CH. 11 Language Notes PDF

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{ LANGUAGE } __________________________________________________________________________________________  LANGUAGE A system of communication using sounds or symbols that is hierarchical and governed by rules Language is universal: all humans with normal cognitive capacities learn and follow the rule...

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{ LANGUAGE } __________________________________________________________________________________________

 LANGUAGE A system of communication using sounds or symbols that is hierarchical and governed by rules Language is universal: all humans with normal cognitive capacities learn and follow the rules of a language. – 5,000+ different languages exist – Not a single culture in the world without language – Shared properties: » Nouns, verbs, questions » Ability to reference past and present __________________________________________________________________________________________ 

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 PHENOMES • Smallest unit of speech sound • Around 40 in English (range from 11 – 100+) – ”The” = th + e – ”Bus” = B + U + S • Different phonemes in different languages – Tonal differences (Mandarin Chinese) – Aspirated vs. unaspirated “p” – clucking sound (Xhosa - South Africa) __________________________________________________________________________________________

 RULES FOR PHENOMES • Order matters when combining phonemes into words. Sentence Phrase Word Morpheme Phoneme __________________________________________________________________________________________

 TOP-DOWN INFLUENCES • We speak at a rate of ~10 phonemes per second. • Speech segmentation ability is due to experience; no actual pauses between words:

• Top-down influences also affect our perception of individual phonemes • Phonemic restoration effect: “Fill in” missing phonemes based on context of sentence and portion of word presented __________________________________________________________________________________________

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 MORPHEMES • Smallest unit that signals meaning run, near, far • prefixes, suffixes, roots -es, -ist, -ing, ad-, pre-, post• Organization is important e.g. s team = steam or teams “Table” = 1 morpheme “locate” = 1 morpheme “Beds” = 2 morphemes “dislocate” = 2 morphemes “Bedrooms” = 3 morphemes “dislocates” = 3 morphemes “Bedding” = 2 morphemes “dislocating” = 3 morphemes __________________________________________________________________________________________

 WORD COMPREHENSION: TOP-DOWN INFLUENCES • Word frequency: the frequency with which a word appears in a language • Lexical ambiguity: the existence of multiple meanings for the same word __________________________________________________________________________________________

 WORD FREQUENCY • Word frequency effect: Faster to comprehend high- frequency words (“home”) than low-frequency words (“hike”) - Lexical decision tasks: faster for frequent words - Eye tracking studies: fixate eye gaze longer on low- frequency words during reading ~ Take-home message: Takes longer to process the meaning of lower-frequency words _________________________________________________________________________________________

 LEXICAL AMBIGUITY • How and when is context used to select a certain meaning? • If disambiguating context isn’t available, do we process all of a word’s meanings? • If context is available, does it pre-empt access to other meanings? For Halloween, the girl dressed up as a bat. Are all meanings activated? • Depends on the relative dominance of the meanings: – Biased dominance: one of the meanings occurs more frequently than the other » Pen, Skate, Tin, Ruler – Balanced dominance: all meanings are used at about the same frequency » Cast, Bat, Park, Palm • Eye tracking studies can measure eye gaze duration during reading – More time looking at word = more meanings activated • When a word’s meanings have balanced dominance, multiple meanings are activated. [ ambiguous, balanced dominance ] – The cast worked into the night. [ unambiguous word as a “control” ] – The cook worked into the night. - Longer eye gaze to “cast” than “cook” - (TWO meanings of “cast” activated) • When a word’s meanings have biased dominance, only the dominant meaning is activated. [ ambiguous, BIASED dominance ] – The pen was outside. The pig was outside. [ unambiguous word as a “control” ] – Same gaze length to ”pen” as to “pig” - (only ONE meaning of pen activated)

• If context is available, does it pre-empt access to other meanings? • Not exactly, but context can strengthen activation for non-dominant meanings [ Context activates the low-dominance meaning of “pen” ] – The horses were kept near the pen. [ Unambiguous control word ] – The horses were kept near the pig. - Longer eye gaze to “pen” than “pig”” - (TWO meanings of ”pen” activated) [ Context activates the DOMINANT meaning of “pen” ] – She wrote a story with her pen. [ Unambiguous control word ] – She wrote a story with her pig - Same gaze length to “pen” as “pig” - (only ONE meaning of ”pen”activated) __________________________________________________________________________________________

 WORD COMPREHENSION SUMMARY • Word frequency - The frequency of a word determines how long it takes to process its meaning • Lexical ambiguity – If a word has more than one meaning: – If balanced dominance, all meanings are activated. – If unbalanced dominance, only the dominant meaning is activated » Unless context strengthens the activation of the non-dominant meaning. __________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHRASES + SENTENCES • Semantics: meanings of words and word groupings • Syntax: rules that determine word order (Grammar) • Parsing: mental grouping of words into phrases to determine meaning

• Poorly written newspaper headlines provide a kind of permanent ambiguity. • In speech and reading, temporary ambiguity is extremely common. • Garden path sentence - Sentences that begin by appearing to mean one thing, but then end up meaning something else • Temporary ambiguity is resolved by end of sentence __________________________________________________________________________________________

 SYNTAX-FIRST APPROACH • Syntax-first approach: as people read a sentence, their grouping of words is governed first by a set of rules about syntax • Principle of late closure: assuming that each new word is part of the current phrase – Reanalyze if we reach an impasse – Do NOT consider meaning until syntax fails. __________________________________________________________________________________________

 INTERACTIONIST APPROACH • Interactionist approach: syntax and semantics are taken into account simultaneously during parsing • Several sources of information considered in parallel: – Meaning of the words in a sentence – Knowledge about how language works – Visual information present at the same time, if applicable __________________________________________________________________________________________

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 WORD MEANING + PARSING

[ MacDonald (1994) Garnsey (1996) ] Word meaning can be used to resolve ambiguity. Ambiguous: (The spy saw the cop) (with the binoculars). (The spy saw) (the cop with the binoculars). NOT ambiguous: (The bird saw) (the cop with the binoculars). Meaning can override the principle of late closure. The defendant examined the evidence. The defendant examined by the lawyer... Readers typically slow down and/or look back to the beginning of the sentence The evidence examined by the lawyer... Readers continue on their merry way __________________________________________________________________________________________

 KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE - Knowledge of how a language is used can help to resolve ambiguity. - In English, it is much more common for “warned” to be used as a main verb - Fine et al. (2003) – Giving people experience reading sentences with relative clauses that started with verbs eventually made them easier to process __________________________________________________________________________________________

 VISUAL INFORMATION + PARSING

[ Tannenhaus et al. (1995) ]

- Visual information can help to resolve ambiguity in parsing. - Visual world paradigm: use eye tracking to examine interactions between language and scene processing [ “Put the apple on the towel in the box.” ] 1) The apple on the towel is the one to move. 2) The towel is where you should move the apple. - Take-home message: The way people interpret a sentence is influenced by the scene they are observing. __________________________________________________________________________________________

 PHRASES + SENTENCES SUMMARY - The meaning of phrases and sentences is determined by both semantics and syntax. - Temporary ambiguity is common during parsing – Garden path sentences - The syntax-first approach to parsing suggests that we first group words according to a set of rules – Principle of late closure - The interactionist approach suggests that we simultaneously consider syntax, knowledge of word meanings, knowledge of language regularities, and available visual info. __________________________________________________________________________________________...