Cog sci test 3

speakers’ knowledge and use of language

the study of language - describe and analyze language

the rules that describe a language

the study of sound patterns in language

restrictions on possible combinations of sounds

two sounds that never occur in the same environment

found in the same environment but contrast in meaning - minimal pairs

different ways that one can say a word - another way to pronounce phoneme

similar sounds that a language treats as being the same

the study of the structure of words

the smallest unit that can have meaning

root word cannot break down into similar units - the basic meaning of a word

two roots combined together (waterfall)

serve only grammatical function - does not change the syntactic category

change the syntactic category of a word

the study of how words are together into phrases, clauses and sentences

occur together with another verb

mental store of words (not static)

creating more - sentences

• challenged behaviourists • universal grammar (innate)

• allows humans to learn language • the set of common grammatical rules are hard-wired into this device • people need exposure until the critical period to activate the LAD • human specific

proposed by Eric Lenneberg - after this period language cannot be acquired in a natural fashion (Genie) - closes after puberty

• developed by Noam Chomsky • a set of rules that can predict which combinations of words are able to make grammatically correct sentences

A framework within generative linguistics - all languages must have some things in common - children are born with pre-existing knowledge of language