MODULE 29 PREVIEW
Language facilitates and expresses our thoughts. Spoken language is built of phonemes, morphemes,
words, and the semantics and syntax that make up grammar. The ease with which children master
language has sparked a lively debate over whether children acquire language through association and
imitation or are biologically prepared to learn words and use grammar.
Thinking and language are difficult to separate. Although the linguistic relativity hypothesis states
that language determines thought, we know that thinking can occur without language, and so we might
better say that thinking affects our language, which then affects our thoughts.
Another debate concerns whether language is uniquely human; it has been fueled by studies of
animals, particularly chimpanzees, who have developed considerable vocabularies and who can string
words together to express meaning. Although apes have considerable cognitive ability, skeptics point out
important differences between apes’ and humans’ abilities to order words using proper syntax.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
1. To describe language structure and development.
2. To discuss the relationship between thought and language.
3. To introduce the research on animal thinking and language.
MODULE GUIDE
Language Structure
1. Describe the structure of language in terms of sounds, meanings, and grammar.
Spoken language is built of basic speech sounds, called phonemes; elementary units of meaning, called
morphemes; and words. Finally, language must have a grammar, a system of rules that enables us to
speak and understand. Semantics refers to the rules we use to derive meaning from the morphemes, and
syntax refers to the rules we use to order words into sentences.
Lecture: Universals of Language
Project: Lexical Decision
Videos: Unlocking Language; Language; Modules 25 and 28 of The Mind Series, 2nd ed.
Language Development
2. Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through the two-word stage.
Children’s language development mirrors language structure—by moving from simplicity to complexity.
Beginning at 4 months infants enter a babbling stage in which they spontaneously utter various sounds at
first unrelated to the household language. By about age 10 months, a trained ear can identify the
language of the household by listening to an infant’s babbling. Around the first birthday, most children
enter the one-word stage, and by their second birthday, they are uttering two-word sentences. This twoword stage exemplifies telegraphic speech. This soon leads to their uttering longer phrases (there seems
to be no “three-word stage”), and by early elementary school they understand complex sentences.
3. Explain how the nature-nurture debate is illustrated in the various theories of language
development.
The debate between the behaviorist view of the malleable organism and the view that each organism
comes biologically prepared to learn certain association surfaces again in theories of language
development.
Behaviorist B. F. Skinner argued that we learn language by the familiar principles of association,
imitation, and reinforcement. Challenging this claim, Noam Chomsky notes that children are
biologically prepared to learn words and use grammar. Cognitive neuroscientists suggest that the
learning that occurs during life’s first few years is critical for the mastery of grammar. Nonetheless,
Chomsky’s view that our brain constrains how we learn language and that it may come prewired to look
for grammatical rules seems to survive recent challenges.
Lectures: Language Development; The Smart-Talk Syndrome
Film/Videos: Modules 23 and 24 of The Mind Series, 2nd ed.; Segments 18 and 21 of the Scientific American Frontiers Series,
2nd ed., Secret of the Wild Child; Noam Chomsky—Language and Mind; Language Development; Discovering Psychology;
Language Development; Out of the Mouths of Babes
Transparencies: 123 Summary of Language Development; 124 The Nature and Nurture of Language Development
Thinking and Language
4. Discuss Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis and the relationship between thought and language.
Language expresses our thoughts and different languages can embody different ways of thinking.
Although Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis suggests that language determines thought, it is more
accurate to say that language influences thought. Studies of the effects of the generic pronoun he and the
ability of vocabulary enrichment to enhance thinking reveal the influence of words. Some ideas, such as
the ability to perceive and remember different colors, do not depend on language. We sometimes think
in images rather than in words, and we invent new words to describe new ideas. We might say that our
thinking influences our language, which then affects our thoughts.
Lecture: The Impact of Language on Thought
Exercises: Doublespeak; Mental Imagery; Creating a Mental Model
Projects: Cognitive Maps; Shepard’s Mental Rotation Experiment
Animal Thinking and Language
5. Describe the research on animal intelligence and communication and discuss the controversy over
whether animals have language.
Animals obviously communicate. Bees communicate the location of food through an intricate dance.
Evidence accumulates that primates at some level count, display insight, create tools, and transmit
cultural innovations. And several teams of psychologists have taught various species of apes, including a
number of chimpanzees, to communicate with humans by signing or by pushing buttons wired to a
computer. Apes have developed considerable vocabularies. They string words together to express
meaning and to make and follow requests. Skeptics point out important differences between apes’ and
humans’ facilities with language, especially in their respective abilities to order words using proper
syntax. Nevertheless, studies reveal that apes have considerable cognitive ability.
Lecture: Kanzi and Mulika, Remarkable Pygmy Chimps
Film/Videos: Animal Einsteins—How Smart Are They?; Module 27 of The Mind Series, 2nd ed.; Animals: How Smart Are
They?; Segments 19 and 20 of the Scientific American Frontiers Series, 2nd ed.; Ape Language—From Conditioned Response
to Symbol; Talk to the Animals