Language and Communication Revision Notes PDF

Language and communication revision notes 3 elements of communication: 1. Sender- the person or group that initiates the communication 2. Message- the information that is being conveyed 3. Receiver- the person that receives the communication Syntax- the rules and principles that govern t...

Language and communication revision notes 3 elements of communication: 1. Sender- the person or group that initiates the communication 2. Message- the information that is being conveyed 3. Receiver- the person that receives the communication Syntax- the rules and principles that govern the structure of language Semantics- the meaning of words, phrases, sentences, grammar etc... Morphology- arrangement or combination of words (morphemes- smallest unit of meaning) Free morphemes: stand alone with meaning Bound morphemes: cannot stand alone Inflectional morphemes: modify the grammatical properties of a word but not the meaning Derivational morphemes: change the meaning/grammatical categorisation of a word Phonology- sound of words Pragmatics- how context contributes to meaning Language is modality-independent (gestures + speech) Playback experiments- speaker in the wild, see animals' reaction Referential communication= primate vocalizations can convey meaningful information Intentional communication=primates adjust their calling according to their audience Ape studies: - Gua- enculturated- never produced intelligible words - Viki- 4 poorly articulated words after 7 years of training - Washoe- 150-250 ASL signs - Nim- 350 ASL signs - Kanzi- understood at least 3000 spoken English words- lexigram board - Panzee- 128 english words - Bonnie- vocal control- learnt how to whistle Broca’s area- front lobe of LH- language production Wernicke’s area- temporoparietal junction of posterior superior temporal lobe- language comprehension Absolute brain size- simply overall brain size Relative brain size- brain size relative to body size Social brain hypothesis- drives primate cognition- correlation between brain size and social group size in primates Foraging brain hypothesis- more complex diets=larger brains Language evolved around 50,000-70,000 years ago Mirror neurons implicated in language, imitation, action learning, action understanding and empathy Brain laterality: - LH- logic, reasoning, analysis, maths- speech comprehension and production- broca and wernicke’s area- linear and sequential thinking - RH- music, creativity, imagination, non-linear thinking Split brain: epilepsy- electrical activity in the brain causes seizures or fits Sever the corpus callosum RVF- LH- name object on the screen LVF- RH- draw but not name the object Broca’s aphasia- non-fluent speech, aware Wernicke’s aphasia- speech is fluent but meaningless, unaware Billingualism: ½ of world’s population - Weaker verbal skills - Better executive control (benefits to social and cognitive functioning) - English and Italian bilinguals- higher grey matter density Nativist perspective- humans are biologically disposed to acquire language Nature, genetics, innate Core knowledge systems- help infants learn about their environment Domain specific- specific to certain domains Guide learning- guide children’s learning and continue to function throughout life Language learning stages: 1. Proto-phones (early speech sounds) (3-4 months) 2. Babbling (4-8months) 3. One word stage (9-18months) 4. Two word stage (18-24 months old) * vocabulary explosion 5. Telegraphic stage (short sentences) (24-30months) 6. After telegraphic stage (complete sentences) (2.6 years old) Domain specific- argues that humans have specialized cognitive mechanisms and related neural areas Domain general- language acquisition relies on general cognitive processes- memory, pattern recognition and problem solving Developmental systems approach- focuses on epigenetic interactions between genes and the environment Pointing - Imperative- pointing to request something - Declarative- pointing to share information and direct attention Speech- 23 pairs of chromosomes- chromosome 7 linked to speech and language FOXP2 and KE family- strong pattern of inheritance- half of the family showed severe speech and language disorders- developed in the basal ganglia and broca’s area - Speech unintelligible but normal IQ Humans –lower larynx, allows for flexibility in vocal production Motor theory of speech perception: 1. Speech is innate 2. Speech perception is human unique 3. Speech perception involves perception of vocal tract gestures Auditory theory of speech perception: 1. Perception is dependent on auditory mechanisms 2. Speech perception is not uniquely human 3. Speech perception can be shaped through genetics and learning McGurk effect- interaction/illusion between hearing and vision Recursion- the nesting of rules and meaning - Word recursion- nesting of meanings withing meanings to create clauses - Phrase recursion- nesting clauses with others to make more complex sentences Symbolism- arbitrariness Duality of patterning- meaningless and meaningful Rules + meaningful combinations = compositionality Zipf’s law of brevity (1936) -> Words that are more frequently used are shorter in length Menzerath’s law of compression -> the greater the whole, the smaller the size of the parts -> longer vocal signals, made up of shorter words Heaps law -> as the length of a text goes on, there are fewer new words Fast mapping- rapid word learning with minimal time exposure Slow mapping- gradual process of refining and solidifying a word’s meaning over time Dax experiment- “give me the dax!” toddles chose the novel/ambiguous object] Whole object assumption- the word labels the entire object Taxonomic assumption- new words refer to objects in the same taxonomic category rather than the same theme E.g. Applying same name to same shaped objects over colour- e.g if told a dax is a blue star- shaped object, they will think other star shaped objects are also dax, and ignore colour Over regularisation- extending grammatical patterns to irregular words e.g. “bited me” Hobaiter and Byrne (2011) a gesture should be: 1. Socially directed (towards others) 2. Goal-directed (for a purpose) 3. Mechanically ineffective  4. Receives a voluntary response from the targeted recipient Types of gestures: 1. Iconic gestures- represent attributes or objects, actions or spatial relationships 2. Emblems- conventional gestures that have meaning to a particular community 3. Metaphoric- represent an abstract idea/concept 4. Beats- maintain the rhythm of speech- but don’t contain semantic information 5. Pointing – refer someone’s attention to something Cube rotation task- gestures help receivers process difficult information Information packaging hypothesis- gestures help a speaker organise and break down complex visuo-spatial information into smaller packages/subunits Gestures can also improve mathematical problem-solving and children’s word recall Embodied cognition- the body influences how we think and communicate Home signs- system of gestures that deaf children create to communicate when they are unable to learn spoken language or sign language- not full languages Sign language- at least 300 sign languages- doesn't depend on surrounding spoken language- syntactic structure (sign sentences), morphological structure (signs themselves), phonological structure (meaningless sub sign elements like phonemes) Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis Speakers of different languages conceptualize their words differently The structure and vocabulary of language influences its speaker's cognition and worldview Hopi people- no concept of time (hours, minutes, days) Piraha people- do not have terms for sets or large numbers- may restrict their ability to recall large numbers Universalism of thought- critics argue that some cognitive processes, like basic colour perception are universal and not entirely shaped by language Bidirectional- thought and culture influence language Jackson- mapping emotional words across 2474 languages Some emotional words are similar across cultures, but some differ, and closely related languages tend to overlap more Linguistic relativity- languages shape some but not all aspects of thoughts and emotions, languages influence but not responsible for cognition and perception Cooperative communication (share info) work to achieve a ‘common ground’ Intentional communication- humans signal to others Ostensive cues- verbal or non-verbal social signals Csibra and Gergely’s theory of natural pedagogy - Human communication is specifically adapted to allow the transmission of generic knowledge between individuals, which enables fast and efficient social learning of complex info Approaches to language acquisition - Interactionist- biological and environmental factors, caregivers play an important role - Lev Vgotsky - Empiricist- experience and observation- no knowledge without experience, imitation and reinforcement - Skinner and Brunner - Nativist- humans are biologically programmed to acquire language (preparedness) Chomsky- core knowledge systems, domain specific, guide learning Information packaging hypothesis- Gestures help a speaker organise and break down complex visuo-spatial information into smaller packages/subunits that can then be verbalized into speech Mutual exclusivity- children expect two different words to have two different meanings