PSYCH1000: CHAPTER 9: LANGUAGE & THINKING
Language
• All human languages share underlying features
• Organization: symbolic & structured (hierarchical)
• Semanticity: conveys meaning
• Generativity: finite # words/rules can produce infinite # of sentences
• Displacement: can convey info about other times/places, abstract ideas
• Adaptive functions of language
• Facilitates cooperative social systems
• Allows transmission of info between people & generations
• Transformational grammar: rules of language transform ideas (deep) to a sequence of
symbols that can express them (surface)
• Surface structure: how symbols are combined (sequence of words)
• This structure is objective and unique
• Deep structure: actual meaning of the symbols
• If the surface structure is not appropriate, there could be more than one deep structure
• Understanding/producing language involves top-down and bottom-up processing
• Language influences what people think / how effectively they think in certain contexts
Organization & Structure of Language
• Language elements are organized hierarchically
• Phoneme —> morpheme —> word —> phrase —> sentence
• Phonemes: basic units (english has 45 but each language is different)
• Morphemes: units that transform meaning/form of words
• Words: compound of morphemes (student vocab = 150,000 of approx. 300,000 total)
• You actually only use about 850 words in regular everyday life
• Negative correlation between long words and frequency of use
• Vocabulary expansion = encoding + processing info in more sophisticated ways
• Discourse involves higher-level combinations of sentences
• Syntax: arranging elements in a meaningful way (how we string words together), grammar
• We use syntax to make sense of sentences (even if the meaning is nonsensical)
• Sentences can become ambiguous if the syntax can be broken down in multiple ways
• The developed ability to recognize ambiguity helps us appreciate humour
• Kids progress from phonological & lexical —> syntactic & semantic
• Ambiguity
• Phonological ambiguity: confusion of sounds
• Lexical ambiguity: confusion/double meaning of words
• Syntactic ambiguity: confusion in structure
• Semantic ambiguity: confusion in meaning
Language Learning
• Scientists believe humans have an innate capacity to acquire language
• Language development relies on innate mechanisms that allow language learning/production
• Child must also be exposed to an appropriate linguistic environment
• During a sensitive period between early childhood & puberty
• Second language = easiest to master when learned in sensitive period
• Bilingual children tend to perform better than monolingual on a variety of cognitive tasks
• 2 languages learned to high proficiency —> languages share common neural network
• The trick of language acquisition is creativity rather than learning the structures
• It’s almost like we have an innate capacity to understand language syntax/structure
• What happens in language acquisition?
Language
• All human languages share underlying features
• Organization: symbolic & structured (hierarchical)
• Semanticity: conveys meaning
• Generativity: finite # words/rules can produce infinite # of sentences
• Displacement: can convey info about other times/places, abstract ideas
• Adaptive functions of language
• Facilitates cooperative social systems
• Allows transmission of info between people & generations
• Transformational grammar: rules of language transform ideas (deep) to a sequence of
symbols that can express them (surface)
• Surface structure: how symbols are combined (sequence of words)
• This structure is objective and unique
• Deep structure: actual meaning of the symbols
• If the surface structure is not appropriate, there could be more than one deep structure
• Understanding/producing language involves top-down and bottom-up processing
• Language influences what people think / how effectively they think in certain contexts
Organization & Structure of Language
• Language elements are organized hierarchically
• Phoneme —> morpheme —> word —> phrase —> sentence
• Phonemes: basic units (english has 45 but each language is different)
• Morphemes: units that transform meaning/form of words
• Words: compound of morphemes (student vocab = 150,000 of approx. 300,000 total)
• You actually only use about 850 words in regular everyday life
• Negative correlation between long words and frequency of use
• Vocabulary expansion = encoding + processing info in more sophisticated ways
• Discourse involves higher-level combinations of sentences
• Syntax: arranging elements in a meaningful way (how we string words together), grammar
• We use syntax to make sense of sentences (even if the meaning is nonsensical)
• Sentences can become ambiguous if the syntax can be broken down in multiple ways
• The developed ability to recognize ambiguity helps us appreciate humour
• Kids progress from phonological & lexical —> syntactic & semantic
• Ambiguity
• Phonological ambiguity: confusion of sounds
• Lexical ambiguity: confusion/double meaning of words
• Syntactic ambiguity: confusion in structure
• Semantic ambiguity: confusion in meaning
Language Learning
• Scientists believe humans have an innate capacity to acquire language
• Language development relies on innate mechanisms that allow language learning/production
• Child must also be exposed to an appropriate linguistic environment
• During a sensitive period between early childhood & puberty
• Second language = easiest to master when learned in sensitive period
• Bilingual children tend to perform better than monolingual on a variety of cognitive tasks
• 2 languages learned to high proficiency —> languages share common neural network
• The trick of language acquisition is creativity rather than learning the structures
• It’s almost like we have an innate capacity to understand language syntax/structure
• What happens in language acquisition?
