Linguistics and Language Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Language EssayWhat will be covered in this class? How do we micturate and recognize speech? How do we perceive delivery, letters, and sentences? How do we learn and rec every in stockation from texts? How sess we improve texts to make them easier to understand? How does the brain function to bear upon style? What ar the ca enjoyments and effects of reading disabilities? Is there lyric poem in another(prenominal) species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1) What feelledge of language is needed for us to aim language?Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge tacit knowledge of how to perform something, but not aw be of full rules explicit knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2) What cognitive processes atomic number 18 involved in the ordinary use of language? How do we understand a lecture, read a book, exact a conversation? Cognitive processes perception, store, thinking, learning Some definitions of b asic compvirtuosonts of language SemanticsThe significance of news shows and sentences Syntax The grammatical practicement of discourses in a sentence or phrase Phonology The sound pattern of language Pragmatics How language is used in a social context voices from psycholinguistics Parsing garden agency sentences The novice accepted the deal forwards he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a recite of conflict when he effected he had a straight flush. 1) The def send awayant examined by the lawyer turned break through to be unreliable 2).The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehension The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into antithetic groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do.If you boast to go somewhere else overdue to lack of facilities, that is the beside step ot herwise you argon pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is recrudesce to do in like manner few things at once than too umpteen. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications gr run through deal easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials intodifferent groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is business office of life. Bransford Johnson, 1973 Recall No context 2. 8 idea unit of measurements out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards 2. 7 idea units Context before 5. 8 idea units Child language ontogenesis How ma ny words do you know? Hint Dictionary has roughly 450,000 entries Test high school graduates How many words do they know? About 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words.The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach children to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk? Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language production Sentence as the primary unit of language Speech production is the salmagundi of complete thought processes into sequentially organized speech segments.Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) Rejected the focus on mental processes Measurement based on objective fashion (primarily in lab animals) How does experience (reward and punishment) shape behavior? B. F . Skinner Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory A sentence consists of a chain of associations between individual words in the sentence Whats wrong with the behaviorist approach? Noam Chomsky (1950s present) 1) Colorless green ideas remainder furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3) George picked up the baby.4) George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The distress of stimulus argument thither is not enough tuition in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of childrens language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but on innate language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languages Even within languages there is diversity When are two languages different?We speak the same language if we can understand each otherExcep tions Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? wherefore does there seem to be a correct slope? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one dialect and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that ones own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) take by William Labov Interviewed African-American street youth You know, like some people say if youre good an sh*t, your heart and soul goin theaven . . .n if you bad, your spirit goin to hell. Well, bullsh*t Your spirit goin to hell anyway, good or bad. Why? Why? Ill tell you why. Cause, you see, doesn nobody really know that its a God, yknow, social movement I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and dont nobody know its really a God. An when they be sayin if you good, you goin theaven, thas bullsh*t, cause you aint goin to no heaven, cause it aint no heaven for you to go to. Place holders There vs. It in the copula Copula Is, Was optional Negatives You aint goin to no heaven.BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We dont see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral all(prenominal) languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes totally languages have words All humans have ways of making sounds. Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds Phoneme The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language? English 40 phonemes Range Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141.Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are make up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The dealinghip between meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independent of any somatogenic resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe Openness New linguistic messages are created freely and easily Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created. Linguistic Productivity The ability to understand and create an unlimited number of sentences.The question studied by psycholinguists is how to characterize and account for the creativity to construct and create an infinite number of sentences given the limited capabilities of the human brain Duality of Patterning Language involves relating two different kinds of patterns or forms of representation A phonological system A semantic system These two systems use very different types of codes, although there is a phonological representation for each item in the semantic system Phrase structure Information on how a sentence is grouped into phrases. The quiet boy ate the red orchard apple tree A set of Phrase Str ucture rulesPS 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, get over, man, book PS 5 V (verb) - ate, broke, pampered PS 6 adj (adjective - quiet, red, happy, wormy PS 7 det ( conciliater) - a, the We use lexical-insertion rules to put words into the structure. Phrase-structure rules provide a good account of phrase-structure ambiguity. They are broiling hens Morphology Morphology is the component of grammar that builds words out of units of meaning (morphemes)A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language How many morphemes? bird firetruck undereducated unmicrowaveability Insights from American Sign Language (ASL) Unlike speech, signs are expressed in visual or spatial form Do a lot of the same grammatical concepts hold? Arbitrariness ASL possesses iconicity signs can represent objects or actions to which they refer. However, the degree of iconicity has declined over the years Duality of Patterning signs are composed of smaller elements that are meaningless Example 3 parameters 19 value of hand configuration. 12 values of place of articulation 24 values of movements Meaningless patterns can be combined in various ways to from ASL signs. What about openness and discreteness within ASL? Transformational Grammar (Chomsky 1950s) Language an infinite set of grammatical sentences Grammar A finite set of rules that generates sentences in the language How do we know that a grammar is a good theory of language? Three criteria Observational enough A grammar is annotationally adequate if it generates all acceptable sequences and no unacceptable sequences. Descriptive adequacyA grammar must also explain how a sentence relates to other sentences that are akin opposite in meaning. The ball was caught by John John caught the ball The ball was not caught by John Explanatory adequacy It is possible for multiple grammars to attain observational and descriptive adequacy. Which is the correct/ best one? Children learning language are presented with many samples of language and must de depotine the grammar from these samples. There must be some innate language constraints that help children determine the correct grammar. There exist Linguistic Universals that are common to all languages.The fact that there are connaturalities in languages is based on the fact that languages are determined by the nature of the mental structures and processes which characterize human beings A Grammar must explain the social occasion of linguistic universals in language acquisition Deep and Surface structure Deep structure The structure of the sentence that conveys the meaning of the sentence. Surface Structure The superficial arrangement of constituents Deep structure ambiguity A single surface structure that is based on two different deep structures Flying planes can be dangerous.Phrase structure rules would not be able to account for the differences in meaning Sentences can have similar phrase structure, although their underlying structure is different John is easy to please John is eager to please Sentences can different surface structure, but similar deep structure Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Transformational Grammar A two part process to derive a sentence 1) put on Phrase-structure rules to generate the underlying tree structure (deep structure)2) Apply a sequence of transformational rules to the deepstructure to generate the surface structure of the sentence Transformations occur by adding, deleting or moving constituents John phoned up the woman John phoned the woman up Phrase structure approachTwo different rules VP V + (particle) + NP VP V + NP + (particle) Each sentence is derived separately, using different phrase structure rules. Transformational grammar approach One rule V + particle + NP V + NP + particle John phoned up the interesting woman John phoned the interesting woman up John phoned up the woman with the curly hairc loth John phoned the woman with the curly hair up.Restrictions on transformations The particle-movement transformation can not be applied to pronouns John called them up *John called up them Example 2 Passive transformation NP1 + V + NP2 NP2 + be + V + en + by + NP1 Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Psychological humanity of Transformational Grammar If using language is a process of converting the deep structure to the surface structure, then the number of transformation rules applied should affect how long it takes to process a sentence.However, experiments do not consistently show that this holds true Current theories of grammar Lexical-Function GrammarMade up of three components a constituent structure, a functional structure, and lexical entries segment Structure Similar to phrase structure Functional StructureAll the information needed for semantic interpretation John told Mary to leave neb Predicate tell (subj, obj, V-comp) Tense Past Subj John Obj Mary V-comp predicate leave subj Mary obj Bill Lexical Entries Lexical entries contain information about the forms of the word the kinds of sentences into which they fit, arguments and semantic roles Mary kissed John John was kissed by Mary Entry for kiss includes underlying semantic structurekiss (agent, patient).Forms of the word kiss agent = subject patient = object (be) kiss agent=object patient = subject Major significance of LFG Most of the explanation of how we process language is based on the lexicon (where we stock information about words) . Government-Binding Theory or Universal Grammar Chomskys view of innate grammatical mechanisms. In GB theory, grammar is modular. Grammar due to interaction of several independent subsystems, or modules. Each module is fairly simple and performs part of the task But all modules interact in social club to constrain the rules made by the other modules in the grammar.Implications We all inherit a universal grammar that can be set to differe nt parameter values. These parameter values correspond to different languages. As we get experience with a language, we acquire these parameter values, and thus the language upon which it is based. Research methods in Psycholinguistics How do we observe, turn around information on phenomena colligate to psycholinguistics? Naturalistic Observation Observing information in a non-experimental setting Slips of the tongue Phonological switching Crushing bluster Blushing crow semantic replacements blond eyes for blond hair.Language Acquisition The use of language over clock Data from naturalistic observation Rich, but hard to analyze Controlled experiments Goal test an empirical hypothesis Hypothesis A chapter will be easier to understand if each section starts with a summary of what will be said. Independent Variable Variable that is manipulated to test the hypothesis. Dependent Variable Variable representing the behavior we want to measure Control Variables opposite variables we n eed to control in order to see the effect of the independent variable Subjects Who is going to participate in the experiment?Analysis How do we know if there are differences bewteen the two chapters? The Human Information Processing System What psychological mechanisms are involved in using language? The Sensory remembering Processes incoming information from the environment Individual sensory stores for each aesthesis Information retained for a short duration The visual sensory store Experiments by Sperling (1960) X M R K C N J P V F L B The partial delineate technique Auditory sensory store Experiment by Darwin, Turvey Crowder (1972) 3 digits or letters auditorally presented to each ear and center at the same cadence.What is the use of the sensory store? It maintains information long enough so that we can do additional impact to it. Working memory or short term memory (STM) STM used to describe the fact that it holds information for a short time, while working memory refer s to the impact capacity. STM works as a temporary holding place for intermediate decisions. Limited in size. Chunking Working memory there is a limited amount of processing capacity that you can use as you perform a problem Long term memory Knowledge of how to do things, things we have learned, grammar rules, personal memories.All knowledge that is not active. Information that becomes active is retrieved from long-term memory and put in STM. Anything we learn is first processed in STM and some of it is put into LTM Episodic vs. Semantic fund distinction Semantic memory Organized knowledge of words, concepts, symbols and objects. motor skills, general knowledge, spatial knowledge , social skills. All information is organized semantically, but not tagged based on when it was learned. Episodic memory Holds traces of events specific time and place. Memory of personal experiences. Interaction between semantic and episodic memory.What does the organization of the information proces sing system have to do with language processing? Pattern Recognition Parsing/understanding sentences in working memory This is a long sentence and yet somehow you can keep it all in working memory The organization of Long Term Memory That cat plays really cool jazz Serial vs. Parallel Processing Serial processing One process working at a time Parallel Processing Multiple processes working at a time In a serial model of language processing, individual modules would work one at a time to process the information.A parallel model would say that the processes happen at the same time. Parallel models as neurally inspired models of cognitive processes Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up processing Cognitive processing occurs at levels Bottom-up processing is done in such a way that all processing occurs starting from the lowest level processes and proceeds onto the higher level processes Higher level processes do not influence any of the processing done at the lower levels Top down processing Informati on at the higher levels influences processing at the lower levels. Advantages and di good-for-nothingvantages of Top-Down processing Automatic vs.Controlled processes We have a limited amount of processes that we can do at a time. Controlled processing Processes that require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. Automatic processing Processes that do not require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. The role of practice in automatic processing The Stroop effect Putting it all unneurotic Cognitive processes in action The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. The indispensable Lexicon How are words stored? What are they made up of?How are word related to each other? How do we use them? Internal lexicon The representation of words in long term memory Lexical Access How do we bring out the meanings of words? Aspects of Meaning credit The relationship betwee n words and things in the world Things in the world are referents of a word My dog has fleas My dog is from Mars But not all reference can be mapped to concrete things Abstract words Love, Justice, Equality Non existent objects Unicorn, Martians Meaning is not limit to the real world, but also imaginary worlds Sense The relationship of a word with other words in the language Student at NMSU vs.undergraduate at NMSU Synonymy (same meaning) Car Automobile Antonymy (opposite meaning) Happy Sad Incompatibility (do the words contradict each other? ) John is happy vs. John is sad Hyponymy (are they part of the same class? ) A dog is an animal, Bowser is a dog, Denotation vs. Connotation Denotation The objective meaning of the word Connotation The medical prognosis of the meaning beyond its explicit meaning Bachelor Spinster Hungry Starving The Mental Representation of Meaning The representation of the meaning of a word is based on the semantic features of that word.We acquire the meanin g of a word by learning its semantic features Children make semantic mistakes Verbs of possession. We understand more than the meaning, we have knowledge of the relations between these words sold vs. paid give vs. receive lose vs. find Prototypes Some members of a category are better instances of the category than others Apple vs. pomegranate What makes a prototype? More central semantic features What type of dog is a proto common dog What are the features of it? We are faster at retrieving prototypes of a category than other members of the category Semantic meshs.Words can be represented as an interconnected network of sense relations Each word is a particular node Connections among nodes represent semantic relationships Mental models A model/understanding of how the world works and how pieces of textual information fits in with it. John is sitting in a chair. That chair is on a table. The table is blue and round. John has red hair. The structure of the Internal Lexicon How do t hese pieces of semantic information relate to each other?Semantic verification task An A is a B An apple is a output A robin is a bird A robin is an animal A dog has teethA fish has gills A fish has feathers An apple has teeth NMSU is in New Mexico Harvard is in California Use time on verification tasks to map out the structure of the lexicon.Models of the Lexicon collins and Quillian Hierarchical Network model Lexical entries stored in a hierarchy, with features attached to the lexical entries Representation permits cognitive economy Testing the model Sentence Verification time Robins eat worms 1310 msecs Robins have feathers 1380 msecs Robins have skin 1470 msecs A category size effect Subjects do an intersection search Problems with Collins and Quillian model .1) Effect may be due to frequency of association 2) Assumption that all lexical entries at the same level are equal The Typicality Effect Which is a more typical bird? Ostrich or Robin. A whale is a fish vs. A horse is a f ish Major conclusions of the model 1) If a fact about a concept is frequently encountered, it will be stored with that concept even if it could be inferred from a more distant concept. 2) The more frequently encountered a fact about a concept is, the more strongly that fact will be associated with the concept. And the more strongly associated with a concept facts are, the more cursorily they are verified.3) Verifying facts that are not directly stored with a concept but that must be inferred takes a relatively long time. Spreading activation Models (Collins Loftus) Words represented in lexicon as a network of relationships Organization is a web of interconnected nodes in which connections can represent categorical relations degree of association typicality Retrieval of information Spreading activation Limited amount of activation to spread Verification times depend on conversancy of two concepts in a network Context effect in spreading activation modelsPresent either Murder is a crime or Libel is a crime Then get verification time for Robbery is a crime Subjects faster when they see Murder than Libel. Why? Advantages of Collins and Loftus model Recognizes diversity of information in a semantic network Captures complexity of our semantic representation Consistent with results from priming studies Lexical Access What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Meyer Schvaneveldt (1971) Lexical decisiveness Task Prime Target term Nurse cover 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation.Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the book Task Was this word from the sentence you memorized? Prime Target Time no(prenominal) Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awr y, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle.Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words morphologic Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = sink + ion Lexical Decision Tasks Prime Target Time Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the bookTask Was this word from the sentence you memorized? Prime Target Time None Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, ch alt, awry, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle.Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words Morphological Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = Decide + ion Lexical Decision Tasks Presented subjects with a sequence of words to study Examined the probability of recognizing words over 14 days Performance systematically decays over time Negatively accelerated decay.Bahrick (1984) Students retention of spanish-english vocabulary items from 0 to 50 years Power law of decay Review on the internal lexicon Aspects of meaning Reference and Sense Denotation and Connotation What is the mental representation of meaning? Models of the Lexicon Hierarchical Network M odel Spreading Activation Model What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Word Frequency Morphological Structure Lexical Ambiguity Retention of lexical items.