Language and its role in cognitive psychology

Language & Cognition

The relationship between language and cognition continues to be an area of science that is heavily studied and for which research builds in exciting ways (Aitchison, 2007). New learnings about cognition and language are intimately tied to technological advances as neuropsychologists and others probe the human brain ever more deeply and meaningfully (Aitchison, 2007).

Language and lexicon. Language is understood to be the symbolic representation of human thought (Yule, 2005). Language is the most complex method of human communication, whether written or spoken, in that it uses words in a structured manner and in conventional ways that are understood by those who speak, read, and write a particular language (Yule, 2005). Language can also take the form of nonverbal communication through facial and gestural expressions (Yule, 2005). The concept of lexicon takes two general forms: A dictionary of a particular language, and the vocabulary associated with an individual, a practice, a branch of knowledge, or an entire language (Yule, 2005).

Evaluate the key features of language. The key features of language are generally considered to be: arbitrariness, duality, systematicity, structure-dependence, productivity, displacement, specialisation, and cultural transmission (Williamson, 2009).

Arbitrariness. Language is a symbols system, the units of which are words (Williamson, 2009). Through application of a structure known as grammar, words are strung together in a way that creates meaning (Williamson, 2009). Which symbols are constructed and used in a language system, however, are not rule-bound (Williamson, 2009). Rather, symbolization is an arbitrary process because there is no relation between the word and the meaning of the word in modern language (Williamson, 2009). The result of this arrangement is that we cannot know the meaning of the either the word or the symbol just by knowing either of these elements (Williamson, 2009). This arrangement also provides flexibility to the development of a language because the choice of symbols (words) is fundamentally arbitrary (Williamson, 2009). Only onomatopoeic words imitate a sound of an action or an object, and so are less arbitrary than other English words (Williamson, 2009).

Duality. Language is organized by the speech sounds made by combinations of consonants and vowels, and by the word units that are assemblages of these combinations (Williamson, 2009). The primary speech sounds don't have meaning when presented in an isolated form (Williamson, 2009). It is only the systematic combination of these speech sounds that meaning can be discerned (Williamson, 2009).

Systematicity. In contrast to the arbitrariness of the selection of symbols, language is bound by certain rules that reflect order and regularity (Williamson, 2009). This systmaticity is evident in the duality of language -- certain sounds combined don't, in fact, create meaning (Williamson, 2009). There are particular rules that determine which combinations of sounds are acceptable in a language, and which are not acceptable (Williamson, 2009). Rules also govern the order of words in communication (Williamson, 2009).

Structure-dependence. Human beings are wired to understand language and this is part evidenced by the ability to recognize certain language patterns (Williamson, 2009). Human beings are easily able to rearrange and substitute the different segments of language in order to create meaning (Williamson, 2009).

Productivity. Language is not based on stimuli -- that is, the presentation of particular stimuli does not automatically result in predictable and invariant response (Williamson, 2009). Assuming that several people perceive the same stimulus, it is not reasonable to expect them to use the same language construction to refer to that stimulus (Williamson, 2009). Language is stimulus-free and so permits a great deal of creativity in its use (Williamson, 2009). Because language is flexible in this way, it can be used to build an infinite number of meaningful utterances (Williamson, 2009).

Displacement. Because language is symbolic, it can be used to represent both the past and the future, the tangible and abstract (Williamson, 2009). The capacity of language to represent something that is not immediately present is called displacement (Williamson, 2009).

Specialization. Language can stand-in for action (Williamson, 2009). Because language represents actions that have taken place and actions that could or will take place, arbitrary words can substitute for those actions (Williamson, 2009). This function is called specialization (Williamson, 2009).

Cultural transmission. Through the use of language, human beings are able to transmit cultural information from one generation to another (Williamson, 2009). Without the capacity of language to represent experiences and knowledge, there would not be a collective historical memory (Williamson, 2009). This would mean that every generation would have to start from the very beginning with all aspects of their culture (Williamson, 2009). Normative behavior could not be established and values and traditions could not be shared -- a condition which would generate chaotic and primitive living conditions (Williamson, 2009).

Describe the four levels of language structure and processing. People listen for phonemes as they are spoken, store them in short-term memory until a word can be discerned and passed along to the part of the brain that associates meaning with the words (Williamson, 2009). This iterative process continues until the entire sentence or message has been received (Williamson, 2009). A person's learned understanding of syntax is used to clarify anything utterances that are not perfect with regard to form (Williamson, 2009). These processes sound simple when described in this fashion, but they are actually highly complex even though they generally transpire without difficulty (Williamson, 2009). The four levels of language structure and processing are: Phonology, semantics, syntactic, and morphology.

Phonology and phonological problems. Knowing which sounds have been made and which words have been uttered is what phonology is all about (Williamson, 2009). A listener can identify the sounds in a word because of two main variables: Variation and co-articulation (Williamson, 2009). But these variables also make it hard to tell one word from another in speech (Williamson, 2009). Phonemes are not acoustically distinct and human brains must place sounds categorically into phonemic "baskets" in order to make sense of the "noise" and "variability" that is inherent in human speech (Williamson, 2009). Further, the necessary categorical perception of sounds is impacted by which phonemes are adjacent to each other (Williamson, 2009).

Semantics and semantic problems. Understanding the meaning of spoken utterances is the referred to as semantics (Williamson, 2009). Figuring out the meaning of sequences of words is dependent upon three variables: (1) The phonological word form, (2) other words that occur in an utterance, and (3) the context of the discourse (Williamson, 2009). Not every word in a language carries meaning (Williamson, 2009). Some words are used in language because of syntax rules, but don't contribute to meaning (Williamson, 2009).