3.4 LANGUAGE & BRAIN
BRAIN & CONGITION SPECIALIZATION
ANH PHAM
EUR PSYCHOLOGY
2020-2021
1
, OUTLINE
PROBLEM 1 – LANGUAGE & THOUGHT
o Li & Gleitman (2002)
o Levinson et al. (2002)
o Winawer et al. (2007)
o Gibson (2017)
o Lupyan (2013)
o Carroll Chapter 2 + Chapter 14
PROBLEM 2 – LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
o Bransford, Barclay & Franks (1972)
o Glenberg, Meyer & Lindem (1987)
o Zwaan (2002)
o Nieuwland & Van Berkum (2006)
o Kurby & Zacks (2013)
o Carroll Chapter 6 + Chapter 7
PROBLEM 3 – LANGUAGE PRODUCTION & CONVERSATION
o Clark & Tree (2002)
o Minguyan Chu (2015)
o Holler et al. (2017)
o Spina (2018)
o Page, Ruth (2014)
o Carroll Chapter 8 + Chapter 9
PROBLEM 4: LANGUAGE & BRAIN
o Richard (2010)
o Farah (2014)
o Russell (2015)
EXAM REVIEW QUESTIONS FROM REAL EXAM!
2
, PROBLEM 1 | LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT
CHAP 2
Languages differ in several ways:
1. Emphasis on word order or affixes: Each language has a basic word-order for English this is
subject-verb-object (SVO). Other languages focus less on word-order but more on affixing: adding
prefixes and suffixes to words.
2. Use of particular affixes: some languages require more than others. In Russian the gender of the
object needs to be defined as well in the sentence: The elephant ate the peanuts.
It might seem that most languages differ very greatly but there are underlying patterns nevertheless.
DUALITY OF PATTERNING
The duality of patterning means that there are different levels of meaning at different levels. For
example, a sentence contains many meaningful elements while words consists of elements that are
not meaningful by themselves.
Phones and phonemes: Phones are speech sounds that differ in a physical way, for example the “p” in
“pill” and “spill”. The puff of air that is different in these “p”s is known as aspiration. Phonemes are
differences in sounds in a language that result in different meaning for words.
Distinctive features: A distinctive feature is a characteristic of a speech sound whose presence or
absence distinguishes the sound from other sounds. During the production of /b/ the vocal chords
vibrate while this is not the case during the production of /p/. In distinctive feature theory presence is
indicated by + while absence by –. So /b/ is said to be + voicing while /p/ is said to be – voicing.
According to distinctive feature theory there are many independent units that are combined to form
phonemes (whether vocal chords vibrate and the air stops suddenly… or not).
So how are these small linguistic units combined to form words. There are important rules for that.
(R1) /p/ cannot be followed by /b/ at the beginning of a word.
This rule would be too narrow.
(R2) A word cannot begin with two stop consonants.
Other predictable patterns exist for example one that relates to aspiration.
(R3) Voiceless stop consonants are aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a word.
3
BRAIN & CONGITION SPECIALIZATION
ANH PHAM
EUR PSYCHOLOGY
2020-2021
1
, OUTLINE
PROBLEM 1 – LANGUAGE & THOUGHT
o Li & Gleitman (2002)
o Levinson et al. (2002)
o Winawer et al. (2007)
o Gibson (2017)
o Lupyan (2013)
o Carroll Chapter 2 + Chapter 14
PROBLEM 2 – LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
o Bransford, Barclay & Franks (1972)
o Glenberg, Meyer & Lindem (1987)
o Zwaan (2002)
o Nieuwland & Van Berkum (2006)
o Kurby & Zacks (2013)
o Carroll Chapter 6 + Chapter 7
PROBLEM 3 – LANGUAGE PRODUCTION & CONVERSATION
o Clark & Tree (2002)
o Minguyan Chu (2015)
o Holler et al. (2017)
o Spina (2018)
o Page, Ruth (2014)
o Carroll Chapter 8 + Chapter 9
PROBLEM 4: LANGUAGE & BRAIN
o Richard (2010)
o Farah (2014)
o Russell (2015)
EXAM REVIEW QUESTIONS FROM REAL EXAM!
2
, PROBLEM 1 | LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT
CHAP 2
Languages differ in several ways:
1. Emphasis on word order or affixes: Each language has a basic word-order for English this is
subject-verb-object (SVO). Other languages focus less on word-order but more on affixing: adding
prefixes and suffixes to words.
2. Use of particular affixes: some languages require more than others. In Russian the gender of the
object needs to be defined as well in the sentence: The elephant ate the peanuts.
It might seem that most languages differ very greatly but there are underlying patterns nevertheless.
DUALITY OF PATTERNING
The duality of patterning means that there are different levels of meaning at different levels. For
example, a sentence contains many meaningful elements while words consists of elements that are
not meaningful by themselves.
Phones and phonemes: Phones are speech sounds that differ in a physical way, for example the “p” in
“pill” and “spill”. The puff of air that is different in these “p”s is known as aspiration. Phonemes are
differences in sounds in a language that result in different meaning for words.
Distinctive features: A distinctive feature is a characteristic of a speech sound whose presence or
absence distinguishes the sound from other sounds. During the production of /b/ the vocal chords
vibrate while this is not the case during the production of /p/. In distinctive feature theory presence is
indicated by + while absence by –. So /b/ is said to be + voicing while /p/ is said to be – voicing.
According to distinctive feature theory there are many independent units that are combined to form
phonemes (whether vocal chords vibrate and the air stops suddenly… or not).
So how are these small linguistic units combined to form words. There are important rules for that.
(R1) /p/ cannot be followed by /b/ at the beginning of a word.
This rule would be too narrow.
(R2) A word cannot begin with two stop consonants.
Other predictable patterns exist for example one that relates to aspiration.
(R3) Voiceless stop consonants are aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a word.
3
