3/15/2015 1 Chapter 9: Language 2 Language Structure Semantics Errors Phonology Grice Maxims Syntax Whorf Language & Cognition Pragmatics Comprehension & Production Perception Neuro Text Sentence Word Meaning Modularity Intro Morphology Reading Story Grammars Introduction • What is language? – Organized system of combining words in order to communicate – Spoken, written, signed, … • Communication – Exchange of thoughts and feelings: language + gestures, glances, handshakes, etc. • Language universal – Every culture has language – Rules followed (but learning grammar difficult) – Common features across languages: sounds, meaning, syntax, … – Deaf children invent language 3 Characteristics of Language • Hockett proposed 14 common characteristics of language, including following: – Semanticity: conveys meaning – Arbitrariness: meaning unrelated to form – Discreteness: no continuous variables (saying things louder doesn’t change meaning) – Productivity: infinite possibilities (if Martians landed tomorrow, we could talk about them) – Displacement: can describe things that aren’t there (situational freedom) – Duality of Patterning: reuse simple meaningless units to create meaningful utterances 4 Structure of Language • Language complex process requires analysis at multiple levels (F9.1 +1) – Phonemes: sounds of language – Morphemes: smallest meaningful units – Syntax: rules for putting sentences together – Semantics: rules to associate meaning with sentences – Pragmatics: social assumptions of language • Many regularities and rules of which most users not even aware – Much Implicit Learning in language 5 A simple English sentence 6
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3/15/2015
1
Chapter 9: Language
2Language
Structure
Semantics Errors
Phonology
Grice Maxims
SyntaxWhorf
Language & Cognition
Pragmatics
Comprehension & Production
Perception
Neuro
TextSentence
Word Meaning
Modularity
Intro
Morphology
ReadingStory
Grammars
Introduction• What is language?
– Organized system of combining words in order to communicate
– Spoken, written, signed, …
• Communication– Exchange of thoughts and feelings: language +
gestures, glances, handshakes, etc.
• Language universal– Every culture has language– Rules followed (but learning grammar difficult)– Common features across languages: sounds,
meaning, syntax, …– Deaf children invent language
3 Characteristics of Language
• Hockett proposed 14 common characteristics of language, including following:– Semanticity: conveys meaning– Arbitrariness: meaning unrelated to form– Discreteness: no continuous variables (saying
• Experience and Discrimination of Speech Sounds – Hindi has two ts that sound identical to English speakers– All born to recognize speech sounds from any language,
but without support from environment, capacity is lost
100908070
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
%Correct
Hindi-speakingadults
6-8 months
8-10months
10-12months
English-speakingadults
Infants from English-speaking homes
11 Categorical Perception of Phonemes
• Categorical Perception– Perceive phonemes as falling into discrete
categories of sound
– /b/, /d/, /g/: Liberman et al (1957); Lisker & Abramson (1970) used synthetic speech and varied acoustic parameter in continuous way to produce gradual change from /b/ to /g/
– Labeling task: slide 13
– Comparison task: slides 14 & 15
– Both show evidence of categorical perception
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ba - ga
0102030405060708090
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
% "
ga
" r
esp
on
ses
13 Categorical Discrimination
0102030405060708090
100
1 vs 2 2 vs 3 3 vs 4 4 vs 5 5 vs 6 6 vs 7 7vs 8Perc
ent
Corr
ect
Dis
crim
inations
Even transition steps, but only reliably perceive 4 vs. 5 as
different
14
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Ba1 vs.
Ba3
Ba2 vs.
Ba4
Ba3 vs.
Pa5
Ba4 vs.
Pa6
Pa5 vs.
Pa7
Pa6 vs.
Pa8
Pa7 vs.
Pa9
# “
Sa
me
” r
esp
on
ses
Results for another 2600 Class
“Ba”= 1,2,3,4“Pa”= 5,6,7,8,9
15 Theories of Speech Perception• Two views
– Speech special– Speech just another form of auditory perception
• Motor Theory (speech special)– Hearing speech sound � activates representation of
how sound produced– Specialized module– Perceive categorically because produced that way
• Auditory Theory– Regular auditory processes– Match speech to closest prototype: various /b/ sounds
still sound like /b/ more than /g/
16
Morphology• Morphemes– Composed of phonemes– Smallest unit of language that
has meaning• dog, table, bake• -ed, -ing, • but not: /p/, /st/, cats
• Free morphemes: morphemes that stand alone– sleep, blue, at, the
• Bound morphemes: need to be combined with other morphemes– -s, -ful, -ness
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Morpheme practiceUnbreakable
Free: break
Bound: un-, -able
Mary unlocked her car.
Free: Mary, lock, car
Bound: un-, -ed
Inflectional Morphology• Changes usage without
altering basic meaning• Usually small grammatical
changes• Tense
– bake → baked, run →running
– English (usually) signals past tense using rule that adds -d, -t, or -Id
frequency in parent speech (italic #s), but other qualities (+1)
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1
2
4
3
5
6
7
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Syntax• Syntax or Grammar
– Concerns structure of sentences• Sentences have structure, more than words stuck together
haphazardly
• Sentences consist of constituents (parts) and syntax concerns rules about ordering constituents
– Two requirements• Valid for legal sentences AND invalid for illegal sentences
– Many speakers not aware of rules of syntax
• What makes these sentences different?– Bob chases Mary vs. Mary chases Bob– The intern who the president liked left vs. The intern
who liked the president left
25 Syntax Example
• Native speakers appreciate which of following are valid utterances• 1. She’s a red-haired student of physics
• 2. She’s a physics student with red hair
• 3. She’s a red-haired physics student
• 4. She’s a physics red-haired student
• 5. She’s a student of physics with red hair
• 6. She’s a student with red hair of physics
• What kind of syntactical rules do we “know” that allows for such discrimination?
26
Phrase Structure Rules• Sentences are made up of phrases
– In English, Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase, in that order
– Sentence � NP + VP
• Phrases consist of words and phrases
– NP � (DET) + (ADJ) + N
• A noun phrase is made up of an optional determiner, an optional adjective, and a noun
– VP � (AUX) + V + (NP) + (ADV)
• At least one verb and whatever the verb acts on (if anything)
• Phrase structure rules that underly a sentence can be conceptualized as Phrase Structure Tree (+1)
27 28
S�NP+VP
VP�(AUX)+V+(NP)+(ADV)NP�(DET)+(ADJ)+N
Psychological Reality of PS Rules
• Sentence memory studies– Transition Error Probability: in learning sentences,
people make more errors or stop at boundary between NP and VP
• Reading Pauses– Pauses longer and more distinct at phrase
structure boundaries
• Reaction Time– RT to initiate saying memorized sentence depends
on syntactic complexity of sentence (+1)
29 • RT to initiate saying memorized sentences varying in syntactic complexity– S-The river …– LL-The large and
raging river …
– LM-The river near their city …
– LH-The river that stopped flooding …
– …empties into the bay that borders the little town
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Transformational Grammar • Sometimes sentences are ambiguous
– Syntactic ambiguity• The kids saw the man with the telescope• Visiting relatives can be boring• The shooting of the hunters was terrible
• Transformational Grammar (Chomsky)– Two levels of structure
• Surface Structure: order of words in sentence• Deep Structure: tree diagram depicts abstract
grammatical relationships underlying sentence
• Transformational Rules: convert different phrase structures (e.g., active � passive)
– Ambiguous sentences have multiple possible deep structures (+1)
31 32
Semantics• How can theories explain following?– Anomaly: Why can’t we
say “Chocolate ice cream can drive a car”?
– Self-contradiction: Why can’t we say “My cat is not an animal”?
– Synonymy: Why does “John is not old enough” mean the same as “John is too young”?
– Entailment: Why does “Pat is my aunt” mean that Pat is female?
• Explained partly by Semantic Memory and Concepts & Categories
33
• Syntax also important for understanding– Syntax & Meaning
• The professor failed the student vs.
• The student failed the professor
• More in Language Comprehension & Production
Pragmatics• Social rules of language
– Do not interrupt, Stay on Topic, …– Language Conventions, such as Greetings (“hello”)
• Context matters– What you’re talking about – Who you are– Who you’re talking to
• Searle’s Speech Act Theory: different types of utterances entail different responses– Assertives: It’s cold today.– Directives: Open the window. (It’s hot in here.)– Commissives: I promise to study tonight.– Expressives: I thank you for helping me.– Declarations: You’re fired.
34
• Pragmatics may vary across cultures– How close to stand to other
person
– Nonverbal cues: tone, facial expression, …
• Develop early in childhood, for typical children (, +1)
35• Pragmatics includes non-literal (i.e., figurative)
aspects of meaning– “Sally dropped the ball on that one”
• After a baseball game vs. After a job interview– Metaphor, Irony, Sarcasm, …
• Pragmatics often exploited in advertising– Implications: ads may not explicitly say that their product
will cure your problems, but certainly implied (“Are you tired of feeling run-down?”)
• Pragmatic Language Observation Scale ()
36
• Pragmatic Rating Scale (�)– Autism Spectrum
Disorder, Fragile X, Down Syndrome, Typical
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Language Comprehension & Production
• Speech Perception– Complexities of auditory perception of speech
• Speech Errors in Production– Spoonerisms and other speech errors
• Retrieving Meaning of Single Words– Direct and Indirect Access
• Sentence Comprehension• Comprehending Text
• Gricean Maxims of Cooperative Conversation
37 Speech Perception• Complex perceptual task
– Speech is continuous. No clear pause or break in sound between words. (F9.4 +1)
– Phoneme sound depends on context (F9.5 +1)
• How do we do it?– Categorical perception: pa / da as function of VOT– Visual cues help identify sounds
• Talking face-to-face easier than phone• McGurk Effect: mouth movements affect perception of
sound demo: Auditory ba paired with visual ba/va/tha/gaproduces perception of ba/va/tha/da
– Use speech context• Phoneme Restoration Effect (+2)
38
39
No clear break between phonemes ()
Phonemes depend on surrounding context (�)
Phonemic Restoration Effect• Replace phoneme with cough (*)
– It was found that the *eel was on the axle.
– 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.
– People “hear” w, h, p, and m sounds without realizing they were missing.
– Context is very helpful!
40
Speech Production Errors• Sound Substitutions and
Movements– Sue keeps food in her vesk. d�v
– Keep your hands off my weet speas. s shifts
– We need to wash the pons and pats. Exchange sounds
• Meaning-Related Errors– I stubbed my finger.
• Rarely both, which suggests different stages of production
41
toe
finger
body part
“I stubbed my” …. TOE idea
Meaning & Single Words• How do we recognize individual words?• Have already discussed some relevant
theories and findings• Priming Effects in Lexical Decision Task (LDT)
– Related Prime � Target
– Faster than Unrelated Prime � Target
– Neely (+1) proposed two processes
• Two general models (+2)– Direct-Access: Word�Semantic Representation
– Human creation: about 3500 BC– Not universal: some cultures no written language
(orthography), dyslexics, illiteracy, …– Learned later, effortful, takes years to be fluent, …– Spaces between words, fonts more uniform, …– Reading spread across space, speech over time– Reader controls rate of input of text– More supplemental cues for speech (pragmatics)
51 Reading• Eye Fixations (demo +1)– Possible to monitor eye movements as people are
reading text– Feels continuous, but …– Series of Saccades (jumps) and Fixations
• Saccade: move from one point to another; no information processing
• Fixations: brief pauses to take in information; length depends on task and properties of material
– Content vs. Function words: fixate longer on meaningful, less on function words (the, or, an)
– Only about 65% of words fixated: skip some• Function, High frequency, Shorter• Highly constrained by context
– Familiarity: Word Frequency and Length– Slower to read sentences with higher Propositional
Complexity (units of meaning), not necessarily sentences with more words (F9.6, +1)
– Relations between sentences: “given” vs “new” information; best when “given” still in memory
• Sometimes requires inferences (e.g., Bridging Inferences)
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55 Eye Movements• Eyes always attending ahead in direction of
reading• Perceptual span
– Nearby letters that eyes see when fixated– English: 3 to left, 15 to right– Hebrew: 15 to left, 3 to right– Influenced by difficulty of text
• Parafoveal– Word length determination: fixate or skip?
• Perhaps why Dyslexics make smaller saccades
– Also some pre-processing of upcoming words?• Lower fixation time for words viewed parafoveally
56
• Context important for reading and understanding text– Ambiguous story (Box 9-
3): “If the balloons popped, the sound wouldn’t be able to carry since everything would be too far away from the correct floor. …”
– Memory much better if picture shown before story, but NOT if after story.
– Helps develop a coherent mental representation.
57 Story Grammar 58• Script for stories• Better memory
for stories that adhere to story grammar
• Stories “revised” in memory to fit script
• Higher level elements recalled better (see Box 9.4)
Maxims of Conversation• Grice proposed four maxims for cooperative
conversation– Quantity: Make contribution just as informative as
it needs to be, no more, no less
– Quality: Be truthful, or at least make it clear when you are being sarcastic!
– Relation: Be relevant
– Manner: Be clear, avoid ambiguity, be brief
• Inferences made about people who violate the maxims
59 Language and Cognition• Modularity hypothesis
(Fodor)– Language module set apart
from other thought processes (at least some aspects of language separate)
– Language domain specific: operates with certain kinds of input and not others
– Informationally encapsulated: operates independent of other cognitive processes (modules)
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Linguistic Relativity (Whorfian) Hypothesis
• In contrast to Modular Hypothesis, Whorf (1956) and others proposed that languages affect how people experience world and behave– Whorf studied North American Indian languages
– Proposed that language affects how people organize information
– Language used to pass knowledge across generations
– No words for concept = no concept• No words for green & blue, cannot talk about difference• No spatial terms, cannot use maps
61
ColourStudies
• Much research on colournaming, perception, & memory (Rosch, 1972)– Colours vary continuously
in wavelength of light ()– Languages vary in # colour
names (+1)– Americans many color
names and Dani only 2– Tested colour perception,
discrimination, & memory– NO differences??
• Universal model of colourperception?
62
63Color Terms Across Languages More Studies on Colour
• Recent studies report subtle effects• Roberson: study of Berinmo (+1)
– Recognition Memory Task• Shown colour chip and 30 seconds later tried to pick
chip from array of colour chips• Tended to select chips with same name in Berinmo,
rather than English colour “categories”
– Similarity Judgments• Shown 3 colour chips and choose which one least like
others• Excluded chip with different name even if closer to one
of others on colour spectrum: e.g., NOL1, NOL2, WOR
64
English (top) & Berinmo (bottom) 65 • Due to verbal encoding?– Study colour
chip
– Interference task: Verbal (colour names) or Visual (colourchips)