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  • Essay / Cognitive Psychology Essay: The Importance of Language in Daily Life

    Table of ContentsKey Aspects of LanguageSpeech ProductionTheories of Word RecognitionConclusionReferencesLanguage has been developed over the years to allow humans to exchange information and communicate with other living beings. The brain's cognitive functions allow us to do this because we can think about what we are about to say and how we say it. This essay will discuss the processes and theories involved in language and how they contribute to our daily lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'?Get the original essayKey Aspects of LanguageThere are six key aspects of language: these influence the way we think and our perception of the world. Pragmatics is how we use language – the meaning of words and statements can be different depending on the context in which they are said or used. Semantics is the meaning of words – the definition of words may be the same, but the meaning varies. Syntax is the arrangement of grammatical words and phrases. Spelling is the punctuation used and spelling of words. Phonology is the organization of sounds in a language and their meanings and finally, morphology is the meaning of words in a language. These aspects are important in the study of language because they allow us to understand words, sounds and help us produce speech. Therefore, these aspects are important for understanding language, as they allow us to create meaningful communications with others, especially in the workplace, as we are able to understand what our colleagues mean when they speak to us . Speech Production Speech production is the process by which thoughts are translated into words. Dell (1986); Dell, Oppenheim and Kittredge (2008) take a theoretical approach. Dell's propagation activation theory argues that there are four levels of speech production: semantic, syntactic, morphological, and phonological. Dell's theory holds that when we plan and produce speech, we activate these features in parallel. The theory predicts that speech errors occur when the information we intend to say is not as strongly activated. However, the theory holds that we avoid errors by using what is called a “syntactic traffic cop” that monitors our networks and intentions. The evidence behind this theory focuses on aphasics who were asked to name pictures and videos of objects – some made errors that fell into the same syntactic category, however, others made random errors that had no relation to what the image or video showed. This dissociation between the groups suggests that one group had difficulty with their "traffic cop" and the other group did not. However, the diffusion activation theory has limitations as Glaser (1992) argues that the theory predicts an erroneous number of errors that actually occur because many words can be activated at the same time and the facilitation effect doesn't always happen - which is not explained by the activation theory of propagation, both should propagate simultaneously and should facilitate but don't. This theory can also explain the lexical bias effect, which is when we mispronounce ourselves and pronounce the wrong word. Indeed, activation spreads to incorrect-sounding words. There is therefore activation at the phonological level because the words are similar. In :.