Language and cognitive science

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Language and cognitive science

• Linguistics lecture 1
• October 26, 2006

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Overview

• Linguistics and cognitive science
• Linguistic cognition
• The cognition of linguists

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Linguisticsand cognitive science

• Linguistics is the scientific study of language,
  not of the mind in general

linguistic cognition
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Why is linguistics importantto cognitive science?

• Language is cool
• Language is easy to study

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Language is cool

• Almost all humans have language
• (Not little babies, not some brain-damaged
  people)
• - Every culture on earth, even isolated islands
• - Geniuses, stupid people
• - Hearing people, deaf people
• - People cant stop talking, cant stop
  understanding

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Language is cool

• Language lets you read other peoples minds
• - Thought can be translated into physical form
• - Physical forms can be translated into thought

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Language is cool

• Language gives you power
• - You can boss people around
• - You can tell somebody how to make something
• - You can talk to yourself and write things down
  when youre trying to figure out something
• - Having a natural language helps you invent
  artificial language tools (logic, math, computer
  programs, etc)

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Language is cool

• Babies are smarter than adults and computers
• - Babies begin to master language long before
  going to school
• - Adults suffer a lot learning a new language
• - Computers are still very stupid at using
  language, and even stupider at learning it

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Language is cool

• Language makes us special
• - Other animals are probably conscious
• - Other animals have vision
• - Other animals walk on two legs, make tools,
  etc
• - No other animal has human-style language
• words rules

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Language is easy to study

• Language is out there in the world
• - Other aspects of the mind seem hidden
  (memories, consciousness)
• - Language can be heard and seen
• - Observable language patterns seem to
  correspond with actual mental patterns

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Language is easy to study

• Linguistics fits well with philosophical
  functionalism
• - Key metaphor The brain is a computer, the
  mind is a program (or system of programs)
• - The math-like language of computers is
  inspired by natural human language, so natural
  language seems easy to analyze within this
  metaphor

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Linguistic cognition

• The mind operates by information processing
• - One kind of information is translated into
  another kind of information within the mind
• - Information can also be transduced into or out
  of physical forms

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Linguistic information processing

• Thoughts are translated into sentence syntax (??)
• Syntactic structures are filled in with words
• Word structure is morphology (??)
• Sentences and words are prepared for transduction
  into physical forms by phonology (??)

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A key concept GRAMMAR

• Syntax, morphology, and phonology are all part of
  grammar (??)
• Linguists actually study grammar, not really
  language itself

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Linguistic structure

• One of the first to emphasize that grammar can
  open a window into the mind was American linguist
  Noam Chomsky
• His 1957 book Syntactic Structures gave a
  computer-like theory of syntax
• His 1959 review of Skinners linguistic theories
  helped to kill Behaviorism
• Still very active and influential today

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Noam Chomsky

• 1960s Today

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Generative grammar

• Chomsky invented it, and its still the dominant
  concept in linguistics today
• - A grammar is generative if it can generate a
  language in an abstract sense, that is, if it can
  describe a language explicitly and completely.
• - Chomskys generative does NOT mean generate
  speech when actually using language!

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Grammar and language

• Languages are infinite, grammars are finite
• Language ????
• ??????
• ????????
• ??????????
• ?
• Grammar ?? sentence sentence

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Unconscious knowledge

• Since the mind/brain is finite, knowing a
  language is really knowing a grammar
• But this is mostly unconscious knowledge you
  dont know what you know
• - For example, if you know Southern Min (??),
  how do you say these words?
• ???????????

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Unconscious knowledge

• ? ??
• ? ??
• ? ??
• ? ??
• ? ??
• ? ??
• ? ??

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Knowing vs. using

• Grammar is knowledge, not language use
• (I know English vs. ???????)
• Grammar linguistic competence
• Language use linguistic performance
• Language ...???????????
• Grammar ?? sentence sentence??!!
• No! Speech errors are performance, not competence

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Competence vs. performance

• (1) Those two little mice were very frightened.
• (2) Those two little mice the cat chased were
  very frightened.
• (3) Those two little mice the cat I hate
  chased were very frightened.
• (4) The mouse the cat the dog bit chased ran.
• Sentence (4) must be grammatical, but it is hard
  to process (performance problems)

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Linguistic universals

• If human grammar is in the mind, and human minds
  are all identically human, we expect linguistic
  universals aspects of grammar shared by all
  languages
• Chomskys Martian would think that all human
  languages are the same

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Linguistic universals

• Some universals are obvious
• Syntax always distinguishes nouns and verbs
• Phonology always uses syllables (??)
• Others are less obvious
• Some word orders are more popular than others

boy eat apple boy apple eat eat boy
apple eat apple boy apple boy eat
apple eat boy
?
?
?
?
?
?
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Linguistic universals

• Chinese and English are unrelated languages with
  many differences
• Yet they also share many similarities
• - Both have nouns, verbs, etc
• - They share sounds, including weird ones like
  l
• - Word order is really not extremely different
• - Order inside words too bookstore ??
• - Meanings often match should ????

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Linguistic universals

• Even sign languages (??) are not weird
• Every sign language has its own grammar (e.g.
  American Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language,
  etc)
• - Many, many different words
• - Syntax and morphology
• - Even phonology knowledge of linguistic
  transduction (patterns in physical forms)

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The cognition of linguists

• Linguistics belongs in cognitive science, but are
  linguists scientists? Two answers.
• Yes They try to find general laws governing
  observed patterns
• No They ignore causal relationships (as noted
  by psychologist George Miller)
• for them, explanation simple description

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Formalism

• Chomsky, like most linguists, believes in
  linguistic formalism linguistic theories should
  refer only to the form of language
• Language???? sounds like ????
• Formal analysis ? ? ? ?
• Not formal ?? is too hard to say, so you have
  to change it to ?

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Advantages of formalism

• Theories are more precise and explicit
• Formalism often seems to describe the way the
  mind really works
• (6) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
  (Chomsky 1957)
• Sentence (6) has no meaning, and you would never
  use it in real life, but it still seems
  grammatical (it fits with English competence)

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Functionalism

• However, other linguists believe in linguistic
  functionalism the form of language may be
  explained by language use and non-linguistic
  cognition
• OK ?????????
• Bad ?????????
• - Here, word order matches real order (Tai
  1985)

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Where do universals come from?

• Formalist answer
• Innate linguistic knowledge basic concepts
  like syllable are in your DNA.
• Functionalist answer
• Universal needs (e.g. communication)

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Summary

• Linguistics belongs in cognitive science, but it
  may be less scientific than psychology
• Grammar knowledge of language linguistic
  competence (? performance)
• Generative grammar 100 explicit
• Grammars have universal properties
• Linguistic formalism vs. linguistic
  functionalism are both necessary?