Language and Cognition

Its all about communication!!!

Language can be…..

Language Facts

1. Linguists estimate that 6800 languages exist in the world today.

2. Only 600 languages have speaking populations robust enough to support their survival past the end of the century. Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to survive the ages

3. 66 percent of the world’s children are raised as bilingual speakers.

4. Only 6.3 percent of U.S. residents are bilingual. 5. 1/3 of the world’s languages originated in Africa

Language development

• How many words do you think you know now?

Probably around 80,000.

After age 1 you average about 13 words a day.

All languages contain….

Phonemes• The smallest units of

sound in a language.• English has about 44

phonemes.• Chug has three

phonemes, ch, u, g.

Morphemes• The smallest unit of

meaning• 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.

• How many morphemes in the word “cats”

How many phonemes does platypus have?

Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:

Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kin

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

Structuring Language

Phrase

Sentence

Meaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin.Words

Smallest meaningful units (100,000) … un, for.

Morphemes

Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh.Phonemes

Composed of two or more words (326,000) … meat eater.

Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box.

Grammar

• The rules of a language.

• Syntax: the order of words in a language.

• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish/French!

Is this the White House or the House White?

Semantics

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language.

• Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.

Language Acquisition

Stages that we learn language…

1. Babbling Stage2. Holophrastic Stage

(one word stage)3. Telegraphic Speech

Stage (2-word stage)• After the telegraphic

stage we get overgeneralization.

How do we learn language?

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(Inborn Universal Grammar)

• We learn language too quickly for it to be through reinforcement and punishment.

• Inborn universal language acquisition device

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Critical period• Language Machines - A one year old’s brain is

statistically analyzing which syllables most often go together to discern word breaks

• Can we keep it up?• No, childhood seems to represent a critical period for

mastering certain aspects of language• Once the critical period is over mastering the

grammar of another language is very difficult• When a young brain does not learn language its

language-learning capacity never develops.

Does language influence our thinking?

Whorf’s Linguistic Determinism

• The idea that language determines the way we think.

• The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

Anecdotal Support

• 1984• “To destroy a people, destroy their language.” poet Joy

Harjo• Many bilinguals report they have a different sense of self

depending on which language they speak (Matsumoto, 1994)– English has a rich vocab for self-focused emotions such as anger– While Japanese has more words for interpersonal emotions such as

sympathy

We create when we need

• Skiers have different words for snow– Powder, corn, and ice

• Computer Revolution– I hate that my hardware won’t run the new software– I’m going to google it– I’m just going to word process instead of IM’ing my

friends or updating Myspace. You see, I’m really depressed that my Ipod won’t log on to Itunes.

• Experience shapes language.

Thinking in Images

To a large extent thinking is language-based. When alone, we may talk to

ourselves. However, we also think in images.

2. When we are riding our bicycle.

1. When we open the hot water tap.

We don’t think in words, when:

Images and Brain

Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually

performing the activity.

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Do animals use language?