Gen Psy Lecture 11A Language
Key:12,7,4,16,9,13,2,8,5,14,6,10,15,1,11,3
Lecture 11A Language
Language is a system of symbols and rules used to communicate ideas. It is the basis of all concepts and
propositions, and thus the basis of knowledge including philosophy, sciences and theology.
1. The nature of language
A. The elements:
The word: the unit is phoneme (phonology) in sound and morpheme (morphology) in meaning.
Consider how many phonemes and morphemes are there in the word “psychology”, and “languages”.
The syntax: The rules for placing words in proper order to form meaningful sentences.
The meaning: the deep structure of language, it is what semantics is concerned.
B. The properties: Semanticity, Productivity, displacement,
C. The acquisition: Learned or innate? The psycholinguistic theory of Chomsky-language acquisition
device (LAD).
2. The processing
A. Speech: place of articulation and manner of articulation, McGurk effect; phonetic boundary for the
discrimination of phoneme (voiced and unvoiced such as /p/ and /t/), restoration. The contextual
effect of recognition in phoneme and meaning.
B. Reading: word-superiority effect, fixations and saccades
C. Relationship with cognition and intelligence: Linguistic-relativity hypothesis, Dependence and
independence from intelligence [findings from William syndrome].
3. The uniqueness of language in human
A. Human brain and articulators: The language centers of Broca and Wernike, the connection of these
centers with other areas, different kinds of aphasia.
B. Could other animals have language?
4. What could the implications of language on faith?
A. What could the meaning of language in the bible?
B. What could be the functions of language in specifying God or faith?
Exercises before the class (please fill in the blanks with the words below:
1
The basic units of sound in speech.
2
The study of the basic sounds in a language.
3
The smallest significant unit of meaning in a language.
4
The study of meaning in a language.
5
The rules for placing words in proper order to form meaningful sentences.
6
The study of the meanings of a language.
7
Words are used as symbols for objects, events, or ideas.
8
The capacity to combine words into original sentences.
9
To communicate information about objects/events in another time and place.
10
Neural prewiring that facilitates the child’s learning of grammar.
11
The view that language determines or influence our perception of the world.
12
An area in the left frontal cortex specially for the production of speech.
13
An area in the left temporal cortex specially for the reception of speech.
14
A disorder of language production or reception.
15
America Sign Language, communicate with symbols formed by moving the hands and arms.
16
Pictorial word.
Broca area (1,12) Semanticity (7,8) Lexigram (3,16) Displacement (9,10) Wernike area (2, 13) Phonology (2,6)
Productivity (8,11) Syntax (3, 5) Aphasia (1,14) Morphology (4,5) Semantics (6, 15) Language Acquisition
Device LAD (3,10) ASL, Phoneme, Linguistic relativity hypothesis, Morpheme.