Unit 4/ #1 KQ: On what basis do we define a language? RLS: Greece’s Disappearing whistled language WOK: Language AOK: Indigenous Knowledge Systems KQ: On what basis do we define a language?

WOK: Language/AOK: Indigenous Knowledge Systems http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170731-greeces-disappearing-whistled-language

Don’t Think Close your eyes and try a silent thought experiment. Do not think of an elephant for a timed 30 seconds who succeeded in not thinking about an elephant?  recall what  kind of  elephant "appeared in your mind’s eye” Turn and Talk

Directly experience language development Objective Directly experience language development

Class Demo #1 Think of something that you accept as “true”, e.g., “Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America.” Convey your idea to your partner (take turns), but DO NOT USE… A natural language of any kind (English, sign language,etc) An artificial language of any kind (emojis, etc) Hand gestures, facial gestures, bodily movements Pictures, sounds, smells

Debrief How successful were you in your attempt to convey your idea to your partner? How would you explain your inability to communicate your idea to your partner? What conclusion could you draw from this experience? Is your conclusion “valid”? How do you know?

Think Pair and Share Think of something that you accept as “true”, e.g., “The Cowboys have the best running back in the NFL” In “thinking” about your idea DO NOT USE… A natural language of any kind, An artificial language of any kind, Hand gestures, facial gestures, bodily movements, Pictures, sounds

Debrief How successful were you in your attempt to think of your idea? How would you explain you inability to think of your idea? What conclusion could you draw from this experience? Is your conclusion “valid”? How do you know? What conclusions do these activities lead you to consider?

Debrief Which ideas could be communicated with gestures. Which ideas couldn’t be communicated? What is the difference between communication and language?

All languages contain…. Morphemes Phonemes The smallest units of sound in a language. English has about 44 phonemes. How many phonemes does PLATYPUS have? There are 8 phonemes, or sounds/blends in the word platypus: p - l - a - t - y - p - u - s The smallest unit of meaningful sound. Can be words like a or but. Can also be parts of words like prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense.

Language Must Have Rules Syntax: the order of words in a language. Grammar: the Rules of language Whistling language of Greece Could yawning be a language?

Induction The power and the pitfalls of inductive thinking. Induction is the kind of reasoning we use to make generalizations based on particular instances. If we see enough individual elephants, naturally we build up a generic picture (a mental map) of what elephants are. How generic was your elephant ?

Social Learning Theory B.F. Skinner from the Behaviorist School Baby may imitate a parent. If they are reinforced they keep saying the word. If they are punished, they stop saying the word.

Chomsky’s Theory (nativist theory) We learn language too quickly for it to be through reinforcement and punishment. Inborn universal language acquisition device (LAD)

Sapir-Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity The idea that language determines the way we think. Himba tribe- no word for blue The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

KQ Exit Ticket Do we need language to think?