Language Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others. Language transmits culture.

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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