A
aboriginal languages, 559
ABSL. See Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
absolute pitch, 601
ABX discrimination task, 268
accents, social identity and, 276–277
accessibility
impact on speech errors, 422
impact on structuring sentences in speech, 422–426
accommodation, 481
Ackerman, Diane, 68
acoustic cues
integrating in speech perception, 268–274
relationship to speaker variables, 280–282
studies on the relationship between articulation and speech perception, 289
acquired learning biases, 153–154
action potentials, 96
activation flow, lexical bias effect and, 433–434, 435–440
activation theory of metaphor, 492, 494, 495
adjective/noun pairs, 569–570, 571–572
advertising
on lying and implying in, 522
maxims of cooperative conversation and, 521
Mc- morpheme and genericide, 192–193
persuasive power of word associations, 319–320
affective pathway, 36
affricate, 130
affricatives, 261
age-of-acquisition effects, in word recognition, 304
agglutinative languages, 248–249
aging
effects on sentence comprehension, 388
effects on speech perception, 293–294
“Ah Counter,” 419
alarm calls, 27
allophones
assimilation, 140
complementary distribution, 139, 140
distributional evidence leading to phonemic categories, 141–143
patterns of distribution, 138–141
alphabetic inventory, 331
alphabetic languages, 331, 334–336
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), 56–57, 561
ambiguity
benefits of, 313
comprehension demands of listeners and, 535–538
language similarities and the need for communicative efficiency, 578–582
polite communication and, 539–530
pronouns and, 461–462, 464 (see also pronoun resolution)
using conversational inferences to solve, 529
See also ambiguous words; sentence ambiguity
ambiguity resolution models
constraint-based approach, 356–359, 360, 361–362
ambiguity-free artificial languages, 370
ambiguous words
benefits of, 313
homographs and homophones, 311
persuasive power of word associations, 319–320
polysemous words, 312
simultaneous activation of multiple meanings, 315–319
America Declaration of Independence, 217
American Sign Language (ASL)
brain organization for language and, 88–89, 90
a fully formed language, 41
William Stokoe and the study of, 45
using event-related potentials to detect cross-language activation, 105–107
variability in the pronunciation of, 262–263
analogical account of metaphor, 491–492, 495
analogous traits, 38
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (Rembrandt), 64
ancient Greeks, 584
Anglo-Saxon language, 334
animal communication
apes and the question of language learning, 15–19
“dance language” of honeybees, 11–14
methodological concerns in linking behavior to cognition, 17
animals
categorical perception in, 264, 265
language skills and interaction with humans, 39
A-not-B test, 393
antecedents
defined, 464
factors affecting the saliency of, 465–466
memory-based account of discourse processing and, 497
pronoun binding constraints and, 474
pronoun resolution and, 464–468, 469, 470–471, 472–473
anterior temporal lobe (ATL), 85, 86, 375
anticipations, 406
anticipatory language processing. See predictive language processing
antidepressants, 153
anti-nativist view, 10
apes
question of language learning, 15–19
use of gestures and signed languages, 37–38
See also primates
aphasias
access to word representations and, 309
Broca’s aphasia, 70, 71–72, 198
the case of Paul West, 68
in deaf patients, 88
defined, 69
examples of speech from patients with, 70
forms and characteristics of, 69–70, 71–72
music processing and, 109
need for language diversity in research on, 75
types of sentences for assessing language comprehension with, 73
voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping studies, 72–74
Wernicke’s aphasia, 70, 72, 198
arbitrariness, 13
Archi language, 611
argument from the poverty of the stimulus, 244–245
argument structures, 182
ART. See Author Recognition Test
articulation
manner of, 130
relationship to speech perception, 286–287
artificial languages
ambiguity-free, 370
defined, 121
language universals and learnability, 248
strengths and weaknesses of experiments with, 574–575
studies on learning biases, 144–148, 569–570, 571–572
studies on the effects of social pressure on language efficiency, 580–582
Artist, The (silent film), 480
ASD. See autism spectrum disorder
Asian elephants, 36
ASL. See American Sign Language
ASPM gene, 576
assembled phonology route, 336–337
associationist theories, 253–254, 255
associations, versus intentions, 175–177
associative learning, 176, 177
Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal, 335
ATL. See anterior temporal lobe
audience design
comprehension demands of listeners, 535–538
importance of feedback from hearers, 541–544
overview and definition of, 534–535
professors and, 545
syntactic ambiguity and, 538–541
auditory cortex. See primary auditory cortex
auditory illusions
phoneme restoration effect, 273
auditory verbal agnosia, 109
Australia
aboriginal languages, 402, 403
language extinction and, 559
Author Recognition Test (ART), 476
autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 177, 180, 553–556
Autism-Spectrum Quotient, 555
automatic speech recognition, 257–258
auxiliary verbs
complex syntax and, 239–240, 241
defined, 239
patterns of errors in the learning of, 244–245
availability heuristic, 355
aviation accidents, 531
“Awful German Language, The” (Twain), 602
axons
defined, 95
electrical signaling and, 95, 96
B
baboon call behavior, 15
back-channel responses, 543
background knowledge
accommodation and, 481
comprehension of metaphor and, 495
effects on language processing in older adults, 388
reading comprehension and, 460–461
“Bad Lip Reading” videos, 275
Bantu languages, 563
basic-level categories, 169–170, 171–172
Basque language, 569
Bayesian models of language learning, 253, 254–255
beatboxing, 131
Bedouins. See Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
behavior, concerns in linking to cognition, 17
behavioral cues. See back-channel responses
Berlusconi, Silvio, 583
bidirectional activation flow, 433–434, 435–440
Bierce, Ambrose, 91
bigrams, 222
bilinguals
aphasia and, 75
competition effects from cross-language cohort competitors, 325–326, 393
effects of bilingualism on cognitive control, 393–395
effects of later-learned languages on a native language, 603–605
language processing and, 393
using event-related potentials to detect cross-language activation, 105–107
word learning and, 189
binding constraints, 474
biolinguistics, 4
See also songbirds
blends, 406
Blink (Gladwell), 531
“Block Those Metaphors” (Krugman), 493
“Bonnie Earl of Murray, The” (ballad), 324
bonobos, 18
Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The (Kundera), 171
books, importance in word learning, 188
brain
activity in repetition suppression studies, 273–274
creating maps for language, 70–74 (see also brain mapping)
debate on separate networks for learning by words or rules, 198
distribution of language function in networks, 81–83
ERP studies on predictive language processing, 373–374
functional neuroanatomy of language, 85–86
imaging studies (see brain imaging)
mind-reading networks, 528, 530–534
motor theory of speech perception, 289–293
music and language processing, 108–100
neurolinguistics (see neurolinguistics)
regions activated by jokes, 391–392
regions engaged by different writing systems, 332–333
separate language knowledge systems, 84–87
specialized and flexible organization for language, 87–90
studies of articulation and speech perception, 286–287
studies of syntax and the immature brain, 236
subcortical regions, 71
summary of current and future research trends, 92–95
brain imaging
limitations of, 95
studies of categorical perception, 266–267
studies of individual differences in language processing, 381, 382
studies of linguistic and non-linguistic gestures, 89
studies of syntax and the immature brain, 236
studies on the relationship between music and language processing, 108–109
techniques and theory, 78–81, 87
See also functional magnetic resonance imaging
brain lateralization, 74, 76–77
brain localization
case of Phineas Gage, 66
current and future research trends, 93–95
specialized and flexible organization for language, 87–90
brain mapping
distribution of language function in networks, 81–83
separate language knowledge systems, 84–87
specialized and flexible brain organization for language, 87–90
voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, 72–74
bridging inferences, 477–478, 480
British Sign Language (BSL), 168
broadcast transmission, 13
Broca’s aphasia, 70, 71–72, 198
Broca’s area
brain organization for language and, 82, 87–88
current and future research trends, 93–94
language functions of, 71, 72, 74, 86
music processing and, 108, 109
studies of syntax and the immature brain, 236
in users of a signed language, 88, 89
Brodmann areas, 70
area 39, 74
BSL. See British Sign Language
C
call behavior of baboons, 15
Catalan language, 443
categorical perception
brain-imaging studies, 266–267
concept and description of, 260–262
dyslexia and, 295
effects of disrupted articulation on, 292
forced-choice identification task studies, 264, 266
reading experience and, 296
what can be learned from conflicting results, 267–268
categories
levels of, 169
categorization, metaphor and, 490–491
causal inferences, 477–478, 480, 497, 498
cerebral cortex
creating brain maps for language, 70–74
defined, 69
functional neuroanatomy of language, 85–86
Charles V, 560
Cherokee language, 569
Chicago Tribune, 334
children
abstract knowledge of syntax and, 226–236
age at which conversational inferences can be derived, 524–526
assessment of a speaker’s reliability, 509–510
babbling, 35
effects of exposure to multiple accents on speech perception, 283–284
eye-tracking studies on the experience of linguistic ambiguity, 386–387
inferences about the mental state of others, 510–511
joint attention and language development, 22–24
learning of syntax (see developmental syntax)
limits to the mind-reading abilities of, 511–512, 514–517
pointing behaviors and language development, 23, 25
pronoun resolution by, 473–476
studies on the relationship between articulation and speech perception, 287–288
word learning (see word learning)
See also deaf/Deaf children; early language learning; infants; language development/learning
Chilmark, 276
chimpanzees
failure to follow pointing cues, 20
human evolutionary history, 18
productivity and the use of symbols, 16
social behavior/cognition, 20–22
speech and, 33
vocal tract, 34
See also primates
Chinese speakers, 419
chromosome 7
Williams syndrome, 47
classifiers, 559
“click” consonants, 563
Cloud Atlas (Mitchell), 455–457
cognates, 606
cognition
cognitive skills and statistical learning, 121–127
concerns in linking to behavior, 17
connections to language structure, 560
effects of cognitive training on language processing, 388–390, 392
language structure, culture, and mind, 594–603
relationship of language to, 201–204, 588–594
words, concepts, and culture, 582–594
See also mental models
cognitive architecture, 340
cognitive control
children’s mind-reading abilities and, 517
cognitive training and its effects on language processing, 388–390, 392
effects of bilingualism on, 393–395
individual differences in sentence comprehension and, 384–387
cognitive neuroscience, 4
cognitive pathway, 36
cognitive psychology, 355
cohort competitors
competition effects from cross-language competitors, 325–326, 393
defined, 322
evidence for the activation of multiple competitors, 322–324
cohort model
competition effects from cross-language cohort competitors, 325–326, 393
defined, 322
evidence for the activation of multiple cohort competitors, 322–324
importance of the left edges of words, 324, 326, 327, 328–329
collaborative theory of dialogue, 550–552
color constancy, 272
color perception
color vocabularies and, 589–593, 594
effects of a second language on, 604–605
color vocabulary
color perception and, 589–593, 594
coma, 102
common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), 508
communication
beneficial effects of disfluencies, 419–420
communicative efficiency and language similarities, 578–582
understanding communicative intentions, 19–21
comparative studies, methodological concerns, 25–26
compensation for coarticulation, 341–342
competition effects
in word recognition, 302–303, 305–306
complementary distribution, 139, 140
complementizers, 348
complex sentences, producing in speech, 401, 403
complex syntax
innate syntactic constraints concept, 238–242
long-distance dependencies, 238
specific language impairment and, 239
complex words
building from multiple morphemes, 190–196
crosslinguistic diversity in producing, 588
words versus rules debate, 96–197, 198, 200
compositionality, 206, 208–209
compounding, 191
See also complex words
computational linguistics, 4
computers
automatic speech recognition and, 258
simulations of syntactic learning, 252
concepts
the chicken-and-egg problem of language and thought, 201–204
conceptual development in infants, 202–203
effects of grammar on conceptualizing events, 595–597
natural classes, 170
relationship of words to, 582–589
words, concepts, and culture, 582–594
conceptual pacts, 547–548, 550
conjoined clauses, 348
connectionist framework, 253–254
connectionist models
of learning complex syntax, 245–246
consonants
articulatory properties in English, 260, 261
categorical perception, 261–262
manner of articulation, 130
place of articulation, 129–130
constituents
definition and description of, 211–212, 214
head, 237
in music, 212
syntactic ambiguities and, 212, 213
constraint-based approach to ambiguity resolution
predictions of, 359, 360, 361–362
constructionist accounts, 215–216
constructions, 216
context
impact on the resolution of sentence ambiguity, 364–368
using to disambiguate word meanings, 314–315
contingency, 185
conversation
as a collaborative process, 544–546
establishing common ground between conversational partners, 546–548, 549
maxims of cooperative conversation, 520–321, 523–524, 535, 554
mind reading and, 548, 550–552
See also message formulation
conversational implicature, 519, 524
conversational inferences
age at which children derive, 524–526
maxims of cooperative conversation, 520–321, 523–524
mind-reading networks in the brain, 528, 530–534
processing in real time, 526–528
“soft” and “hard” meanings, 518–520
using to solve ambiguity, 529
conversational repair, 416, 417–418
cooperative conversation, maxims of, 520–321, 523–524, 535, 554
cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), 125
“Craftsmanship” (Woolf), 312
crash blossoms, 351
creole languages, 611
crossmodal priming task, 315, 316–317
cross-sectional studies, 296
cultural transmission, 39–40, 56–58
culture
and biology in the origin of language, 46
cultural studies of conversational gaps, 402–403
language structure, culture, and mind, 560, 594–603
multiple language speakers and the activation of cultural values, 607–609
shaping of grammar and, 597, 599–601
cummings, e. e., 214
Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The (Fitzgerald), 462, 464, 466
Czech language
complex morphology of, 194–195
meaning of lítost, 171
sentence production in, 442–443
word order flexibility, 559–560
Czech-English speakers, 606
D
“dance language” of honeybees, 11–14
Danish speakers, 402
Deaf community, 45n
Deaf culture, 45
deaf/Deaf, meanings of, 45n
deaf/Deaf children
homesign and, 40–41 (see also homesign)
impact of language on mind-reading abilities in, 516
reduced linguistic input and, 184–185
word learning and iconicity, 168, 169
deafness, 45n
decay function, 305
declarative memory, 84
derivational affixes, 191, 193
developmental dyslexia, 294–297
developmental syntax
abstract knowledge of syntax in children, 226–236
children as cautious learners, 228–232
complex syntax and constraints on learning, 237–247
computer simulations of syntactic learning, 252
effects of linguistic input on, 248–252
future areas of research, 251–252
imaging studies of the immature brain, 236
issues of linguistic competence and linguistic performance, 235
learning grammatical categories, 219–226
semantic bootstrapping hypothesis, 220
stages of syntax development, 206, 207
understanding syntax in children and adults, 226–227
universal grammar concept, 218
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), 51
dialogue. See conversation
differential case marking, 579–580
difficult sentences
experience- and memory-based accounts of, 377–381
See also sentence ambiguity
diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), 87, 236
diphthongs, 135
direct object, 348
directional reception, 13
directional selection, 55
discourse
accounts of deep and shallow processing of meaning, 496–499
pronouns and, 461–469 (see also pronoun resolution; pronouns)
“reading between the lines,” 445–447
transforming linguistic form into thought structure, 447–461 (see also mental models)
understanding metaphor, 488–496
discourse processing
explanation-based view of, 497–498
memory-driven account of, 496–497, 498
reader’s engagement with a text and, 498–499
discourse prominence, pronoun resolution and, 472–473, 474
discreteness, 13
disfluencies
beneficial effects of, 419–420
with message formulation, 416, 417–418
displacement, 13
dissimilation processes, 149
distributed word representations, 308, 309
distributional evidence, 220–226
ditransitive verbs, 182, 360, 361
dMRI. See diffusion magnetic resonance imaging
doctors, polite communication and, 539–530
dolphins, 36
domain-general learning, 253–255
domain-general perspective, 50
domain-specific learning, 253
domain-specific perspective, 50
dorsal stream, 84, 85–86, 198, 236
Dravidian languages, 563
dual route model, 336–337, 338
duality of patterning
combining units and, 27
definition and concept of, 13, 158
invented languages and, 31
dubbing, 275
“Dulce et Decorum Est” (Owne), 213–214
Dutch language, 288
Dutch-English speakers, 607, 609
E
early language learning
changes with age and experience, 152–153
finding word boundaries, 113–114, 118–121 (see also word learning)
language universals and the perception of sounds, 150–151
learning syntax (see developmental syntax)
relationship between articulation and speech perception in infants, 287–288
sensitive period, 44
sound patterns and, 112–113, 138–141
statistical learning studies, 121–127
studying infants’ knowledge of words, 114–117
word breaks and speech segmentation, 117–118
word knowledge and speech segmentation, 120–121
See also language development/learning
early left anterior negativity (ELAN), 101, 103
Early New English, 54
early right anterior negativity (ERAN), 108
EEG. See electroencephalography
egocentrism
children and, 511
egocentric theory of dialogue, 550–552
elaborative inferences
definition and description of, 482–486
ELAN. See early left anterior negativity
electroencephalography (EEG)
defined, 96
event-related potentials and, 97 (see also event-related potentials)
studies of speech perception and dyslexia, 296, 297
using to assess patients in a vegetative state, 102–103
elephants, vocal learning, 36
Elizabethan English, 54
English language
adjective/noun/numeral orders, 569
allophones in complementary distribution, 140
alphabetic inventory, 331
articulatory properties of consonants, 260, 261
brain regions engaged by writing, 332–333
color vocabulary and color perception, 584, 585, 589–591, 592–593
compound words, 588
comprehension demands of listeners and, 536
concepts and natural classes, 170
grammar and the encoding of complex events, 595–597
grammatical purging of, 611
inherited lexicon, 587
key grammatical terms and concepts, 348–349
language change and, 56–57, 58, 562, 563, 564
language extinction and, 558
phonotactic constraints, 120
pronouns in, 462
spelling reform debate, 334–335
words describing spatial relations, 586, 587
enjambment, 214
ERAN. See early right anterior negativity
ERPs. See event-related potentials
Esperanto, 31
European languages, relationships among, 55
European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), 508
event-related potentials (ERPs)
defined, 97
evidence for language effects on perception, 592–593
music processing and, 108
N400 and P600 effects, 99–107, 108 (see also N400 effect; P600 effect)
in non-linguistic processing, 103–105
studies of discourse processing, 484–485
studies of predictive language processing, 373–374
studies of speech perception and dyslexia, 296, 297
studies of statistical learning in infants, 126
studies on separate brain networks for learning by words or rules, 198
using to assess patients in a vegetative state, 102–103
using to detect cross-language activation, 105–107
using to study language processing, 97–99
evolutionary adaptations, 18–19
exchanges
of morpheme units, 406
of sound units, 406
of word units, 406
excitatory connections, 305–306
See also cognitive control
experience-based account of difficult sentences, 378–381
explicit mind reading, 515, 517
expressive aphasia, 70
Expressive Vocabulary Test, 24
eye-tracking studies
on competition effects from cross-language cohort competitors, 325–326
on the effects of context in resolving sentence ambiguity, 365–367
on the effects of grammar in the perception of events, 596–597
on the experience of linguistic ambiguity in children, 386–387
on incremental language processing, 322–324
on predictive language processing, 371–373, 376–377
on pronoun resolution, 470–472, 474–475
on rhyme competitors in word recognition, 327
on spoken message planning, 413, 414
on the use of conversational inferences to solve ambiguity, 529
eyewitness memory/testimony, 482, 597
F
facilitation
in word recognition, 302
false-belief test, 511–512, 516, 531
familiarization phase
in the head-turn preference paradigm, 114, 115–116
Farsi language, 285, 461–462, 586
Federal Trade Commission, 522
feedback, from listeners to speakers, 541–544
Ferrier, David, 66
films
dubbing, 275
Finnish language, 442, 463, 563
Finnish speakers, 402
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 462, 464, 466
fMRI. see functional magnetic resonance imaging
focus constructions, 467
forced-choice identification task, 264, 266, 267–268
forensic linguistics, 428
French language, 120, 140, 588
French-English speakers, 606
frequency effects, in word recognition, 304
frequent frames concept, 222–225
function words, in Spanish, 223
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
defined, 78
hemodynamic changes and, 78–79
limitations of, 95
studies of articulation and speech perception, 286–287
studies of categorical perception, 266–267
studies of individual differences in language processing, 381, 382
studies of syntax and the immature brain, 236
studies of theory of mind brain regions, 532–533
studies on the relationship between music and language processing, 108–109
future time, 608
G
Gallaudet University, 45
Ganong effect
activation flow and, 433
definition and description of, 272–273
modular-versus-interactive mind design debate, 339, 340, 341–342
ventriloquism and, 291
garden path sentences
measuring processing difficulty, 350–351
models of ambiguity resolution, 353–359
newspaper headlines, 351
role of cognitive control in the comprehension of, 386–387
See also sentence ambiguity
garden path theory
definition and description of, 354–356
Garrett’s model of language production, 411
gender, acoustic cues for listeners and, 280, 281
gender marking, pronoun resolution and, 469, 470–473, 474
generative structure, defined, 214
genes
nativist view of language, 9–10
primate vocalizations and, 14
genetic diversity, 55
genetic drift, 55
German language
case markers, 579
complex words, 588
phonotactic constraints, 120
pronouns in, 463
Mark Twain on the syntax of, 602
German-English bilinguals, 395
Germany, dubbing in, 275
gestures
language without speech, 37–38
See also homesign
Gladwell, Malcolm, 531
Gleason, Jean Berko, 196
Google Ngram Viewer, 304
gorillas, 16
grammar
culture and the shaping of, 597, 599–601
debate on language complexity and, 610–612
effects on the encoding of complex events, 595–597
key terms and concepts in English, 348–349
learning grammatical categories, 219–226
Great Vowel Shift, 334
Greek language
color vocabulary and color perception, 585, 592–593
conveying of future time, 608
grammar and the encoding of complex events, 595–596
Greek-English speakers, 604–605
Greenberg’s linguistic universals
studies of learning biases and, 569–570, 571–572
Gretzky, Wayne, 376
Grice, H. Paul
on brain networks involved in social reasoning, 528
conversational implicature concept, 519
maxims of cooperative conversation, 520–321, 523–524, 535, 554
on a speaker’s intended meaning, 518–519
Gujarati language, 563
Gunu language, 585
H
habitat diversity, language diversity and, 558
Harlow, John Martyn, 67
Hawaiian language, 120, 170, 610
Hazanavicius, Michel, 480
head, 237
head-turn preference paradigm
artificial language studies with infants, 122
definition and description of, 114, 115–116
studying phonotactic templates in infants, 119
studying speech segmentation in infants, 117–118
studying the effects of exposure to multiple accents on speech perception, 283–284
studying the knowledge of word breaks in infants, 116–117
studying the learning of syntactical categories, 223
Hebrew language, 120
hesitations. See conversational gaps; disfluencies; speech pauses
hierarchical structure, 214
high-amplitude sucking method, 136, 137
Hindi speakers, 285
historical linguistics, 4
Hockett’s design features
combining of units and, 27
description of, 13
invented languages and, 31
primate vocalizations and, 14
use of symbols by human-reared apes and, 18
hockey players, 376
Homer, 584
homographs, 311
homologous traits, 38
homophones, 311
honeybee dance language, 11–14
human evolutionary history, 18
hunter-gatherers, 402
I
iambic stress pattern, 119–120
IFG. See inferior frontal gyrus
immigrants, language extinction and, 558
implicational universals, 561
implicit mind reading, 515, 517
implied messages, 522
In Between the Sheets (McEwan), 462, 464
“in Just-” (cummings), 214
In the Land of Invented Languages (Okrent), 248
incremental language processing
defined, 322
despite the presence of ambiguity, 368–370
garden path sentences, 346–347, 349
measuring processing difficulty, 349–353
models of ambiguity resolution, 353–359
parsing sentences, 345
predictive processing, 370–377
predictors of sentence ambiguity, 359–370
See also sentence comprehension
incrementality, 345
indirect object, 348
Indonesian language, 120
infants
conceptual development in, 202–203
early language learning and, 112–113 (see also early language learning)
high-amplitude sucking method, 136, 137
mapping sounds to meaning, 159–163
newborns and sound distinctions, 135–138
statistical learning, 121–124, 126, 127
studies on the relationship between articulation and speech perception, 287–288
studying the knowledge of words in, 114–117
testing the use of phonotactic constraints by, 146–148
inferences
brain-wave studies of processing, 484–485
bridging inferences, 477–478, 480
elaborative inferences, 482–486
explanation-based view of, 498
introduction to, 477
Kuleshov effect with visual scenes, 479–480
memory-driven account of discourse processing, 496–497, 498
metaphor and, 489
See also conversational inferences
inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), 274, 289, 375
inferior frontal sulcus, 267
inferior temporal gyrus (ITG), 85, 86
infixes, 191
inflectional affixes, 191, 193
inhibition, in word recognition, 302
inhibitory connections, 305–306
Inland North dialect region, 276–277, 335
innate language ability, 44, 46
innate syntactic constraints, 238–242, 244–245
intentions
word learning and understanding speakers’ intentions, 175–181
interactive alignment model, 550
interactive mind design, 339–342
interchangeability, 13
internal censor, lexical bias effect and, 435, 436, 439
International Phonetic Alphabet, 131, 261
interstimulus interval, 308
intransitive verbs
argument structure, 182
syntactic frame, 361
invented languages, 31
See also artificial languages; homesign
ions, 95
Israeli Sign Language, 132
Italian speakers, 409
it-cleft sentence, 467
ITG. See inferior temporal gyrus
J
James, Henry, 213
Japan Today (newspaper), 351
Japanese language
classifiers, 559
comprehension demands of listeners and, 535–536
eye-tracking studies on predictive language processing, 372–373, 376–377
object-verb word order, 564
phonemes versus allophones, 134–135
syllabic writing system, 331
Japanese macaques, 35
Japanese-English speakers, 604
Javaé language, 585
Johnson, Mark, 493
K
Kant, Immanuel, 391
KE family, 52
Keller, Helen, 204
Ket language, 610
Khoisan language, 563
kindergarten-path effect, 386–387
King James Bible, 54
knowledge. See background knowledge
Koko (gorilla), 16
Korean Air, 531
Korean alphabet, 331
Korean language
phonemes versus allophones, 134–135
sentence production in, 442
words describing spatial relations, 586, 587
Krugman, Paul, 493
Kuleshov, Lev, 479
Kundera, Milan, 171
L
Lakoff, George, 493
language change
child language learning and, 250
criteria for language survival, 55–56
cultural transmission view of, 56–58
English and, 56–57, 58, 562, 563, 564
“Lord’s Prayer” example, 54
through language contact, 563
language complexity debate, 610–612
language comprehension
activation theory of metaphor and, 492, 494, 495
bilinguals and, 393
explanation-based view of, 497–498
memory-driven account of, 496–497, 498
mental models of the world and (see mental models)
See also sentence comprehension
language detectives, 428
language development/learning
argument from the poverty of the stimulus, 244–245
changes with age and experience, 152–155
development of social cognition in children and, 503–518
domain-specific and domain-general theories of, 253–255
impact of social interactions on, 504–507, 509
language change and, 56, 57–58
learnability hypothesis of esoteric and exoteric languages, 599
learning grammatical categories, 219–226
learning of syntax, 206, 207, 216, 218 (see also developmental syntax)
pointing behaviors and, 23, 25
problem of learning language structure, 28, 30
songbirds and, 38
word learning (see word learning)
See also early language learning
language disorders
specific language impairment, 48–51, 239, 294
studies of language evolution and, 46–47
See also aphasias
language diversity
common features of languages, 560–567
cultural diversity and, 560
estimated number of languages, 557–558
explaining similarities across languages, 568–582 (see also language similarities)
genetics and, 576
habitat diversity and, 558
language change through language contact, 563
language complexity debate, 610–612
language extinction and, 558–559
language structure, culture, and mind, 594–603
overview of language differences, 558–560
words, concepts, and culture, 582–594
language evolution
debate on the origins of language, 9–11
emerging research questions, 58
evolutionary adaptation concept, 18–19
human invention of languages, 39–46
human language compared to animal communication, 11–19
social underpinnings of language, 19–26
language experience
impact on sentence comprehension, 384, 385
pronoun resolution and, 476
Language Instinct, The (Pinker), 9–10
language learning. See language development/learning
Language Log blog, 351
language production
double dissociation and, 84
forensic linguistics and, 428
Garrett’s model of, 411
speakers’ choices and language similarities, 574–578
syntactic planning of speakers and, 540–541
See also message formulation; sentence production; speech production
language science/research
fields of study and collaboration in, 4–5
issues of linguistic competence and linguistic performance, 235
what can be learned from conflicting results, 267–268
language similarities
communicative efficiency, 578–582
speakers’ choices of language structure and, 574–578
See also language universals
language structure
invented languages, 31
recursion and, 29
relationship to culture and mind, 560, 594–603
sentence-processing skills and, 601–602
syntax and structured patterns, 27–38 (see also syntax)
universal grammar concept, 30, 32–33
Language: The Cultural Tool (Everett), 10
language typology/typologists, 4, 561
language universals
concept and overview of, 561–562
debate on crosslinguistic complexity and, 612
perspectives on the significance of, 562, 564–567
studies of learning biases and, 569–570, 571–572
See also language similarities
language-based memories, false memories and, 481–482
language(s)
apes and the question of language learning, 15–19
common intuitions about, 7
compared to primate vocalizations, 14–15
compared to the “dance language” of honeybees, 11–14
cultural transmission and, 39–40
debate on crosslinguistic complexity, 610–612
differences in linguistic skills and, 601–602
diversity in conveying future time, 608
effects of later-learned languages on a native language, 603–605
evidence for syntactic priming in, 424–425
Hockett’s design features, 13
impact on mind-reading abilities in children, 516
origin of (see language evolution)
problem of recovering meaning from, 501–503
relationship between linguistic variables and cultural traits, 608–609
relationship of language structure to culture and mind, 560, 594–603
relationship of words to concepts, 582–589
relationship to thought, 201–204, 588–594
skills supporting, 19
social underpinnings of, 19–26
lateral liquids, 261
later-learned languages, effects on a native language, 603–605
Latin, 580
LaughLab website, 392
learnability, 13
learning biases
crosslinguistic tendencies and, 143–144
genetics and, 576
language similarities and, 568–574
strengths and weaknesses of artificial language experiments on, 574–575
“learning to fail” effect, 410
left anterior negativity, 198
left hemisphere
regions activated by different writing systems, 334
See also brain
left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), 386, 391, 392
Lele language, 585
lemmas
activation flow and the lexical bias effect, 433–434, 435–440
defined, 407
picture–word interference task, 407–409
tip-of-the-tongue state, 409, 410
length effects, in word recognition, 304
lexical bias
activation flow explanations of, 433–434, 435–440
definition and description of, 430
experimental evidence for, 431
self-monitoring account of, 435, 436, 439
lexical co-occurrence patterns, 221–222, 254
lexical decision task
controlling for factors that affect the speed of word recognition, 304
defined, 301
methodological issues, 307–308
study of neighborhood density effects, 303
study of semantic priming, 301–302
lexical entrainment, 550, 551–552
lexical neighborhood activation effect, 392
lexical representation, 161–162
LIFG. See left inferior frontal gyrus
linguistic competence, 235
linguistic context, word learning and, 186, 188
linguistic input
bilingual input and word learning, 189
characteristics of high-quality input, 185–188
defined, 188
language change and, 250
linguistic intake and, 188
role in word learning, 184–190
syntactic learning and, 248–252
linguistic performance, 235
Linguistic Society of Paris, 10–11
linguistic units, combining, 26–27
lips
lip rounding, 135
liquid sounds, 130
listeners
comprehension demands of, 535–538
importance to speakers of feedback from, 541–544
speakers and audience design, 534–544
literacy
background information and, 460–461
speech perception and, 296
lítost, 171
localist word representations, 308–309
Loglan language, 370
logographic writing systems, 330, 332
Lojban language, 370
long-distance dependencies, 238
long-term memory
information retained from mental models, 457–459
memory-driven account of discourse processing, 496–497, 498
“Lord’s Prayer,” 54
low-income families, disparities in linguistic input and, 184, 185
lying, advertising and, 522
M
MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, 24
MacWhinney, Brian, 246
magnetoencephalography (MEG), 96–97, 108, 271
main clause, 348
Mandarin language
conveying of future time, 608
phonemes versus allophones, 134
studies of social interactions and language learning, 504–506
Mandarin-accented speakers, 282
manner of articulation, 130, 261
Marathi language, 563
Martha’s Vineyard, 276
maxims of cooperative conversation, 520–521, 523–524, 535, 554
McGurk effect
defined, 273
motor theory of speech perception and, 286
in older adults, 293
in speech perception studies, 273–274
ventriloquism and, 290
McIntyre, John, 351
McJob, 193
mean length of utterance, 207
meaning
accounts of deep and shallow processing of, 496–499
conversational inferences, 518–534 (see also conversational inferences)
expression in esoteric and exoteric languages, 600
metaphorical, 488–492, 494 (see also metaphor)
pragmatic and semantic meanings, 526–528
problem of recovering from language, 501–503
social conventions and, 501–502
soft and hard meanings, 518–520
“sunken meanings,” 315–319
See also mental models; sentence meaning; word meanings
medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), 530, 533
See also ToM brain regions
mediated semantic priming, 303, 305
Mednyj Aleut language, 563
MEG. See magnetoencephalography
memory
impact of memory pressures on syntactic choices, 426–427, 429
individual differences in memory span, 383–384
information retained in long-term memory from mental models, 457–459
memory-based account of difficult sentences, 378–381
memory-driven account of discourse processing, 496–497, 498
selective nature of Whorfian effects and, 597
types of, 84
memory probe task
advantages and disadvantages of, 456
studies of bridging inferences, 477
studies of mental models, 450–452, 453, 455
studies of pronoun resolution, 464–465
studies of the effects of reader’s engagement with a text on pronoun resolution, 499
mental age, 48
mental models
background information and, 459–561
defined, 447
determining the information contained in, 448–457
information retained in long-term memory, 457–459
memory probe task studies, 450–452, 453, 456
overview of techniques for studying, 456–457
presupposition and accommodation, 481
pronoun problems, 461–469 (see also pronouns)
propositional content and, 447–452
message formulation
disfluencies and, 416, 417–418, 419–420
hard-to-plan messages, 415–416
timing of message planning and linguistic planning, 412–416
See also conversation
metaphor
constructing metaphorical meaning, 490–492, 494
political language and, 493–494
skills needed to understand, 494–495
Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff & Johnson), 493
Mexican immigrants, 558
Microcephalin gene, 576
Middle English, 54
middle temporal gyrus (MTG), 74, 85, 86, 87
mind reading
children’s assessment of a speaker’s reliability, 509–510
children’s inferences about the mental state of others, 510–511
conversation and, 548, 550–552
impact of language on mind-reading abilities in children, 516
implicit and explicit, 515, 517
language learning in children and, 503–518
limits to in children, 511–512, 514–517
mind-reading networks in the brain, 528, 530–534
the problem of recovering meaning from language, 501–503
speakers and audience design, 534–544
minimally conscious state, 102
misremembering. See false memories
Modern English, 54
modular mind design, 339–342, 356
Mohawk language, 217
monkeys
absence of gestural communication, 37
statistical learning in, 125
See also primates
Montana Salish language, 563
morphemes
building complex words from multiple morphemes, 190–196
logographic writing systems and, 330
Mc- morpheme and genericide, 192–193
mean length of utterance, 207
productivity, 192
speech errors involving, 406
motor aphasia, 70
motor cortex. See primary motor cortex
motor theory of speech perception
definition and overview of, 286
link between perception and articulation, 286–287
neurophysiological evidence for, 289–293
relationship of articulation knowledge to perceptual representations, 287–289
moving window paradigm, 352
mPFC. See medial prefrontal cortex
MTG. See middle temporal gyrus
Müller-Lyer illusion, 341
multiple morphemes, building complex words from, 190–196
multiple-language speakers
activation of cultural values and, 607–609
aphasia and, 75
effects of later-learned languages on a native language, 603–605
Munsell, Albert, 589
music
beatboxing, 131
constituent structure, 212
effects of music training on speech perception, 270–271
music processing
language processing and, 108–110
mutual exclusivity bias, 165
N
N400 effect
cross-language activation and, 105–107
debate on separate brain networks for learning by words or rules, 198
defined, 99
discourse processing and, 484–485
disfluencies and, 419
language processing and, 99–103
non-linguistic processing and, 103
predictive language processing and, 374
surprisal and, 375
using to assess patients in a vegetative state, 102–103
naming, effect on connecting words and objects, 164–165
nasal stops, 130
nasalized vowels, 140
nasals, 261
National Geographic, 460
native language, effects of later-learned languages on, 603–605
nativist view
definition and description of, 9–10
language capability as an evolutionary adaptation, 18–19
of language change, 56
problem of language learning, 30
sensitive period of language learning and, 44
natural classes, 143, 144, 145–146
Neanderthals, 52
neighborhood activation effect, 392
neighborhood density effects, 302–303
Netherlands, 288
neurolinguistics
aphasias, 68, 69–70 (see also aphasias)
areas of study, 4
brain lateralization, 74, 76–77
brain mapping, 70–74, 78–95 (see also brain mapping)
distribution of language function in networks, 81–83
evidence from damage to the brain, 65–77
functional neuroanatomy of language, 85–86
measuring brain electrical activity in response to language, 95–107
music and language processing, 108–100
separate language knowledge systems, 84–87
summary of current and future research trends, 92–95
neurotransmitters, 96
newborns. See infants
newspaper headlines, 351
Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL), 41–44, 56, 57, 59–60, 516
non-arbitrary speech sounds, 166–168
non-nasalized vowels, 140
Northern Cities Vowels, 277
Norwegian language, 586
noun phrases
constituent structure and, 211–214
direct object, 348
indirect object, 348
introduction to and definition of, 210–211
prepositional phrases and, 215
subject, 348
nouns
adjective/noun pairs, 569–570, 571–572
animacy and subjecthood, 577–578
compositionality, 206, 208–209
numeral/noun pairs, 569–570, 571–572
NSL. See Nicaraguan Sign Language
numeral/noun pairs, 569–570, 571–572
O
object relative clauses
defined, 238
difficult sentences and, 378–381
effects of cognitive training on the processing of, 389–390
individual differences in processing, 383–384
object relatives, 384
objects, connecting words to, 163–168, 169
object-verb word order, 564, 565, 566–567, 576–578
Okrand, Marc, 248
One Hundred Names for Love (Ackerman), 68
onset, 331
Orwell, George, 201
over-extension, 171
overspecification, 599
P
P600 effect
defined, 100
language processing and, 100, 101, 102
music processing and, 104–105, 108
non-linguistic processing and, 103
pacifier sucking. See high-amplitude sucking method
Papua New Guinea, 558
paralinguistic use, 90
parietal lobe, 89
Parish, Peggy, 473
Parkinson’s disease, 198, 290, 291, 310
parsing
ambiguity resolution models, 353–359
defined, 345
despite the presence of ambiguity, 368–370
predictors of sentence ambiguity, 359–370
the problem of ambiguity and, 345–353
See also sentence comprehension
particles, 232
passive relative, 384
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 24
perceptual invariance, 259–260
perceptual memories, words and, 310
perseverations, 406
persuasive messages, presuppositional language and, 482
PET. See positron emission tomography
phonation, 129
phoneme restoration effect, 131, 273, 291, 339
phonemes
sound patterns and the learning of, 138–143
phonemic awareness
alphabetic languages and, 331
literacy and, 296
phonemic boundaries
adjusting to in specific speakers, 278–279
phonemic categories and, 588–589
phonemic inventory, 133
phonetics, 140
phonological mapping negativity, 100
phonology, 140
phonotactic constraints
definition and examples of, 119, 120
perception of sounds and, 150–151
testing use of by infants, 146–148
phrases
long-distance dependencies, 238
phrase-structure rules, 215
See also noun phrases; prepositional phrases
picture–word interference task, 407–409
pidgin languages, 611
Pirahã language, 170, 217, 585, 612
place of articulation, 139–140, 261
planum polare, 274
Plato, 30
“Poem” (Williams), 214
poetry, constituent structure and, 213–214
pointing behaviors, language development and, 23, 25
Politics and the English Language (Orwell), 201
polysemous words, 312
positron emission tomography (PET), 78
postpositions, 564, 565, 566–567
postsynaptic potentials, 96
predictive inferences, 483–486
predictive language processing
eye-tracking experiments on, 371–373, 376–377
predictors of sentence ambiguity
frequency-based information, 362–364
syntactic frames of verbs, 360–362
thematic relations associated with verbs, 360
prefixes
defined, 191
learning biases and, 573
Mc- morpheme and genericide, 192–193
premature babies, 152
premotor cortex, 289
prepositional phrases
defined, 215
syntactic ambiguity and audience design, 538–541
prepositions, 564, 565, 566–567
prevarication, 13
primary auditory cortex, 85, 86, 88
primary motor cortex, 85, 86, 87, 289
primates
apes and the question of language learning, 15–19
human evolutionary history, 18
methodological concerns in linking behavior to cognition, 17
methodological concerns with comparative studies, 25–26
social behavior/cognition, 20–22, 25
speech in humans versus other primates, 33–36
use of gestures and signed languages, 37–38
vocalizations, 14–15, 34–35, 36
prime words
mediated semantic priming, 303, 305
priming
crossmodal priming task, 315, 316–317
forensic linguistics and priming effects, 428
speakers in conversation and, 548, 550, 551–552
subliminal priming of a verb’s syntactic frames, 363–364
See also semantic priming; syntactic priming
primitive languages myth, 610–611
principles and parameters theory, 244
prisoner’s dilemma, 607
procedural memory, 84
professors, audience design and, 545
pronoun resolution
antecedents and, 464–468, 469, 470–471, 472–473
coordinating multiple sources of information, 469–473
implicit causality and coherence relations, 468–469
memory-based account of discourse processing and, 497
overview and generalized account of, 465
reader’s engagement with a text and, 498–499
repeated-name penalty, 466–468
saliency of discourse referents, 465–466
written language experience and, 476
pronouns
in English, 462
language change through language contact and, 563
in other languages, 463
processing in real time, 469–476
repeated-name penalty and, 466–467
resolving the antecedent, 464–468 (see also pronoun resolution)
saliency of discourse referents, 465–466
semantic starkness and the potential for ambiguity, 461–462, 464
types and structural constraints, 474
use of coherence relations to solve the ambiguity of, 468–469
pronunciation
comprehension demands of listeners and, 536
variability in signed languages, 262–263
proposition
as the core meaning of a sentence, 447–448
pseudoscience, neuroscience and, 91–92
psycholinguistics
collaborative work and, 5
what can be learned from conflicting results, 267–268
psychological heuristics, 355
pure word deafness, 109
Q
Quine, Willard, 158
R
rapid fading, 13
rats, statistical learning in, 125, 127
reading
accounts of deep and shallow processing of meaning, 496–499
background information and reading comprehension, 460–461
categorical perception and, 296
dual route and connectionist models of, 336–338
dyslexia and, 294
individual differences in visual imagery, 454–455
phonemic awareness and, 296
pronoun resolution and reading experience, 476
reverse cohesion effect, 487–488
reading time tasks
advantages and disadvantages of, 456–457
overview and description of, 352–353
studies of bridging inferences, 478
studies of pronoun resolution, 472–473
using to measure sentence processing difficulty, 350–351
real-estate metaphor, for word recognition, 302–303
receptive aphasia, 70
recursive rules, 29
reduced relative clauses
defined, 346
garden path sentences and, 346–347, 351
models of ambiguity resolution, 353–359
passive voice and, 349
syntactic planning of speakers and, 540–541
without garden path effects, 357, 358
referential communication task, 512–515, 517
referential inferences, 478, 480
referential transparency, 185–186, 187
reflexive pronouns, 474
reflexiveness, 13
regular verbs, learning the past tense, 197–200
relative clauses
complex sentences and, 237, 238
difficult sentences and, 378–381
object and subject relative clauses, 238
See also reduced relative clauses
relative pitch, 601
“Relativity of Wrong, The” (Asimov), 2–3
repeated-name penalty, 466–467, 475
repetition suppression, 273–274
representativeness heuristic, 355
retroflex liquids, 261
reverse cohesion effect, 487–488
reverse inference, 92
Rheingold, Howard, 171
rhesus macaques, 35
rhyme competitors, 327–328, 329
rime, 331
rule-based accounts of syntax, 215–216
rules versus words debate, in forming complex words, 196–197, 198, 200
Russian language
color vocabulary and color perception, 585, 590–591
comprehension demands of listeners and, 535
experience- and memory-based accounts of difficult sentences, 380–381
word order flexibility, 559–560
Russian-English bilinguals, 325–326, 393
S
Saguinus oedipus (cotton-top tamarin), 125
Salish language, 285
Sanskrit, 563
Sapir, Edward, 588
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, 588–589
scalar implicatures
definition and examples of, 523
processing by hearers with autism spectrum disorder, 553–554, 555
processing in real time, 526–528
science
language science and the scientific process, 3–6
seals, 36
second languages
difficulties in learning, 111–112
effects on cognition, 601
word order and, 58
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), 153
self-monitoring, lexical bias effect and, 435, 436, 439
self-paced reading task, 352
semantic bootstrapping hypothesis, 220, 221
semantic priming
definition and description of, 301–302
impact on the choice of syntax, 425
interstimulus interval, 308
methodological issues with the lexical decision task, 307–308
perceptual memories and, 310
study of lexical activation with partial spoken words, 321–322
semanticity, 13
semantics, 206
sensitive period, 44
sensory aphasia, 70
sentence ambiguity
ambiguity-free artificial languages, 370
garden path sentences, 346–347, 349
incremental processing and, 345
intuitive sense of difficult sentences, 343–344
measuring processing difficulty, 349–353
newspaper headlines, 351
parsing of language despite the presence of, 368–370
predictors of, 359–370 (see also predictors of sentence ambiguity)
reduced relative clauses and, 346–347
surprisal, 375
sentence complement, 348
sentence comprehension
differences between individuals in, 381–390, 392
effects of aging on, 388
effects of language experience on, 384, 385
experience- and memory-based accounts of difficult sentences, 377–381
incremental processing and the problem of ambiguity, 345–353 (see also incremental language processing)
intuitive sense of difficult sentences, 343–344
key grammatical terms and concepts in English, 348–349
language structure and, 601–602
models of ambiguity resolution, 353–359
predictive language processing, 370–377
predictors of sentence ambiguity, 359–370
sentence meaning
mental models, 448–457 (see also mental models)
sentence production
moving from thought to speech, 399–401, 403
structuring in speech, 420–429
See also language production; speech production
sentence structure
syntax, 206–218 (see also syntax)
sentences
intuitive sense of difficult sentences, 343–344
key grammatical terms and concepts in English, 348–349
metaphorical (see metaphor)
sentential complement verbs, 361
separate-networks hypothesis, for learning by words or rules, 198
SES. See socioeconomic status
Shadow Factory, The (West), 68
shadowing task, 345
Shafia, Mohammed and Hamed, 461–462
shared homesign systems, 41–44
Shaw, George Bernard, 334, 335–336
Sign Language Structure (Stokoe), 45
signed languages
aphasia and, 88
brain organization for language and, 88–89, 90
Deaf culture and, 45
great apes and the use of, 37
impact on children’s mind-reading abilities, 516
language characteristics of, 36–37
minimal pairs, 132
William Stokoe and the study of, 45
using event-related potentials to detect cross-language activation, 105–107
variability in the pronunciation of, 262–263
single-system connectionist model of reading, 337–338
Sinhala language, 569
situation models, 447
See also mental models
SLI. See specific language impairment
SLIP (spoonerisms of laboratory-induced predisposition) technique, 430–432, 436, 438
“Smarties” test. See false-belief test
SMG. See supramarginal gyrus
social cognition
assessment of a speaker’s reliability by children, 509–510
children’s inferences about the mental state of others, 510–511
conversational inferences, 518–534 (see also conversational inferences)
language learning in children and, 503–518
limits to the mind-reading abilities of children, 511–512, 514–517
mind-reading networks in the brain, 528, 530–534
and the problem of recovering meaning from language, 501–503
speakers and audience design, 534–544
social conventions, meaning and, 501–502
social cues, modulation of word learning, 177–181
social identity, accents and, 276–277
social interactions, impact on language learning, 504–507, 509
social pressure, communicative efficiency of languages and, 580–581
socioeconomic status (SES)
defined, 184
disparities in linguistic input and, 184, 185, 188
Socrates, 30
songbirds
characteristics of birdsong, 38–39
sensitive period and innate song ability, 44, 46
social gating and song learning, 508
sonority sequencing principle, 150–151
sound distinctions
beatboxing and, 131
characteristics of, 128–130, 132–133
characteristics of vowels, 135
phonemes versus allophones, 133–135
sound exchanges, 405–407, 409–411
sound patterns
early language learning and, 112–113
language universals and the perception of sounds, 150–151
learning phonemes and, 138–143
speech segmentation and discovering words, 113–121
sound perception, effects of language universals on, 150–151
sound-based speech errors
effect of one’s mental state on, 436
as evidence for ordered stages in speech production, 409–411
lexical bias effect, 430, 433–440 (see also lexical bias)
patterns in, 439
practical value of understanding, 440
as a window into language production, 429, 439
sounds. See speech sounds
Spanish language
allophones in complementary distribution, 140
as an “agglutinative-lite” language, 249
conveying of future time, 608
grammar and the encoding of complex events, 595–596, 597
inflectional affixes, 193
pronouns in, 463
sentence production in, 440–441
studies on the relationship between articulation and speech perception, 288
Spanish-English speakers, 604
spatial information, coding in mental models, 452
spatial location, in shared homesign systems, 42–43
speakers
accent and social identity, 276–277
children’s assessment of the reliability of, 509–510
children’s inferences about the mental state of others, 510–511
comprehension demands of listeners and, 535–538
conversational inferences, 518–534 (see also conversational inferences)
dubbing and lip reading, 275
importance of feedback from listeners, 541–544
language production choices and language similarities, 574–578
less adaptation to in dyslexic people, 295
maxims of cooperative conversation, 520–321, 523–524, 535, 554
relationship between speaker variables and acoustic cues, 280–282
role of the listener’s perceptual history on speech perception, 282–284
sources of speech variation, 274, 277
speech perception and listeners’ adaptation to, 274–285
structuring sentences in speech, 420–429
word learning and assessing the accuracy of, 177, 178–179
word learning and understanding the intentions of, 175–181
specialization, 13
specific language impairment (SLI), 48–51, 239, 294
speech
aphasias, 69–70 (see also aphasias)
characteristics of birdsong, 38–39
humans versus other primates, 33–36
language without speech, 36–38
misspeaking, 397–398 (see also speech errors)
moving from thought to speech, 399–404
recognizing spoken words in real time, 320–329
statistical learning of speech patterns in infants, 121–127
steps in planning for, 403, 404
structuring sentences in, 420–429
verbatim transcripts, 400
See also speech production; spoken language
speech errors
common types of, 406
Freudian explanation of, 398, 436
impact of accessibility on, 422
interloper words, 404
lexical bias effect, 430, 433–440
overview and significance of, 397–398
patterns in, 439
practical value of understanding, 440
using to study the stages of speech production, 407–411
as a window into language production, 429, 439
word-based versus sound-based, 405–407
See also sound-based speech errors
speech patterns, statistical learning in infants, 121–127
speech pauses, 401
speech perception
adaptation to variation in speakers, 274–285
automatic speech recognition, 257–258
compensation for coarticulation, 341–342
coping with the variability of sounds, 259–268
core problem in, 258
double dissociation and, 84
effects of music training on, 270–271
functional neuroanatomy of, 85–86
integrating multiple cues, 268–274
variability in the pronunciation of signed languages, 262–263
what can be learned from conflicting results, 267–268
speech production
formulating messages, 412–418 (see also message formulation)
functional neuroanatomy of, 86
Garrett’s model of, 411
moving from thought to speech, 399–404
putting the sounds in words, 429–440
steps in planning to speak, 403, 404
structuring sentences, 420–429
See also language production
speech segmentation
phonotactic constraints and stress patterns, 119–120
statistical learning of speech patterns, 121–127
strategies for discovering word boundaries, 118–121
use of familiar words in, 117–118
word knowledge in infants and, 120–121
speech sounds
acoustic cues for listeners and, 281–282
articulatory properties of English consonants, 260, 261
categorical perception, 260–262, 264–267
constraints on sound-based generalizations, 143–144
dissimilation processes, 149
Charles Hockett on the combining of, 259
language change and, 563
mental models and, 455
natural classes, 143, 144, 145–146
problem of perceptual invariance, 259–260
putting the sounds in words, 429–440
speech errors involving, 405–407
Sperry, Roger, 76
spillover effects, 352
“split-brain” patients, 76, 77
spoken language
duality of patterning and, 333–334
effects of intonation on disambiguation, 368–369
verbatim transcripts, 400
See also conversation; speech
Spooner, Rev. William Archibald, 405
See also sound-based speech errors
spreading-activation network model, 303, 305
Spt region. See Sylvian parietal temporal region
SSRIs. See selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
Standard Arabic, 463
Standard Beatbox Notation, 131
Stanton, Andrew, 480
state of the glottis, 261
statistical learning
distributional evidence and the learning of grammatical categories, 222–223
distributional sound patterns leading to phonemic categories, 142–143
forming abstract knowledge of syntax, 235
transitional probabilities, 123–124
word learning and, 159
STG. See superior temporal gyrus
Stokoe, William, 45
stroke
evidence for the motor theory of speech perception, 289–290
STS. See superior temporal sulcus
Sturnus vulgaris (European starling), 508
subcategorizaton information, 232
subcortical, 71
subject, 348
subject relative clauses
defined, 238
difficult sentences and, 378–380, 381
effects of cognitive training on the processing of, 389–390
subject-verb-object word order, 576–578
subordinate clause, 348
subordinate-level categories, 169, 170, 172
substitution speech errors, 406
Sudanese language, 170
Sullivan, Annie, 204
“sunken meanings,” 315–319
superior longitudinal fasciculus, 71
superior temporal gyrus (STG), 85, 86, 267
superior temporal sulcus (STS), 85, 86
superordinate-level categories, 169
supramarginal gyrus (SMG), 85, 86
surprisal, 375
Swahili, 249
Switchboard corpus, 400
syllabic writing systems, 331
syllable sequences, transitional probabilities and, 123–124
syllables
onset and rime, 331
sonority sequencing principle, 150–151
Sylvian parietal temporal (Spt) region, 85, 86
syntactic ambiguity. See sentence ambiguity
syntactic bootstrapping, 183
syntactic constraints
learning complex syntax and, 238–247
wh- island constraints, 242
syntactic frames
overview and description of, 360–362
subliminal priming of, 363–364
syntactic markers, 232
syntactic positive shift. See P600 effect
syntactic priming
definition and description of, 422–424
evidence for in real-world data, 424–425
speakers in conversation and, 548, 550
syntax
agglutinative languages, 249
children as cautious learners of, 228–232
complex syntax and constraints on learning, 237–247
compositionality, 206, 208–209
computer simulations of syntactic learning, 252
effects of literacy on, 600–601
impact of accessibility on syntactic choices, 422–426
impact of memory pressures on syntactic choices, 426–427, 429
language change through language contact and, 563
learning grammatical categories, 219–226
learning process, 206, 207, 216, 218, 219–220 (see also developmental syntax)
learning when to generalize, 232–235
overgeneralizations in children, 228, 229
recursion and, 29
rules versus constructions, 215–216
structured patterns of language, 27–28
structuring sentences in speech, 420–429
syntactic ambiguities, 212, 213 (see also sentence ambiguity)
Mark Twain on German syntax, 602
universal grammar concept, 218
using syntactic context in word learning, 182–183
varieties of structural complexity, 217
synthesized voice systems, 420
T
Tacana language, 585
talkers. See speakers
telegraphic speech, 206
temporal information, coding in mental models, 452–453
temporoparietal junction (TPJ), 530, 532, 533, 534
See also ToM brain regions
tenseness, 135
test phase
in the head-turn preference paradigm, 114, 115, 116
texts, reverse cohesion effect, 487–488
Thai language, 134
Thank You, Amelia Bedelia (Parish), 473
thematic relations, 360
theoretical linguistics, 4
theory of mind (ToM)
brain regions underlying, 530–534
children and the acquisition of, 511, 516
defined, 511
They Have a Word for It (Rheingold), 171
Thirteen Days (film), 501–502, 528
thought
relationship of language to, 201–204, 588–594
See also cognition
thought structure. See mental models
Through the Looking Glass (Deutscher), 584, 585–586
tip-of-the-tongue state, 409, 410
TMS. See transcranial magnetic stimulation
Toastmasters public-speaking club, 419
toddlers
abstract knowledge of syntax and, 226–236
See also children
ToM. See theory of mind
tone
paralinguistic use, 90
total feedback, 13
TPJ. See temporoparietal junction
TPs. See transitional probabilities
traditional transmission, 13
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), 292, 294, 534
transitional probabilities (TPs), 123–124
transitive verbs
argument structure, 182
syntactic frame, 361
transverse temporal gyrus (TTG), 274
trigrams, 222
trochaic stress pattern, 119–120
Turkish language, 194–195, 335, 559, 594–595
Tyndale, William, 54
Tyte, Gavin, 131
U
unaspirated stops, 133, 138–139
under-extension, 171
uniqueness point, 322
United States, language extinction and, 558
universal grammar, 30, 32–33, 218, 244
universal language projects, 31
V
vague expressions, 523
See also scalar implicature
vegetative states, assessing patients in, 102–103
ventral stream, 84, 85, 86, 198, 236
verb islands, 230
verb-object word order, 564, 565, 566–567, 576–578
verbs
argument structures, 182
auxiliary verbs, 239–240, 241 (see also auxiliary verbs)
children as cautious learners of syntax, 230–232
difficulties of learning, 181–182
direct object, 348
ditransitive verbs, 182, 360, 361
frequency-based information in ambiguity resolution, 362–364
indirect object, 348
learning the past tense, 197–200
learning when to generalize, 232–235
sentential complement verbs, 361
subcategorizaton information, 232
subject, 348
syntactic alternations, 233
syntactic frames, 360–362 (see also syntactic frames)
thematic relations, 360
transitive and intransitive, 228 (see also intransitive verbs; transitive verbs)
using syntactic context in learning, 182–183
verb-object word order and language diversity, 564, 565, 566–567, 576–578
visual imagery, individual differences in readers, 454–455
visual images, Kuleshov effect, 479–480
visual mismatch negativity effect (vMMN), 592, 593
Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), 454–455
vMMN. See visual mismatch negativity effect
vocabulary growth, high-quality linguistic input and, 185–188
vocal folds (“vocal cords”), 129
vocal learning
in non-primates, 36
vocal tract
human, 129
humans versus other primates, 33–34
vocal–auditory channel, 13
vocalizations
affective and cognitive pathways, 36
voice onset time (VOT)
categorical perception and, 262, 264, 265, 266, 267
defined, 132
distributions of variability, 153
phonemes versus allophones, 133–134
voiceless sounds, 132
VOT. See voice onset time
vowel backness, 135
vowel height, 135
vowel length, 140
vowel shifts, social identity and, 276–277
vowels
pitch in tone languages, 134
producing vowels sounds, 33–34
sound characteristics, 135
voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM), 72–74
voxels, 72
VSLM. See voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping
VVIQ. See Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire
W
waggle dance of honeybees, 11–14
WALL-E (animated film), 480
Washoe (chimpanzee), 16
Wernicke’s aphasia, 70, 72, 198
Wernicke’s area
brain organization for language and, 82, 88
current and future research trends, 93–94
language functions, 71, 72, 74
music processing and, 109
in users of a signed language, 88
West, Paul, 68
wh- island constraints, 242, 247
wh- questions
attention-focusing function of, 247
long-distance dependencies, 238
patterns of errors in the learning of, 244–245
syntactic constraints and the learning of, 241–242, 247
whales, 36
wh-cleft sentence, 467
Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 588
Whorf hypothesis, 588–589, 593, 597, 598
Why We Cooperate (Tomasello), 21–22
Wilkins, John, 31
Williams, William Carlos, 214
Williams syndrome (WMS), 47–48, 49
Wiseman, Richard, 392
WMS. See Williams syndrome
Woodward, James, 45n
Woolf, Virginia, 312
word associations, persuasive power of, 319–320
word boundaries
distributional sound patterns leading to phonemic categories, 142–143
early language learning and, 113–114
head-turn preference paradigm with infants, 116–117
speech segmentation and, 117–118
strategies for discovering, 118–121
“word deafness,” 85–86
word learning
from bilingual input, 189
the chicken-and-egg problem of language and thought, 201–204
children’s assessment of a speaker’s reliability and, 509–510
connecting words and objects, 163–168, 169
cues for learning categories, 172–175
introduction and overview, 157–158
learning parts of speech, 181–183
mapping words onto categories, 168–172
role of linguistic input in, 184–190
understanding speakers’ intentions, 175–181
words and their interface to sound, 158–163
word meanings
ambiguity and word recognition, 311–320
learning syntactic structure and, 219–220
mapping speech sounds to, 159–163
models of linking graphemes to, 336–338
non-arbitrary speech sounds, 166–168
semantic bootstrapping hypothesis, 220
simultaneous activation of multiple meanings, 315–319
word order
language change through language contact and, 563
language diversity and, 559–560, 564–565, 566–567
learning biases and, 569–570, 571–572
production pressures and language similarities, 576–578
word recognition
ambiguity and ambiguous words, 311–320
as an interconnected lexicon, 300–311
brain activity and, 83
building and examining a model of, 303, 305–306, 308–311 (see also word recognition modeling)
cohort model, 322–324, 326, 327, 328–329 (see also cohort model)
compensation for coarticulation, 341–342
competition from partially activated words, 302–303
controlling for factors that affect the speed of, 304
double dissociation and, 84
effects of exposure to multiple accents in children, 283–284
evidence for partial retrieval of related words, 301–302
evidence for the simultaneous activation of multiple meanings, 315–319
importance of the left edges of words, 324, 326–329
importance of time in, 300
incremental language processing, 322–324
modular-versus-interactive mind design debate, 339–342
overview and challenges of, 299–300
persuasive power of word associations, 319–320
reading written words, 330–338
recognizing spoken words in real time, 320–329
subjective impression of, 300–301
word recognition modeling
building a model, 303, 305–306
cohort model, 322–324, 326, 327, 328–329 (see also cohort model)
modular-versus-interactive mind design debate, 339–342
using context to disambiguate meanings, 314–315
word representations
bodily information and, 310
excitatory and inhibitory connections, 305–306
localist and distributed representations, 308–309
subjective impression of word recognition and, 301
word retrieval
“learning to fail” effect, 410
putting the sounds in words, 429–440
spoken message planning and, 413, 414
tip-of-the-tongue state, 409, 410
word-order shifts, 250
words
compounding, 191
connecting to objects, 163–168, 169
distributional evidence and the learning of syntax, 220–226
language diversity and, 559
learning complex words, 190–200
lexical co-occurrence patterns, 221–222
mapping onto categories, 168–172
perceptual memories and, 310
relationship to concepts, 582–589
speech segmentation in infants and, 120–121
studying infants’ knowledge of, 114–117
word unit speech errors, 404–405, 406
words versus rules debate, in forming complex words, 196–197, 198, 200
working memory
cognitive training and its effects on language processing, 388–390, 392
effects on sentence comprehension in older adults, 388
predictive inferences and, 484, 486
syntactic planning of speakers and, 540–541
World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), 565
Wright, Sylvia, 324
writing systems
alphabetic irregularities, 334–336
brain regions engaged by different systems, 332–333
dual route and connectionist models of reading, 336–338
duality of patterning and, 333–334
written language
language experience and pronoun resolution, 476
reverse cohesion effect, 487–488
Wug test, 196
X
!Xóõ language, 610
Y
Yagua language, 599
Yoruba language, 569
Z
Zulu language, 563