Chapter 8 - Language and Thought

The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.

A language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages.

- Symbolic- Semantic- Generative- Structured

People use spoken sounds and written words to represent objects, actions, events, and ideas.

The symbols used in a language have shared meanings.

A limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways to generate an endless array of novel messages.

- Although people can generate an infinite variety of sentences, these sentences must be structured in a limited number of ways. - Rules govern the arrangement of words into phrases and sentences; some arrangements are acceptable and some are not. - The structure of language allows people to be inventive with words and still understand each other.

- Phonemes- Morphemes- Semantics- Syntax

- The smallest speech units in a language can be distinguished perceptually. - The English language is composed of about 40 phonemes (the 26 letters of the alphabet plus several variations). - A letter in the alphabet can represent more than one phoneme if it has more than one pronunciation.

- The smallest units of meaning in a language.- There are approximately 50,000 english morphemes. - Each morpheme contributes to the meaning of an entire word.

- The area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations.- A word's meaning may consist of both its denotation (its dictionary definition) and its connotation (its emotional overtones and secondary implications).

- A system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences.- A sentence must have both a subject and a verb.- An article always comes before the word it modifies.

- Before infants utter their first words, they are making remarkable progress in learning the sound structure of their native language.- As they develop through the first year of life, the language acquisition systems of the infant become tuned to the speech properties of their native language.- By 7.5 months, infants begin to recognize common word forms and by 8 months many infants show the first signs of understanding the meanings of familiar words. - Infants also produce a wide variety of sounds called babbling (repetitive consonant-vowel combinations).- Babbling lasts until around 18 months, continuing even after children utter their first words. - They can comprehend more words spoken by others than they can actually produce to express themselves.

- The process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure.

- Babbling allows the infant to acquire the basics of language.- Babbling is a function of the continuing maturation of both the vocal tract and the neurophysiological mechanisms that are related to the mechanical production of speech.