CHAPTER 9- KEY TAKE AWAYS For example, language helps us store

information in our memory, making

- communication—exchange of
it easier to recall things later. While
thoughts and feelings—is
languages can be very different, they
through language.
all share some common traits like the
Communication encompasses
ability to communicate, using
other aspects—nonverbal
symbols (words) to represent things,
communication, such as
having rules, being flexible, and
gestures or facial expressions,
changing over time.
can be used to embellish or to
indicate. Glances may serve
- The lexicon is the entire set of
many purposes. For example,
morphemes in each language or
sometimes they are deadly,
in each person’s linguistic
other times, seductive.
repertoire. The average adult
- The thing or concept in the real
speaker of English has a lexicon
world that a word refers to is
of about 80,000 morphemes
called referent.
(Miller & Gildea, 1987). Children
in grade 1 in the United States
- The principle of conventionality have approximately 10,000
means that people agree on what words in their vocabularies. By
words mean. For example, everyone grade 3, they have about
A sentence comprises at least two 20,000. By grade 5, they have
parts. The first is a noun phrase, reached about 40,000, or half of
which contains at least one noun their eventual adult level of
(often the subject of the sentence) attainment (Anglin, 1993)
and includes all the relevant
descriptors of the noun (like “big” or - A sentence comprises at least
“fast”). The second is a verb phrase two parts. The first is a noun
(pagrees that "dog" refers to a four- phrase, which contains at least
legged pet that barks. one noun (often the subject of
- The principle of contrast means that the sentence) and includes all
different words have different the relevant descriptors of the
meanings. For instance, "dog" and noun (like “big” or “fast”). The
"cat" are two different words because second is a verb phrase
they refer to two different animals. (predicate), which contains at
Even words like "sofa" and "couch" least one verb and whatever the
might seem similar but could be used verb acts on, if anything
slightly differently depending on
context, which is why we have both
words. - When people speak, they don’t say
- Language has many features, but its words exactly the same way. Some
main purpose is to help us talk faster, slower, or with different
understand situations and accents. For example, a teacher
communicate with others. It's not just might say “get” in a way that sounds
about rules or structures; it's about like “git.” Even though words sound
using language to describe things,
remember them, and share ideas.
 different, we still understand what - Speech errors show that our brains
they mean. follow grammar rules even when we
- We also pronounce sounds together. make mistakes. For example, we
This is called coarticulation. It might accidentally say, "I put the
means when you're saying one oven in the cake" instead of "I put
sound, your mouth is already getting the cake in the oven." Even though
ready for the next sound. For the words are switched, the sentence
example, say "palace" and "pool." still makes grammatical sense.
The "p" sounds different because - We also adjust words to fit their new
you're preparing for the next vowel positions. For instance, "The butter
(the “a” in "palace" and the "oo" in knives are in the drawer" might
"pool"). become "The butter drawers are in
- In normal conversation, words can the knife." The words change, but the
run together, making it hard to hear grammar stays intact.
where one word ends and the next - Even people with language
starts. Figuring out these words is difficulties (like agrammatic
called speech segmentation. Even aphasia) tend to follow grammar
though it sounds like words are rules in their mistakes. This shows
blending together, your brain can how deeply our brain understands
still separate them. and applies sentence structure, even
- For example, if you hear someone when we mess up.
say, "I scream" and "ice cream," it - . Specifically, Chomsky suggested a
might sound similar, but you can still way to supplement the study of
figure out which one they mean phrase structures. He proposed the
based on context. study of transformational grammar,
- In short, even though sounds overlap which involves transformational
or vary from speaker to speaker, this rules. These rules guide the ways in
actually helps us understand speech which an underlying proposition can
better. be arranged into a sentence. There
- All words are stored in our mental are obviously many different
lexicon, which contains both the sentences that can express the same
words and their meanings. proposition.
- Syntactical Priming means that - Developmental dyslexia is believed
after hearing a certain sentence to have both biological and
structure, we tend to use or recognize environmental causes. A major
similar structures more easily. It's dispute in the field is the role of
like when our brain gets used to a each. People with developmental
certain way of organizing words in a dyslexia often have been found to
sentence, and then it prefers or reacts have abnormalities in certain
faster to sentences with the same chromosomes, most notably, 3, 6,
pattern. This shows how our brains and 15
get influenced by sentence patterns - A second kind of dyslexia is
we've recently encountered, even acquired dyslexia, which is typically
when the content or meaning of the caused by traumatic brain damage.
sentences is different. - When we read, our eyes don’t move
smoothly across the text. Instead,
 they jump in quick movements called like, “The first job was to fix the
saccades, stopping to focus on small window.”
chunks of text. These stops are called - Having a sentence around a word
fixations and act like snapshots. We gives it context, making it easier to
fixate longer on longer or less understand. This works
familiar words and on the last word automatically, even before we think
of a sentence (called sentence wrap- about it. For instance, we recognize
up time). related words like "doctor" and
"nurse" faster than unrelated or
We don’t fixate on every word. random words.
Around 80% of important words (like - In short, words are easier to read and
nouns and verbs) are fixated, but small understand when they are part of a
words like "the" or "of" are often meaningful sentence.
skipped. When we fixate, we can see - Lexical-access speed—the speed
about 4 characters to the left and 14-15 with which we can retrieve
to the right, while our eyes leap 7-9 information about words (e.g., letter
characters between fixations. names) stored in our long-term
memories (Hunt, 1978). This speed
Example: When speed-reading, can be measured with a letter-
people make fewer and shorter fixations, matching, reaction-time task first
but they often lose deeper understanding, proposed by Posner and Mitchell in
focusing only on the general idea of the 1967 (Hunt, 1978).
text.

- In the word-superiority effect, letters

are read more easily when they are
embedded in words than when they
are presented either in isolation or
with letters that do not form words.
People take substantially longer to
read unrelated letters than to read
letters that form a word (Cattell,
1886). This effect is sometimes
called the Reicher-Wheeler effect.
Mas Madali alalahanin kapag naka
word
- The sentence-superiority effect
means that we read words in a
sentence much faster and more easily
than when words are shown alone.
- Example:
If you see the word "window" by
itself and it’s hard to read because
it's blurry or unclear, it will be easier
to recognize if it’s part of a sentence