Language and Thought RG 7g Modified PowerPoint from: Aneeq Ahmad -- Henderson State University. Worth Publishers © 2007.

Language and Thought

RG 7g

Modified PowerPoint from: Aneeq Ahmad -- Henderson State University. Worth Publishers © 2007

Language

Our spoken, written, or gestured word, it is the

way we communicate meaning to ourselves and

others.

Language transmits culture.

M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp &

Associates

Language Structure

Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound

unit in a spoken language.

For example:

bat, has three phonemes b · a · t

chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t

Language Structure

Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries

meaning may be a word or a part of a word.

For example:

Milk = milk

Pumpkin = pump . Kin

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

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.

Grammar

A system of rules in a language that enables us

to communicate with and understand others.

Grammar

SyntaxSemantics

SemanticsSet of rules by which we derive meaning

from morphemes, words, and sentences. For

example:

Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the

word laugh means that it happened in the past.

SyntaxThe rules for combining words into

grammatically sensible sentences.

For example: In English syntactical rule is that adjectives come

before nouns; white house. In Spanish it is

reversed; casa blanca.

Language DevelopmentChildren learn their

native languages much

before learning to add

2+2.

We learn on average

(after age 1) 3,500

words a year, amassing

60,000 words by the

time we graduate high

school.

Time Life Pictures/ Getty

Images

When do we learn language?Babbling Stage:

beginning at 4 months

the infant

spontaneously utters

various sounds, like

ah-goo. Babbling is not

imitation of adult

speech…until about 9

or 10 months, cannot

differentiate native

language of baby’s

household

When do we learn language?One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around the first

birthday, a child starts to speak one-word and

makes family adults understand him. The word

doggy may mean look at the dog out there.

Usually begin with short words that begin with

consonants like b, d, m, p or t

However…children are capable of

understanding quite a bit of language

they hear at and before this stage

When do we learn language?

Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child

starts to speak in two-word sentences. This

form of speech is called telegraphic speech in

which the child speaks like a telegram —“go

car,” means that, I would like to go for a ride in

the car.

When do we learn language?

Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech

children start uttering longer phrases (Mommy

get ball), with syntactical sense and by early

elementary school they are enjoying humor.

You never starve in the desert

because of all the sand-which-is

there.

●What does syntactical sense imply the child knows how to do?

Explaining Language Development

Skinner

●believed that learn to talk through operant

conditioning

●language development can be explained on

the basis of learning principles, such as

association, imitation and reinforcement.

●Children learn to speak because being

rewarded for making sounds that are close to

adult speech – shape until form correct words

Explaining Language DevelopmentChomsky (1959, 1987) ●opposed Skinners ideas

●suggested that rate of language acquisition is so fast

that it cannot be explained through learning principles

and thus most of it was inborn.

●Supports with idea that languages have a universal

grammar (similar underlying structure of all world

language)

●Believes in the presence of a language acquisition

device (a neural system of the brain for understanding

language) that is switched on by exposure to language

in our environment

Explaining Language Development

Statistical Learning and Critical periods

●Well before our first birthday, our brains are

discerning word breaks by statistically

analyzing which syllables in “hap-py-ba-by” go

together. Such statistical analysis is learned

during critical periods of child development.

Language & Thinking

Thinking and language intricately intertwine.

Rubber Ball/

Almay

Language influences ThinkingBenjamin Whorf

Linguistic Determinism (Linguistic relativity

hypothesis) -- suggested that language

determines the way we think and perceive the

world

Example…

Hopi, he noted, did not have past tense

for verbs therefore Hopis could not think

readily about the past.

Language influences Thinking

When a language provides words for objects or

events we can think about these objects more

clearly and retain them. It is easier to think about

two colors with two different names (A) than

colors with the same name (B) (Özgen, 2004).

Thinking in Images

To a large extent thinking is language based.

Like when alone we 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 BrainImagining a physical activity activates the same

brain regions as when actually performing the

activity.

Jean Duffy Decety, September

2003

So…most psychologists believe that it is probably our

thoughts that influence our language – they go hand-in-hand.