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Quiz 1 Notes I

What is language? – Fromkin Chapter 1 (pages 17-35) A Theoretical linguistics 1 Phonetics: the inventory of sounds in a language a Thy-thigh 2 Phonology: the function and patterning of sounds/how they are combined in a language a Words 3 Morphology: the analysis of word structure/rules of word formation in a language a Sentences and grammar 4 Syntax: the analysis of sentence structure/rules of sentence formation 5 Semantics: analysis of meaning B Creative system 1 Native speakers – acquired the language as children in a natural setting 2 Creativity in production and comprehension 3 BUT – there are boundaries to that creativity C Language universals 1 Each language has its own set of rules a But there are certain rules that apply to all languages i Nouns and verbs 2 Early linguists sought to identify rules that only applied to ALL languages a Important to identify characteristics of a particular language? b Through these, we can identify universals D Displacement 1 There are some animals who can communicate things that are not in the present but emotions about past events, wishes, and desires are unique to human language E Chomsky (UG): 1 Finite set of rules allows us to create an infinite amount of sentences 2 Critique of behaviorism 3 Language isn’t a set of learned behaviors and responses F Language competence vs. language performance 1 Language competence: unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows us to produce and understand a language 2 Language performance: the language we produce, including slips of the tongue and other missteps G Behaviorism 1 Skinner (1957) a Children learn L1 through: i Imitation ii Reinforcement iii Analogy, etc. 2 Chomsky’s (1959) critique of Skinner a Behaviorism fails to account for the ‘logical problem’ of acquisition: i How do we have such complex linguistic systems based on the meager input we are exposed to? 1

b Children rarely receive specific feedback c Children create a rule-based system – even without being ‘taught’ the rules 3 Evidence for universal grammar (UG) a All children acquire language easily and rapidly b Children acquire their mother tongue at the same rate and go through the same developmental stages c Adult speech that young children hear can be a poor model d Biological uniqueness of language i Not needed to be taught ii Children learning all different languages at similar ages iii Children get 100% competence even though performance of language is never 100% H UG: Principles of Language 1 Principles: a Abstract principles that permit or prohibit certain structures from occurring in all human languages i Language structures (NP/VP) 2 Parameters: a Optional settings associated with a principle that result in differences among languages i Head-left versus head-right I UG: L1 Acquisition 1 Every child learns a language a In spite of different backgrounds, locations, and upbringings, most children follow the same milestones in acquiring language i Like learning to walk b Similar to other biological endowments like vision and the ability to walk 2 Developmental sequence 3 Producing sound: Pre-linguistic period a Reflexive vocalization (birth-2 months) i Crying, fussing, coughing, sucking b Cooing and laughing (2-4 months) c Babbling (around 6 months and up) (ba, da) i Putting together vowels and consonants ii 7-10 months: start repeated babbling (ba ba ba) iii 10-12 months: children produce a variety of speech sounds; varied babbling (ba di bi, da gu ba) 4 Producing sound: Linguistic period a One word stage (12-18 months) – produce a word or two that everyone recognizes i Holophrastic (consisting of a single word): carry meaning of whole sentences (e.g., milk!) ii 1st words refer to things that are very salient to child b Naming explosion and 2-1ord stage (18-24 months) i Vocabulary of more than 50 words ii Utterances have consistent word order iii Express certain sematic relations 2

 Agent + action (mommy sleep)  Action + object (kick ball) c Telegraphic stage (24-30 months): i The pattern of leaving out most grammatical/functional morphemes is called “telegraphic”  Kathryn no like celery (Kathryn at 22 months)  Baby doll ride truck (Allison at 22 months) d Sign languages i Go through similar stages when deaf babies are born into signing families 5 Conclusions about UG a Children must be born with a blueprint b Children do not learn all the rules i They set the parameters – universal properties 6 Animal languages a Animal do have communication systems b Talking parrots c Birds and Bees d Chimps J Language and Thought – Jan. 21st 1 Sapir-Warf Hypothesis: the theory that the structure of a language influences how its speakers perceive the world around them a Linguistic determinism: the strongest form of the Sapir-Warf hypothesis which claims that the language we speak determines how we perceive the world i Whorf claimed that the Hopi people do not perceive time in the same way as speakers of European languages because the Hopi language does make grammatical distinctions in tense b Linguistic relativism: a weaker form of the hypothesis which claims that different languages encode different categories which an influence a speaker’s perceptions of the world 2 The strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is clearly false a We can translate between languages b We can learn additional languages c If we don’t have a particular word for a concept, we can express the concept with a string of words d Hopi does have a system for expressing time. Hopi uses words for days of the week, parts of the day, etc. to express tense rather than using word endings like English e Although languages differ in their color terms, speakers can perceive differences even if their language does not have a word to express the difference 3 Some psychologists have suggested that speakers of gender-marking languages think about objects as being gendered 4 UG However… a Tomasello and other cognitive linguists have doubts b Maybe the processing abilities of children are better than we had thought and maybe their stimuli aren’t so impoverished II The Brain and Language 3

A Part 1: Anatomy and Localization 1 The human brain a Most complex organ – made of 100 billion nerve cells i Cortex: surface, receives messages from sensory organs, initiates actions, stores our memories and knowledge of grammar ii Cerebral Hemispheres: L and R hemispheres, function contralaterally iii Corpus Callosum: network of 200 million fibers that connect L and R, allowing them to talk to each other 2 Localization a Early 19th century: Franz Joseph Gall proposed the idea that different cognitive abilities are localized in specific parts of the brain i He also proposed the theory of Phrenology, the practice of examining the “bumps” on the skull to determine personality traits and cognitive function ii This isn’t followed anymore but localization is 3 Aphasia: Broca’s Area a Damage to the Broca’s area of the brain may result in Broca’s aphasia, which is essentially a symptom that is characterized by: i Labored speech ii Difficulty with sentence formation iii Agrammatism: lacking functional words: determiners, prepositions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs as well as grammatical word endings such as the past tense markers –ed or the progressive –ing  Issues with grammar – morphology and syntax iv Also have trouble understanding complex sentences that require knowledge of grammar rather than life itself  The dog was chased by the cat – difficult because it requires knowledge of passive voice  The car was chased by the dog – easier because dogs tend to chase cars and not visa versa 4 Aphasia: Wernicke’s Area a Damage to this area may result in this type of aphasia, which is characterized by: i Fluent speech with good intonation that does adhere to the rules for sentence formation but is semantically incoherent ii Difficulty in naming objects iii Word substitutions and creation of… iv Issues with semantics 5 Aphasia: Modularity a Symptoms of Wernicke’s and Broca’s i This tells us that neural connections exist between words that sound alike and words with similar meanings 6 Aphasia and Reading a Reading in English i An agrammatic aphasic (Broca’s area damage) could not read function words, even though he could read content words that sound the same  Witch vs. which  Hour vs. our 4

 Eye vs. I  Wood vs. would b Reading in Japanese i L damage cannot read Kana, which is based on sound (L side = language side) ii R damage cannot read Kanji, which is an ideographic writing system 7 Aphasia and Speaking a Tip of the tongue phenomenon (TOT) b Anomia: inability to find the word you want to say c Aphasics have linguistic symptoms due to damage to their language faculty – rather than general cognitive or intellectual impairment or loss of control of speech organs 8 Aphasia and Deafness a Deaf aphasics have similar symptoms to hearing aphasics i Damage to Broca’s area – diffluent, agrammatic signing ii Damage to Wernicke’s area – fluent but not meaningful 9 Aphasia in History a Ancient Greek physicians noticed that loss of speech often occurred alongside paralysis of the right side of the body b Numerous reports of patients losing linguistic ability but not general cognitive abilities were published between the 15th and 18th centuries c These historical cases along with modern research provide evidence that language is predominately located in the left hemisphere (for most people) 10 Brain Imaging Technology a MRI and CT scans can reveal lesions in the brain soon after damage occurs b fMRI, PET and SPECT scans can show brain activity c These scans can be used to see the different areas of the brain that are used to accomplish various linguistic tasks, such as naming people, animals, and tools. i They can also be useful to study differences between L1 and L2 B Part 2: Plasticity & Lateralization 1 What is lateralization? 2 Lateralization begins very early a Wernicke’s area is visible in the L hemisphere of a 26-week-old fetus b Language appears more dominant in the L hemisphere even in one-week-old babies c BUT i Language doesn’t have to be localized in the L hemisphere ii While language is predisposed to be in the L, children’s brain… d Plasticity decreases with age e A left hemispherectomy in an adult will result in severe language impairment f R hemisphere is important for L1 acquisition i Have to learn to match the concept to the language g Children with early damage to the R hemisphere may have trouble with vocabulary h If the R hemisphere is removed before age 2, language may never develop 3 Split Brain a Patients may have their corpus callosum severed for medical reasons (epilepsy) 5

b Cuts communication off between L and R hemispheres c Experiments with such patients provide more evidence for the localization of language… 4 Dichotic Listening: How does that work? a Hearing out of both ears and it goes to opposite ends of the brain i Hear out of left ear, you process it on right side of the brain and visa versa  Contralateral processing b Language is mostly in the left hemisphere so therefore hearing things in your right ear is processed faster than when its heard through the left ear (has to cross from right hemisphere to left via corpus callosum) i Right ear accuracy and advantage c ERPs i Electric signals emitted from the brain ii Linguistic sounds are processed in the L hemisphere 5 Language Autonomy (from general cognitive ability) a Specific Language Impairment (SLI): some children who have not suffered brain damage and have no general cognitive deficits have trouble acquiring language  Sounds like people that have suffered Broca’s damage ii Different components may be affected. Many have problems with grammatical function words/morphemes iii Such cases again support the idea that language ability is separate from general cognitive ability – not effecting any other cognitive processes just language b Savants: intellectually disabled people who have remarkable talents in certain areas i Laura: IQ 41 yet could produce complex sentences and could detect grammatical errors ii Christopher: IQ 60 yet spoke like a native speakers and could translate as many as 20 languages into English c Language doesn’t equal cognition – as shown from these examples 6 Genetic Basis of Language a Children with Turner syndrome, Williams syndrome and Klinefelter’s syndrome i Such disorders are generic (chromosomal anomalies) that show a person can have language difficulties yet nonlinguistic cognition remains relatively intact b Identical twins are more likely to both suffer from SLI than fraternal twins III Critical Period A Critical-Age Hypothesis: assumes that the ability to learn a native language develops between birth and middle childhood 1 Not just for humans 2 For example, during the period of 9-21 hours after hatching ducklings will follow the first moving object they see a Biological instincts B Language development 1 Several instances of children being deprived of linguistic exposure during the critical period for various reasons: a Victor, Genie, Chelsea 6

b These children did not know ANY language when they were reintroduced to society c They were able to learn words but were not able to fully learn grammar 2 Genie a Only minimal human contact until age 14 b DID acquire: large vocabulary, nonverbal communication c DID NOT acquire: many grammatical skills: articles, auxiliary verbs, inflectional suffixes, question words i Language was lateralized to the RIGHT hemisphere  Hypothesis: language centers in Genie’s brain atrophied d Very rare case 3 Chelsea a Born deaf, wrongly diagnosed as mentally disabled b Age 31: diagnosed as deaf, given hearing aids, began intense language training and therapy i Large vocabulary but not skilled in grammar ii Language activity is located in both hemispheres c More common case – especially in third world countries 4 Deaf children a Deaf children born to hearing parents also provide information about the criticalage hypothesis b Babies who are exposed to ASL up to age 6 are significantly more fluent than those not exposed until age 12 c The cases of Genie, Chelsea, and late ASL learners show that people cannot fully acquire a language unless they are exposed to it during the critical period C Evolutionary debates 1 Is language species-specific? How separated is human language from other primate communication? 2 What role did the evolution of the speech production and perception apparatus have in the evolution of language? 3 Did language evolve in one large leap or in several steps? IV What’s going to be on the quiz: A Aphasia 1 Broca’s area a What aspects of language is affected – morphology and syntax 2 Wernicke’s area a What aspects of language is affected – semantics 3 What does these disorders (above) of the brain show about lateralization a Language primarily functions in the left hemisphere in most people B Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 1 Strong vs. weak version – language determinism vs. language relativism C Chomsky (UG) vs. Skinner (Behaviorism) D Critical period hypothesis – evidence/cases to support 1 Genie and Chelsea E Parts of the brain – vocabulary 1 Corpus callosum 7

2 Dichotic listening tasks F Human language vs. animal communication (look at reading)

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