Language - AP Psychology

Usually credited to Noam Chomsky, the theory of universal grammar suggests that all possible human languages share certain properties, such as the rules of grammar. For Chomsky, the development of language involves genetic endowment, external data, and principles not specific to the faculty of language (i.e. those properties of the brain that cause it to learn language).

Also called convolution of Broca, the Broca area region of the brain contains motor neurons involved in speech production. The Broca region was discovered by a French surgeon, named Paul Broca, in 1861.

Broca's area is a region of the frontal lobe of the cortex, and is linked to the ability to produce speech. Damage to Broca's area can lead to Broca's aphasia, which is the inability to speak out loud.

In contrast, Wernicke's area is located in the temporal lobe of the cortex and is credited with processing and interpreting the speech of others. Damage to Wernicke's area could leave a patient unable to comprehend a spoken request. Remembering a phone number would require processing by the hippocampus, which is a component of the limbic system credited with memory storage. Blue-yellow color blindness arises when a genetic disorder leaves the individual unable to produce cones that detect light at short wavelengths (such as blue).

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also known as linguistic relativity) states that language shapes the way we see the world. The strong version of the theory states that language determines thought, whereas the weak version states that language merely influences some non-linguistic processes.

Noam Chomsky proposed that we all are born with a "language acquisition device" in our minds, which gives us universal principles of human language. We learn our language's own "settings" for human communication according to these universal principles. For instance, if all human language has temporal tenses, we learn how our particular language expresses tense. Although the behaviorists believe we only learn language through our environment, Chomsky pointed out that we learn language very quickly through processes that appear similar to the human species, regardless of environment.

Semantics and syntax are fields of linguistics that concern different aspects of language. Syntax is primarily concerned with the universal properties and idiosyncrasies of the structure of language. For example, syntax studies how we construct our language an speech, and how we form certain phrases and clauses. Semantics is concerned with deciphering meaning in language by looking at its logical structure, the meaning of words, or how it is represented cognitively.

Displacement is a unique property of human language. The only possible exception is in the case of bees, which may have a method of communicating directions to a plant they found. Other than this, we are unique in our ability to discuss events or objects that are not immediately apparent such as places far away, the past, and the future. Some have even theorized this was where the need for language began.

Syntax is primarily concerned with the ordering of words and phrases, and their respective grammatical functions. That said, it assists in conveying meaning but is not the singular mode to express meaning. For instance, independent of whether or not the word "cat" is ordered in a particular way in a sentence, we know the word refers to a small fluffy feline animal. This is semantics.

However, if we place "cat" at the beginning of the sentence—"the cat sniffed the pigeon"—we know the cat is performing the action of sniffing. But once we reverse the order so that the sentence is "the pigeon sniffed the cat," we know the cat is being sniffed by the pigeon. The order of the nouns, verbs, and objects is determined by the syntactic rules of a language thus assists in conveying meaning.

The "C" sound—represented phoenetically as \[k\], a voiced velar stop—is a phoneme of the English language. Phonemes are units of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language. Another example would be "G" and "B." Since "boat" and "goat" would sound exactly the same if it weren't for the first consonant, we know the first consonant is used to distinguish between the meaning of these two words. Therefore, we know that both "B" and "G" are phonemes of English.

At this particular stage of language acquisition, babies are transitioning away from babbling and beginning to develop communication using whole words. They can only say simple words and cannot combine them, even into simple commands, which is the next stage of acquisition.

Wernicke's area, located in the upper temporal lobe, contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension of speech. A person with a malfunctioning Wernicke's area will have difficulty understanding what others are saying. Broca's area is involved in producing speech, and none of the other answer choices are directly involved in speech-related processes.

Noam Chomsky's theory of language development suggests that children possess the inherent ability to acquire language. When exposed to any given language, children pick it up easily because they have a kind of "universal grammar" that allows them to understand the commonalities between all languages.

The correct answer is that children tend to overgeneralize grammatical rules after they first learn them-- a process unsurprisingly called overgeneralization.

As for the other answers, children understand language better than they can speak it (think about how your dog can understand some english but can't produce it), social interactions and innate biological ability play roles in acquiring language, and the language a child learns does impact their perception of the world according to Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis.

In opposition to behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky argued that humans are born with the ability to acquire language. He put forth the idea that all humans, regardless of socio-cultural differences, have the same naturally underlying language learning abilities.

This question requires knowledge of the definitions of phonemes and morphemes-- two elements of speech. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that are recognizable as human speech and make words distinct from one another, such as the "p" at the beginning of the word "pat" that distinguishes "pat" from "bat" and "hat." Morphemes, on the other hand, are the smallest meaningful units of sound; after all, the sound made by the letter P doesn't really mean anything by itself. Examples of morphemes include the "-ed" on the end of the word "finished."

This connection between language and perception is an example of Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis, which explains that the language we speak (20 words for red) affects our perception (ability to differentiate between shades of red) relative to people who speak other languages (other cultures).

As for the other answers, interactionist theory states that social interactions as well as an innate predisposition for language lead to language acquisition. Nativist theory states that an innate predisposition for language leads to language acquisition. Skinner's reinforcement theory states that systems of conditioning (parents encouraging correct speech and discouraging incorrect speech) lead to language acquisition. Grammar is the system of rules that dictates the correct ways to combine words, clauses, and phrases.

Telegraphic speech is most common amongst toddlers, where nouns and verbs are combined with little to no conjugation, determiners, prepositions or auxiliary words. Hence, the correct answer is "Truck go" since there is no other grammatical categories present except a noun and a verb, as well as no verb conjugation. Although "Go go Power Rangers" seems like a viable answer, this is idiomatic speech as well as technically grammatically correct--the "go"s are used in the imperative sense.

Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, was the one to propose that a language acquisition device resides in the brain, which we inherit through our biological make-up. The others listed as answers were certainly theorists in their own right though the only one close to a linguistics theorist was J.M. Skinner. Skinner believed that language was acquired through behavioral reinforcement as opposed to any innate predisposition, which directly contradicts Chomsky's theory.

The language acquisition device is a theoretical component of our brains that is responsible for acquiring language according to innate universal linguistic properties. It is responsible for giving the child universal properties and rules of language to test out in order to acquire competency in their native language. The most important and revolutionary aspect of this idea is that is proposes that language learning is an innate part of our biological make-up, it is not something we simply learn entirely by ourselves.