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CHAPTER 10
Karen Meador
The Study of Language
Linguists – study the “rules” of
language (what we do when we
write, speak or talk)
Psycholinguists – study verbal
behavior and human cognition
Speech & Comprehension
Comprehension of speech
consists of:
• Recognition of words
• Understanding grammatical structure
of words, phrases & sentences
• Comprehending meaning
PHONEMES
• THE BUILDING BLOCKS
OF SPEECH!
• Smallest unit of sound
with meaning
• Affected by following
sounds
• Context affects strings
of sounds
Meaning
• Grammatical Rules- known
as Syntactical Rules
• Explicit – we can learn to
express the rules &
application
• Implicit – do not need to
know rules to speak &
understand
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Word Order
Word Class – categories (noun, adj., etc.)
Function Words – a, the, some, but, etc.
Affixes – prefixes & suffixes
Word Meanings
Prosody – intonation & emphasis
Semantics
• Word Meanings
• CONTENT WORDS
help us to
understand meaning
of sentences
• (Whereas Function Words
help us to understand
syntax)
DEEP STRUCTURE
• By Noam Chomsky (linguist)
• Meaning of a sentence without regard
for grammatical features needed to
verbally express it
• Sentences in brain formed in terms
of meaning
SCRIPTS
• Characteristics
typical to a
particular
situation
• Assist in
comprehending
stories
BRAIN MECHANISMS
• SPEECH
PRODUCTION
• Controlled by Frontal
Lobes
BROCA’s
AREA
Broca’s Aphasia
• Slow, nonfluent speech
• Meaningful but not
grammatical
• Aggramatism
• Impaired comprehension
SPEECH COMPREHENSION
• Recognition controlled by upper
Left Temporal Lobe
• In the Auditory Association Cortex
• Location of Wernicke’s Area
• Comprehension from surrounding
areas
Wernicke’s
Aphasia
• Poor speech recognition /
comprehension
• Meaningless speech
production
• Fluent
• Grammatical
• Nonsense words
RECOGNITION
VS.
COMPREHENSION
 Wernicke’s Area
 Area surrounding
Wernicke’s Area
 Perceptual only
 Additional information
from Long-Term Memory
 No Meaning
 Meaning
Pure Word Deafness –
only Wernicke’s Area damaged
Ability to hear, speak
and (usually) write
No comprehension of
meaning of spoken
words
Can comprehend
reading lips, writing,
nonspeech sounds, etc.
Isolation Aphasia –
area around Wernicke’s Area damaged only
• Inability to
comprehend
speech
• Meaningless
speech
• Can repeat
words
• Can learn new
sequences
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Some key words Psycholinguistics
Phoneme
Syntactics
Semantics
Deep Structure
Script
• Broca’a Area and
Aphasia
• Aggrammatism
• Wernicke’s Area
and Aphasia
• Pure Word
Deafness
• Isolation Aphasia
READING
• Writing began in
Sumeria around
4000 BC
• Pictographs
• Phoenician > Greek >
Roman > Modern
European
Scanning Text
• Eye Tracker- monitors position of
pupil
• Saccades – rapid eye jumps
• Fixation – when eye does not move
– Gathering visual information
– Approximately 250 milliseconds
• Longer on long or unusual words
• Longer on content words than function words
Recognition of Words
• PHONETIC
– Decoding sounds that letters or groups
of letters make
– “sound reading”
• WHOLE-WORD
– Decoding word as a whole – needed in
languages where there are irregular
words (such as English)
– “sight reading”
DYSLEXIAS
• Surface Dyslexia
– Deficit in whole-word reading
– Pronunciation problems with irregular
words, not comprehension
• Phonological Dyslexia
– Deficit in phonetic reading
– Problems with unfamiliar words or
pronounceable nonwords
DYSLEXIAS (Cont’d.)
• Direct Dyslexia
– Ability to read words aloud without
understanding them
• Shows a comprehension deficit
– Cannot read pronounceable nonwords
• Shows a phonetic deficit
• Dyslexia results from damage to the
Left Parietal or Temporal lobe
Meaning – Content
Words
Memories from
experience
– Visual
– Auditory
– Gustatory
– Somatosensory
– Olfactory
Meaning – Content
Words (cont’d.)
• Adjectives remembered in
relation to personal
experience
– (such as “old” – an old man, an
old newspaper, etc.)
• Abstract words understood
as adjectives first
– (such as “honesty” remembered in
terms of honest people)
Meaning – Function
Words
• Understanding is more
abstract
• Most likely represented by
objects in relation to one
another
– (such as “under” – a car driving
under a bridge)
Semantic Priming
• A facilitating effect on
the recognition of words
related to a previously
presented word
• Similar meanings of
words
• Bread > butter, meal,
sandwich, cheese, etc.
• Some more key
words• Eye tracker
• Fixation
• Phonetic reading
• Whole-word
reading
• Surface Dyslexia
• Phonological
Dyslexia
• Direct Dyslexia
• Semantic
Priming
• Infants
– Prefer mother’s voice from
birth
– Well-developed auditory
system
– At two months, can
distinguish emotions in
voices
Prespeech
• At one month, crying leads to other
sounds
• At six months, sounds similar to speech
begin to occur
• Early communication
– Rejection
– Request
– Comment
• Protowords – strings of phonemes used
by infants
Early Speech
• Words come from
nonspeech sounds
• First words around one
year of age
• Two word combinations
around 18-20 months
Child-Directed Speech
Clear pronunciation and intonation
Refers mostly to familiar objects,
using content words
Gradually becomes more complex as
child learns
Emphasis on keeping child’s attention
Topics usually revolve around child’s
focus
ADULT GRAMMAR
 Object words become noun
phrases
 Verbs are added next,
along with some function
words
 Inflection – change in form
of word (such as a suffix)
to show grammatical
change
Acquisition of Meaning
• Pairings of objects with words repeatedly
• Overextension – the use of a word to
denote a larger class of items than is
appropriate
– for example, calling anything furry a dog
• Underextension – use of a word to denote a
smaller class of items than is appropriate
– for example, only calling his pet a dog and not
other dogs
• Finally, some
more key words –
• Protowords
• Child-Directed
Speech
• Inflection
• Overextension
• Underextension
THE
END!!