Language and Thought

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Language and Thought
Its all about communication!!!
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I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal
pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch
taem at Cmabrigde Uinevtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed
Typoglycemia.(Actually, no such research was
carried out at Cambridge University. It all
started with a letter to the New Scientist
magazine from Graham Rawlinson in which he
discusses his Ph.D. thesis)?
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In a puiltacibon of New Scnieitst you could
ramdinose all the letetrs, keipeng the first two
and last two the same, and reibadailty would
hadrly be aftcfeed. My ansaylis did not come to
much beucase the thoery at the time was for shape
and senqeuce retigcionon. Saberi's work sugsegts
we may have some pofrweul palrlael prsooscers at
work.The resaon for this is suerly that
idnetiyfing coentnt by paarllel prseocsing speeds
up regnicoiton. We only need the first and last
two letetrs to spot chganes in meniang.
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Language

• Our spoken written or gestured words and the way
  we combine them to communicate meaning.

Believe it or not, this communication is a form
of language!!!
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Phonemes

• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive
  sound unit.
• Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.

How many phonemes does 'cat' have?
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Morphemes

• In a language, the smallest unit that carries
  meaning.
• Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or
  suffix).

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Grammar

• A system of rules in a language that enables us
  to communicate and understand others.

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Semantics

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a
  language.
• Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.

The Chinese languages do not have expansive
semantic rules. They usually have totally
different symbols for different tenses.
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Syntax

• The rules for combining words into grammatically
  sensible sentences.
• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not
  in Spanish!!

Is this the White House of the House White?
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Language development

• How many words do you think you know now?

Probably around 80,000.
After age 1 you average about 13 new words a day.
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Language Development

• Babbling Stage starting at 3-4 months, the
  infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to
  the phonemes of the infants household language.

• One-word stage 1-2 years old, uses one word to
  communicate big meanings.

• Two word stage at age 2, uses two words to
  communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.

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How do we explain language development?
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Skinner

• Skinner thought that we can explain language
  development through social learning theory (which
  is?).

The young boy imitates his dad, then gets a
reward.
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ChomskyInborn Universal Grammar

• We acquire language too quickly for it to be
  learned.
• We have this learning box-language acquisition
  device- inside our heads that enable us to learn
  any human language.

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Does language influence our thinking?
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Whorfs Linguistic Relativity

• The idea that language determines the way we
  think (not vive versa).

• The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their
  language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the
  past.

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Do people that speak more than one language think
differently depending on their language at that
time?
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Thinking without Language

• We can think in words.
• But more often we think in mental pictures.

In 1977, Reggie Jackson hit 3 HRs against the
Dodgers. He has stated that before each at bat,
he visualizes crushing a home run. Do you think
visualization helps?
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Do Animals think?
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Kohlers Chimpanzees

• Kohler exhibited that Chimps can problem solve.

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Honeybees seem to communicate
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Apes and Signing
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Can Apes Really Talk?Apes gain their vocabulary
with great difficultychildren soak up dozens of
new words effortlessly. Saying apes can learn
language because they can sign words is like
saying humans can fly because they can
jump.Chimps can make signs or push buttons in
sequence to get a reward, but pigeons can peck a
sequence of keys to get grain.Apes can
certainly use symbols meaningfully but Give
orange me give eat orange me eat orange-- is a
far cry from the exquisite syntax of a 3 year
old. To a child you tickle and me tickle
communicate different ideas a chimp uses them
interchangeably.(Myers, 2004)