Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Language:
Nature and Acquisition
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Psycholinguistics
• The study of acquisition, storage,
comprehension, and production of
language
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Language
• Organized way to combine words to
communicate
• Language is unique to humans
• A communication system that is
learned instead of biologically
inherited
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Four Areas in Psycholinguistics
• Linguistics
– Emphasis on universals of language
• Neurolinguistics
– Emphasis on brain changes during language use
• Sociolinguistics
– Emphasis on relationship between language and
society
• Computational linguistics
– Emphasis on computer models of natural language
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Properties of Language
• Communicative
• Arbitrarily symbolic
• Regularly structured
• Structured at multiple levels
• Generative
• Dynamic
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Communicative Property
• Language is used to communicate
• Communication has meaning
• Individuals can send and receive
information
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Arbitrarily Symbolic
• No connection between symbol and concept
• Words do not have to look or sound like what
they describe
– Principle of conventionality
• Meanings of words are determined by conventions
– Principle of contrast
• Different words have different meanings
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Generative Property of Language
• Using rules of language can create an
unlimited number of new utterances
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Dynamic Nature of Language
• Allows for new developments with the
creation of new words and ideas
– Blog
• Online diary meant to be read by others
– Spam has a new meaning
• Weird meat in a can
• Unwanted email
– Shut Up! Has new meaning
• One meaning is to quit talking
• YouthSpeak for “Really?”
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Structure of Language
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
• Phoneme
Phonology
– Smallest unit of speech
– Sounds of language
– /s/ /f/ /t/ /l/ /ae/ represent the sounds
common in English
– Different languages use different sets of
phonemes
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Morphology
• Study of word structure
• Morpheme
– The smallest unit that denotes meaning
Root words
Cake
Chair
Boy
Prefixes
Pre- Non- Un-
Suffixes
-ly
-ist
-ness
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Morphology
• Content Morphemes
– Word that conveys the core of the meaning
(e.g., attractive, happy)
• Function Morphemes
– Add nuances to core meaning (e.g.,
unattractive, happiness)
• Lexicon
– Entire set of morphemes for a language
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Syntax
• Rules used to put words together for a
sentence
• Sentence = Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase
• Noun phrase [NP]
– Contains a noun and relevant descriptors
• Verb phrase [VP]
– Contains at least one verb and possibly
objects it acts upon
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Semantics
• The study of meaning in a language
– To best understand semantics, read the
following sentences:
The honest umbrella is in the garage.
The salty craftsman appreciate the quality of
the product.
Cindy slept badly due to the sniffing dream.
– Knowing that the sentences do not make
sense is your knowledge of semantics
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Language Comprehension
• Three primary approaches
– Speech perception
– Grammatical structure approach
– Discourse macro-level analysis
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Speech Perception
• We hear sounds
• Put sounds together to form words
• Comprehend the phrases of another’s
sentences
• Understand the ideas being conveyed
• Often done with slurred, accented, or
incomplete speech input
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Speech Perception
• Coarticulation: Phonemes overlap in time
so:
– Context can interfere with speech signal
– Variability in speech signal
– No one-to-one correspondence between the
acoustic stimuli and the speech sounds we hear
• How do we recognize sounds in a way so a
stable set of phonemes is perceived?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Speech Perception is “Ordinary”
• Phonetic refinement theory
– Analyze auditory signals
– Then go to higher level processing using
context to help figure out what is heard
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Phoneme Restoration Effect
• Warren & Warren (1970)
– It was found that the *eel was on the axle
– It was found that the *eel was on the shoe
– It was found that the *eel was on the orange
– It was found that the *eel was on the table
• * was a cough but it was heard as the
missing phoneme implied by the context
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Speech Perception is “Special”
• Evidence of categorical perception
– Continuous dimension perceived as
discrete
• Sudden break between categories
• No discrimination within categories
Continuous = Actual sounds
Discrete = Actual perception
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Categorical Perception
• Voice onset time (VOT)
– The time between the beginning of the
pronunciation of the word and the onset of the
vibration of the vocal chords
• "ba" your vocal chords vibrate right from the start
• "pa" your vocal chords do not vibrate until after a
short delay
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Categorical Perception
• The sounds "ba" and "pa" differ on the
continuous dimension of VOT
• Listeners can differentiate between /p/
and /b/; however, performance in
distinguishing between different types
of /p/ sounds is difficult
• Gives support for idea that specialized
processes are being used
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
McGurk Effect
• Lip movements to one sound “ba”
• Soundtrack indicates “da”
• What do you hear?
• McGurk & MacDonald (1976) found
that people make a comprised sound
“tha”
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Semantics
• Denotation
– Definition of the word
• Connotation
– Additional nuances of word meaning
(emotional, social, cultural)
• Consider these examples
– Bachelor, Spinster
– Hungry, Starving
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Syntax
• The grammatical arrangement of words
into a sentence or phrase
• Descriptive grammar
– Describe the structures, functions, and
relationships of words in language
• Prescriptive grammar
– The “Correct” way to structure sentences
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Syntactical Priming
• Exposure to a particular syntactic
structure leads speakers to reproduce
the same structure in subsequent
speech
• Considered a priming phenomena
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Example of Syntactical Priming
• If you just heard
– The cat is being chased by the dog.
• You are more likely to say:
The mouse is being chased by the cat.
versus
The cat is chasing the dog.
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Other Evidence for Power of Syntax
• Speech errors
– Switch nouns for nouns
– Verbs for verbs
– Prepositions for prepositions
• Sample Error
– The butter drawers are in the knife.
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Phrase Structure Grammar
• Psycholinguists use phrase structure rules
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
PS 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, dog, man, book
PS 5 V (verb) = ate, broke, kissed
PS 6 adj (adjective) = quiet, red, happy, wormy
PS 7 det (determiner) = a, the
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Syntax & Tree Diagrams
• Tree diagrams are used to reveal
relationships between and within phrases
– The shy girl hid the broken cup.
S
NP
det
The
VP
adj
N
V
shy
girl
hid
NP
det
adj N
the broken cup
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Create Tree Diagrams
• The rude girl pushed the boy.
• Wild horses ran the plains.
• Sally kissed the crying child.
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Chompsky’s Transformational
Grammar
• Grammar that explains how the underlying
propositions can be rearranged to form multiple
phrase structures
– Deep Structure
• The structure of the sentence that conveys the
connections between sentences
– Surface Structure
• The actual phrase structures that may occur from
transformations
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Transformational Grammar
• Use phrase-structure rules to generate
the underlying tree structure (deep
structure)
• Apply a sequence of transformational
rules to the deep structure to generate
the surface structure of the sentence
• Transformations occur by adding,
deleting, or moving constituents
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Problem with Transformational
Grammar
• When converting the deep structure to
surface structure, the number of
transformation rules applied should
affect how long it takes to process a
sentence
• Experiments do not consistently show
that this is true
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Lexical Functional Grammar – Thematic
• Constituent Structure
– Similar to phrase structure
• Functional Structure
– All the information needed for semantic
interpretation (subj, obj, past tense
information)
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Lexical Functional Grammar – Thematic
• Lexical Entries
– The forms of the word and the kinds of
sentences into which they fit (Thematic
Roles)
• Underlying semantic structure for “kiss”
– kiss: (agent, patient)
• Forms of the word :
– kiss: agent = subject: patient = object
– (be) kiss: agent=object: patient = subject
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Language Acquisition
• Universal Stages
– Cooing
– Babbling
– One-word utterances
– Two-word utterances
– Basic adult structure
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Cooing
• Cooing is universal across countries
• Eimas (1985)
–
–
–
–
Japanese and American Infants
Hear /l/ and /r/ sounds
Can distinguish
At age 1, Japanese children can no longer
distinguish (no need to in Japanese language)
• Lose ability to distinguish sounds not
relevant to our language at about 8 months
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Babbling
• Babble in phonemes of surrounding
language
• Repetition of similar/identical syllables
first
– Ba ba ba
– Ma ma ma
• End of stage varied babbling using
non-repeated phonemes
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
One-word Utterances
• Holophrases
– Blankie! Shoe! Book!
• Telegraphic (18-24 mo) 2 word stage
• Utterances are determined by semantic,
not syntactic concerns - the need to
communicate
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Children Speech Errors
• Overextension errors
• Doggie means all animals
• Blankie means all soft things
• Underextension errors
• Ball is used only when ball is under bed
• Kitty refers only to family pet
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Nature Support
• Language Acquisition Device
– Chompsky
• Proposes humans are biologically
ready to learn language
– Special nature of phoneme processing
– Ability to detect syntax
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Nurture Support
• Environment is necessary during critical
•
period of language development
Case studies of linguistically isolated
children
– Genie
– American sign language proficiency is
influenced by what age language is acquired
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
A Bit of Both Nature and Nurture…
• Hypothesis Testing View
– Children create hypotheses about patterns
based on their inherited skills for
language acquisition
• Imitation Theory
– Children imitate parents
– Not sufficient to explain how they learn
all nuances
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Animal Language Provides
• Simpler models
• Fewer ethical constraints than humans
• Full time subjects over whom we can
exert complete control of environment
• Comparative analysis
• Differentiate between skills that are
uniquely human and those that are not
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Grey Parrots: Irene Pepperberg & Alex
• What color is corn?
– Alex’s answer
yellow
– Alex’s answer
color
• What’s the same?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Grey Parrots: Irene Pepperberg & Alex
• Labels for more than 35 objects (e.g., paper, key,
wood, cork, etc.)
• Functional use of No
• Phrases such as I want X, Wanna go Y where X
and Y are appropriate words
• Labels for 7 colors
• Can identify number of items up to 6
• Alex can use vocabulary to identify proficiently,
request, refuse, categorize, and quantify more
than 100 different objects
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Washoe
• Gardners (1966) taught sign language to
•
•
•
•
chimpanzee named Washoe
Always used sign language in Washoe’s
presence
Washoe was able to use term more
appropriately in different contexts
First use was more tickling
Transferred the sign dog to the sound of
barking by an unseen dog
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Washoe
• Bodamer, Fouts, Fouts, & Jensvold (1994)
– Studied private signing by chimpanzees
– Found private signing is robust
• Gardner & Gardner (1989)
– Washoe adopted an infant named Loulis
– No humans signed in front of infant chimp
– Loulis still managed to learn over 50 signs from
other chimpanzees
– No active teaching, rather Loulis just learned
through observation among other signing
chimps
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Nim Chimpsky
• Terrace (1979)
– Skeptical of the reported success of the
chimpanzees like Washoe
– Compared their behavior to that of
pigeons who are taught to peck different
colors in a certain order
– Believed that apes only used signs to get
rewards from trainers
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Nim Chimpsky
• Raised Nim in a human-like setting
• Nim learned many words like dirty, sleep,
•
•
bite and angry
Nim did not learn to combine words to
create new meaning on his own
After the experiments were over, and Nim
was retired, he continued to sign. His mostused signs seemed to be drink, gum,
banana, and more
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. Sternberg
Chapter 9
Koko
• Patterson raising gorilla named Koko since 1972
• Taught Koko sign language
• Has a greater vocabulary than Nim
• Uses more words per utterances
• Patterson & Linden (1981)
•
•
– Koko uses structure, is creative and spontaneous in
her language
Koko now has a vocabulary of over 1000 signs, and
understands even more spoken English
Koko invented her own new compound signs (e.g.,
finger-bracelet for ring)