UNIT 4 - LANGUAGE
Language
Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning
to ourselves and others.
Language transmits culture.
Language - Psycholinguistics Images
Nonverbal mental representations of sensory experiences
Language A flexible system of symbols that enables us
to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings
Nonhumans communicate primarily though signs
Human language is semantic, or meaningful
It is also characterized by displacement in that it is not limited to the here-and-now
Infinite Generativity
Thinking in Images
To a large extent thinking is language-based. When alone, we may talk to
ourselves. However, we also think in images.
2. When we are riding our bicycle.
1. When we open the hot water tap.
We don’t think in words, when:
Images and Brain
Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually
performing the activity.
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Language Acquisition
Stages that we learn language…
1.Babbling Stage (ah-goo) – 4 months
2.Holophrastic Stage (one word stage – doggy) – 1 year
3.Telegraphic Speech Stage (2 word stage -- “Go car”) – before 2 years old
Syntax Understanding Overgeneralization --
rules Overextension --
concepts
Language – Building Blocks of Thought
How do we learn language?
Social Learning Theory
B.F. Skinner from the Behaviorist School
Baby may imitate a parent.
If they are reinforced they keep saying the word.
If they are punished, they stop saying the word.
Noam Chomsky’s (Nativist theory)
We learn language too quickly for it to be through reinforcement and punishment.
Inborn universal language acquisition device
Critical Period Hypothesis for Language Development
Childhood is a critical period for fully developing certain aspects of language. Children never exposed to any language (spoken or signed) by about age 7 gradually lose their ability to master any language.
*Genie*The Girl in the Window*The Girl in the Window (2)
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Critical Period
Learning new
languages gets
harder with age.
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Genes, Brain, & Language
Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain.
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Benjamin Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity/ Determinism
The idea that language determines the way we think.
The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.
Do animals use language?
• Washoe (chimp) 181 Signs (ASL)•Kanzi uses Lexigram (300 +) – phrases & semantics – Novel Sentences•Limited Vocabulary & Lack Syntax Understanding•Animal Language
Universal Characteristics of Language1. Semanticity 2. Arbitrariness3. Flexibility of symbols 4. Naming 5. Displacement6. Generativity
Structuring Language
Phrase
Sentence
Meaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin.Words
Smallest meaningful units (100,000) … un, for.
Morphemes
Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh.Phonemes
Composed of two or more words (326,000) … meat eater.
Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box.
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All languages contain….
Phonemes
The smallest units of sound in a language.
English has about 44 phonemes.
Morphemes
The smallest unit of meaningful sound.
Can be words like a or but.
Can also be parts of words like prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense.
Unforgettable = un · for · get · table
Language Structure
Phonemes: The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example:
bat, has three phonemes b · a · tchat, has three phonemes ch · a · t
How many meanings can you make by varying the vowel phoneme between B and T?
Generally _____________ phonemes carry more information.
Answers Bait, bat, beat/beet, bet bit, bite,
boat, boot, bought, bout, and but.
The consonant phonemes. The treth ef thes stetement shed be evedent frem thes bref demenstretien.
Language StructureMorpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:
Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kin
Unforgettable = un · for · get · table
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Grammar The rules of a language. Syntax: the order of
words in a language. In English, syntactical
rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.
Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. Ex: adding –ed to the word
laugh
Is this the White House or the House White?
Structure of Language Surface structure
How we order the sentence English “She ate an apple” Japanese “She an apple ate”
Deep structure Underlying meaning of a sentence
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