Language

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  • Language
    • 'Feral child' Genie never gained language abilities
    • Evidence suggests that language abilities need to be acquired by ages 4-6 to avoid serious issues
    • Romanian orphanges
    • Language - The ability to communicate intentionally and symbolically
    • Intention - The capacity for referential meaning
    • Symbolic - System of symbols that represent those referents
    • Crystal (1997) identified 8 main functions of language, including communication, social interaction and attempt to control the environment
    • The human capacity for language
      • Evolutionary perspective - The symbolic abilities of human language made it possible for another mode of biological adaptation
      • Language is a form of knowledge and humans have evolved the capacity to use this knowledge
      • Speech involves the production of a series of sounds in a continuous stream, punctuated by pauses, modulated by stress and changes in pitch
      • Human auditory system is responsible for performing the complex task of enabling us to recognise speech sounds
      • Phonemes are elements of speech (smallest units of sound that contribute to the meaning of the word)
      • Speech production is the result of a coordinated set of muscles in the face, mouth and throat
    • Production of speech
      • Sounds produced in 2 ways...
        • Vibrating vocal chords - 2 folds of skin in throat can be made to vibrate
        • Altering positions of components of throat and mouth
      • Word order can change the meaning of a sentence
      • Word class - The grammatical categories (e.g. noun/verbs); words can be classified as function words or context words
      • Context words - Express meaning
      • Function words - Express relation between context (key in sentence structure)
    • Affixes - Sounds that we add to the beginning prefixes or end suffixes
    • Speech comprehension involves knowledge about the world and the situations encountered in it
    • Language development begins before birth as foetuses can hear muffled speech (hears mother's voice best and most often)
    • Evidence of 2-3 week old babies discriminating between sound of voice and other sounds
    • By 2 months, babies can tell an angry tone from a pleasant one
    • Kaplin & Kaplin (1970) = The 1st sound infants make is crying, at 1 month, they start to make other sounds (e.g. cooing). At 6 months, their sounds begin to resemble those of speech
    • You start to learn the meaning of words at 10-12 months
    • Most attempts at preverbal infant communication fall into 3 categories
      • Rejection - Typically involves pushing unwanted objects away and using a facial expression
      • Request for social interaction
      • Comment
    • A request for social interaction usually involves gestures and vocalisations to attract caregiver's attention
    • Brain structures for language
      • 'Tan' was a patients of Broca's that could only say that word - HOWEVER - he retained his intelligence and the ability to answer mathematical questions
      • An autopsy showed there was damage to the left inferior frontal region (Broca's area)
      • Aphasia - Total or partial loss of the ability to either produce or comprehend spoken language
      • Broca's aphasia = issues with producing speech
      • Wernicke's aphasia = Damage to superior surface of temporal lobe causes virtually meaningless speech
      • Broca's and Wernicke's area are connected by a band of fibres called the Arcuate Fasciculus
    • Global aphasia
      • Global aphasia - Loss of essentially all language functions (e.g. speaking, reading, etc.)
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