1 Linguistics lecture #9 November 23, 2006

2 Overview Modularity again How visual cognition affects language How spatial cognition affects language Can language affect visual cognition? Sign languages as spatial languages

3 The modular mind? Language seems to have independent modules (e.g. syntax vs. phonology) Is language a module as a whole? If so, it should not interact deeply with other aspects of cognition, including: - visual cognition (seeing) - spatial cognition (understanding shapes and relations between things in 3D space)

4 LANGUAGE Physical world Non-linguistic cognition Physical world MIND Remember this model?

5 How do the interactions work? Can the structure of non-linguistic cognition affect the structure of linguistic cognition? Can the structure of linguistic cognition affect the structure of non-linguistic cognition?

6 Color vision and color words People of every culture see colors (of course), but they don’t talk about them the same way Some languages have fewer basic color words than others But looking across many languages, there seems to be a pattern….

7 Systems of color words BLACKWHITE REDGREEN YELLOW BLUE BROWNPINK

8 Language is affected by visual processing

9 What about spatial cognition? Spatial cognition involves two distinct processing systems: - The WHAT system processes the shape of objects (so you know what they are) - The WHERE system processes the location of objects (so you know where they are)

10 Where  What

11 Does this affect language? Some have argued that it does, since human grammar also has its own separate WHAT vs. WHERE systems: - WHAT is described by nouns, which often distinguish fine details of shape - WHERE is described by prepositions ( 前置詞 ), which often only care about general spatial relationships, and ignore shape

12 Shape and nouns When does a “plate” become a “bowl”? Is it the same for “ 盤子 ” vs. “ 碗 ”? Are the categories sharply distinguished?

13 Locations and prepositions When is something “on” something else? Is it the same for “ 上 ”? Does the category have sharp boundaries? ceiling floor

14 Nouns  Prepositions They are grammatically quite different too. This is a corp.Which one is a corp?This is acorp the square.Which one is acorp the square?

15 What about the other way? It makes sense that non-linguistic cognition can affect language, since that fits with the model I showed earlier. But is it possible that language can affect non-linguistic cognition too? A linguist named Whorf thought that it could, so this is called Whorf’s hypothesis If it’s true, language isn’t really a module!

16 Do color words affect vision? Many languages have just one word for BLUE and GREEN. Tarahumara, a Mexican language, is like this. So is (old style) Taiwanese ( 青 ). Do speakers of such languages perceive these colors differently from speakers of a language like English?

17 A Whorfian experiment Speakers of English and Tarahumara were shown colored squares (a very good “blue”) (a very good “green”) Which color is the middle one more similar to?

18 What happened? English speakers made much sharper decisions than the Tarahumara speakers But was this because these two groups perceived color differently? No. Later experiments showed that they were merely using linguistic labels to help finish the task: perception was the same. Experiments like this convince linguists that Whorf’s hypothesis is mostly false.

19 What about sign languages? Spoken language represent “what” and “where” abstractly, with sounds Sign languages often represent these directly, as actual shapes (of the hands) and actual locations (movements of the hands through space) Sign language is thus more iconic: its forms reflect meaning more directly

20 Shape in sign language Although signs are often iconic, this doesn’t mean that all sign languages are the same! Guess how these languages sign “tree”: American Sign LanguageDanish S.L.Chinese S.L.

21 Space in sign language In all sign languages, verb relationships are represented in space Here are forms for “give” in ASL:

22 So where is sign language processed in the brain? Language is generally processed in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex Spatial information is generally processed in the right hemisphere So where would a “spatial language” be processed?

23 ASL and brain damage This was studied by looking at deaf signers of ASL who had brain damage Some had brain damage in the left hemisphere Some had brain damage in the right hemisphere What were the results…?

24 Effect on nonlinguistic space “Copy this picture”: Left hemisphere damage: Right hemisphere damage:

25 Effect on linguistic “space” Normal: Left hemisphere damage:

26 Language may be a module, but it must interact with nonlinguistic cognition Language is affected by visual and spatial cognition (color words, nouns, prepositions) The reverse is probably not true (Whorf was mostly wrong) Sign languages use space, but it’s processed in the left hemisphere