Language: Experimental Psychology Course PDF

Language Experimental Psychology Course Prof. Federica Biassoni A.Y. 2024/2025 Language: a definition Language is our primary means of communicating thought (mental representations, images, ideas, concepts, and principles). Language à a system of symbols and rules for comb...

Language Experimental Psychology Course Prof. Federica Biassoni A.Y. 2024/2025 Language: a definition Language is our primary means of communicating thought (mental representations, images, ideas, concepts, and principles). Language à a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings. Adaptive Functions of Language Language evolved as people gathered to form larger social units; through the use of language humans can share thoughts, feelings, needs, etc. collaborate with one another. Development of language made it easier for humans to adapt to environmental demands, since it allows us to elaborate complex thoughts communicate them to other individuals act on reality without the physical presence of what we are representing and communicating on à entering the symbolic dimension. Sign Sign A sign is anything (any motion, gesture, image, sound, pattern, or event) conveying a meaning that is not the sign itself. A sign is a portion of reality that stands for another portion of reality. Code A code is a system of signs and the rules governing the way the signs combine to convey meaning. A code is a set of shared understandings among users about the relationship between signifiers and signifieds. Language: rooted in experience Experience Conceptualization Language Properties of language 1. Language is symbolic: words represent things in an arbitrary way à powerful nature: we can refer to and communicate about something that is not present nor exists 2. Language is structured: there are rules that govern the way in which symbols can be combined to represent meaning à grammar. 3. Generativity: rules allow us to combine symbolic units at one level into a vastity of units at the next level and so on à this allows us to produce (generate) an infinite number of messages. 4. Displacement: language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present. Language: production & comprehension Comprehension of language: Production of language: begins by hearing sounds, attach begins with thought, which is meaning to sounds in the form of translated into a sentence, and words, and attach meaning to ends up with sounds expressing combinations of words in the form that sentence. of a sentence. Structure of the language Surface Structure Deep Structure The symbols that are used and their The underlying meaning of the order. combined symbols. 1. Lucy ate the cake. Different surface 2. The cake was eaten by Lucy. structures, same 3. Eaten by Lucy the cake was. deep structure.  Language units and processes Language is structured at three levels: 1. Speech sounds Speech is a sequence of phonemes (the smallest unit of speech sound in a language that can signal a difference in meaning); when phonemes are combined in right way we perceive them as words. 2. Word units When listening, we perceive not phonemes but words. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. Most morphemes are one syllable or more combined into words Grammatical morphemes (vs content words): words that make sentences grammatical. 3. Sentence units Words are combined into phrases and phrases are combined into sentences. Phrases correspond to parts of a thought (semantic level à propositions) and allow listener to “extract” propositions from sentences. Propositions can be divided into subject & predicate (description). Syntactic analysis: when listening, we divide sentences into nouns phrases, verb phrases etc., then extract proposition from phrases Syntax deals with relationship between words in phrases & sentences. Language units and processes  Effects of context on comprehension & production Top-down processing Bottom-up processing Insert Figure 9.3 Every production and understanding of a sentence occurs in context. Context is important in comprehension & production for setting the scene & giving insight into a speaker’s intentions. Experience Conceptualization Language The neural basis for language Two regions of the left hemisphere are critical for language. Broca’s area (in the posterior part of frontal lobes): most centrally involved in word production and articulation. Wernicke’s area (in the temporal region): highly involved in speech comprehension. The neural basis for language Damage to either of these areas leads to specific kinds of aphasia (breakdown in language). Broca’s aphasia: disruption at syntactic stage, speech is very disfluentà disorder in language production. Wernicke’s aphasia: disruption at level of words & concepts, speech is very fluent (syntax is preserved) but is devoid of content (semantic level is lacking) à disorder in language comprehension. The Development of Language What is acquired? Phonemes & combinations of phonemes Children discriminate among different sounds that correspond to different phonemes during first year children learn which phonemes are relevant (for their language) over next few years learn how to combine them Words & concepts When children start to speak (around 1 year), first use words that relate to familiar concepts, e.g. family, animals, etc. Around 1½ years children use around 25 words, by 6 years children use around 15,000 words From primitive to complex sentences Between age 1½ –2½ children acquire sentence units – starts with combining single words into two-word utterances & rapidly progress to more complex sentences to express propositions more clearly The Development of Language Learning processes Imitation & conditioning Possibilities that children learn by imitating adults (imitation) or by being rewarded for producing sentences correctly & punished for mistakes (conditioning) Problem with these possibilities is that they focus on specific utterances Hypothesis testing Children appear to form a hypothesis about a rule of language, test it, and retain it if it works Hypotheses are generated according to a few operating principles, e.g., paying attention to word endings, looking for prefixes & suffixes that indicate change in meaning, avoid exceptions etc. The richness of innate knowledge One indication of this richness – children in all cultures seem to go through similar processes in acquiring language Language Acquisition Device (LAD - Chomsky, 1965): an innate biological device that contains the general grammatical rules (“universal grammar”) common to all languages (grammar à semantic dimension)