Linguistics

A minimal unit contributing lexical or grammatical meaning. A morpheme is not generally identical to a written character, syllable or phoneme across all languages.

Understanding linguistic input, whether spoken or written. It combines access to words and meanings with sentence-level integration, context and control.

Understanding language presented through hearing. Acoustic and phonological analysis add demands beyond those shared with written or nonverbal semantic tasks.

Access to stored information about words during comprehension or production. A failure to retrieve a name need not imply loss of the underlying concept.

Interpretation of utterances in their conversational context, including what a speaker is asking the listener to do. Making “initial search” explicit can change the interpretation of a false belief question without changing the represented event.^[ref]

A contrastive sound unit in a language. A phonetic difference can be perceptible without functioning as a phonemic contrast in every language.

A grouping of speech sounds defined by a relevant perceptual or articulatory organisation. Experimental discrimination of two endpoints does not, by itself, establish a complete inventory of linguistic categories.

The organization of sound-based distinctions and patterns in a language. Phonological representations connect acoustic inputs, lexical information and articulatory behavior without being identical to any one of them.

Explicit access to and manipulation of sound structure, including units such as syllables and phonemes. It is distinct from ordinary ability to understand speech.

Awareness and manipulation of phoneme-sized units. Its development can support alphabetic reading and be altered by learning to read.^[ref]

A representation of the sound structure relevant to a language. Recognition, temporary retention and speech production can use such information while imposing different additional demands.

Analysis of a speech signal in terms of the sound structure relevant to language. Auditory discrimination, mapping sounds to words and access to meaning impose distinguishable demands.

The study and representation of meaning in language. Lexical interpretation and sentence interpretation require interacting information; a contrast with a syntactic task need not isolate every semantic process.

A relation based on meaning among concepts or expressions. Semantic-association judgments must be distinguished from perceptual similarity and response-selection demands.

A relation specifying how an entity participates in a described event, such as an agent or recipient. Grammatical constructions can assign different roles to the same familiar words, making reversible sentences useful in comprehension tests.

Principles and representations governing structured combinations of linguistic elements. Experiments must distinguish building or interpreting a structure from holding its elements in memory, detecting errors and selecting responses.

A description of structural demands in a sentence, such as a noncanonical dependency. Its operational definition should be explicit; longer strings, unfamiliar words and greater working-memory load do not define syntax by themselves.

An impairment in grammatical structure in production or comprehension. It is not equivalent to reduced speech rate, dysarthria or all forms of aphasia; task design must separate grammatical dependencies from lexical and memory demands.

An embedded clause serving as a complement, such as “that the toy is in the box” in “she says that the toy is in the box”. The full report can be true even when the embedded proposition is false, making such constructions relevant to distinguishing a representation from reality.^[ref]

A system of structured representations and conventions supporting expression and interpretation. Its study distinguishes sound structure, grammatical organization and meaning without assuming that each maps one-to-one onto a single brain region.

Knowledge of word forms, meanings and their uses. Number of recognised words and depth or flexibility of knowledge are different dimensions.

Learning about unfamiliar words during engagement with text without direct vocabulary instruction. Small encounter-level gains can be measurable, but long-term extrapolations depend on reading amount, prior knowledge and test sensitivity.^[ref]

Richness and precision of knowledge about a word, including relations, context and multiple meanings.

The range of words known under a specified criterion. A recognition test and an expressive definition test need not identify the same boundary.

Language represented through a writing system, including reading and written production. Spelling, text generation and comprehension make partly different demands.

Generating and organising written text. Vocabulary, sentence formulation and discourse interact with spelling, transcription and planning demands.^[ref]

Processes producing the written form, including spelling and the mechanics of recording text. Dictated and independent composition differ in these demands as well as in available support.

Producing conventional written word forms. Immediate phonological plausibility, knowledge of a particular spelling and fluent written production are distinguishable achievements.

The conventional organisation of a writing system, including recurring patterns and relations to language.

The degree of complexity or inconsistency in mappings between written and spoken forms. Its consequences depend on the units and outcomes assessed; early pronunciation accuracy, fluency and comprehension need not show identical patterns.

An experimentally defined writing system with unfamiliar symbols and controlled mappings. It permits manipulation of learning history while requiring separate tests of generalisation to natural reading.^[ref]

The regularity with which a written pattern predicts a pronunciation or other linguistic outcome under a specified context. Frequency and consistency are different properties.

A unit in a writing system, distinguished from a particular font shape and from its spoken interpretation.

Language expressed or understood through speech. Phonology, vocabulary, grammar and discourse are distinct dimensions, and listening and speaking impose different task demands.

A natural language using structured visual-manual and other bodily signals. Sign languages have phonological organisation, meaning and syntax; they are not universal pantomime or merely a manual transcription of speech.

A configuration of the hand contributing to the form of a sign. Contrastive sublexical form need not be acoustic to participate in a phonological system.

A natural sign language studied in comparisons of sentence comprehension across sign and Japanese speech. Modality and language differences must be considered separately.

A natural sign language distinct from American Sign Language. Acquisition history and language proficiency matter to comparisons with spoken-language tasks.

A natural sign language central to many studies of deaf and hearing native signers. It is not structurally identical to English despite frequent bilingual use.

Accounts in which language influences aspects of cognition or perception. A task-specific effect of verbal resources is weaker than a claim that language is necessary for the existence of a sensory experience.

Spoken-language production and perception, involving acoustic, phonological, articulatory and higher-level information. Speech repetition and comprehension place different demands on these interacting processes.

Linguist whose research is represented by Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination by Jessica Maye and others.

A linguist who investigated grammatical processing and the response of Broca's area to grammatical errors.^[ref]