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Language

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Language

Lecture by Ms. Ayesha Abbas


 Language is a fundamental aspect of human communication
and cognition. It serves as a medium through which individuals
express their thoughts, emotions, and ideas.
 Theorists such as Vygotsky and Whorf have tried to explore the
effects of language on cognitive psychology.
 Similarly, they have tried to explore the significance of human

Introduction thought on language.


 Consequently, numerous outcomes have been received with
ranging views on their interpretation.
 Most theorists believe that language plays an important role in
enhancing cognitive psychology. In essence, language is a key
component of cognitive psychology since it acts as an
input/output of one’s thoughts.
 Language can be defined as a scheme that permits one to
articulate or converse his/her opinion or perception by
writing symbols or else by making a speech.
 It can also be defined as a distinctive system of
communication utilized by a definite language society which
Definition is defined by its unique phonological structure. Moreover,
this society is also defined by its unique vocabulary as well as
grammar.
 So, language conveys numerous aspects of a community which
includes their culture, traditions, and thoughts
 Language comprehension refers to the cognitive process by
which individuals understand and interpret spoken or written
language. It involves a complex interplay of various cognitive

Language processes, such as perception, attention, memory, and


reasoning.
Comprehensio  When we encounter a sentence or a speech, our brain
n automatically processes the linguistic input, extracting
meaning and context from the words and phrases.
Successful language comprehension relies on our knowledge of
grammar, vocabulary, and world knowledge.
 Parsing is a crucial component of language comprehension that
involves breaking down a sentence into its constituent parts
to understand the syntactic structure.
 The process of parsing helps us identify the relationships
Parsing between words, such as subject-verb-object arrangements and
modifiers, allowing us to make sense of the sentence's
underlying meaning. Parsing involves utilizing grammatical
rules and knowledge to create a mental representation of the
sentence's structure.
 The lexicon can be defined as a vocabulary of one’s
language.
 It has been observed through research and interaction that every
community tends to have its own language and lexicon.

Language and  Lexicon tries to define the unique sense of written signs along
with verbal communication. It also tries to give the elements of
Lexicon a language meaning in order to enhance understanding of that
language.
 Moreover, it brings to reality the ideas and concepts of any
given culture. Therefore, it provides a general guideline for
signals, gestures, and sounds in any given culture.
“Phoneme are the smallest unit of speech
which contributes to its linguistic meaning:
changing a phoneme will change the meaning
of a word.”  Spoken human language is generally considered to contain
structure at a number of different levels.
 The ‘lowest’ level that is generally addressed is in terms of the
acoustics of the speech, followed by phonetic information.
Phonemes are the building blocks of spoken language: getting
the right phonemes in the right order is often considered to give

The Language words their individual lexical identity.

system  The next levels of structure are lexical and morphological


structure, which refers to words and sub-structures of words
respectively. If words refer to distinct conceptual entities, then
the morphemes can be considered to form the units within
words which alter the meanings and status of words. These can
be thought of often as forming stems and affixes (e.g. walk,
“Morphemes are the units of meaning within words. A
word like ‘descendant’ contains a number of morphemes walk-ed, walk-ing, walk-er).
which contribute to its meaning (‘de-’ = from, ‘-scend-’ =
climb, ‘-ant’ = person with the property of).”
 Semantic representation refers to the meanings of words and
syntax refers to the grammatical rules that delineate how words
can be combined to make sentences.
 There are also pragmatic aspects of language, as well as
Semantics is the meanings of words and the
specific uses of language, such as metaphor, and the use of
ways that this knowledge is structured and language in discourse.
interpreted. Sentences can be ungrammatical
but fully semantically comprehensible (e.g. I  Spoken language has further distinctive properties such as
don’t want you to turn me down! I want you
to turn me yes!). speech rhythm and intonation. Though we typically consider
these different levels of language to form qualitatively distinct
stages, there is considerable interaction between some of these
levels.
 Words are the psychological linguistic structures that relate
directly to our experience. We use words as representations
that map onto the things and events that we want to describe.
 Words are arguably the basic units with which we engage with
Words and language: once we have learnt to read, we can decompose
Morphemes words into phonemes, but if we have not learnt to read, this
kind of detail is much harder to grasp.
 Words are also the level at which babies start to engage with
the elements of spoken language.
 Morphemes are syntactic structural units within a word, and can be
considered to refer to the smallest possible unit of meaning, but which is
not necessarily a word.
 The base, or stem of a morpheme assigns meaning to the word – for
example ‘bee’ is the stem or base of ‘bees’. Bee is also a ‘free’ or
unbound morpheme – it can appear without elaboration as a stand-alone
word.
 Prefixes are morphemes which come before a stem, such as ‘pre- in
‘prefigure’ or ‘ex-’ in ‘export’.
 Suffixes are morphemes which come after the stem, like the ‘-s’ in
‘bees’ or the ‘-ed’ in ‘carpeted’. These suffixes and prefixes are bound
morphemes – they cannot appear on their own as individual words.
 There is a lot of interest in the extent to which morphological
information is decoded in the perception of language. It has been
stressed that in speech, there is a strong overlap between morphological
structure and suprasyllabic structure such as lexical stress and prosody
 The primary purpose of language is communication, and its
utilization is diverse, encompassing various functions.
Language allows us to express thoughts and emotions, convey
information, persuade, entertain, and establish social
connections.
Utilization of  Effective language utilization involves not only understanding
Language the linguistic aspects but also being aware of the cultural and
social norms that shape communication.
 As language users, we adapt our language depending on the
audience, context, and purpose, demonstrating the dynamic
nature of language utilization.
 The relationship between language and thought has been a
topic of ongoing debate and exploration. Linguistic relativity,
also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, posits that the
structure of a language influences the way its speakers

Language and perceive and think about the world.

Thought  In other words, language shapes thought. While the strong


version of this hypothesis is contentious, research suggests that
language can influence certain aspects of cognition, such as
how individuals categorize information or remember
events.
 Child language acquisition is a fascinating area of study in
cognitive psychology that explores how children acquire
language skills and develop the ability to understand and
produce spoken and written words.
Child language  This process is remarkable because, within a relatively short
acquisition period, children progress from being nonverbal infants to
proficient language users, demonstrating their innate capacity
for language learning.
 Innate Language Ability: Cognitive psychology posits that
children are born with an innate capacity for language acquisition.
 This idea is supported by the fact that children from diverse
cultural and linguistic backgrounds tend to follow similar
language development patterns.

Key Concepts in  No matter the language they are exposed to, they generally reach
language milestones at approximately the same age.
Child Language  Language Stages: Child language acquisition typically unfolds
Acquisition: through several stages. The earliest stage is cooing and babbling,
where infants produce sounds unrelated to any specific language.
 This is followed by the one-word stage, where children start
uttering single words to convey meaning. The two-word stage
follows, where children use combinations of two words to form
simple sentences.
 Eventually, they progress to more complex grammatical structures
and full sentences.
 Social Interaction: Cognitive psychology emphasizes the
importance of social interaction in language acquisition.
 Caregivers, parents, and other language models play a crucial
role in supporting children's language development through
direct communication, conversations, and exposure to
language-rich environments.
 Language Input and Imitation: Children learn language by
observing and imitating the speech of those around them. They
are highly sensitive to the sounds and structures of the language
they hear, which aids in their language learning process.
 Critical Period Hypothesis: Cognitive psychologists have
proposed the existence of a critical period for language
acquisition, suggesting that there is an optimal window during
which children are most receptive to language learning.
 If language exposure is significantly delayed beyond this
period, it becomes increasingly challenging for them to acquire

Key Concepts native-like proficiency.


 Cognitive Mechanisms: Child language acquisition involves
several cognitive mechanisms, including memory, attention,
and pattern recognition.
 Children learn and generalize grammatical rules and word
meanings by detecting patterns in the language input they
receive.
 Overgeneralization and Error Correction: During language
acquisition, children might overgeneralize grammatical rules,
leading to errors in their speech.
 However, they also exhibit a remarkable ability to correct these
errors over time, demonstrating the cognitive flexibility and
adaptive nature of language learning.
 Chomsky noted that we are able to generate and understand
entirely novel sentences, and his insight came from a hypothesis
that this capacity must result from an underlying application of
linguistic rules.
 A further development of this hypothesis holds that the ability to
use these rules must reflect an innate, pre-potent ability, which
does not need to be learnt.
Psychology  This approach was formulated in opposition to theories of human
and linguistic behavior which were popular in the 1950s and which emphasized
learning as a key property of human behavior (Skinner).
 Chomsky considered that human language could not be
acquired by learning alone, since the kinds of learning
paradigms (e.g. operant conditioning) that Skinner addressed did
not account for how children learn spoken language – for
example, they are rarely rewarded overtly for this.
 Psycholinguistics is a specialized field within cognitive
psychology that focuses on studying the psychological and
cognitive processes involved in language acquisition,
comprehension, production, and representation.

Psycholinguisti  It explores how individuals perceive, understand, and


generate language, as well as the underlying mental
c mechanisms that support these linguistic abilities.
 Psycholinguistic research helps us gain insights into the
cognitive architecture of the human mind as it pertains to
language, bridging the gap between language and cognition.
 Language Comprehension: Psycholinguists investigate how
individuals understand spoken and written language. This involves
studying processes like parsing, semantic interpretation, and the
integration of linguistic information with existing knowledge and
context.
 Researchers use various experimental techniques, such as eye-
tracking, reaction time measurements, and brain imaging (e.g.,
Key concepts in fMRI), to examine the real-time cognitive processes during
language comprehension.
psycholinguistics  Language Production: The study of language production focuses
on how individuals generate language when speaking or writing.
 Psycholinguists explore the mental processes involved in retrieving
words, constructing grammatically correct sentences, and
formulating coherent messages.
 They also investigate factors that influence language production,
including lexical access, syntax, and discourse planning.
 Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistic research examines
how children acquire their native language and subsequent
languages if they are exposed to more than one.
 It explores the stages of language development, the influence of
social interaction and input on language learning, and the
critical periods for language acquisition.
 Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Psycholinguistics
investigates how bilingual individuals process and manage
multiple languages, examining the cognitive benefits and
challenges of being bilingual or multilingual.
 Studies in this area explore language switching, language
interference, and the relationship between language proficiency
and cognitive abilities.
 Language Disorders: Psycholinguistics contributes to our
understanding of language disorders, such as aphasia, dyslexia,
and specific language impairment.
 By examining the cognitive deficits underlying these disorders,
researchers can develop effective interventions and therapies to
help individuals with language difficulties.
 Connection to Cognitive Models: Psycholinguists often
develop and test cognitive models that explain language
processing and representation.
 These models may be computationally implemented to simulate
how the mind handles language-related tasks, providing
valuable insights into the cognitive mechanisms involved.
 Experimental Methods: Psycholinguistics relies on a wide
range of experimental methods, including behavioral
experiments, neuroimaging studies, corpus analyses, and
computational modeling.
 These methods help researchers investigate the intricate
relationships between language and cognition.
 Over the years, many different tasks have been employed to
help shed light on the cognitive processing involved in
language. These tasks are necessary because for behavioral
studies of language, we need a behavioral correlate of the
cognitive and linguistic processes underlying language.

Task in the  Normal linguistic processing can be entirely passive – people


can understand a sentence they hear without making any overt
study of responses.

Language  The tasks used therefore aim to be performable in a relatively


simple way, so as to avoid task effects, but to involve normal
linguistic processes, such that manipulations we think will
affect linguistic processes will also affect performance of
these overt tasks.
 The tasks include asking people whether a sentence is true or
false in the sentence verification task used by Slobin, asking
people if a target item is a real word (word has meaning) or a non-
word (word has no meaning) in the lexical decision task, and
asking people to name aloud a read word (speeded naming) or
repeat a heard word (repetition task).
 In all the tasks both reaction times and errors are used as direct
Lexical indices of cognitive processing of lexical items.

decision task  People have also used measures such as eye movements to shed
light on what kind of information a participant is using to perform
a task.
 More recently, people have started to use functional imaging
methods which show the neural systems recruited when people
deal with linguistic information (e.g. listen to speech they
understand).
 Linguistics and determinism refer to the debate about whether
language influences thought and cognition to such an extent
that it determines or shapes our perception of the world. This
concept is known as linguistic determinism, or the stronger
version, linguistic relativity, often referred to as the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis.
 The hypothesis is named after linguists Edward Sapir and
Linguistic Benjamin Lee Whorf, who proposed the idea in the early 20th

determinism century.
 Linguistic determinism, also known as linguistic relativity or the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, is a concept in linguistics that suggests
that the language we speak influences and even determines
the way we think, perceive the world, and conceptualize
reality. Linguistic determinism proposes that language shapes
our thoughts and cognition to a significant extent.
 Strong Linguistic Determinism: This form argues that language
entirely determines and limits our thoughts and cognitive
processes.
 It suggests that our language determines the range of concepts we
can think about and the ways in which we can think about them. In

Two main this view, language acts as a cognitive prison, strictly constraining
our thoughts.
forms of  Weak Linguistic Determinism: The weak form of linguistic
linguistic determinism asserts that language influences our thoughts and
cognition to some degree, without completely determining
determinism them.
 It suggests that language has a shaping effect on our thinking,
guiding our perception, attention, and categorization of the world.
However, it allows for individual variation and acknowledges
that other non-linguistic factors also influence cognition.
 Evidence for linguistic determinism comes from various
sources, including cross-linguistic studies and studies on
bilingual individuals.
 For example, researchers have observed that languages with
different grammatical structures can influence how speakers
perceive and conceptualize time, color, spatial relationships,
and even social interactions.
 Additionally, studies on bilingual individuals have shown that
speakers of different languages may have different cognitive
processing strategies and behavioral patterns depending on the
language they are currently using

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