Laboratory Manual for

Psychology of Language (Psych 353)

Laboratory Manual for Psychology of Language (Psychology 353)

Table of Contents

EXERCISE pages

Exercise 1: Hockett's Design Features 3Exercise 2: Phonetics and Phonology 4-5Exercise 3: Speech Perception: Perceiving Words out of Context 6-7Exercise 4: Speech Perception: Voice Onset Time 8-12Exercise 5: Inflectional Morphology 13-14Exercise 6: Derivational Morphology 15Exercise 7: Lexical Innovation, Variation, and Change 16-17Exercise 8: Lexical Access 18-19Exercise 9: Syntax and Grammar 20Exercise 10: Sentence Processing 21Exercise 11: Language Acquisition 22-25Exercise 12: Neurolinguistics 26Exercise 13: Genetics and Evolution of Language 27-28

APPENDICES pages

Appendix 1: Phonetic Sounds Typical of American English 29Appendix 2: Distinctive Features for Phonemes 30Appendix 3: Conversational Speech Excerpts 31Appendix 4: Synthesized Syllables 32-33Appendix 5: Phrase Structure Trees for Ambiguous Sentence 34Appendix 6: Eve's Auxiliary Verbs and Question Words Utterances 35-36Appendix 7: Transcripts of Aphasic Speech 37-39Appendix 8: Brain Regions Involved in Language 40Appendix 9: Chi-Square Statistic Formula and Table 41

Karin Stromswold, 1998

Exercise 1: Hockett's Design Featurs

1. Fill in the following chart for Hockett's 13 design features. Indicate whether or notdrum signals and the signals used by baseball umpires exhibit each of Hockett's 13 designfeatures.

Design Feature Drum signals Baseball umpire signals

1. Vocal/Auditory2. Broadcast/received3. Rapid fading4. Interchangeable5. Total feedback6. Specialization7. Semanticity8. Arbitrarinessq9. Discreteness10. Displacement11. Productivity12. Traditional transmission13. Dual patterning

2. Choose another communication system (used by either animals or humans) that was notdiscussed in class. For each of the 13 design features, say whether this system does ordoes not have this feature and explain your answer.

3. The values of some the 13 design features are dependent (linked) to others for eitherpractical or logical reasons. For each design feature, list all other features whose valuesdepend on the value of the first feature. Explain why you think the design features arelinked.

Exercise 2: Phonetics and Phonology

1. Provide a phonetic (IPA) transcription for the following English words, according tohow you pronounce them in casual speech. (See Appendix 1 for a list of the phoneticsounds generally used in American English)

a. easyb. judgec. packd. optice. yellowf. coughsg. teacherh. housesi. bicyclej. Maryk. pastramil. pizzam. whethern. chemistryo. acceptp. squirrelq. quitr. charitys. phonologyt. psycholinguistic

2. Write the English word that corresponds to the following phonetic transcriptionsa. [brεθ]b. [pejd]c. [d� g]

d. [θænk]e. [trIk]f. [trawt]g. [alm«nz]h. [jalij]i. [DEm]

j. [«n«f]k. [kwijn]l. [p� jzIn]

3. Write the IPA symbol that corresponds to the following articulatory featuredescriptions, and then give an English word that contains the sound. (See Appendices 1-2)a. voiceless bilabial stopb. alveolar nasalc. voiced velar stopd. voiceless palatal fricativee. front, high long(tensed) vowelf. back, high, short (lax) rounded vowel

4. What feature(s) do the following sets of sounds have in common?

a. [k], [g], [w]b. [p], [f]. [s]c. [u] [U] [o]

5. The examples in list I are representative of English verbs that have regular past tenseforms (that is, their past tense form can be predicted). These past tense forms are shown inlist II. Like the English plural morpheme, the English regular past tense morpheme isassociated with three varients; in this case [t], [d], and [«d]. Consider the data in lists I andII and answer questions A-D, referring to distinctive features in your answers (seeAppendix 2).

List I List II1. please pleased2. grab grabbed3. slam slammed4. plan planned5. fit fitted6. fix fixed7. pack packed8. peep peeped9. blend blended10. seethe seethed11. bomb bombed12. hang hanged13. fog fogged14. flush flushed15. knit knitted16. fade faded

A. In what environment does [t] occur? List the relevant examples from the list of wordsgiven above and provide the distinctive features that these words have in common.

B. In what environment does [d] occur? List the relevant examples from the list of wordsgiven above and provide the distinctive features that these words have in common.

C. In what environment does [«d] occur? List the relevant examples from the list of wordsgiven above and provide the distinctive features that these words have in common.

D. Provide an IPA transcription for the past tense forms for the following nonsense words

a. wug (rhymes with rug)b. gish (rhymes with dish)c. vit (rhymes with kit)

Exercise 3: Speech Perception: Perceiving Words out of Context

In this exercise, you will hear 34 examples of words that have been excised (using acomputer waveform editing program) from conversational speech. Although the originalconversations were very easy to understand, you will discover that single words are veryshort acoustic phenomena, and that they are difficult to process out of their original context.You will hear each word 3 times. Try to guess what word you have heard (writesomething down, even if you are not sure). This exercise if similar to one carried out byPollack & Pickett (1963).

1. ____________________________ 18. ____________________________

2. ____________________________ 19. ____________________________

3. ____________________________ 20. ____________________________

4. ____________________________ 21. ____________________________

5. ____________________________ 22. ____________________________

6. ____________________________ 23. ____________________________

7. ____________________________ 24. ____________________________

8. ____________________________ 25. ____________________________

9. ____________________________ 26. ____________________________

10. ____________________________ 27. ____________________________

11. ____________________________ 28. ____________________________

12. ____________________________ 29. ____________________________

13. ____________________________ 30. ____________________________

14. ____________________________ 31. ____________________________

15. ____________________________ 32. ____________________________

16. ____________________________ 33. ____________________________

17. ____________________________ 34. ____________________________

Appendix 3 gives the identity of each of the 34 words. Next to each of your answers,write down what the word was. Using this information, answer the following questions.

1. Do the words that you correctly identified share any traits? Consider the type of word(lexical content words like nouns and verbs versus grammatical function words likeauxiliary verbs and prepositions). Consider phonological traits (e.g., words with stopconsonants, fricatives, afficates, glides).

2. Did you make any systematic errors which seem to be based on phonological traits(e.g., omitting word initial/final phonemes; systematically confusing certain types ofconsonants for others; etc.)?

3. Are there any sounds that you were better at identifying than others (e.g., certain typesof consonants more than others; certain types of vowels more than others; word initial/finalphonemes; vowels versus consonants)?

4. Some words may not have sounded like words at all, but rather like fast noise bursts.Words with consonants with very short embedded vowels (< 50 msec) are often perceivedthis way. Identify any words that you think might qualify.

5. For the words that were presented more than once (e.g., box, can, go, etc.), did youguess the same word each time? If not, what factors might have caused you to guessdifferent words on different trials? (Hint: think about the things we talked about in classwith respect to 'the lack of invariance problem' in speech perception.)

6. In fact, the words were taken from a conversation between a mother and her one-yearold child. Now that you know this, are there any indications that these words came fromchild directed speech? [Hint: think about how mothers talk differently to their youngchildren than to other adults.]

Exercise 4: Speech Perception: Voice Onset Time (VOT)

In class, we will listen to a tape which contains examples of 7 synthetically producedspeech syllables. These syllables are CV syllables comprised of a bilabial stop consonantfollowed by the vowel [a]. The syllables are generated so they differ only in voice onsettime (VOT) (i.e., the amount of type that elapses between the initial burst and the onset ofvoicing). VOTs for the 7 types of syllables range from 0 msec to 60 msecs.

Practice Trials. We will first listen to each of the 7 syllables played in sequential order,starting with 0 msec VOT and ending with a 60 msec VOT. For each of the syllables,indicate whether you perceive a [ba] or [pa].

1. ba pa2. ba pa3. ba pa4. ba pa5. ba pa6. ba pa7. ba pa

Identification Trials. You will now listen to 35 syllables presented in random order.For each of the syllables, indicate whether you perceive a [ba] or [pa].

1. ba pa 22. ba pa2. ba pa 23. ba pa3. ba pa 24. ba pa4. ba pa 25. ba pa5. ba pa 26. ba pa6. ba pa 27. ba pa7. ba pa 28. ba pa

8. ba pa 29. ba pa9. ba pa 30. ba pa10. ba pa 31. ba pa11. ba pa 32. ba pa12. ba pa 33. ba pa13. ba pa 34. ba pa14. ba pa 35. ba pa

15. ba pa16. ba pa17. ba pa18. ba pa19. ba pa20 ba pa21. ba pa

Part 1. Overall class data

A. Appendix 4 identifies the VOT values for each of the 35 syllables. Using thisinformation and the individual data for all of your classmates, fill out the following chartfor the overall class data (i.e., combine all of your classmates' data)

StimulusVOT

1 2 3 4 5 Total'ba'

Total'pa'

%ba %pa

0102030405060

B. Are there any trials that appear to be abberant? If so, what could account for this?

C. Make a line graph and put the overall data for the class on the graph. Clearly label theline that corresponds to the overall class data. (You may either enter your results by handusing the graph sheet provided, or you can use your favorite computer program to do it.)

D. Where is the categorical boundary for the class as a whole?

Part 2. Data for native speakers of English

A. Fill out the following chart for class data for students who are native speakers ofEnglish.

StimulusVOT

1 2 3 4 5 Total'ba'

Total'pa'

%ba %pa

0102030405060

B. Are there any trials that appear to be abberant? If so, what could account for this?

C. Add a line corresponding to the native English speakers' data on the graph made above.Make sure you label it.

D. Where is the categorical boundary for the native English speakers? Is the categoricalboundary 'sharper' for native English speakers than for the class as a whole? If so, whymight this be?

Part 3. Data for nonnative speakers of English

A. Fill out the following chart for class data for students who are NOT native Englishspeakers.

StimulusVOT

1 2 3 4 5 Total'ba'

Total'pa'

%ba %pa

0102030405060

B. Are there any trials that appear to be abberant? If so, what could account for this?

C. Add a line corresponding to the nonnative English speakers' data to the graph. Makesure you label it.

D. Where is the categorical boundary for the nonnative English speakers? Is thecategorical boundary for nonnative English speakers different from that of native Englishspeakers? If so, why might this be?

Part 4. Your data

A. Fill out the following chart for your own individual data.

StimulusVOT

1 2 3 4 5 Total'ba'

Total'pa'

%ba %pa

0102030405060

B. Graph your individual data. Make sure you label the line corresponding to your data.

C. Where is your categorical boundary?

D. Compare your data with the class data, and the data for native and nonnative Englishspeakers.

Part 5: Discuss the implications of the results of this type of experiment. Some of thethings that you could discuss include: What does this experiment tell us about speechperception? What are the limitations of this type of study? How could you use this type ofexperiment to support or refute the motor theory of speech perception and/or the auditorytheory of speech perception?

0 1 0 20 30 40 50 600

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Voice Onset Time (VOT) in msecs

%

of

Sti

mu

li

Pe

rce

ive

d

as

"b

a"

Exercise 5: Inflectional Morphology

Morphological analysis of Telugu

Each of the following words in Telugu (a Dravidian language spoken in India) istranslated into English by an entire sentence. Each word is complex, that is,composed of several morphemes. Analyze the words by identifying the morphemesoccuring in each word and answer questions A-C. Note: the verbal morphology ofTelugu is very complex, a fact that is not reflected in this exercise.

Telugu form English gloss

1. ceppεεnu “I told”2. ceppincunu “I cause (someone) to tell”3. cuustaam “We will see”4. ceppεεm “We told”5. ceppanu “I will not tell”6. navvincum “We cause (someone) tolaugh”7. cuustunnaadu “He is seeing”8. ceppεεyi “They told”9. kodataanu “I will beat”10. paadataanu “I will sing”11. ceppεεru “You (pl.) told”12. ceppavu “You (sg.) will not tell”13. ceppεεvu “You (sg.) told”14. ceppam “We will not tell”15. ceppεεdu “He told”

16. cuusεεdu “He saw”17. cepparu “You (pl.) will not tell”18. kodatunnaayi “They are beating”19. ceestunnaanu “I am doing”20. adugutaam “We will ask”21. ceesεεnu “I did”22. adugutaadu “He will ask”

A. List the Telugu morphemes that correspond to the English words listed

1. Verbsa. tell e. askb. sing f. beatc. see g. dod. laugh

2. Person-marking of subjectsa. I d. web. you (sg.) e. you (pl.)c. he f. they

3. Othersa. past tense d. negative future tenseb. present tense (-ing form in English) e. causativec. future tense

B. List the order in which the morphemes occur in the Telugu words (for example,in ceppincunu, which morpheme comes first? The verb? The subject? Tense?) Useterms such as causative, tense, subject, verb.

C. Translate the following English sentences into Telugua. You (pl.) are singingb. They will not laughc. You (sg.) will cause someone to ask.

Exercise 6: Derivational Morphology

The -ive affixation in English.

Consider the following words:

List I List II

A. 1. repress repressive2. oppress oppressive3. impress impressive4. select selective5. progress progressive6. regress regressive

B. 7. elude elusive8. permit permissive9. recede recessive10. submit submissive11. subvert subversive12. admit admissive13. intrude intrusive

C. 14. prevent preventive15. invent inventive16. support supportive

State the word formation rule for the affix -ive, using the following format:

A. Phonological change:

1. Given the data in A (1-6) only, what phonological change takes place?

2. Now consider the data in B (7-13). What additional phonological change takes place?

3. Now consider the pairs in C (14-16). Do these examples conform to your descriptionof the above data? If not, explain what the difference is and speculate about why thedifference may exit.

B. Category change:

1. What part of speech does -ive attach to? That is, what is the part of speech of the wordsin List 1?

2. What is the part of speech of the derived word? That is, what is the part of speech ofthe words in List 2?

C. Semantic change:

What meaning change is caused by the suffix -ive? That is, in the ideal case, what elementof meaning does it contribute?

Exercise 7: Lexical Innovation, Variation and Change

1. Using a large dictionary (preferably the Oxford English Dictionary available through theRutgers libraries in both hard copy and CD ROM versions), find the etymology of each ofthe following English words. Cite an earlier form and an earlier meaning of each word.What language(s) did each word come from? What type(s) of semantic change took placein the history of each word. [Semantic changes include amelioration (elevation),derogation, metaphor, broadening (extension) and narrowing.]

a. hussy f. cloakb. knight g. checkc. assassin h. hospitald. silly i. dukee. nice j. easel

2. Every social group invents new words or alters the meanings of existing words to suitthe special communicative needs of the group. Consider the special dialect that you speakwith your college friends. List as many examples of lexical innovations as you can(minimum number: 3). For each word, describe the dialectal distribution of the word (i.e.,do all college students use the word, only students at Rutgers, only Rutgers students in aparticular major or dormitory, etc.)? For each word, say whether the word is a completelynew word or whether it is an existing word that has undergone semantic change. If theword is a completely new word, speculate about its possible origins. For existing wordsthat have developed new meanings, give the meaning of the original word and the newmeaning and describe the type(s) of semantic change that have taken place [e.g.,amelioration (elevation), derogation, metaphor, broadening (extension) and narrowing].

3. Children also coin new words. The following examples of children's inventions aregrouped into 3 broad classes. How would you characterize the process used in each case?The children's ages are given in years and months and the translations/contexts in brackets.

I. a. 2;0 plate-egg; cup-egg [fried egg; boiled egg]b. 3;0 rat-man [experimental psychologist]c. 3;0 rip-boy ... no ripper [someone who rips things]

II. a. 2;4 You have to scale it. [weigh]b. 3;11 I'm going to earth this. [bury]c. 2;4 I'm souping this. [eating soup]

III. a. 2;6 I'm darking the sky. [coloring a picture]b. 3;0 How do you sharp this? [holding pencil]c. 3;0 Full this up. [holding out a cup]

4. Here are some words that you have never seen before. In each case try to give adefinition of the italicized word.

a. I blamp things all the time. I'm a blamper.b. I need to nink this. Where's the ninker.c. First I mibbed it. Then I dismibbed it.

5. List at least three words that follow the blamper model.

List at least three words that folllow the ninker model.

List at least three real English words that follow the dismib model.

6. Sometimes a root word and prefix becomes so closely associated that the un-prefixedform of a word becomes extremely odd sounding. For example, refurbish is a fairlycommon word, whereas furbish is quite uncommon (although it is in Webster's CollegiateDictionary). Come up with at least three more examples like this.

Exercise 8: Lexical Access

1. Slips of the tongue. We have learned about many different types of speecherrors or “slips of the tongue.” Some of these errors appear to be clearlyphonological (e.g., saying “redding wing” for “wedding ring”) whereas othersappear to be more semantic in nature (e.g., saying “fingers” for “toes”) or to bemalapropisms (e.g., saying “vulnerable scholar” for "venerable scholar”). Listencarefully to people when they talk and record any possible examples of speech errorsthat you hear (minimum: 3 examples). For each potential speech error, record whatthe person actually said, what you think the speaker intended to say, and the contextin which the error occurred. If possible, ask the person who made the error if s/hewas aware of making an error and what s/he intended to say. For each speech erroryou record, classify each error using the terminology mentioned in the readings anddescribe what that error tells us about the cognitive and/or psychological nature ofspeech production. [Hint: Listen for examples of speech errors by lecturers.]

Here is a hypothetical example:Target: “wedding ring” Error: “redding wing”

Awareness: speaker was aware of error and self-correctedContext in which said: late at night when speaker was tiredType of error: sound substitutionSignificance of error: •[w] and [r] are minimally distinctive sounds (i.e., they share many of the same

features). Thus, the substitution is evidence for the psychological reality ofdistinctive features analysis of speech sounds.

• The error involves substitutions of initial sound of two words. This suggests thatthe mechanism that generates speech may represent the beginnings and ends ofwords.

• The two words involved in the substitution are in the same phrase and clause.This suggests that the phrase and/or clause level is represented by the speechproduction mechanism.

2. Tip-of-tongue (TOT) phenomenon. Most people experience having aword on the “tip of the tongue” at least several times a week. Record as many casesas you can of yourself (and your friends) in the TOT state (minimum: 3 cases).[Hint: If you are having trouble collecting cases of TOT, try to remember the namesof people you haven’t seen in a long time or the technical terms used in classes youtook a while ago.]

For each case, give your best guess as to• the first letter of the word• the last letter of the word• the number of letters in the word• the number of syllables in the word• the stress pattern of the word• the meaning of the word (or list other words with similar or relatedmeanings)• similar sounding words

If you arrive at the word you are looking for, record the sought-after word.

What do your results suggest about lexical storage and retrival?

3. Slips of the ear. Normally, segmenting the speech stream into words is easy butoccasionally, our brain/ears don't get it quite right. This is often true for song lyrics,poetry, famous speeches, etc. In his book The Langugage Instinct, Pinker gives theexample of someone misparsing the line from the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky withDiamonds"

"A girl with kaleidoscope eyes"as:

"A girl with colitis goes by"

Come up with at least three additional examples. For each example, try to account for theconfusion.

Exercise 9: Syntax and Grammar

1. Following the examples given in chapter 4 of Fromkin & Rodman, draw phrasestructure trees for the following sentences

a. A very frightened passenger landed the crippled airplane.b. The house on the hill collapsed in the wind.c. The ice melted.d. The hot sun melted the ice.e. The children put the toys in the boxf. The reporter realized that the senator lied.

2. Write down the head of each NP and VP in 1b through 1f. For example, in 1a, theNP a very frightened passenger has the head passenger; the VP landed the crippledairplane has the head landed; and the NP the crippled airplane has the head airplane.

2. In terms of verb subcategorization, explain why the following are ungrammatical

a. *The man located.b. *Jesus wept the apostlesc. *Robert is hopeful of his childrend. *Robert is found that his children love animals.e. *The children laughed the man.f. *The child put the book.g. *The man was died by the mugger.

3. The rules of syntax specify all and only the grammatical sentences of a language.Why is it important to say "only"? What would be wrong with a grammar thatspecified as grammatical all of the truly grammatical ones plus a few that were notgrammatical?

Exercise 10: Sentence Processing

1. Consider the following sentences

a. I like coffeeb. You know that I like coffee.c. He claims that you know that I like coffee.

A. Write another sentence that includes sentence c.B. What does this set of sentences reveal about the nature of language?C. How is this characteristic of human language related to the difference betweenlinguistic competence and performance.

2. Using the example The boy saw the man with the telescope as a model (seeAppendix 5), draw two phrase structure trees representing the two meanings of thesentence The magician touched the child with the wand. For each of the trees, providea paraphrase of the meaning conveyed by the structure represented by that tree.

3. In chapter 4, Pinker gives the following example of an ambiguous newspaper headline:

Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim

Draw phrase structure trees for each of the two possible meanings and for each tree providea paraphrase of the meaning conveyed by the structure represented by that tree.

4. Look through magazines, newspapers, etc. and find at least 4 examples of sentenceswhich are structurally ambiguous. For each of your examples , draw the phrase structuretrees that correspond to the different meanings and analyze why the sentences areambiguous.

Exercise 11: Language Acquisition

A. Acquisition of inflectional morphology. Analyze these data from a 3-year-old.When does he use each of the phonological variants of the plural morpheme? What errorshas he made? What rules is he applying to form plural? His pronuniciation of the pluralmorpheme is given in square brackets. Assume he pronounces the rest of the word likeany native speaker of English would.

a. I like mouses. [«z]b. Leave my feets alone! [s]c. Look at those mans marching. [z]d. I put three drops. [s]e. Gimme those cans. [z]f. You hurt my foots. [s]g. What big horses! [«z]

h. Funny footses. [«z]

i. We got prizes. [«z]

B. Acquisition of syntax. In order to form an adult-like matrix question in English,an auxiliary verb must appear to the left of the subject noun phrase (NP). This is why theyes/no question 1b and the wh-question 2b are acceptable, whereas questions 1a (as a non-echo question) and 2a are unacceptable.

1a. * She can eat cookies?1b. Can she eat cookies?2a. * What she can eat?2b. What can she eat?

In embedded questions, the auxiliary always appears to the right of the subject NP. This iswhy questions 3a and 4a are acceptable, whereas questions 3b and 4b are unacceptable

3a. I wonder if she can eat cookies3b. *I wonder if can she eat cookies4a. I wonder what she can eat4b. *I wonder what can she eat.

Roger Brown (Brown, 1973) recorded three young English-speaking children (Adam,Eve, and Sarah) talking to their parents and to experimenters. In Appendix 5 you will finda list of all of the lines Eve said that may have contained a question with an auxiliary verb.For each line, determine whether the line contains a scoreable question. In decidingwhether to count a particular question, use the following guidelines:

a. Only questions that contain an auxiliary verb are scoreable. Auxiliary verbsinclude modal auxiliaries (e.g., can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will ,would, won't), forms of aspectual have (have, has, had), forms of be (e.g., am,are, is, was, were), and forms of do (e.g., do, does, did). Make sure you onlyinclude auxiliary verbs and not their (identical-sounding) main verb counterparts.For example, make sure you only count cases of have in which have is an auxiliaryverb (e.g., the have in I have eaten cookies, and not the have in I have cookies or Ihave to go). Make sure you only count cases of do in which do is an auxiliary verb(e.g., the do in I do not wash windows, and not the do in I do windows).

b. For the purposes of this exercise, do NOT count questions where the auxiliarythat appears to the left of the subject NP (or should have appeared to the left of thesubject NP) is a contracted form of an auxiliary verb. For example, the questionswhat's she doing? and what she's doing? should not be counted. Some of the morecommon contracted auxiliaries are 's, 're, 've, ''ll , etc.

c. Because it is impossible to determine whether the auxiliary appears to the left orright of the auxiliary in questions that lack a subject NP, only count questions thatcontain a subject NP.

d. In English subject questions, the identity of the subject NP is what is beingqueried (e.g., who is cooking ?, what is killing all the fish?). The order of thesubject NP and auxiliary is the same in subject questions and declarative sentences(compare who is cooking? and he is cooking; what is killing all the fish? and it iskilling all the fish). For this reason, exclude all subject questions from youranalyses. One way to test whether a question is a subject question is to form ananswer to the question, replacing the wh-word with an appropriate pronoun (e.g.,you, he, she, it, they, we), and see whether the wh-word and the pronoun are inthe same position.

Answer the following 10 questions:

1. Are there any questions that you were unsure of whether to count or exclude from youranalyses? If so, list the questions (giving the transcript from which they came) and brieflyexplain why you are unsure about what to do with these questions.

2. Did Eve ask any scoreable embedded questions? If so, list the examples, giving thenumber of the transcript where you found the example.

3. Did Eve ever invert a verb that should not have been invert (e.g., *does she dishes?,*should have I done the dishes?)? If so, list the examples, giving the transcript numberwhere you found the example.

4. For each of Eve's 20 transcripts, give the total number of scoreable matrix questionsthat ARE inverted.

5. For each of Eve's 20 transcripts, give the total number of scoreable matrix questionsthat are NOT inverted.

6. For each of Eve's 20 transcripts, give the percentage of Eve's scoreable matrixquestions that are inverted.

7. For each of Eve's 20 transcripts, give the percentage of Eve's scoreable matrix yes/noquestions that are inverted.

8. For each of Eve's 20 transcripts, give the percentage of Eve's scoreable matrix wh-questions that are inverted.

9. Using the graph paper provided or your favorite graphing computer program, graph thepercentage of Eve's scoreable yes/no questions and wh-questions that are inverted, usingage as the X-axis and % inverted as the Y-axis. (A list containing Eve's ages for eachtranscript is given at the end of Appendix 6.)

10. Based on her analyses of some of the transcripts collected by Brown, Ursula Bellugi(1967, 1971) has argued that children go through various stages on their way to askingquestions with adult-like syntax. For example, Bellugi argues that there is a stage duringwhich children invert subject and auxiliary in yes/no questions, but not in wh-questions.Compare and contrast the results of your analyses of subject-auxiliary inversion in Eve'squestions with the descriptions given by Bellugi.

2.72.52.32.11.91.71.51.31.30

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% Inversion for Eve’s Scoreable Questions

Age (years)

%

Sc

ore

ab

le

Qu

es

tio

ns

C

orr

ec

tly

In

ve

rte

d

Exercise 12: Neurolinguistics

In this exercise, you will listen to recordings of two aphasic patients (the transcripts ofwhich are given in Appendix 8). Based on your analysis of these recordings, answer thefollowing questions

A. Which patient (patient A or patient B) better fits the classic description of a Broca'saphasic?

B. Which patient (patient A or patient B) better fits the classic description of a Wernicke'saphasic?

C. What is it about the patient that you have identified as the Broca's aphasic that makesyou think he has Broca's aphasia? Be as specific as possible. List specific aspects of thepatient's comprehension and/or production of language that are consistent with thisdiagnosis. Point to specific examples in the transcript. Are there any aspects of thepatient's comprehension and/or production of language that are not consistent with thisdiagnosis. Point to specific examples in the transcript.

D. What is it about the patient that you have identified as the Wernicke's aphasic thatmakes you think he has Wernicke's aphasia? Be as specific as possible. List specificaspects of the patient's comprehension and/or production of language that are consistentwith this diagnosis. Point to specific examples in the transcript. Are there any aspects ofthe patient's comprehension and/or production of language that are not consistent with thisdiagnosis. Point to specific examples in the transcript.

E. Appendix 7 contains a drawing of the lateral view of the left hemisphere. According toclassical descriptions of aphasia, which of the two regions (regions 1 or 2) are more likelyto be damaged in patient A? Which of the two regions (regions 1 or 2) are more likely to bedamaged in patient B?

Exercise 13: Genetics and Evolution of Language

1. Twin study of dyslexia. Bakwin (1973) studied 31 pairs of monozygotic (MZ)twins and 31 pairs of diazygotic (DZ) twins, in which at least 1 twin in each twin pair wasdyslexic. He found that in 26 of the MZ twin pairs, both twins were dyslexic, and in 5 ofthe MZ twin pairs, only one of the twins was dyslexic. In 9 of the DZ twin pairs, bothtwins were dyslexic and in 22 of the DZ twin pairs, only one of the twins was dyslexic.

The pairwise concordance rates for twins can be calculated using the following formula:

number of concordant twin pairstotal number of twin pairs

A. In this study, what is the pair-wise concordance rates for MZ twins?

B. In this study, what is the pair-wise concordance rates for DZ twins?

C. One can use the chi-square statistic to determine whether the difference in concordancerates for MZ and DZ twins is statistically significant. Using the formula for the chi-squarestatistic and chi-square table given in Appendix 9, calculate the chi-square statistic anddetermine the probability that this outcome is the result of chance alone.

2. Twin study of SLI. Tombin & Buckwalter (1994) studied 56 pairs ofmonozygotic (MZ) twins and 26 pairs of diazygotic (DZ) twins, in which at least 1 twin ineach twin pair was diagnosed as having SLI. They found that in 45 of the MZ twin pairs,both twins were SLI, and in 11 of the MZ twin pairs, only one of the twins was SLI. In10 of the DZ twin pairs, both twins were SLI and in 16 of the DZ twin pairs, only one ofthe twins was SLI.

A. In this study, what is the pair-wise concordance rates for MZ twins?

B. In this study, what is the pair-wise concordance rates for DZ twins?

C. Calculate the chi-square statistic and determine the probability that this outcome is theresult of chance alone.

3. Reproductive success and evolutionary fitness.

A. Leslie Loudmouth has 3 children, and each of these children in turn have 3 children,who in turn each have 3 children, etc. Robin Rarelytalk has 2 children and each of thesechildren in turn have 2 children, who in turn each have 2 children, etc..

1. Counting Leslie and Robin as the first generation, what is the least number ofgenerations of Loudmouths before Loudmouths outnumber Rarelytalks by 2 to 1?

2. Counting Leslie and Robin as the first generation, what is the least number ofgenerations of Loudmouths before Loudmouths outnumber Rarelytalks by 10 to 1?

3. Assuming 25 years between generations for both Loudmouths and Rarelytalks, howmany years will it be before the number of Loudmouth relatives outnumber the numberof Rarelytalk relatives by 2 to 1?

4. Assuming 25 years between generations for both Loudmouths and Rarelytalks, howmany years will it be before the number of Loudmouth relatives outnumber the numberof Rarelytalk relatives by 10 to 1?

5. If Leslie and Robin (and their children and their children's children etc.) each have 3children, but the average number of years between generations is 20 years for theLoudmouths and 25 years for the Rarelytalks, how many years will it be before thenumber of Loudmouths outnumber the Rarelytalks by 2 to 1?

B. Sandy Slicktalker and Terry Taciturn have large families. Terry has 5 children, andeach of these children in turn have 5 children, who in turn each have 5 children, etc. Sandyhas 6 children, and each of these children in turn have 6 children, who in turn have 6children, etc. .

1. Counting Sandy and Terry as the first generation, what is the least number ofgenerations of Slicktalkers before Slicktalkers outnumber Taciturns by 2 to 1?

2. Assuming 25 years between generations for both Slicktalkers and Taciturns, howmany years will it be before the number of Slicktalker relatives outnumber the numberof Taciturn relatives by 2 to 1?

3. If Sandy and Terry (and their children and their children's children etc.) each have 3children, but the average number of years between generations is 20 years for theSlicktalkers and 25 years for the Taciturns, how many years will it be before thenumber of Slicktalkers outnumber the Taciturns by 2 to 1?

Extra credit: WARNING: the numbers involved are very big. You may not want toattempt this if you haven't figured out a formula for calculating the number ofgenerations.

Extra credit 1: Counting Sandy and Terry as the first generation, what is the leastnumber of generations of Slicktalkers before Slicktalkers outnumber Taciturns by 10 to1?

Extra credit 2. Assuming 25 years between generations for both Slicktalkers andTaciturns, how many years will it be before the number of Slicktalker relativesoutnumber the number of Taciturn relatives by 10 to 1?

Appendix 1: Phonetic Sounds Typical of American English

Appendix 2: Distinctive Features for Phonemes

Appendix 3: Conversational Speech Excerpts

1. like 18. box2. at 19. toys3. home 20. books4. box 21. doll5. for 22. comb6. get 23. ball7. phone 24. have8. put 25. door9. hand 26. can10. box 27. go11. tape 28. go12. don't 29. shoes13. nice 30. books14. stay 31. can15. down 32. sit16. there 33. floor17. see 34. play

Appendix 4: Synthesized Syllables

Appendix 4: Synthesized Syllables (cont.)

Appendix 5: Phrase Structure Trees for Ambiguous Sentence

Appendix 6: Eve's Auxiliary Verbs & Question Words Utterances

Appendix 6: Eve's Auxiliary Verbs & Question Words Utterances (cont.)

Appendix 7: Transcripts of Aphasic Speech

Appendix 7: Transcripts of Aphasic Speech (cont.)

Appendix 7: Transcripts of Aphasic Speech (cont.)

Appendix 8: Brain Regions Involved in Language

Appendix 9: Chi-Square Statistic Formula and Table

The computation of χ2 for a table of any size is most easily accomplished by

χ2 = (O − E)2

E∑where O = the number of instances observed and E = the number of instances expectedgiven the null hypothesis. This quantity, when basedon independent observations andexpected frequencies that are not too small, tends to be distributed as χ2 on degrees offreedom (df) = (number of rows-1) x (number of columns -1).

Here's a simple example. Let's test the null hypothesis that sophomores and juniors areequally likely to make the Dean's List. We observe that of 100 sophomores, 20 make theDean's List. Of 80 juniors, 25 make the Dean's List. The observed frequencies are:

Dean's List Not Dean's List TOTALSophomore 20 80 100Junior 25 55 80TOTAL 45 135 180

The expected frequencies are:

Dean's List Not Dean's List TOTALSophomore 25 75 100Junior 20 60 80TOTAL 45 135 180

So the χ2 = 1+ .333 + 1.25 + .417 = 3.00. The df is 1, so if we look it up in the table, wefind that there is greater than a 5% chance that these result were due to chance alone, andwe cannot confidently reject the null hypothesis.