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Summary Psychology Of Language (800144-B-6)
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All lectures of the course Psychology of Language of the pre-master Communication and Information sciences
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Summary Psychology of LanguageTilburg University 2021
800144-B-6
This document contains all relevant material for the exam, including the lectures and the book of the
pre-master course Psychology of Language.
Celeste Graumans
,Inhoud
Lecture 1; Introduction ............................................................................................................3
Lecture 2; Origins of Human Language ..................................................................................4
Lecture 3; Language and the Brain.........................................................................................9
Lecture 4; Learning Sound Patterns part 1 ...........................................................................15
Lecture 5; Learning Sound Patterns part 2 ...........................................................................21
Lecture 6; Learning Words ...................................................................................................27
Lecture 7; Learning the Structure of Sentences ....................................................................30
Lecture 8; Speech Perception ..............................................................................................35
Lecture 9; Word Recognition ................................................................................................39
Lecture 10; Understanding Sentence Structure and Meaning ...............................................43
Lecture 11; Speaking: From Planning to Articulation ............................................................50
Lecture 12; Discourse and inference ....................................................................................54
Lecture 13; The Social Side of Language .............................................................................60
, Lecture 1; Introduction
Lecture 1 – The Science of Language
What is language?
A system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate, a combination between
stored knowledge and knowledge of rules and how to combine those units.
- A system of form-meaning pairings that can be used to intentionally communicate
meaning
System: there is structure to the madness (sound, written)
Form-meaning pairings: of different sizes, at various levels of specificity
Use: different modalities, production and perception
Intentionally: producer wants to achieve something (bring me a cup of tea)
Communicate meaning: various communicative goals
- Always a good point when you do research:
o What is the object of study?
o What is (and what isn’t) part of it?
o What does it look like?
o What is it used for?
Language as a system
Usually thought of as ‘rules’ but (psycho)linguists are NOT prescriptivists. We describe and
try to understand and perhaps predict systematicities at different levels: sounds, words,
phrases, clauses, sentences, discourse. De manier van woorden achter elkaar. Rules in the
language (stress). Contribute by misspeaking.
Form-meaning pairings
The intuitive form-meaning unit is a word, but we will see that there are units of different
sizes;
- Un in unpleasant
- Work hard, strong coffee (and not work strong, hard coffee)
- The X-er the Y-er (the sooner the better; the more you pay attention, the more you’ll
remember
Meaning to the part into that structure
Language use
- Language is spoken and heard, signed and seen and written and read.
- Language is acquired, learned, and sometimes forgotten or lost
o Not born with language
o Early years
o Learn the basics, one or more language
Intentional communication
- We know that we can use language
- We don’t necessarily know how we do it: there is much about which we are unaware
(how do you move your tongue when you speak?)
Communicating meaning
- We use language to exchange information, to express emotions, to convince others
etc.
, Linguistics – the study of language
Language can be studied in a number of different ways, at different levels and with different
foci
- Semantics: the (study of) meaning
- Syntax: the study of word order, the scope of a single sentence, from the capital to
the dot. What is the valid word order in the language? In a given language, the set of
‘rules’ that specify how meaningful linguistic elements are put together so that their
meaning can be clearly understood
- Morphology: the study of words and word formation, and how you make words in a
language. Not only what words mean, but more how do you make a plural out of a
singular. maar meer hoe maak je een meervoud van een enkelvoud.
- Pragmatics: the study of language use, how language is used.
- Phonetics: the study of raw sounds, the physical aspect of language, sound waves:
the study of air pressure that is part of the language.
- Phonology: the study of how sounds are used within a language, the way sounds
are used and represented in the brain/head. When you actually pronounce the letters,
rather than they are physically represent (phonology vs. phonetics)
Psychology of language
The study of language in mind and brain
- Focus on acquiring and processing language
- Often from a cognitive point of view (memory, attention)
- Approaching language from a functional perspective
Evidence
If this is the field of study, what types of evidence would we need and value when we
research it?
- Actual language use (production and perception)
- Language processing data: eye tracking, brain activity
- Behavior as influenced by language
- Attitudinal measures
- Errors, problems in language use
Lots of experimental data (reaction times in lexical decision tasks)
- Tightly controlled for many factors, but…
- Not very realistic / close to what people do in real life
Lecture 2; Origins of Human Language
Lecture 2 – Origins of Human Language
No scientific agreement
Is language uniquely human? Are humans hardwired for language? How do languages
develop?
,Yes uniquely + yes human hardwired: something in our genes makes us, at least for
language, learning superior to other animals. We are better at this and we are the only one
who can do this. Humans (and humans only) are genetically predisposed to acquire and use
language.
Yes uniquely + no human hardwired: this cognitive and physical abilities can also be used
for something else (memory tasks) and we are just lucky that we can use language. Humans
(and humans only) have the cognitive and physical abilities to acquire and use language.
These abilities are not unique to language.
No uniquely + yes human hardwired: we are not that special. Some coding, parts of our
body, brains, develops specifically for language. But that is not special in us, other animals
have the same developments. Humans and (some?) animals are genetically predisposed to
acquire and use language.
No uniquely + no human hardwired: nothing is special, humans and some animals can
communicate, are not there for language especially, but we can use it for language as well.
Humans and (some?) animals have the cognitive and physical abilities to communicate.
Nativism
The view that not only are humans genetically programmed to have a general capacity for
language, particular aspects of language ability are also genetically specified. (yes + yes
combination)
- This means that there is something in our genes that is pre-exposed to start using
language. (Very dominant a few decades ago)
Nativist view: The view that not only are humans genetically programmed to have a general
capacity for language, particular aspects of language ability are also genetically specified.
Anti-nativist view: is that language is not an innate instinct but a magnificent by-product of
our impressive cognitive abilities. Humans alone learn language, not because we inherit a
preprogrammed language template, but because we are the super learners of the animal
kingdom. The view that the ability of humans to learn language is not the result of a
genetically programmed ‘language template’ but is an aspect (or by-product) of our extensive
cognitive abilities, including general abilities of learning and memory.
Is lanugage uniquely human?
- Depends partially on what you define as ‘language’
Differences between apes and humans
What linguistic ability we attribute to primates is often in the eye of the beholder.
Humans / children Apes
Universal acquisition in children Variable acquisition in apes
Children experiment and innovate Apes copy
Children bablle Apes don’t
Children’s grammar becomes more Apes signs are repeated
complex
Humans apply grammatical rules Apes apply grammatical rules inconsistently
consistently
Humans use words to comment and Apes use signs as tools to get things (96%
express intentions (think out loud) are requests) (attention, food)
Humans interrupt not that much Apes interrupt far more than humans
,Can apes learn human language?
Yes, if you limit language to
- The here and now: apes cannot talk about the past time.
- Little or no syntax
- Explicitly taught material: what they know, stays at the same level, because they do
not experiment.
And exclude the ability to reject bad sentences (reflexiveness). Exclude the ‘rules’
No, if you mean language to include
- A timeline (past, present, future)
- Syntax: grammar rules
- Unsupervised learning and acquisition
- The ability to reject bad sentences
- The use of questions
Animals can communicate, but they cannot use language.
Some critical notes on animal studies
- Behavior ≠ knowledge
o It is possible that animals know why they do things, but we cannot imply that,
unless we haven proof. We cannot be sure
- Absence of behavior ≠ absence of knowledge
o It is not because I don’t hear you sing, that you cannot do it
- More and more evidence of human-like non-language behavior in animals (mourning
elephants), so humans may not be so special after all → ethical concerns
Studies of Primates
- Bonobo’s monkey (Kanzi): makes different vocalizations in the context of different
objects (bananas vs. grapes)
- Mountain gorillas (Koko): learned to make signs with their hands (sign language)
- Chimpanzees (Nim): never learned to talk (could not vocalize), but did learn to make
signs.
Are humans hardwired for language?
Some part of our genes that gives us language abilities.
- Double dissociation: you can have on good language without the other good
thought, so they are at least partially separate and are not the same thing.
Domain-general vs. domain-specific perspective
- Domain-specific: means that a mental processing unit deals with some kinds of
information, but not others. The visual system responds to light but not to sound.
- Domain-general:
You can have one (language) without the other (thoughts), so they must be at least partially
independent.
, Good language ability + good cognitive abilities: ‘normal’
Good language ability + poor cognitive abilities: you can have sophisticated languages
shills despite poor functioning in non-language thought domains. (Williams syndrome,
Christopher). Struggling with drawing, memory, but good in language ability.
- Linguistic savants: autistic, do experience cognitive thinks, but not in languages.
Poor language ability + good cognitive abilities: specific language impairment. You do
not need language to think. Brother John still capable to think through periodic failures to
speak)
Poor language ability + poor cognitive abilities: Down Syndrome.
Design features of languages (Hockett, 1960)
Related to the channel of communication
- Vocal-auditory channel: universal to all languages. Language is produced in the
vocal tract and transmitted as sound. Sound is perceived through the auditory
channel.
- Broadcast transmission and directional reception: language can be heard from
many directions, but it is perceived as coming form one particular location.
- Rapid fading: the sound produced by speech fades quickly.
- Specialization: the production of the sounds of language serves no purpose other
than to communicate.
Hardwiring ?
Related to the interactive aspect of language
- Interchangeability: a user of a language can sends and receive the same message.
- Total feedback: senders of a message can hear and internalize the message they’ve
sent.
- Traditional transmission: the specific language that’s adopted by the user has to be
learned by exposure to other users of that language; its precise details are not
available through genetic transmission. (Not unique to language)
- Learnability: users of one language can learn to use a different language. (Not
unique to language)
Related to the content and structure of language
- Semanticity: there are fixed associations between units of language and aspects of
the world. Refers to the idea that language can communicate meaning and that
specific signals can be assigned specific meanings.
- Arbitrariness (willekeur): the meaningful associations between language and the
world are arbitrary. Refers to the fact that there is no necessary relationship between
actual objects/events in the world and the symbols that a language uses to represent
those objects/events (as of tomorrow we call cats as lerps). There is no inherent
connection between the sound and the sound of the world does not have any
connection with how it’s shaped in the real word.
o Tree does not say anything about the shape of the tree. Most of the time there
is no connection of the sign and the meaning.
- Discreteness: the units of language are separate and distinct from one another than
being part of a continuous whole. Refers to the idea that components of the language
are organized into a set of distinct categories, with clear boundaries between different
categories. Language can be broken down into units.
- Displacement: language can be used to communicate about things that are not
present in time and/or space. Refers to a language’s ability to convey information
about events happening out of sight of the speaker (spatial displacement), about
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