Comprehension »Conversation ◊Cursing, Swearing, and use of profanity ◊Mondagreens, eggcorns, Spoonerisms and Malapropisms ◊Humour Review Study Questions

• Comprehension» Conversation

◊ Cursing, Swearing, and use of profanity

◊ Mondagreens, eggcorns, Spoonerisms and Malapropisms

◊ Humour

• Review

Study Questions.• Describe Pinker’s typologies of profanity usage.• Describe the violation theory of humour.

04/18/23

Comprehension

• Conversations» Using profanity

Final clip from Pinker’s Authors@ Google

Comprehension


◊ Pinker’s typologies

– Dysphemistic swearing - (opposite of euphemism) Forces listener

to think about negative matter. E.g.,

Hapless Hal: Look Dr. McCormick, I found a paper that shows you can split attention.

Dr. McCormick: That’s Bull Shit!

#2

Family Member: What’s for supper

Dr. McCormick: (on the way to B.B.Q.): Shit on a stick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H7utm3eco4

Comprehension


◊ Pinker’s typologies– Abusive swearing - for abuse or intimidation or insulting of others

– Idiomatic swearing - > swearing without really referring to it,

> arousing interest, showing off, expressing that the setting is informal.

E.g., Don’t call me sir, I’m not …

Comprehension


◊ Pinker’s typologies– Emphatic swearing - to emphasise something with swearing.

E.g., Close the fucking door!

– Cathartic swearing - Using profanity when something bad happens (e.g., hitting one’s thumb with a hammer).

> May have evolved to inform the audience that you're undergoing a negative emotion.

Comprehension


◊ Using profanity as Expletives -– meaningless words used to fill a syntactic vacancy.– From Troy Duffy's film The Boondock Saints:

Short scene from the Boondock Saints

Comprehension


◊ Cultural differences– Profanity in Québec vs. English Canada

» According to The Anglo Guide To Survival in Québec:Unlike English where the human body is

considered dirty, joual cursing draws its material from the body of the church.

For instance, while ‘sacré tabernacle’ (sacred tabernacle) would be strong language in front of your shop steward, ‘c’est tout fucké’ is perfectly acceptable in front of your mother.

– According to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe» The most offensive word in the universe (unspeakable obscenity):

Belgium

Comprehension


◊ Cultural differences: European Languages– A comparison of three major forms of profanity– French, Italian, Provencal:

religious> sexual> excretory

– Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish:

sexual> religious> excretory

– English:

sexual> excretory> religious

– Welsh, Swedish:

excretory> religious> sexual

Comprehension

• Conversations» The neuropsychology of cursing

◊ Tourette’s syndrome– Coprolalia

5-15% of Tourette’s patients– Some relief disabling nuclei

• Thalamus • Globus pallidus • Cingulate cortex

– Theories• Sharpness of curse words• Conflict between lower limbic systems and

prefrontal cortex- Congenital deaf Tourette’s and hand cursing

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Freudian slips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEIslG2McpA

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Freudian slips

◊ Baars study– Three conditions

1. Situation causing anxiety about shock2. Situation causing anxiety about sex3. No anxiety (control)

– Silently read pairs of words on the computer screen. When a buzzer went off, participants had to read them out loud.

– Results(1) made twice as many shock-related slips as

(2).(2) made twice as many sex-related slips as (3).

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Spoonerisms

◊ Rev. Dr. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930). – Lecturer, tutor, and dean at Oxford university

– Some examples:Cattle ships and bruisers (Battle ships and cruisers)

..we’ll have the hags flung out .. (…we’ll have the flags hung out..)

Our Lord is a shoving leopard (Our Lord is a loving shepherd)

Nosey little cook (Cosy little nook)

“Son, it is now kisstomary (“Son, it is now customary to kiss to cuss the bride.” the bride”

Comprehension


◊ SLIP Experiments (spoonerism elicitation technique, Motley & Baars, 1976). – Word-pairs are presented tachistoscopically

– Read silently unless there is a signal (e.g. a tone)

– word-pair should be read out loud.

E.g. target = red bowl,

– Preceded by several word pairs with the initial phonemes reversed,

I.e., /b/ then /r/ e.g. best rose, bets rode

“Expected” error = bed roll

Comprehension


◊ SLIP Experiments (Spoonerism elicitation technique, Motley & Baars, 1976).

– Basic Findings » Elicits 30% of predicted spoonerisms.

» Spoonerism frequency affected by lexical status

I.e., “wrong loot” FOR “long root is more likely than

“rawn loof” FOR “lawn roof”

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Malapropisms

◊ Sheridan’s “The Rivals” (Mrs. Malaprop)◊ Similar to Spoonerisms, one word is replaced

◊ Three characteristics– The word means something different from the intended word

– The word sounds similar to the intended word.

E.g.,

obtuse (wide or dull) for acute (narrow or sharp)

--> not a malapropism

obtuse (stupid or slow-witted) for abstruse (esoteric or difficult to understand)

--> is a malapropism.

– The word has a recognized meaning in the speaker's language.

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Malapropisms

◊ Some examples“He’s a vast suppository of information” (Repository)“ committed a Miss-Marplism” (Malapropism)

- anonymous staffer at New Scientist“vagrant disregard for the law” (Flagrant)

- Archie Bunker“I know right now I'm suppose to swallow my prize, but I'm fucking

pissed off” (Pride)“Lahey was my mother’s mating name” (Maiden)

- Ricky (TPB)“when the history of this administration is written at least there's an

authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened- George W. Bush (Authoritative)

Comprehension

• Language slip-ups» Eggcorns

◊ Mark Liberman blogging in 2003– Looking for a precise term to describe a phenomenon he had noted

-> A friend was using “egg corn” for “accorn” -> Pulman suggested the term “eggcorn”

– There is more phonological overlap than a malapropism– Often replace an unfamiliar or archaic word with a more common or

modern word E.g.,

"baited breath" -> "bated breath”“for all intensive purposes” -> “ for all intents and purposes”“ A flare for…” -> “A flair for”

Humour

• Freudian/ psychoanalytic view» Jokes arise when consciousness allows forbidden

thoughts to arise◊ The Groucho Marx “I love my husband” myth

– “Well I like pancakes, but I haven’t got closets full of them!”

◊ Superego allows the ego to generate humour– Type of superego is related to sense of humour

» Benevolent -> allows humour» Very Harsh -> Does not allow humour » Harsh -> creates biting sarcastic type of humour

E.g, Doug Piranha

Humour

• Freudian/ psychoanalytic view

Clip from “The Pirhana Brothers” part 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-FDW1shmqA

http://www.videosift.com/video/Monty-Python-Ethel-the-Frog-Piranha-Brothers-pt2

Humour

• Conventional theories» Relief theory

◊ Freudian - humour relieves stress

» Superiority theory◊ Plato

– Humour is related to malice towards less fortunate people

◊ Hobbes– ‘sudden glory’ of realizing we are better than others

◊ Gruner (1997)– Three parts

1. A winner and a loser2. Incongruity3. Surprise

Humour

• Conventional theories» Violation theory (Veatch, 1998)

◊ Three necessary conditions1. Violation of the perceiver’s commitment to how things ought to be (V)2. The perceiver has a strong feeling that the situation is normal (N)3. (V) and (N) must occur simultaneously

◊ E.g.,A skeleton walks into a bar and says “Give me a beer and a mop”.– To find this joke humourous you must accept (N)

A skeleton can walk, order beer, etc.– Two violations contribute to the humourous impact

1. There is no such thing as a ‘living’ skeleton (increases impact)

2. Patrons do not order mops with their beverages (V)- It is the simultaneous occurance of N & V that generates humour

Humour


◊ Violations must have an emotional impact– E.g., elephant jokes

Q: How do you know that an elephant has been in the refrigerator?

A: There are footprints in the butter dish.Q: How do you know that two elephants have been in the

refrigerator? A: There are two sets of footprints in the butter dish.Q: How do you know that a herd of elephants has been in the

refrigerator? A: There is a Volkswagen parked in front of your house and

there are lots of footprints in the butter dish.

– The level of emotional impact dictates a scale of responseNone - Not humourousModerate - humourousStrong - Offended

Humour


◊ Offensive jokes– Shortly after the Columbia space shuttle crash, I heard the following:

Q: Why don’t astronauts shower before lift-off?A: They wash ashore

– The violations in this joke “cross the line”Violates sanctity of lifeViolates sanctity of herosEtc.

– Stand-up comedians consider “cancer” a taboo for humour.

Humour


◊ Why aren’t puns really funny?– Q: When is a door not a door?– A: When it is ajar.

1. X is a door (Given by Q:)

2. a) X is ajar, AND b) X is a jar (ambiguity given in A:)

3. If X is a jar, X is not a door. (By definition)

4. Therefore, X is not a door. (by 3 and 2b)

-> 1 and 4 are logically inconsistent.

– In A:, “it” cannot be both a jar and a door so N is not established

Humour


◊ The three level scale

Level Logic Commitment gets it is offended sees humor 1 not-V none no no no

Q: How many c++ programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?A: They can’t do it, it wasn’t declared!

2 V and N weak yes no yesA skeleton walks into a bar….

3 V and not-N strong yes yes noQ: Why don’t astronauts shower….

Humour

• Neuroscience of humour» Components of getting a joke

◊ Language processing– Ambiguity resolution

» Semantic processingQ: What do engineers use for birth control?A: Their personalities

» Phonological processing (for puns)Q: Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants?A: Because he got a ‘hole-in-one’

Semantic Jokes(left and right)

(Just left)

Puns(Just left)(Just left)

Humour

• Neuroscience of humour» Components of getting a joke

◊ Pleasure response– Mesolimbic system

Nucleus accumbens

Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)

◊ Emotional response– Amygdala

Humour

• Cognitive processing and humour» Incongruity-resolution theory

◊ Humour arises from combining unlikely/incongruous parts◊ Two Types

– 1. Surprise Disambiguation» Set-up has 2 interpretations, one is more obvious» Punch-line conflicts with the obvious meaning» Evokes the hidden meaning

E.g., “The first thing that strikes a stranger in New York is a big car”

E.g.2 “There are 10 types of people in world, those that understand binary and those that don’t.”

– 2. Two-stagePunchline creates ambiguityCognitive rule must be found to allow it to follow

from the set-up

Humour

• Cognitive processing and humour» Incongruity-resolution theory

◊ Evidence for Surprise Disambiguation (Vaida, et al. 2003)– Visually presented with joke

– E.g., I went to a strip mall and found that everyone else had clothes on.

– Presented with lexical decision task either during set-up, incongruity or following resolution

– Looked for priming of favoured or surprising meaning

Favored meaning-related: PLAZA

Surprising meaning related: BARE

– Favored primed early, then both, then just surprising meaning

Humour

• The world’s shortest joke?

Term Review

Chapter 6: Learning and Remembering » Overview of Long Term Memory

◊ Taxonomy of long term memory◊ Mnemonics and Mnemonists

» Storing Information in Episodic Memory◊ Rehearsal◊ Levels of Processing◊ Encoding specificity

» Retrieving Information from Episodic Memory◊ Encoding specificity

» Implicit /Explicit memory

Term Review

Chapter 6: Learning and Remembering » Key Terms

◊ Savings score; Episodic memory; Semantic memory; Implicit memory; Explicit memory; Procedural memory; Declarative memory; Mnemonics; Mnemonists; The method of loci; Synaethesia; Encoding; Storage; Retrieval; The van Restorff effect; Rehearsal; Maintenance rehearsal; Elaborative rehearsal; Incidental learning; Orienting task; Self-reference effect; Subjective organization; Dual coding hypothesis; Law of disuse; Accessibility; Availability; Tip of the tongue phenomenon; Cued recall; Encoding specificity hypothesis; Context-dependent memory; Retrograde amnesia; Anterograde amnesia; Repetition priming;

» Study Questions– Describe the three principles of mnemonics and give an example of how each serves to improve

memory.

– Describe the levels (depth) of processing approach to memory

– Why would it likely be better for a student to write their exams in the same classroom in which they attend lecture? Relate Tulving’s encoding specificity principle to this phenomenon.

Term Review

Chapter 7: Knowing» Models of Semantic Memory

◊ TLC

◊ Feature Comparison

◊ Spreading Activation– The Fan Effect

» Neurophysiology I◊ ERPs and the N400

» Concept formation

» Neurophysiology II◊ Damasio’s Study

» Distributed representation◊ Farah & McClelland’s model

Term Review

Chapter 7: Knowing» Key Terms

◊ Sentence verification task; True-false effect; Category size effect; Semantic distance; typicality effect; Semantic priming; TLC; Hierarchical organization; Cognitive economy; Feature comparison model; Defining features; Characteristic features; Spreading activation; Propositional representation; The fan effect; Evoked responses; N400; Lexical decision task; Exemplar theory; Prototype theory; Category-based representation; Property-based representation

» Study Questions– Describe four well established findings from the sentence verification task. Which of these findings

are predicted by TLC and which findings are not handled well by TLC? Which findings can Feature Comparison and Spreading Activation handle?

– What is the N400 and why is it important?

– Compare and contrast category-based and property-based representation. How does this distinction account for the living/non-living dichotomy in neuropsychological studies?

Interactions in Long Term Memory

• Chapter 8: Using knowledge in the real world» Outline

◊ Schacter’s seven sins of memory.◊ Interactions between Semantic and Episodic memory

– Reconstructive memory– Semantic integration– Propositional representation and propositional networks– Scripts

◊ False memory– Eyewitness memory– Repressed/recovered memories

◊ Autobiographical memories– Very Long Term Memory – Real World Memories– Emotion and Memories– Flashbulb memories


• Chapter 8: Using knowledge in the real world» Study Questions

◊ Describe Schactor’s seven sins of memory.

◊ Would you rather that I mark your technical accuracy or your content accuracy for this question? Why?

◊ Draw a propositional network that represents the meaning in a simple sentence.

◊ Compare and contrast misinformation effects with retroactive interference.

◊ According to research, what do you expect will happen to your knowledge of Cognitive Psychology over the next several years?


• Chapter 8: Using knowledge in the real world» Key Terms

◊ Transience; absent-mindedness; blocking; misattribution; suggestibility; bias; persistence; schemata; reproductions; reconstructions; technical accuracy; content accuracy; propositions; strength assumption; activation assumption; spread of activation; dampening assumption; active list assumption; the fan effect; scripts; headers; frames; default values; script-pointer-plus-tag theory; false memory; leading questions; memory impairment; misinformation effect; source misattribution; misinformation acceptance; imagination inflation; repressed memories; recovered memories; autobiographical memory; self-reference effect; self-schema; permastore; amygdala; flashbulb memory;

Interactions in Long Term Memory• Chapter 9: Language

» Outline◊ What is language?

– Hocket’s defining features

◊ Five levels of analysis◊ Whorf’s hypothesis◊ Speech perception

– Acoustic Phonetics– Articulatory Phonetics– Top down processes

◊ Syntax◊ Lexical and semantic factors

– Case Grammar

◊ Neuropsychology– Broca’s aphasia– Wernicke’s aphasia– Classical localization model

◊ Neurophysiology – ERP studies


• Chapter 9: Language» Study Questions

◊ Compare and contrast animal communication with human language. Use Hockett’s defining features to underscore the distinction.

◊ Compare and contrast acoustic and articulatory phonetics

◊ How has sentence ambiguity been used to study the psycholinguistics of grammar.

◊ Describe the classical localization model of brain and language. How do different aphasias relate to the model. Give examples.


• Chapter 9: Language» Key Terms

◊ Continuity theory; apparent specificity; language; linguistics; psycholingistics; semanticity; arbitrariness; discreteness; duality of patterning; displacement; productivity; traditional transmission; grammar; phonology; syntax; linguistic competency; dysfluences; linguistic intuitions; linguistic relativity hypothesis; phonetics; articulatory phonetics; acoustic phonetics; the speech spectrograph; phoneme; places of articulation; manners of articulation; voicing; voice onset time; categorical perception; coarticulation; phonemic restoration effect; finite state grammar; phrase structure grammar; transformational grammar; deep structure; surface structure; transformational rules; case grammar; aphasia; Broca’s aphasia; expressive or nonfluent deficits; receptive or fluency deficits; dysarthria; Speech apraxia; Wernicke’s aphasia; neologisitic; anomia; classical localization model; transcortical motor aphasia; transcortical sensory aphasia; conduction aphasia; arcuate fasciculus; P600;

Term Review

• Chapter 10: Comprehension» Traditional research

» Online comprehension tasks◊ Gernsbacher’s Structure Building

◊ Situation model approach

» Reading◊ Gaze duration

◊ Dual route model

» Conversation◊ Cursing and Humour

◊ Pragmatics

◊ Structure

◊ Empirical investigations

Term Review

• Chapter 10: Comprehension» Study Questions

◊ Describe the three processes and two control mechanisms associated with Gernsbacher’s structure building model of comprehension.

◊ Describe the two routes for word naming.

◊ Describe the violation theory of humour.

◊ Describe some of the maxims or rules of conversation.

Term Review

• Chapter 10: Comprehension» Key Terms

◊ Traditional comprehension research; “on-line” procedures; lexical decision; mental structure building; enhancement; suppression; mapping; advantage of first mention; advantage of clause recency; reference; inference; anaphoric reference; implication; bridging; saccade; fixation; regressions; gaze duration; mind-eye assumption; moving window technique; perceptual span during reading; dual route model; horse-race model; direct or whole word or addressed phonological route; indirect or phonetic or assembled phonological route; regular and irregular orthography; pseudohomophones; acquired dyslexia; phonological or deep dyslexia; surface dyslexia; imlicature; direct speech act; indirect speech act; dysphemic swearing; Idiomatic swearing; emphatic swearing; cathartic swearing; Coprolalia; Violation theory of humour; Surprise disambiguation; locution; illocution; perlocution; conversational maxims (quantity, quality, relevance, and manner); constative locution; directive locution; commissive locution; acknowledgement; cooperative principal; direct theory; second-order theory;

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Comprehension »Conversation ◊Cursing, Swearing, and use of profanity ◊Mondagreens, eggcorns, Spoonerisms and Malapropisms ◊Humour Review Study Questions