1. Language

2. Language & Language Structure
Language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

3. Language & Language Structure
If you were to invent a spoken language, where would you start? How would you do it?
Phonemes: the smallest distinctive sound units in a language. (Phones make sounds)
bat = b, ă, t chat = ch, ă, t

4. if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too. Can you raed tihs
if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.  Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.  i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

5. Language & Language Structure
Morphemes: the smallest units that carry meaning in a language. May be a word (I, dog) or something like a prefix or suffix (pre- in preview, -ed in adapted, or s as in cats)

6. Language & Language Structure
Grammar: the system of rules that enables us to communicate with one another. These rules guide us in deriving meaning from sounds and ordering words into sentences.

7. Language Development Channels of Communication
Grammar: the system of rules that enables us to communicate with one another. These rules guide us in deriving meaning from sounds and ordering words into sentences.
Channels of Communication
What are the different ways to communicate?

8. Language Development
Receptive Language: By 4 months babies can recognize differences in speech sounds. By 7 months can understand some words

9. Language Development Productive language:
Starts to mature after receptive language.
Begin to babble at about 4 months.
Ah-goo
By 10 months, babbling resembles household language.
Da-da, ma-ma

10. Language Development

11. Language Development

12. Language Development

13. Language Development

14. Language Development

15. Language Development

16. Acquiring Language
Universal Grammar: as diverse as the world’s ±7000 languages are, Noam Chomsky’s research shows they all have nouns, verbs and adjectives as building blocks.
He claims grammar acquisition is innate with nouns being the first building block.

17. Acquiring Language
Childhood seems to be a sensitive period for learning language.
The younger one learns a language, the more it sounds natural.
Adults who learn a second language usually speak with an accent from their native language and have more difficulty with the grammar.

18. Acquiring Language
Children will become linguistically stunted if isolated from language during these early critical periods.

19. The Brain & Language
Aphasia: an impairment of language, usually caused by damage to Brocha’s area or Wernicke’s area of the brain.
Some can speak, but not read
Some can comprehend reading, but not speak
Some can read & write, while others write but not read, read but not write, read numbers but not letters, sing but not speak.

20. The Brain & Language
Broca’s area: controls language expression, in frontal lobe, usually in left hemisphere.

21. The Brain & Language
Wernicke’s area: controls language reception & comprehension, usually in left temporal lobe.
Damage in this area can also result in meaningless expression

22. Acquiring Language
In processing language, as with other functions, the brain operates by dividing its mental functions – speaking, perceiving, thinking, remembering – into subfunctions.

24. Language and Thought

25. Key Questions
What is the relationship between language and thinking? What is the value of thinking in images?

26. Language Influences Thinking
Benjamin Whorf said language determines the way people think. (Linguistic Determinism)
Most think this is too extreme, but it is a factor
Bilingual individuals report differences in thinking based on different languages.
Self in English vs Japanese
Social world Arabic vs Hebrew
“Learn a new language and get a new soul.” - Czech proverb

27. Language Influences Thinking
Words may not determine what we think, but there is no question they influence our thinking. However, sometimes differences between words is like differences between colors.

28. Language Influences Thinking
Can words subtly influence our thinking about gender? Some sentences are supposedly gender free: “Man, like other mammals, nurses his young.”

29. Thinking in Images
Do words precede ideas? or Do ideas precede words? To turn the cold water on in your bathroom, which way do you turn the handle?

30. Many people use images to help them think.
Thinking in Images
You probably didn’t use implicit memory to figure it out, you probably used a mental picture.
Many people use images to help them think.

31. Thinking in Images Many people use images to help them think:
Artists, Composers, Poets, Mathematicians, scientists, athletes.
Liu Chi Kung, imprisoned for 7 years during China’s Cultural Revolution was said to play piano better after release.
“I did practice, every day. I rehearsed every piece I had ever played, note for note, in my mind.”

32. Thinking in Images Many people use images to help them think:
Artists, Composers, Poets, Mathematicians, scientists, athletes.
Mental practice and free-throws:
U of Tennessee increased F.T. percentage from 52% to 65% by imagining their shots under various conditions.

33. Thinking in Images Mental rehearsal can help in academics:
Students who visualized seeing an “A” on a test score vs those who visualized themselves studying effectively.
Application: It is better to spend your fantasy time planning how to get somewhere than to dwell on the imagined destination.

34. Bottom Line
Thinking affects our language, which affects our thoughts.