Language processing What are the components of language

Language processing What are the components of language, and how do we process them?

Phonemes • Most basic components of a language. • Individual sounds • What are the phonemes of English? • What distinguishes them from each other?

Phoneme processing • Perception • Speed: Can process 15 -20 phonemes per second • Categorical Perception: Speech sounds get categorized as one phoneme or another. No inbetween. Ex: ‘r’ vs. ‘l’ to a Japanese speaker • Production • Co-articulation: We change the phonemes we actually use based on the other phonemes surrounding it in the speech stream

Morphemes • Smallest meaning carrying units in a language – Root Words: simple words like “book”, “run”, etc. – Affixes: Things we attach to words to modify their meaning; “-s” for pluralization, “-ed” for past tense, etc. – Interesting note: While we have standardized the spelling of morphemes when written, that doesn’t mean they are always pronounced the same.

Morpheme processing • Lexicon – Content morphemes: Morphemes that actually mean something. “-s”, “run”, etc. – Function morphemes: Morphemes that serve a gramatical purpose, but have no real meaning. “the”, “or”, etc. – People know roughly 80 - to 100 -thousand morphemes, stored in the lexicon.