INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW AUG. 28, 2013 – DAY 2 Brain & Language LING NSCI Fall 2013

Course organization 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 2

INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW Ingram §1 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 3

What’s the book about? “This book is about language processing in the human brain and, more specifically, what happens to spoken language when certain areas of the brain are damaged.” (p.3) Is this my idea? Notice that processing is mentioned before damage. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 4

What is processing? Process or processing typically describes the action of taking something through an established and usually routine set of procedures or steps to convert it from one form to another, such as processing paperwork to grant a mortgage loan, processing milk into cheese, or converting computer data from one form to another. A process involves steps and decisions in the way work is accomplished, and may involve a sequence of events. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 5 What is online processing?

What is language processing? “Language processing is what takes place whenever we understand or produce speech.” (p.3) 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 6

Is there any other kind of language besides speech? 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 7

What does ‘modularity’ mean? Modularity is designing a system that is divided into a set of functional units (named modules) that can be composed into a larger application. A module represents a set of related concerns. Modules are independent of one another but can communicate with each other in a loosely coupled fashion. Imagine an online banking program. The user can access a variety of functions, such as transferring money between accounts, paying bills, and updating personal information from a single user interface. However, behind the scenes, each of these functions is a discrete module. These modules communicate with each other and with back-end systems such as database servers. Application services integrate components within the different modules and handle the communication with the user. The user sees an integrated view that looks like a single application. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 8

Language and modularity What does it mean to say that language is modular? How can you tell? What other cognitive ability might be modular? 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 9

What does ‘localization’ mean? 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 10 Brodmann’s areas, functions What is aphasia?

What is phrenology? 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 11

What is this? SignifiedSignifier dog perro Hund kalb txakur gao ofi can jagua 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 12 the relation is arbitrary

Representation What is a symbol? How many linguistic symbols do you know? “language … involves a kind of doubling of our perceptual universe” (p. 6) This implies a doubling of the computational capacity of the brain. What is representation? What is first-order representation? Ingram: the brain’s representation of objects (perception) and events (episodic memory) What is second-order representation? Ingram: a language’s representation of objects (nouns) and events (clauses) More standard in philosophy of language First-order: That is a dog. Second-order: Mary knows that that is a dog. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 13

What is evolution? Darwinian or natural selectionSexual selection 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 14

How/why did language evolve? Darwinian or natural selectionSexual selection 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 15 Watch out for the snake! Story-tellers are sexy!

What is co-evolution? What examples of co- evolution can you think of, besides the brain and language? So, how could the brain and language have co-evolved? Will we ever know? – Don’t answer! See next slide. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 16

What is falsifiability? Are all swans white? The classical view of the philosophy of science is that it is the goal of science to ‘prove’ observational data. This seems hardly possible, since it would require us to infer a general rule from a number of individual cases, which is logically inadmissible. However, if we find one single black swan, logic allows us to conclude that the statement that all swans are white is false. Falsificationism thus strives for questioning, for falsification, of hypotheses instead of proving them. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 17

Falsifiability Is it good or bad? Is the theory of the co-evolution of the brain & language falsifiable? 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 18

NEXT TIME Aspects of linguistic competence, Ingram §2. Read the study questions on the last page of the chapter before you read the chapter. 8/28/13Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 19