Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch

							Language
         Language

The spoken, written, or gestured
 words/symbols a group uses to
   communicate meaningfully
            Parts of Language
•   Symbol – sounds, written words or gestures.
             » Connection between symbol and its meaning is
               arbitrary or random making language flexible.
             » Meaning of symbols must be shared by others in
               order to communicate.
•   Semantics – What words mean
•   Syntax – How we combine words.
•   Phonology – How language is produced (a
    system of sounds)
•   Generative – able to generate an unlimited
    number of different phrases and sentences.
•   Displacement – ability to communicate about
    items, ideas and activities that are not physically
    present.
Building Blocks of
    Language
               Phoneme
• The smallest distinctive unit of sound
  of a spoken language
• English has about 40 phonemes.
• A young baby produces all the
  phonemes of all the languages of the
  world.
Phonemes – How we
produce the sounds of
       speech
What is the first sound in the following words?
a.   Easy
b. Judge
c.   Psychic
d. Pneumonia
e.   Civic
f.  Apple
g.   Chutzpah

 What is the final sound in the following words?
a.   Judge
b. Cheese
c.   Long
d. Niece
e.   Checked
f.   Watch
Note: The following letter combinations in English make just one
sound: ch sh th ng ph

How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?
Chin (3) Habits (5) thing (3) thought (3) psychology (8)
Three (3) hopes (4) weigh (2) please (4) sun (3)
Wish (3) enough (4) nation (5) quickly (6) laughed (4)
                       Morpheme
• The smallest unit, in a language, that carries
  meaning
• May be a word or part of a word (prefix, root word,
  suffix)
• English has about 100,000 morphemes.
• How many Morpheme’s are in the following words?
• People (1)
  Redevelopment (3)
  Swimming (2)
  Orange (1)
  Literally (2)
  Erasable (2)
  Reddish (2)
  Radish (1)
  Language (1)
  Grandmother (2)
Structure of Language
                Phonemes
• Play “Infant Speech Sound
  Discrimination” (4:03) Segment #23 from
  The Mind DVD
• Is there a critical period for being able to
  recognize different sounds within a
  language?
• Is this nature or nurture?
Genes design the mechanisms for a
language, and experience activates
   them as it modifies the brain
                         Grammar
   • A system of rules governing how one
     can combine morphemes and words
     and arrange them in sentences to
     communicate with others
                                 Gleason’s Wug experiment shows
                                 how kids apply grammar to new
•Noam Chomsky explains (1:30).
                                 concepts (1:10).
    Sign Language & Grammar
Watch “Human Language: Signed & Spoken”
  from The Mind DVD Segment 25 (6:04).
• Does sign language use grammar?
• Which areas of the brain are used for sign
  language?
• Do users of sign language use different
  areas of the brain?
  Thinking and
Language Together
       Language and Thinking
• Language is a system for combining
  arbitrary symbols to produce an infinite
  number of meaningful statements

• Linguistic relativity hypothesis is the notion
  that difference among languages cause
  difference in the thoughts of their speakers
  Linguistic Relativity (Whorfian) Hypothesis
• Hypothesis that one’s language determines one’s
  thoughts & perceptions about their world.
• Proposed by Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941)
• This thought to be wrong. Instead, our perceptions
  & thoughts influence the language we use to
  describe those words.
  – (Rosch’s Dani color perception experiment pg. 294)
• Cognitive psychologists today studying how
  language can influence perception & thought.
  – Some concepts may be easier to learn or express in one
    language than another. (counting 10-20 in English &
    Chinese)
Language’s Influence on Social Perception

 • Language & Social Perception – nuances of
   words can influence our social perception of
   others reinforcing or minimizing negative
   stereotypes. (i.e. jock vs. athlete).
 • Language & Gender Bias – using masculine
   pronouns tends to produce images of males
   and exclude females.
How would you refer to a(n) _______ if you wanted to
    convey a positive or negative connotation?

   •   Smart Person
   •   Farmer
   •   Women’s Rights Advocate
   •   Person Who Tends To Save Money
   •   Politician
   •   Self-Confident Person
   •   Lawyer
                 Pragmatics
•   How Language is used in everyday settings.
•   This helps us understand ambiguous language
                       Example:
•   “Could you pass the salt?”
•   Is not a question of whether you are capable
    of lifting the salt shaker.
        Examples of Ambiguous
              Language
•   There is a fork in the road ahead.
•   California is a great state despite its faults.
•   The car was stopped by the tree.
•   This is my old friend.
•   The shooting of the teacher was terrible.
•   Never threaten someone with a chainsaw.
•   Norman Rockwell painted me on the front
    porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Norman Rockwell painted me on the front porch.
Paradoxes in the English Language
• Why does night fall but never break and day break
  but never fall?
• Why can homework be done in school?
• Why are people who ride motorcycles called
  “bikers” and people who ride bikes called
  “cyclists?”
• Why can your nose run and your feet smell?
• Why are boxing rings square?
• Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a
  parkway?
• Why does quicksand work slowly?
• Why is phonetic not spelled phonetically?
    Washington Post Alternative
        Meanings Contest
Coffee (n.):
- a person who is coughed upon.
Flabbergasted (adj.):
- appalled over how much weight you have
  gained.
Willy-nilly (adj.):
- impotent.
Testicle (n.):
- a humorous question on an exam.
     Washington Post Alternative
         Meanings Contest
Negligent (adj.):
- describes a condition in which you
  absentmindedly answer the door in your
  nightgown.
Oyster (n.):
- a person who sprinkles his conversation
  with Yiddish expressions.
Abdicate (v.)
- to give up all hope of ever having a flat
  stomach.
     Washington Post Alternative
         Meanings Contest
Flatulance (n.):
- the emergency vehicle that picks you up
  after you are run over by a steamroller.
Circumvent (n.):
- the opening in the front of boxer shorts.
                     Doublespeak
- language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning
  Revenue enhancement
   - tax increase
  Inoperative statement
   - lie
  Social expression products
   - greeting cards
  Media courier
   - newspaper carrier
  Negative patient care outcome
   - death
              Doublespeak
Period of accelerated negative growth
- recession
Underground condominium
- cemetery
Oral hygiene appliance
- toothbrush
Language & The Brain
      Language and the Brain
• Play “Language Processing in the Brain”
  (6:19) Segment #8 from The Mind DVD
• What areas are active when reading?
• What areas are used for reading aloud?
• What areas are used for the word
  association task?
New language learning gets harder with age
      Language and the Brain
• Play “Old Brain, New Tricks” (11:00)
  Segment #8 from Scientific American
  Frontiers DVD
• What areas of the brain are being used as
  you process language?
• Do adults and children under 4-5 process
  language in the same ways?
• Is there a critical time to learn a second
  language if you want to speak it like the
  natives?
Animal Communication
        Animal Communication
• Animals clearly communicate with each other, but is
  that language?
• Rumbaugh’s bonobo chimp experiments with Kanzi
  show that chimps can reach language comprehension
  of roughly a 2 ½ year old human (pg. 295)
• Louis Herman trained bottlenose dolphins to respond
  to sounds and gestures.
• Irene Pepperberg trained Alex the parrot a 100-word
  vocabulary and he can answer questions with phrases
• Karl von Frisch & the dance of the honeybees
         Do animals think?
Scientists caution to assume animals can
     “think” or have self-awareness.
 Is it Language? – Chimps taught sign language.
 Washoe (click to learn more)
 •200 signs
 •New phrases (open eat drink, dirty good)
 •Chimps teaching chimps
 Nim Chimpsky
•20,000 signs, half of which were two-sign combinations.
•At a first look, his signing appeared to be structured, but in fact
most just repetitive.
•“Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat
orange give me you.”

•View a quick overview of Washoe & Koko (7 min)
•View Kanzi the chimp’s ability to understand spoken language (2
min) and use of lexigrams
•Chimps can also use simple hand signals: ABC News Report
(1:30)
               Animal Language
• Play Segment 19: “If Only They Could Talk” (10:07) from
  Scientific American Frontiers DVD
• What is the Clever Hans Effect?
• How do researchers guard against this?
• See more on Alex the Parrot:
• Video 1(3 minutes), Video 2 (2 minutes)

• If Time Allows: Play “Animal Language” (14:39)
  Segment #27 from The Mind DVD.
• Watch up to where they discuss the Washoe Project
• Do animals like Chimps possess language skills?
• Do Chimps show a culture like that of humans?