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Tutorial 10 with Model Answers

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Tutorial 10 with Model Answers

Uploaded by

thabisamdingi9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LING101: Understanding Language

Tutorial 10 — UL 2024

Psycholinguistics

1) Hearer expectations (= expectations about what we are going to hear) are


important at different levels of the language comprehension process. Most
of the time they are very useful because they help us to understand
language quickly. One type of hearer expectations that is not on my slides
comes from our ‘speaker model’. A speaker model comprises of our ideas
preconceptions, and expectations that we may have when we talk to
someone.
Speaker models, like all hearer expectations speed up language
comprehension: If we know how someone speaks (their accent, e.g.) and
which words they often use, which topics they like and what they think
about all kinds of things, we understand them much faster than someone
whom we are not familiar with.
However, sometimes speaker models hinder language comprehension.
This may be the case, for example, when we are in an agitated argument
(verbal fight) with someone.
Explain how your expectations about what the other person is going to say
might be triggered by (a) your own emotional state and (b) by
expectations that could have built up through earlier, similar situations
with the same person.
Also discuss (c) how your hearer expectations and speaker model might be
harmful and (d) what you can do to improve such a situation.
(e) Can you think of other situations where your hearer expectations and
speaker model might aggravate a situation?

 This is NOT in the reading but it is a practical application of this


chapter/the content I am teaching.
(a) One’s own emotional state can literally influence WHAT we hear and HOW we
interpret what we hear. If we are sad we tend to hear negative messages rather than
positive ones in in one and the same sentence; when we are happy we tend to hear
positive messages rather than negative ones in the very same sentences. When we
are angry with someone, we are emotionally agitated and tend to pay more attention
on what WE are going to say next than on what the OTHER person is currently saying.
Thus the conversations becomes faster and faster because everyone wants to say
what THEY want to get off their chest. In this angry state we do not EXPECT the other
person to be a nice person any longer (even if we might love them at other times) and
we often do not HEAR what they are currently saying; rather, we hear what we think
that they are saying.
(b) This happens particularly easily if we had similar altercations with the same person
before: The more we repeat a pattern, the more we expect exactly this same pattern
to repeat itself – this can happen to the extent where we cannot leave the pattern any
more.
(c) The more your expect a person to say certain things, the more you interpret
EVERYTHING that they say in a certain way and thus you block the chance for
them to get through to you. In this way you may undermine meaningful
relationships with other people and end up losing them.
(d) The best thing to do is to become an attentive hearer; i.e. to take a break
from your hearer expectations and to listen with an open mind. It helps if you
push the “pause” button in your own head and prevent yourself from planning
your own response while the other person is speaking. Rather, listen and then
think about what they said, ask questions. Try to REALLY understand THEM
first before you respond.
(e) When you have a verbal argument/fight with someone you do not know, your
expectations about “that kind of person” may work in a similar way than your
expectations about a person you know: You may not hear what a person from a
different background (ethnical, political, racial, religious) ACTUALLY says because you
are mostly hearing what you EXPECT “such a person” to say. Again, it is best to see
each person as an individual and to listen attentively with an open mind and a
friendly heart.

2) What are ‘slips of the ear’? How do they happen? Explain in your own
words. Do you know examples of slips of the ear? From your own
language(s)? Let us hear some.
Slips of the ear happen when we do not know the speaker/singer of a sentence very well and
we are not 100% sure what the sentence that they are saying or singing is about. In fact, we
often do not clearly understand the whole text or song that we are listening to. Therefore, it
is difficult for us to make sense of what they are saying/singing. Especially in song lyrics, we
kind of expect things to crop up that do not make immediate sense because song lyrics are
often a bit metaphorical and not quite clear. In this situation we sometimes hear things that
we were thinking about, that fit with our understanding of the lyrics or with our idea of the
singer (speaker model). Sometimes we also hear things that fit in with a situation that the
song reminds us about or with our feelings/emotions/state of mind as we listen to the song.

3) How do you understand the following sentences? Identify the main clause
in these sentences and then tell us what the sentence means.
a. The dog walked past the tree barked.
b. Thandeka kicked the ball kicked it.
c. The bride walked down the aisle smiled.
Main clauses in blue:
a. The dog walked past the tree barked.
b. Thandeka kicked the ball kicked it.
c. The bride walked down the aisle smiled.
The sentences mean:
a. The dog that was walked past the tree by its owner barked.
b. Thandeka who was kicked the ball by another player kicked it.
c. The bride who was walked down the aisle by her father smiled.
Discuss with your tut group whether such or similar constructions, i.e. garden
path sentences are possible in the (African) languages that your tutlings speak.

4) In the following sentences find all the nouns


a. Once, the animals and people lived on the earth harmoniously together.
b. The elephant being the King of the animals decided one day that there should be a
King of the Rivers and Marshes.
c. He thought it would be useful to have somebody responsible for alerting people to
the coming of the first rains, so that they would have time to get ready and start
preparing their tools and seeds.
d. The king of the animals sent out his trusted town cryer, the cockerel, with a
message.

5) In the following sentences find all the noun phases


a. Once, the animals and people lived on the earth harmoniously together.
b. The elephant being the King of the animals decided one day that there should be a
King of the Rivers and Marshes.
c. He thought it would be useful to have somebody responsible for alerting people to
the coming of the first rains, so that they would have time to get ready and start
preparing their tools and seeds.
d. The king of the animals sent out his trusted town cryer, the cockerel, with a
message.

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