Language Paper
Language Paper
PSY 360
Language Paper Language is something that generally every human has as a form of communication. It can be in the form of verbal words, in the form of written words, or even in the form of signed words, but it is something that as humans we all use in one way or another. The need for language evolved as a way for people to express their thoughts, their feelings and emotions, and even their fears. Humans needed a way to communicate with each other to express things that normally couldn’t be expressed. This paper is going to set out to cover language. It will cover the definition of language and lexicon, as well as evaluate the key features of language. The paper with describe the four levels of the language structure and processing as well as analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology. While it seems so simple, language is a complex as well as fascinating cognitive function that will be explored more in this paper.
Language and Lexicon If a person were asked to define language they would probably just comment on the fact of verbal communication. In fact the true definition of language is that it is a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols (Caplan, 2007). When a person talks about lexicon they are literally talking about a person’s vocabulary. According to Caplan, lexicon’s definition is that it is a language’s vocabulary or the language user’s knowledge of words (2007). As stated above language is a cognitive function that is actually part of a process called the linguistic process. The linguistic process allows a person to be able to not only produce communication, but to be able to understand it as well. This concept will be explored more throughout the paper. When people speak about the structure of language it is generally useful to think of it as having four levels. The four levels include, speech sounds or phonemes, words, sentences, and groups of
PSY 360
Language Paper Language is something that generally every human has as a form of communication. It can be in the form of verbal words, in the form of written words, or even in the form of signed words, but it is something that as humans we all use in one way or another. The need for language evolved as a way for people to express their thoughts, their feelings and emotions, and even their fears. Humans needed a way to communicate with each other to express things that normally couldn’t be expressed. This paper is going to set out to cover language. It will cover the definition of language and lexicon, as well as evaluate the key features of language. The paper with describe the four levels of the language structure and processing as well as analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology. While it seems so simple, language is a complex as well as fascinating cognitive function that will be explored more in this paper.
Language and Lexicon If a person were asked to define language they would probably just comment on the fact of verbal communication. In fact the true definition of language is that it is a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols (Caplan, 2007). When a person talks about lexicon they are literally talking about a person’s vocabulary. According to Caplan, lexicon’s definition is that it is a language’s vocabulary or the language user’s knowledge of words (2007). As stated above language is a cognitive function that is actually part of a process called the linguistic process. The linguistic process allows a person to be able to not only produce communication, but to be able to understand it as well. This concept will be explored more throughout the paper. When people speak about the structure of language it is generally useful to think of it as having four levels. The four levels include, speech sounds or phonemes, words, sentences, and groups of
References: Caplan, D. (2007) Language: Structure, Processing, and Disorders. Retrieved November 10, 2010 from http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=4344&ttype=2 Willingham, D.T. (2007). Cognition: The thinking animal (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Person/Allyn & Bacon.