1. Language in the Brain Language Processing in the Brain

2. Word Meanings Twas bryllyg, and the slythy toves Did gyre and gymble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves; And the mome raths outgrabe.

3. Word Meanings Twas bryllyg, and the slythy toves Did gyre and gymble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves; And the mome raths outgrabe. ● What part of speech is slithy? Toves? Gyre? Gymble? ● How do we know? ● What is a tove? ● What is slithy? Why does it seem to mean that

4. Word Meanings ● We use context to guess meaning

5. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means a pounding action? – fosh, bosh

6. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means a pounding action? – foff, boff

7. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means a pounding action? – foff, boff ● Did these words influence that? – banged, beaten, battered, bruised, blistered and bashed

8. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means relates to shining? – glafe, slafe

9. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means relates to shining? – glafe, slafe ● Did the words influence it? – glow, gleam, glimmer, glare, glisten, glitter

10. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means a hard, abrupt action? – flum, flump

11. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means a hard, abrupt action? – flum, flump ● Did these words influence that? – stamp, stomp, tamp, tromp, tramp

12. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means graceful movement? – flafe, trafe

13. Sound Symbolism ● Which word means graceful movement? – flafe, trafe ● Do these words influence that? – fly, flit, flicker, flutter

14. Meaning ● So meaning doesn't just come from a definition in a dictionary – sound sometimes have meaning – context in sentence gives meaning

15. Fixed word meaning ● Word meaning are clear and unambiguous

16. Fixed word meaning ● Word meaning are clear and unambiguous ● The boundaries between one word and another don't overlap

17. Fixed word meaning ● Word meaning are clear and unambiguous ● The boundaries between one word and another don't overlap ● If this is true there should be no debate – Is a carrot a fruit? – Is lettuce a fruit? – Is a tomato a fruit?

18. Fixed word meaning ● Word meaning are clear and unambiguous ● The boundaries between one word and another don't overlap ● If this is true there should be no debate – Is Utah Lake a pond or a lake? – Is the Great Salt Lake a lake or a pond?

19. Fixed word meaning ● Idea is that there is a set a criteria that must be met – Plato's definition of man: a featherless biped

20. Fixed word meaning ● Idea is that there is a set a criteria that must be met – Plato's definition of man: a featherless biped – Diogenes brought a plucked chicken to class and said “Behold I've brought you a man”

21. Fixed word meaning ● Idea is that there is a set a criteria that must be met (necessary and sufficient conditions) – Plato's definition of man: a featherless biped – Diogenes brought a plucked chicken to class and said “Behold I've brought you a man” – Plato added to his definition “with broad flat nails”

22. Fixed word meaning ● Is having wings crucial to being a bird?

23. Fixed word meaning ● Is having wings crucial to being a bird? ● What is a bird without wings?

24. Fixed word meaning ● Can you understand a meaning without knowing what the criteria are? ● Of course

25. Fixed word meaning ● Fixed meaning suggest that all members of a category are equal ● People rate things in the same category as being better or worse examples of it – Cow is a better farm animal than a goose

26. Fixed word meaning ● Fixed meaning suggest that all members of a category are equal ● But, people rate things in the same category as being better or worse examples of it – Cow is a better farm animal than a goose

27. Fuzzy word meaning ● What age is old?

28. Fuzzy word meaning ● What age is old? ● What is cutoff point?

29. Fuzzy word meaning ● What age is old? ● What is cutoff point? ● Is a million years old? – for a person?

30. Fuzzy word meaning ● What age is old? ● What is cutoff point? ● Is a million years old? – for a person? – for a rock?

31. Fuzzy word meaning ● What age is old? ● What is cutoff point? ● Is a million years old? – for a person? – for a rock? – for a planet?

32. Fuzzy word meaning ● Polysemy – Old lady – Old friend – Big, old shovel – Good old Bob – Old rival

33. Fuzzy word meaning ● At what point is person tall? ● Is meaning categorical or continuous?

34. Word meaning ● Does 'paper' literally mean 'paper'?

35. Word meaning ● Does 'paper' literally mean 'paper'? ● Is a word for a referent the referent itself?

36. Word meaning ● Does 'paper' literally mean 'paper'? ● Is a word for a referent the referent itself? ● Words and their referents are mediated by concepts – referent > concept > word

37. Word meaning ● If words are their referents, what do these words refer to? – her, it, they, those

38. Word meaning ● If words are their referents, what do these words refer to? – her, it, they, those, Bob ● What are the referents of stealth, tacky, existence, invisible force?

39. Are meanings images? ● It doesn't work for abstract things ● If it did, you couldn't apply it to instances you'd never seen before – same person, different shirt – same person seen from helicopter – same person after horrific car accident – same person without makeup (or with)

40. Are meanings sets of criteria? ● This object is an X because it has – characteristic A – characteristic B – not characteristic C

41. Are meanings sets of criteria? ● This object is an X because it has – characteristic A – characteristic B – not characteristic C ● Hard to apply to abstract things

42. Are meanings family resemblances? ● No need for all things word refers to to have something in common

43. Are meanings family resemblances? ● What is a book?

44. Are meanings family resemblances? ● What is a book? – Writing: is a blank journal a book? – Pages: is a scroll a book? – Is a kindle version a book? – Is microfilm a book? – Is a monument with writing on it a book?

45. Are meanings family resemblances? ● What is a book? – Writing: is a blank journal a book? – Pages: is a scroll a book? – Is a kindle version a book? – Is microfilm a book? – Is a monument with writing on it a book? ● What about “book” – to move fast – to process into jail

46. What is a machine?

47. What is sound?

48. If we can't specify meaning, how can we communicate so well?

49. Prototype Theory ● Prototype: the instance of a word have most or all characteristic of word's meaning

50. Prototype Theory ● Prototype: the instance of a word have most or all characteristic of word's meaning, the ideal exemplar ● Some instances are closer to the prototype and others are farther away

51. Prototype Theory ● We store an average of all the members of a category and decide if an object is a part of that category by deciding how close it is to the average typical member ● Prototypes assume family resemblances

53. Category ACategory B The Prototype

54. Prototype Theory ● You categorize things by comparing them to prototype ● The prototype may be an actual instance or may be an abstraction

55. Prototype Theory ● Categorization experiment (Eleanor Rosch) ● Rate things on how good an example the thing is – Bird: sparrow > owl > penguin – Clothes: shirt > shoe > apron – Furniture: chair > bed > shelf > telephone

56. Prototype Theory ● Experiment – Is a robin a bird? – Is a goose a computer? – Is a chair furniture? – Is a cow a bird? – Is an ostrich a bird? – Is a rug furniture? – Is corn a vegetable?

57. Prototype Theory ● Experiment – Is a robin a bird (fast response) – Is an ostrich a bird (slower response)

58. Prototype Theory ● Experiment – Is a robin a bird (fast response) – Is an ostrich a bird (slower response) – Is a chair furniture (fast response) – Is a rug furniture (slower response)

59. Exemplar Theory ● Category membership not dependent on relationship to one prototype

60. Resemblance Theories: Prototype vs. Exemplar The Standard = The acting representative of the category The “standard” prototype A prototype is an abstract representation that is derived from the “center of mass” of the features of all the objects in the category. The “standard” exemplar An exemplar is a concrete representation. A specific instance that happens to be the most active in memory. More typical members tend to be the most active, on average.

61. Exemplar Theory ● Category membership not dependent on relationship to one prototype ● All, or many members are stored. New members are judged according to similarity with other members ● Every instance of a category is stored—when we see a new member of a category, we check how close it is to every other member to decide what it is (i.e., a bird or a mammal)

62. Exemplar Theory ● The more members it matches, the more likely to be seen as a member – This explains gradient nature

63. Exemplar Theory ● Members that are frequently seen/used are more central – robin versus penguin – retriever versus Portuguese water dog

64. Exemplar versus Prototype Theory ● What happens when the most common member of a category is not the most typical member ● Prototype and Exemplar theories make different predictions: ● Prototype: Most Typical > Most Common ● Exemplar: Most Common > Most Typical ● Type versus token frequency ● Type is more important to exemplar theory

65. Exemplar Theory ● Often, evidence for prototype is also evidence for exemplar theory

66. Exemplar Theory ● Evidence for exemplar theory – Prototypes are usually the most frequent member – LDT words spoken by the same voice prime faster than words spoken by different voices words spoken in the same dialect prime faster than words spoken in different dialects