Task sheet No.

2 PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION You have two additional phrases that will not match any of the fragments.
Pre-reading questions a Phonetics and Phonology
1. Have you ever tried to understand the process of language production? 2.
Who studies the process of language production? b Introduction to Linguistics
3. What distinguishes human language from animal language?
4. Why do psychologists study language? c Grammar
Read the text and do the exercises.
1. Language is the ability to produce and comprehend spoken and written words; linguistics is the study of d Introduction to Language
language. Language is the ability to produce and comprehend both spoken and written (and in the case of
sign language, signed) words. Understanding how language works means reaching across many branches e Syntax
of psychology—everything from basic neurological functioning to high-level cognitive processing. Language
shapes our social interactions and brings order to our lives. Complex language is one of the defining factors f The process of language production
that makes us human. Two of the concepts that make language unique are grammar and lexicon.
2. Because all language obeys a set of combinatory rules, we can communicate an infinite number of
concepts. While every language has a different set of rules, all languages do obey rules. These rules are g Lexicon
known as _grammar____. Speakers of a language have internalized the rules and exceptions for that
language’s __grammar___. There are rules for every level of language - word formation (for example, native h Language and communication
speakers of English have internalized the general rule that -ed is the ending for past-tense verbs, so even
when they encounter a brand-new verb, they automatically know how to put it into past tense); phrase i Morphology
formation (for example, knowing that when you use the verb “buy,” it needs a subject and an object; “She
buys” is wrong, but “She buys a gift” is okay); and sentence formation. j Semantics and Pragmatics
3. Every language has its rules, which act as a framework for meaningful communication. But what do
people fill that framework up with? The answer is, of course, words. Every human language has a
_lexicon____ - the sum total of all of the words in that language. By using grammatical rules to combine
words into logical sentences, humans can convey an infinite number of concepts.
4. Language is such a special topic that there is an entire field, linguistics, devoted to its study. Linguistics Major levels of linguistics: This diagram outlines the various subfields of linguistics.
views language in an objective way, using the scientific method and rigorous research to form theories
about how humans acquire, use, and sometimes abuse language. There are a few major branches of
linguistics, which it is useful to understand in order to learn about language from a psychological
perspective.
5. _Phonology____ is the study of individual speech sounds; _Phonetics____ is the study of phonemes,
which are the speech sounds of an individual language. These two heavily overlapping subfields cover all
the sounds that humans can make, as well as which sounds make up different languages. A phonologist
could answer the question, “Why do BAT and TAB have different meanings even though they are made of
the same three sounds, A, B and T?”
6. _Morphology____ is the study of words and other meaningful units of language like suffixes and prefixes.
A morphologist would be interested in the relationship between words like “dog” and “dogs” or “walk” and
“walking,” and how people figure out the differences between those words.
7. __Syntax___ is the study of sentences and phrases, or how people put words into the right order so that
they can communicate meaningfully. All languages have underlying rules of __syntax___, which, along with
morphological rules, make up every language’s grammar. An example of ___syntax__ coming into play in
language is “Eugene walked the dog” versus “The dog walked Eugene.” The order of words is not arbitrary-
in order for the sentence to convey the intended meaning, the words must be in a certain order.
8. ___Semantics__, most generally, is about the meaning of sentences. Someone who studies
__sematics___ is interested in words and what real-world object or concept those words denote, or point to.
_pragmatics____ is an even broader field that studies how the context of a sentence contributes to meaning
—for example, someone shouting “Fire!” has a very different meaning if they are in charge of a seven-gun
salute than it does if they are sitting in a crowded movie theater. Exercise 2 - Find the words in the following text that match the descriptions given below . of,
Exercise 1 A - Fill in the gaps with the missing words. relating to, or involving the combination of elements - combinatory
grammar2x; lexicon; morphologist; morphology; phonetics; phonologist; phonology; pragmatics; to express a thought, feeling, or idea so that it is understood by other people -convey
semantics2x; syntax3x the action of moving something from its place or position -displacement
Exercise 1 B - In the table below you have phrases (a-f) that are the subtitles of the the state of not being subject to or affected by; independence; lack of restrictions -freedom
fragments in the text. Find the appropriate subtitle for each fragment labelled 1-8. NOTE: applying a finite set of rules to linguistic input in order to produce all and only the well formed
items of a language; capable of production or reproduction -
 short, loud, high sound text below.
new and original, not like anything seen before While both animals and humans use/get/own systems of communication, the use of
the practice of putting a structure such as a phrase inside a structure of the same kind a complex symbols and open vocal systems is unique to humans.
small, grey-brown bird that is especially common in towns All animals use some form of communication, as/although/if some animal
radio program on which events and people in the news are discussed and listeners call to talk communication is more complex than others. Animal language is any form of
communication that produces/mimics/shows similarities to human language; however,
Human language is unique because it is generative, recursive, and has dishement. The there are significant differences. Some animals use signs, signals, or sounds
world is full of communication. From sparrows chirping and talk radio in the morning to communicating/communicated/to communicate. Lexigrams, or figures and symbols
owls hooting and The Tonight Show at night, people and animals are constantly that represent words, are commonly/ strangely/ inexplicably used by chimpanzees
exchanging information through a wide variety of channels. However, there are some and baboons, while animals such as birds and whales use song to communicate among
key differences between how humans and animals communicate. Specifically, human all/another/one another. Bees use complex “dances” to convey
language is unique on the planet because it has the qualities of generativity, recursion, evidence/information/informations about location. Other animals use odors or body
and displacement. movements to communicate. Communication in both animals and humans consists
Human language is generative, which means that it can communicate an infinite number of/in/on signals. Signals are sounds or gestures that have few/some/less meaning to
of ideas. This is because it is combinatorial: words can be combined in different orders those using them. The meaning is often self-evident based on context: for example,
to create different larger meanings of a sentence. Animal communication does not have many animals roar, growl, or groan in/of/by response to threats of danger; similarly,
this freedom; animals communicate within closed systems, with limited possible ideas to humans shall/will/may wave their arms or scream in the event of something dangerous.
communicate. Birds may have different chirps to signify danger or the location of food, These signals in these situations are designed keep/letting/to let others in the species
but they cannot combine those chirps together to convey a novel meaning. know that something is wrong and the animal or human needs help.
Exercise 5 - Watch the video recording “Language: Crash Course Psychology No.16”
Exercise 3 - Number the missing words below according to the gaps they fit into. and while listening answer the following questions:
communicate, constrained, dead, during, evidence, features, forever, inside, knowledge, limited, Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9shPouRWCs
obviously, self-containing, sentences, sign language, systems, through. 1. What happened to baby Kenzi recently?

Recursion Human language is recursive. This means that we can put words, phrases, 2. What was he doing faster than his mom?
and ___sentences__ (1) inside of themselves without limits. For example, we can say the
sentence “Mark likes anchovies.” But we can also put that sentence _inside____ (2) of a 3. Why was his performance a big deal? What did he demonstrate by his performance? 4.
sentence: “Carol thinks that Mark likes anchovies.” Then we can put that sentence inside
of another sentence: “Greg said that Carol thinks that Mark likes anchovies,” and on and How do we communicate?
on ___forever__ (3). Obviously, the recursive abilities of language are __constrained___ (4) by
the limits of time and memory. But in theory, because units of human language have the
ability to be _self-containing____ (5), we could have an infinite sentence. Animal 5. How many different languages do humans have?
communication does not have this same flexibility.
Displacement Human language has displacement. This means that __through___ (6) the 6. Babies first start understanding receptive language. What is the next phase? 7.
power of language, we can refer to things that aren’t present spatially or temporally. This
is _obviously____ (7) a useful trait (it allows us to ask questions like “Where did I leave my At what age do babies usually start producing language?
wallet?”), and it is one that is largely missing from the animal kingdom. Bees actually do
have _limited____ (8) displacement in their communication: They perform a waggle-dance 8. How did B.F. Skinner’s define language?
to ___communicate__ (9) to other bees the location of the most recent food source they
have visited. However, there is no temporal nuance beyond this. Ants and ravens also 9. How did Chomsky call his theory?
have limited displacement _systems____ (10).
Human language is also modality-independent—that is, it is possible to use the 10. What is the Broca’s area of the brain responsible for?
features_____ (11) of displacement, generativity, and recursion across multiple modes.
Speaking is the auditory form of language, but writing and _sign language____ (12) are 11. How would damage to Wernicke’s area affect language production?
visual forms. There are also tactile forms, like Braille.
Origins of Human Language The earliest origins of human language are hotly contested, 12. What does aphasia and other brain injuries teach us?
as it is hard to find direct _evidence____ (13) for when people first began to speak. It is
also likely that there was an intermediate period __during___ (14) which our
communication systems were comparable to those of other primates, and even if we did MORE SOURCES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
have __knowledge___ (15) of what this was like, it would be hard to say exactly when we https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=illApgaLgGA
crossed over from animal communication to human language.
Not all languages that have ever been spoken are still commonly used. For example,
Latin, which was spoken in the Roman Empire, is now considered a ___dead__ (16)
language, or a language that has no native speakers.
Exercise 4 - Circle the correct alternative for each of the three bolded fragments in the