Language
The spoken, written, or gestured
words/symbols a group uses to
communicate meaningfully
Parts of Language
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Symbol – sounds, written words or gestures.
» Connection between symbol and its meaning is
arbitrary or random making language flexible.
» Meaning of symbols must be shared by others in
order to communicate.
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Semantics – What words mean
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Syntax – How we combine words.
Phonology – How language is produced (a
system of sounds)
Generative – able to generate an unlimited
number of different phrases and sentences.
Displacement – ability to communicate about
items, ideas and activities that are not physically
present.
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Building Blocks of
Language
Phoneme
• The smallest distinctive unit of sound
of a spoken language
• English has about 40 phonemes.
• A young baby produces all the
phonemes of all the languages of the
world.
Phonemes – How we
produce the sounds of
speech
What is the first sound in the following words?
a.
Easy
b. Judge
c.
Psychic
d. Pneumonia
e.
Civic
f.
Apple
g.
Chutzpah
What is the final sound in the following words?
a.
Judge
b. Cheese
c.
Long
d. Niece
e.
Checked
f.
Watch
Note: The following letter combinations in English make just one
sound: ch sh th ng ph
How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?
Chin (3) Habits (5) thing (3) thought (3) psychology (8)
Three (3) hopes (4) weigh (2) please (4) sun (3)
Wish (3) enough (4) nation (5) quickly (6) laughed (4)
Morpheme
• The smallest unit, in a language, that carries
meaning
• May be a word or part of a word (prefix, root word,
suffix)
• English has about 100,000 morphemes.
• How many Morpheme’s are in the following words?
• People (1)
Redevelopment (3)
Swimming (2)
Orange (1)
Literally (2)
Erasable (2)
Reddish (2)
Radish (1)
Language (1)
Grandmother (2)
Structure of Language
Phonemes
• Play “Infant Speech Sound
Discrimination” (4:03) Segment #23 from
The Mind DVD
• Is there a critical period for being able to
recognize different sounds within a
language?
• Is this nature or nurture?
Genes design the mechanisms for a
language, and experience activates
them as it modifies the brain
Grammar
• A system of rules governing how one
can combine morphemes and words
and arrange them in sentences to
communicate with others
•Noam Chomsky explains (1:30).
Gleason’s Wug experiment shows
how kids apply grammar to new
concepts (1:10).
Sign Language & Grammar
Watch “Human Language: Signed & Spoken”
from The Mind DVD Segment 25 (6:04).
• Does sign language use grammar?
• Which areas of the brain are used for sign
language?
• Do users of sign language use different
areas of the brain?
Thinking and
Language Together
Language and Thinking
• Language is a system for combining
arbitrary symbols to produce an infinite
number of meaningful statements
• Linguistic relativity hypothesis is the notion
that difference among languages cause
difference in the thoughts of their speakers
Linguistic Relativity (Whorfian) Hypothesis
• Hypothesis that one’s language determines one’s
thoughts & perceptions about their world.
• Proposed by Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941)
• This thought to be wrong. Instead, our perceptions
& thoughts influence the language we use to
describe those words.
– (Rosch’s Dani color perception experiment pg. 294)
• Cognitive psychologists today studying how
language can influence perception & thought.
– Some concepts may be easier to learn or express in one
language than another. (counting 10-20 in English &
Chinese)
Language’s Influence on Social Perception
• Language & Social Perception – nuances of
words can influence our social perception of
others reinforcing or minimizing negative
stereotypes. (i.e. jock vs. athlete).
• Language & Gender Bias – using masculine
pronouns tends to produce images of males
and exclude females.
How would you refer to a(n) _______ if you wanted to
convey a positive or negative connotation?
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Smart Person
Farmer
Women’s Rights Advocate
Person Who Tends To Save Money
Politician
Self-Confident Person
Lawyer
Pragmatics
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How Language is used in everyday settings.
This helps us understand ambiguous language
Example:
“Could you pass the salt?”
Is not a question of whether you are capable
of lifting the salt shaker.
Examples of Ambiguous
Language
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There is a fork in the road ahead.
California is a great state despite its faults.
The car was stopped by the tree.
This is my old friend.
The shooting of the teacher was terrible.
Never threaten someone with a chainsaw.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front
porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Paradoxes in the English Language
• Why does night fall but never break and day break
but never fall?
• Why can homework be done in school?
• Why are people who ride motorcycles called
“bikers” and people who ride bikes called
“cyclists?”
• Why can your nose run and your feet smell?
• Why are boxing rings square?
• Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a
parkway?
• Why does quicksand work slowly?
• Why is phonetic not spelled phonetically?
Washington Post Alternative
Meanings Contest
Coffee (n.):
- a person who is coughed upon.
Flabbergasted (adj.):
- appalled over how much weight you have
gained.
Willy-nilly (adj.):
- impotent.
Testicle (n.):
- a humorous question on an exam.
Washington Post Alternative
Meanings Contest
Negligent (adj.):
- describes a condition in which you
absentmindedly answer the door in your
nightgown.
Oyster (n.):
- a person who sprinkles his conversation
with Yiddish expressions.
Abdicate (v.)
- to give up all hope of ever having a flat
stomach.
Washington Post Alternative
Meanings Contest
Flatulance (n.):
- the emergency vehicle that picks you up
after you are run over by a steamroller.
Circumvent (n.):
- the opening in the front of boxer shorts.
Doublespeak
- language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning
Revenue enhancement
- tax increase
Inoperative statement
- lie
Social expression products
- greeting cards
Media courier
- newspaper carrier
Negative patient care outcome
- death
Doublespeak
Period of accelerated negative growth
- recession
Underground condominium
- cemetery
Oral hygiene appliance
- toothbrush
Language & The Brain
Language and the Brain
• Play “Language Processing in the Brain”
(6:19) Segment #8 from The Mind DVD
• What areas are active when reading?
• What areas are used for reading aloud?
• What areas are used for the word
association task?
New language learning gets harder with age
Language and the Brain
• Play “Old Brain, New Tricks” (11:00)
Segment #8 from Scientific American
Frontiers DVD
• What areas of the brain are being used as
you process language?
• Do adults and children under 4-5 process
language in the same ways?
• Is there a critical time to learn a second
language if you want to speak it like the
natives?
Animal Communication
Animal Communication
• Animals clearly communicate with each other, but is
that language?
• Rumbaugh’s bonobo chimp experiments with Kanzi
show that chimps can reach language comprehension
of roughly a 2 ½ year old human (pg. 295)
• Louis Herman trained bottlenose dolphins to respond
to sounds and gestures.
• Irene Pepperberg trained Alex the parrot a 100-word
vocabulary and he can answer questions with phrases
• Karl von Frisch & the dance of the honeybees
Do animals think?
Scientists caution to assume animals can
“think” or have self-awareness.
What Are
You
Looking At?
Is it Language? – Chimps taught sign language.
Washoe (click to learn more)
•200 signs
•New phrases (open eat drink, dirty good)
•Chimps teaching chimps
Nim Chimpsky
•20,000 signs, half of which were two-sign combinations.
•At a first look, his signing appeared to be structured, but in fact
most just repetitive.
•“Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat
orange give me you.”
•View a quick overview of Washoe & Koko (7 min)
•View Kanzi the chimp’s ability to understand spoken language (2
min) and use of lexigrams
•Chimps can also use simple hand signals: ABC News Report
(1:30)
Animal Language
• Play Segment 19: “If Only They Could Talk” (10:07) from
Scientific American Frontiers DVD
• What is the Clever Hans Effect?
• How do researchers guard against this?
• See more on Alex the Parrot:
• Video 1(3 minutes), Video 2 (2 minutes)
• If Time Allows: Play “Animal Language” (14:39)
Segment #27 from The Mind DVD.
• Watch up to where they discuss the Washoe Project
• Do animals like Chimps possess language skills?
• Do Chimps show a culture like that of humans?