Language
How do we Communicate?
Its all about communication!!!
Apes & Signing
Honeybees seem to
communicate
Warm Up:
"Curious blue ideas sleep furiously."
At what level is this statement ambiguous?
Don’t know this word???
Look it up!
"Curious blue ideas sleep furiously."
At what level is this statement ambiguous?
SEMANTICALLY AMBIGUOUS:
Semantics: the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.
Ambiguous: unclear or inexact because a choice between alternatives has not
been made.
LANGUAGE complex communication system that involves the
use of abstract symbols to convey unlimited messages.
Human language can convey meaning about things that...
haven't happened yet,
happened in the past,
may never happen.
Because we can transcend time and space with language, we
have an unlimited ability to communicate ideas.
Language is an amazing gift
★ distinguishes humans from other
species
★ essential to human cooperation
★ it is mysterious - how did it start, evolve,
& change?
★ it is central to human life
★ we take it for granted
Language has been found in EVERY society ever found.
6,000 different languages.
“Man has an instinctive tendency to speak as
we see in the babble of our young children
while no child has an instinctive tendency to
bake, brew, or write.”
- Charles Darwin
What can studying language help us understand about
human behavior and the human mind?
VSauce Video Link: "English" (6:58) Where does English come from?
Language is an amazing gift
Language is not thought.
Do we have to have language to think? No.
Can we have sophisticated cognition, cause and
effect, objects, & intentions of others w/o speech
Babies - before they have learned to speak
Animals - chimps using sign language helped to
show us that they were thinking
At times, we ‘think’ without language.
Spatial relations is a great example
We use tacit (understood or implied) knowledge
to understand language.
Cognitive psych has shown us that long term
memory remembers the ‘gist’ rather than the
exact form of words.
We don’t reproduce entire sentences we have
heard. What sticks is abstract - meaning,
content, semantics
Language is an amazing gift
Language can definitely impact thought though.
It can impact the perception of a person who fumbles
common grammar rules & syntax.
Language is really 3 things:
1. Words (our personal dictionary)
2. Rules
syntax- rules to assemble sentences;
morphology- rules to create words from
smaller portions; &
phonology- rules to combine vowels &
consonants into the smallest words
3. Interfaces (methods of communication)
Structure of Language:
Multi-layered process.
Phonemes: smallest unit of
sound in a language. All the
letters of the alphabet are
phonemes.
In English we produce all the
unique sounds that we are able
to make by combining about
40-50 unique phonemes.
Other languages make due with
less.
Hawaiian = 30 phonemes.
Morphemes: smallest unit of
meaning in a language. Small
words: cat or walk
Also: prefixes & suffixes
If we add the letter s to cat, we now have two morphemes
(cat(s)), and if we add-ing to walk, we have two
morphemes (walk(ing)).
"Unbreakable" 3 morphemes:
un- (a bound morpheme signifying "not"),
-break- (the root, a free morpheme), and
-able (a bound morpheme signifying "do-able").
YouTube: Articulation of Phonemes
Grammar: system of rules used in a
language.
Semantics: the way we understand
meaning from words by their morphemes
and from their context.
★ Adding an -s to the end of a word - referring to more
than one
★ Words can have different meanings depending on the
placement in a sentence or on the context.
"I'm dying!"
Very different meanings
★ when said by a person who is bleeding on the
ground
★ versus an adolescent preparing for her first middle
school dance.
Syntax: rules that refers to the way we
order words to create meaning.
"Your new please away shoes put"
…makes us confused, whereas
“Please put away your new shoes"
…is quite clear.
How Do We Learn Language?
Behaviorists exposed to environment,
reinforcement, & repetition (Skinner-OC)
Nativists Argue that we are "hardwired"
to learn language & that humans are
unique in that respect. (Social Learning
Both sides have supporters, evidence
isn't clear which is correct.
Milestones in Language Acquisition
AGE --> MILESTONE
To 2 months --> Cooing
2 months to 12 months --> Babbling
Approx. 12 months --> First word ( matching a simple sound: "DA")
Approx. 16 months --> 2-word utterances (telegraphic speech)
2-6 years --> Add 6-10 new words a day; learn grammar. Over-extension.
("doggies" for ever 4-legged animal)
Age 5 --> Overregularization: "I go-ed to the store."
From Age 5 on --> Add words to vocabulary; learn subtleties of language.
**Other languages show the same pattern of acquisition (not just English).
A 40-year-old couple emigrate from Italy to the United States.
They have an two daughters, one is 15 and the other is 7.
Based on research that has investigated mastery of English as a second
language,
Which family member will master English first?
7-year-old daughter will master English more quickly.
Language Development
How many words do you think you know now?
Probably close to 80,000
After age 1 you average 13 words a
day.
What made these Super Bowl commercials funny?
The joke was “language acquisition” – funny/odd to see a baby talk like a trader.
LANGUAGE & THOUGHT
Do our words shape the way we think, or
do we have ideas first and then look for
ways to articulate them?
Linguist Benjamin Whorf believed in…
linguistic determinism: our words shape
& restrict our thinking.
Whorfian hypothesis
Not THAT Worf!
language affects thought, and the
structure of the language itself affects
cognition.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Language determines our experience of reality, and we can
see and think only what our language allows us to see and think.
For example, the Inuit are said to have many different words for snow, and their
sophisticated snow vocabulary make it easy for them to communicate and understand
each other. Therefore, they see and experience ‘snow-covered landscapes’ quite
differently from the rest of us.
Although the Inuit have many different words for snow, it
does does not show that language determines reality,
but instead suggests that reality determines language.
The reason the Inuit have many words for snow is
because of their environment, they live in snow. In
contrast, the reason there are not many words for ‘snow’
in Australia is that it does not snow very often in
Australia.
Modern Family and how language can effect our
view of others
●https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g68KgoHWupg
Thinking and Problem Solving
Do Animals think? Kohler: Insight Learning - Chimps can problem solve.
It has been observed that the manner in which chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of
retrieving bananas positioned out of reach, is not through trial-and-error. Instead, they were
observed to proceed in a manner that was unwaveringly purposeful.
Animals of quite a range of species are capable of solving a range of problems that are argued
to involve abstract reasoning;
Modern research has tended to show that the performances of Wolfgang Köhler's chimpanzees,
who could achieve spontaneous solutions to problems without training, were by no means
unique to that species, and that apparently similar behavior can be found in animals usually thought
of as much less intelligent, if appropriate training is given.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
1. ALGORITHMS step-by-step approach.
2. HEURISTICS a procedure that has worked in the past and
is seen as likely to work in the future.
3. MEANS-END ANALYSIS keeps in mind the final goal when
setting sub-goals.
4. WORKING BACKWARD start with the goal state and work
backward until you reach the present state.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM
SOLVING
ALGORITHMS step-by-step approach
Some algorithms involve simple trial and error.
If X is a possible solution to a problem, the algorithm
for a solution might be stated:
"Try X; if X works, then X = solution; if X doesn't work, then try
next X."
Clearly, this could go on as many times as there is
another possible X.
Algorithms guarantee a solution but can be very
time consuming.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
HEURISTICS
a procedure that has worked in the past and is seen
as likely to work in the future.
Heuristics are "rules of thumb" based on past
experiences.
If the light in your room goes out, you could check the
fuse box, change the lightbulb, check the wires in the
wall or lamp, check the socket, and so on.
Because experience suggests that the probability of the
light bulb burning out is higher than the other choices,
you try that first.
Heuristics take less time than algorithms, but they
may not result in a solution.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
MEANS-END ANALYSIS
final goal is in mind when setting subgoals
★ In planning your study for finals, you might start with
math but will set a time limit because you have
exams in three other subjects.
★ Will you need to spend the same amount of time on
each?
★ What exactly do you need to focus on?
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
WORKING BACKWARD
start with the goal state & work backward until you reach
the present state.
When a company wants to know how its competitor's product
works, it will "reverse engineer" that product.
This means beginning with the product and analyzing its
construction to see what each part does.
The company can then begin with its own parts and reconstruct
a similar product.
★ After seeing several television programs on shark attacks, you start Examples of
to think that such incidences are relatively common. When you go on Availability
vacation, you refuse to swim in the ocean... WHY?
Heuristic
★ After seeing news reports about people losing their jobs, you might
start to believe that you are in danger of being let go. You start lying
awake in bed each night worrying that you are about to be fired.
★ After read about lottery winners, you overestimate your own
likelihood of winning the jackpot. You spending more money than
you should each week on lottery tickets.
★ Your mother, next door neighbor and best friend have all been in a
car accident this year. According to the availability heuristic, you will
feel that your chances of being in an accident yourself are much
higher.