Language Chapter 8

English is difficult! w A farm can produce produce. w The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse. w The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. w The present is a good time to present the present. w At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum. w The dove dove into the bushes. w I did not object to the object. w The insurance for the invalid was invalid. w The bandage was wound around the wound. w They were too close to the door to close it.

Language Definition: 0 Symbolism used to communicate ideas & concepts & to problem solve 0 Our spoken, written, or gestured word, it is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others. All Language shares 3 things in common 1. Semanticity: True language conveys thoughts in a meaningful way by use of symbols and sounds 2. Generativity: Ability to combine words in new ways 3. Displacement: Ability to talk about objects that are not present

Language 0 Hello 0 Yes 0 No 0 Money 0 Love

Language and the Brain w As a child grows, his/her language develops. Usually, understanding language occurs before the production of language. Wernicke’s Area understand speech Broca’s Area produce speech

Language Development (Year One) 0 Infant – Crying 0 4 to 6 months – Babbling (sounds present in all languages) 0 9 months – Finite babbling (narrow to sounds reflected back to them) 0 1 year – One-word stage 0 Overextension: Applying a word to a wide variety of similar items (Ex: using “horse” to refer to any four-legged animal) 0 Underextension: Using a word to define only one object as though it were a proper name (Ex: using “bird” to refer to only the child’s pet and not to wild birds in the yard or other winged creatures) 0 Overgeneralization- Misuse of rules “goed” “sheeps” 0 Holophrasic Speech: Using one word to mean an entire sentence (Ex: “shoe” means “Will you tie my shoe?”)

Language Development (Past 1st Year) months – Two-word stage 0 2 years old – Capable of relating past and present 0 3 years old – Uses simple sentence structure and can tell a simple story 0 4 years old – Five-word sentences are characteristic of this age group 0 5 years old – Capable of complex syntax

Parts of Language 0 Phonemes : Smallest unit of sound that can be understood as part of a language (40 in English) - Ex: The m of mat, the b of boy, or the ch in church 0 Morphemes : Smallest unit of sound that conveys a meaning in a language. Can be individual or combinations of phonemes - Ex: Unit consisting of a word, such as man - Ex: A word element, such as -ed in walked - Ex: Phoneme such as I ** cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts** 0 Grammar : Set of rules that enables us to use our language 0 Semantics – Refers to aspects of meaning assigned to language (Ex: adding “ ed ” means it happened in the past) 0 Syntax – The system of rules we use to string words together into proper sentences (Ex: adjectives come before nouns)

Phonemes 0 Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g. 0 How many phonemes does platypus have?

Morphemes 0 Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix). 0 Milk = milk 0 Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

Grammar A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Grammar SyntaxSemantics

0 Adding ed at the end of words means past tense. 0 The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.

Syntax 0 In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!! 0 Is this the White House or the House White?

Pic: Units of Language

Theories of Language Acquisition 0 Skinner – Learned through association, reinforcement and social imitation 0 Chomsky – Believed that language acquisition is innate from his observations that children create sentences they have never heard before and learning is too rapid to be explained solely by learning principles

Language Acquisition as we get older…

Thinking and Language Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis Definition: 0 Word order and word choice can affect our thinking “Language itself shapes man’s basic ideas” 0 If a concept is important to a culture, they have more words for it. 0 Can’t think something if you don’t have the words for it Examples - Hopi have no past tense, so they do not readily think about the past - English has many words for self-focused emotions such as anger - Japanese have many words for interpersonal emotions such as sympathy - Bilinguals may show different personalities when taking the same personality test in their two languages

English is difficult! 1.There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England. 2.Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. 3.If you have a bunch of odds & ends and get rid of all but one, what do you call it? 4.If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? 5.Why do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? 6.You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. 7.If Dad is Pop, how come mom isn't Mop?

Do animals have a language? Animals & Language Honey bees communicate by dancing. The straight-line part of the dance points in the direction of a nectar source, relative to the sun

Do animals think? Common cognitive skills in humans and apes. 1.Concept formation. 2.Insight 3.Problem Solving 4.Culture 5.Mind? African grey parrot sorts red blocks from green balls. William Munoz

Insight Chimpanzees show insightful behaviors when solving problems. Sultan uses sticks to get food.

Problem Solving Apes are famous for solving problems much like us. Chimpanzee fishing for ants. Courtesy of Jennifer Byrne, c/o Richard Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Animal Culture Animals display custom and culture learnt and transmitted over generations. Dolphins using sponges as forging tools. Chimpanzee mother using and teaching a young how to use a stone hammer. Copyright Amanda K Coakes Michael Nichols/ National Geographic Society

Mental States Can animals infer mental states in themselves and others? To some extent. Chimps and orangutans (and dolphins) have used mirrors to inspect themselves if a researcher has put a paint spot on their face or bodies.

Do Animals Exhibit Language? There is no doubt that animals communicate. Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their specie and other species. Rico (collie) has a 200-word vocabulary Copyright Baus/ Kreslowski

The Case of Apes Chimps do not have vocal apparatus for human- like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Gardner and Gardner (1969) therefore used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe (a chimp), who learnt 182 signs by age 32.

Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) has been instrumental in teaching a communication form to chimpanzees. When asked, chimpanzee uses a sign to say it is a baby Paul Fusco/ Magnum Photos

Nim Chimpsky

Animal Language 0 Some primates that have been trained demonstrate the same level of language comprehension as that of an average 2-year-old child

Gestured Communication Animals show communication through gestures as do humans. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during evolution.

Criticism 1. Apes gain their limited vocabularies with great deal of difficulty unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates. 2. Chimpanzees can make signs to get rewards, just as pigeon pecks at the key gets reward. But pigeon has not learnt a language. 3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax. 4. Presented with ambiguous information people tend to see what they want to see. (water bird)

Quiz: What is this trying to Say 0 1.Thrill hit dull kids dens 0 2.He store pun knee 0 3.Ooze Far Ted 0 4.Juneau Hawaii Filler Bowed Ewe 0 5.Weenie Thumb Honey 0 6.Meat are sin hue Chain 0 7.Saw Fast Abe AbieSpot Hum 0 8.Hurl Hymn Pick Aims

Quiz: What is this trying to Say 0 1.Thrill hit dull kids dens 0 2.He store pun knee 0 3.Ooze Far Ted 0 4.Juneau Hawaii Filler Bowed Ewe 0 5.Weenie Thumb Honey 0 6.Meat are sin hue Chain 0 7.Saw Fast Abe AbieSpot Hum 0 8.Hurl Hymn Pick Aims 0  Three little kittens 0  Easter bunny 0  Who’s Farted 0  Do you know how I feel about you 0  We need some honey 0  Me Tarzan you Jane 0  Soft as a babies bottom 0  Olympic games