• 5 minutes to review for reading quiz (pg.
401-417)
• HW: Article Review Summary (I will give you the requirements after the reading quiz)
• Test- Ch. 10 pushed back until next
Tues/Wed

• Our spoken, written or gestured words and symbols and the way we combine them to communicate meaning
• Believe it or not, this communication is a form of language
Why??

• System of rules that govern a language

Different Parts of Language
Phonemes
– The basic unit of sound in a spoken language (NOT
LETTERS!!!)
– English language has about 40 (make up the 500,000 or so words we have)
– some units have more than one phonemes
• example - vowels – based on short or long sound
• dog has how many?
– three phonemes – d, au, g
How do you pronounce ghoti ??
Fish gh – from enough
O – from women
Ti – from emotion

How many Phonemes??
• dream
– 4 (/d/r/E/m/)
• glow
– 3 (/g/l/O/)
• sweet
– 4 (/s/w/E/t/)
• spread
– 5 (/s/p/r/e/d/)
• slice
– 4 (/s/l/I/s/)

• The smallest units of meaning
• Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix).
• I or a
• Unbreakable
– 3 un break able
• Pretested
– 3 pre – test - ed
So language consists of phonemes put together to become morphemes , which make up words.

Language requires more than phonemes and morphemes. It also requires Syntax
• Syntax
– The rules of grammar for combining words into sensible sentences
• (the form of sentences)
– In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in
Spanish!!
Is this the White
House or the House
White?

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning
Ex: Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
Post = after Pre = before

• How many words do you think you know now?
– probably around
80,000
• After age 1 you average learning about
13 words a day

• Babbling stage
– starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds
• One-word stage/ Overextension of words
– 1-2 years old, uses one word to communicate big meanings
– “da” – “look over there”
• Two word stage
– at age 2, uses two or more words to communicate meanings called telegraphic speech
• Want milk, play cars
– No syntax but I still know what they want
(like a telegraph)

Two Theories
Nature Nurture

• Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory – which is?
– Association, imitation, and reinforcement/rewards
Nurture

Chomsky - - - Nature
• Inborn universal grammar
– we are wired to know language and vocabulary
• LAD – language acquisition device
– We have a “learning box” inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language
Nature

• Stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children even in different environments
• Similar development pattern across cultures
• Language happens quickly and effortlessly

Does the language we speak affect how we think???
Do people that speak more than one language think differently depending on their language at that time?

Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Culture Language
• Culture dictates language
• If you don’t have a word for something then you cant develop a schema for that concept
• Different languages lead people to view and perceive the world differently because of the vocab and the syntax
Ex: The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past
Schemas

Two other ways that people commonly use language to influence thinking are…
• Semantic slanting
– making statements so that they will evoke specific emotional responses
– (preemptive attack vs. invasion because it sounds less negative)
• Name calling
– shapes our expectations and schemas– how?
– i.e. gender terms can shape images of people – fireman or chairman

Do animals have cognitive abilities such as thinking, knowing, reasoning, language, and remembering?

• Kohler showed that
Chimps can problem solve (they have insight )
• Kohler constructed a variety of problems for the chimps, each of which involved obtaining food that was not directly accessible

Honeybees seem to communicate

An ape named Washoe demonstrated reliable use of 240 signs
Is this evidence of thinking or of language?

So, can apes acquire and use language??
• Some claim that the apes where just using operant conditioning principles
– Imitating gestures and responses for which they were reinforced
• So it all depends on how we define language
– If it means communication, then yes they may use language
– But, if it means the use of syntax and semantics, then no and language may be unique to humans