Psychology Essays (UOP)

Psy/360 Language Paper

Language Paper

Samantha Craig

Psy/360

Janel Fairchild

8/21/2015

Introduction

A language is a form of communication that is common for every human being. Language can be in various forms such as words written, Signed, or even verbal and is something individuals use on a daily basis in one of these forms. Language has evolved so that others can express and communicate their feelings, emotions, and their thoughts to others around them. Within this paper, there will be many topics covered about languages such as what it is language and lexicon. Along with what are the key features of a language and the levels of its processing and structure. Then analyzing the role that language processing has in cognitive psychology.

Language and Lexicon

Language is something that many individuals would define as verbal communication or talking. However, they are unaware that the definition is "a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings." (Merriam-Webster, 2015) Marks would be the words written on paper such as a book someone reads, that tells a story from the writer's point of view in which they can comprehend. When they are asked about lexicons, however, they mostly ask, "What is a lexicon and what does it have to do with language?" Lexicon is just the vocabulary of that specific language and is much like a psychological dictionary. The big difference would be the fact that it also involves pronunciation, and denoting. Lexicons are there to help an individual with articulating their verbal words by pairing words with the meanings behind them. When someone understands a word and their meanings it gets put into their mind. This goes for the same thing if a person learns another language then those words and meanings are set into that part of the brain to use for another time.

Key features of language

There are four different key features that make up languages. According to Galotti (2014) the necessary ones are called regular and productive. Regular is not at all what many would assume it is. This is the grammar of the language. Grammar is more or less the rules on how words should be used in that language that work with syntax and morphology. One of these rules would be using clear and precise words not using the text talk now days such as BTW, which stands for "by the way." Productive is how words can be different and express a multitude of combinations. This allows the individual who is speaking to be creative with what they say. A person can walk up to another and say "The barking cat with a pink tail is crying." It might make the listener concerned with the others sanity, but they can understand and comprehend what was said.

The last two features that Galotti (2014) talks about are arbitrariness and discreteness. Arbitrariness is considered to be the lack of connecting the sound or word form with the actual words meaning. This is one of the reasons why learning a foreign language is hard because you may hear the word, but most likely won't be capable of telling that person the right meaning of it. Just as a baby listens to the parent say hungry, they most likely won't be able to actually tell you the meaning of what it means until they are old enough to understand that they want to eat food. Discreteness, is where what is being said is broken down into smaller parts. When a child first learns to read they have to break the words down and sound them out to make the right word.

Level of structure

There are four levels of language structure and processing. The four levels are phonemes, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. These levels are also known as phonemes, words, sentences and texts. Each one of these has their privet priority in the processing and the structure of languages so that when they are combined communication is possible. Phonemes is where each language that is spoken have various different sounds. According to Galotti (2014) there are two types of discipline we learn from to create the phonemes. These are phonetics, which is how speech sounds along with how they are produced. While the other one is how speech sounds are blended and can change within the language. An example would be how the letter B and P sounds are produced the same way to create two separate sounds.

Next there is Syntax, which refers to the rules, process and structure of each sentence. It consists of what is called a legal sentences. "Is she be going to the mall?" this is grammatically wrong and would be considered an illegal sentences. The right version would be "Is she going to be at the mall?" The third level is about understanding the meaning of the words known as semantics. When it comes to understanding the meanings of the words, then communication is achieved. It would be like talking to a baby, they might know the word, understand how to say it but if they have no knowledge of the meaning, then the point is moot. Lastly, is pragmatics where a person can communicate with another individual while following the right procedures with the other three levels. This is where a person needs to pay attention to the speaker and follow the rules of etiquette. A child wants to tell their parents about their first day of school at dinner. The parents are talking about work, and the child has food in their mouth. Therefore the child waits to talk until the mouth is empty, and the parents have stopped talking.

Language processing role in cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is "branch of psychology concerned with mental processes as perception, thinking, learning, and memory."(Merriam-Webster, 2015) It is with these mental processes that an individual can begin to understand what language is along with the process of how language works. Once they understand the levels and their key features, they then have the understanding of the rules of communicating with others in the proper way. The role is more the understanding and comprehension of words, sentences and their structures of each language that is obtained through knowledge. Therefore, what every individual learns and how they interpret through language is what the cognitive process is about.

Conclusion

In conclusion, language is a complex cognitive process that takes time to acquire. There are many parts to any language that many don't know about. Regular, productive, arbitrariness and discreteness are all the four key features in what help build languages. Along with these are the levels of structure and process and those would be phonemes, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. These particular levels explain the structure, words, sentences and the rules of how language is made up and used. All of these work together while using the cognitive process that then allows every person to communicate and comprehend what is being told. Whether it be through speech, books, symbols, or even by signing.

References

Galotti, K. M. (2014). Cognitive psychology in and out of the laboratory (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.