dead language

(noun)

A language with no remaining native speakers.

Related Terms

  • generative
  • recursion
  • displacement
  • recursive

Examples of dead language in the following topics:

  • Introduction to Human Language

    • Human language is recursive.
    • Human language has displacement.
    • Speaking is the auditory form of language, but writing and sign language are visual forms.
    • A language family is a group of languages descended from a common language.
    • For example, Latin, which was spoken in the Roman Empire, is now considered a dead language, or a language that has no native speakers.
  • Human Language Development

    • Humans, especially children, have an amazing capability to learn language, and several theories exist to explain language development.
    • Noam Chomsky's work discusses the biological basis for language and claims that children have innate abilities to learn language.
    • He has observed that all children make the same type of language errors, regardless of the language they are taught.
    • Jean Piaget's theory of language development suggests that children use both assimilation and accommodation to learn language.
    • In language acquisition, there is a hypothesis that a "critical period," or a time when it is optimal to learn a language, exists in children.
  • Human Language and the Brain

    • Without the brain, there would be no language.
    • The human brain has a few areas that are specific to language processing and production.
    • Patients with Broca's can often still understand language, but they cannot speak fluently.
    • This diagram shows the areas of the brain associated with languages.
    • The areas of the brain necessary for language.
  • Linguistic Relativity

    • Language and thought tend to influence one another in a dual, cyclical relationship.
    • It is easy to wonder which comes first, the thought or the language.
    • Can thought exist without language?
    • For example, different words mean different things in different languages; not every word in every language has a one-to-one exact translation in a different language.
    • Beck, this school of thought discusses the interplay among emotion, behavior, language, and thought.
  • Introduction to Language

    • Language is the ability to produce and comprehend spoken and written words; linguistics is the study of language.
    • Language is the ability to produce and comprehend both spoken and written (and in the case of sign language, signed) words.
    • Complex language is one of the defining factors that makes us human.
    • While every language has a different set of rules, all languages do obey rules.
    • Every human language has a lexicon—the sum total of all of the words in that language.
  • The Structure of Language

    • All languages have underlying structural rules that make meaningful communication possible.
    • Every language is different.
    • Every language has a different set of syntactic rules, but all languages have some form of syntax.
    • Context includes tone of voice, body language, and the words being used.
    • ASL and other sign languages have all the same structural underpinnings that spoken languages do.
  • Human vs. Animal Language

    • Animal language is any form of communication that shows similarities to human language; however, there are significant differences.
    • Human language is also the only kind that is modality-independent; that is, it can be used across multiple channels.
    • Verbal language is auditory, but other forms of language—writing and sign language (visual), Braille (tactile)—are possible in more complex human language systems.
    • Koko is famous for having learned over a thousand signs of "Gorilla Sign Language," a simple sign language developed to try to teach nonhuman primates complex language.
    • Kanzi is a bonobo, whose trainers claim that not only can he understand human language, but he can manipulate human language to create sentences.
  • Cognitive Psychology

    • Cognitive psychology examines internal mental processes such as problem-solving, memory, and language.
    • Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.
    • Major areas of research in cognitive psychology include perception, memory, categorization, knowledge representation, numerical cognition, language, and thinking.
  • Learning Disabilities and Special Education

    • Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by limitations in language and social skills.
    • Language difficulties related to ASD will sometimes make it hard for the child to interact with teachers and peers or themselves in the classroom.
    • This includes difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, processing speed, auditory short-term memory, and/or language skills or verbal comprehension.
    • In addition to the disabilities listed above, IDEA covers deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delays, hearing impairments, emotional disturbance, orthopedic or other health impairment, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment (including blindness).
  • Cerebral Hemispheres and Lobes of the Brain

    • The left hemisphere appears to dominate the functions of speech, language processing and comprehension, and logical reasoning, while the right is more dominant in spatial tasks like vision-independent object recognition (such as identifying an object by touch or another nonvisual sense).
    • It processes sensory input including auditory information, language comprehension, and naming.
    • Several portions of the parietal lobe are important to language and visuospatial processing; the left parietal lobe is involved in symbolic functions in language and mathematics, while the right parietal lobe is specialized to process images and interpretation of maps (i.e., spatial relationships).
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