can differentiate between /p/ and /b/; however, performance in distinguishing between different types of /p/ sounds is difficult • Gives support for idea that specialized processes are being used

24. McGurk Effect • Lip movements to one sound “ba” • Soundtrack indicates “da” • What do you hear? • McGurk & MacDonald (1976) found that people make a comprised sound “tha”

25. Semantics • Denotation • Definition of the word • Connotation • Additional nuances of word meaning (emotional, social, cultural) • Consider these examples • Bachelor, Spinster • Hungry, Starving

26. Syntax • The grammatical arrangement of words into a sentence or phrase • Descriptive grammar • Describe the structures, functions, and relationships of words in language • Prescriptive grammar • The “Correct” way to structure sentences

27. Syntactical Priming • Exposure to a particular syntactic structure leads speakers to reproduce the same structure in subsequent speech • Considered a priming phenomena

28. Example of Syntactical Priming • If you just heard • The cat is being chased by the dog. • You are more likely to say: The mouse is being chased by the cat. versus The cat is chasing the dog.

29. Other Evidence for Power of Syntax • Speech errors • Switch nouns for nouns • Verbs for verbs • Prepositions for prepositions • Sample Error • The butter drawers are in the knife.

30. Phrase Structure Grammar • Psycholinguists use 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

31. Syntax & Tree Diagrams • Tree diagrams are used to reveal relationships between and within phrases • The shy girl hid the broken cup. S NP VP det adj N V NP The shy girl hid det adj N the broken cup

32. Create Tree Diagrams • The rude girl pushed the boy. • Wild horses ran the plains. • Sally kissed the crying child.

33. Chompsky’s Transformational Grammar • Grammar that explains how the underlying propositions can be rearranged to form multiple phrase structures • Deep Structure • The structure of the sentence that conveys the connections between sentences • Surface Structure • The actual phrase structures that may occur from transformations

34. Transformational Grammar • Use phrase-structure rules to generate the underlying tree structure (deep structure) • 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

35. Problem with Transformational Grammar • When converting the deep structure to surface structure, the number of transformation rules applied should affect how long it takes to process a sentence • Experiments do not consistently show that this is true

36. Lexical Functional Grammar – Thematic • Constituent Structure • Similar to phrase structure • Functional Structure • All the information needed for semantic interpretation (subj, obj, past tense information)

37. Lexical Functional Grammar – Thematic • Lexical Entries • The forms of the word and the kinds of sentences into which they fit (Thematic Roles) • Underlying semantic structure for “kiss” • kiss: (agent, patient) • Forms of the word : • kiss: agent = subject: patient = object • (be) kiss: agent=object: patient = subject 

38. Language Acquisition • Universal Stages • Cooing • Babbling • One-word utterances • Two-word utterances • Basic adult structure

39. Cooing • Cooing is universal across countries • Eimas (1985) • Japanese and American Infants • Hear /l/ and /r/ sounds • Can distinguish • At age 1, Japanese children can no longer distinguish (no need to in Japanese language) • Lose ability to distinguish sounds not relevant to our language at about 8 months

40. Babbling • Babble in phonemes of surrounding language • Repetition of similar/identical syllables first • Ba ba ba • Ma ma ma • End of stage varied babbling using non-repeated phonemes

41. One-word Utterances • Holophrases • Blankie! Shoe! Book! • Telegraphic (18-24 mo) 2 word stage • Utterances are determined by semantic, not syntactic concerns - the need to communicate

42. Children Speech Errors • Overextension errors • Doggie means all animals • Blankie means all soft things • Underextension errors • Ball is used only when ball is under bed • Kitty refers only to family pet

43. Nature Support • Language Acquisition Device • Chompsky • Proposes humans are biologically ready to learn language • Special nature of phoneme processing • Ability to detect syntax

44. Nurture Support • Environment is necessary during critical period of language development • Case studies of linguistically isolated children • Genie • American sign language proficiency is influenced by what age language is acquired

45. A Bit of Both Nature and Nurture… • Hypothesis Testing View • Children create hypotheses about patterns based on their inherited skills for language acquisition • Imitation Theory • Children imitate parents • Not sufficient to explain how they learn all nuances

46. Animal Language Provides • Simpler models • Fewer ethical constraints than humans • Full time subjects over whom we can exert complete control of environment • Comparative analysis • Differentiate between skills that are uniquely human and those that are not

47. Grey Parrots: Irene Pepperberg & Alex • What color is corn? • Alex’s answer yellow • What’s the same? • Alex’s answer color

48. Grey Parrots: Irene Pepperberg & Alex • Labels for more than 35 objects (e.g., paper, key, wood, cork, etc.) • Functional use of No • Phrases such as I want X, Wanna go Y where X and Y are appropriate words • Labels for 7 colors • Can identify number of items up to 6 • Alex can use vocabulary to identify proficiently, request, refuse, categorize, and quantify more than 100 different objects

49. Washoe • Gardners (1966) taught sign language to chimpanzee named Washoe • Always used sign language in Washoe’s presence • Washoe was able to use term more appropriately in different contexts • First use was more tickling • Transferred the sign dog to the sound of barking by an unseen dog

50. Washoe • Bodamer, Fouts, Fouts, & Jensvold (1994) • Studied private signing by chimpanzees • Found private signing is robust • Gardner & Gardner (1989) • Washoe adopted an infant named Loulis • No humans signed in front of infant chimp • Loulis still managed to learn over 50 signs from other chimpanzees • No active teaching, rather Loulis just learned through observation among other signing chimps