Language and Thought

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Language and Thought
Its all about communication!!! Good site for next
year http//www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/markpo
rt/language/aspects/spg2003/04morph.htm
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• Should the U.S. establish an official language?
• BTW, we do not have one right now.

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• Start with Moving Images Estimating Risk The
  Availability Heuristic
• How was the availability heuristic at work
  concerning the road rage in the video?

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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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1 Cool Thing

• Can you udrensantd what im wirtnig rhgit now?
  Read the rest
• I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty
  uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal
  pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a
  rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt
  mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word are,
  the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and
  lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. This is
  bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter
  by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
  Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

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Phonemes

• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive
  sound unit.
• Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.
• How many in the English language?
• Tongue Twisters

How many phonemes does platypus 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).
• How many in the English language?

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Semantics

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a
  language.
• Semantic rule Add ed to the end of the
  wordwhat does this mean?
• LAUGH-ED NOW THE MEANING IS THAT IT HAPPENED IN
  THE PAST

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

• The ORDER!
• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not
  in Spanish!!

Is this the White House or the House White?
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Grammar

• A system of rules in a language that enables us
  to communicate and understand others.
• SEMANTICS SYNTAX GRAMMAR
• Ebonics grammar

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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 words a day.
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Language Development

• Cooing Stage 3 months
• 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.
• After this, language progresses rapidly!
• My little brother (3-4) used to say What do you
  need for my help? when he wanted to help my mom
  and me around the house.
• Language develops rapidly into complete
  sentences, grammar is improved at the grammar
  school age (elementary school)
• VIDEO Mind 23 Infant Speech Sound
  Discrimination

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How do we explain HOW WE ACQUIRE OUR LANGUAGE?
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Skinner

• Skinner thought that we can explain language
  development through his BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
  (disregard the old PPT on thisit is too
  confusing).
• Via operant conditioning, positive reinforcement
  of appropriate grammar and language ENTIRELY
  explains how children learn the aspects of
  language.
• Yes, honey that is a kitty cat. You are so
  smart.
• No, honey, say I would like a cookie, not me
  want cookie.

The young boy adjusts his grammar to achieve the
reward.
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ChomskyNativist Theory of Acquisition

• Inborn Universal Grammar
• We acquire language too quickly for it to be
  learned.
• WE ARE BORN WITH AN INNATE ABILITY TO LEARN
  VARIOUS ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE VERY QUICKLY
• BUT, THE EXACT LANGUAGE, DIALECT, ACCENTS, AND SO
  FORTH ARE DETERMINED BY THE PARTICULAR
  ENVIRONMENT / SOCIETY
• We have this learning box inside our heads that
  enable us to learn any human language.
• The language and accents we learn are predictable
  by geography and culture.
• English babies dont come out speaking Chinese,
  right?!
• Video Mind 24 Language Predisposition

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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 vice 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
VIDEO Moving Images The Case of Kanzi (Animal
Language)