Lesson 3 Language Lesson Essential Question What is the relationship between cognition and language development Key Lesson Voca bulary Chomsky Inborn language acquisition device Critical periods Phonemes Morphemes Syntax Grammar Semantics Whorfs ID: 748205
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Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & LanguageLesson 3: Language
Lesson Essential QuestionWhat is the relationship between cognition and language development?Key Lesson Vocabulary:Chomsky, Inborn language acquisition device; Critical periods; Phonemes; Morphemes; Syntax; Grammar; Semantics; Whorf’s Reciprocal determinism thesis
DAILY COMMENTARY:How many languages to do speak? How did you learn to speak? Is language acquisition effortful or automatic?READINGS / Assignments:READ:Myers 410-428Chomsky HandoutNYT Language Gap StudyPiraha handoutDO / DUE:Vocab cardsReview packetReflective writing: Language Gap & creative thought (see performance task)Slide2
2Language
Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others.
Language transmits culture.M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp & AssociatesSlide3
3Language Development
Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2.We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate from high school.
Time Life Pictures/ Getty ImagesSlide4
4When do we learn language?
Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.Slide5
5When do we learn language?
One-Word Stage:
Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.Slide6
6When do we learn language?
Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car,” means
I would like to go for a ride in the car.Slide7
7When do we learn language?
Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children begin uttering longer phrases (
Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor.You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.Slide8
8Stage & Age
of Language DevelopmentSlide9
Count off: 1s & 2s1s will read article about Piraha tribe2s will read article about Noam Chomsky
Slide10
Discussion & Report OutsOnes tell Twos:Describe the Piraha tribe
What can we learn from the Piraha about the relationship between thinking and language?Twos Tell Ones:Describe Chomsky’s theoryWhy does Chomsky say there are critical periods for language development?Two’s report out on Piraha TribeOne’s report out on ChomskySlide11
11Explaining Language Development
Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.Slide12
12Explaining Language Development
Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn.
Chomsky says everyone has a “Language Acquisition Device”Slide13
13Explaining Language Development
3. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods: Well before our first birthday, our brains are discerning word breaks by statistically analyzing which syllables in hap-py-ba-by go together. These statistical analyses are learned during critical periods of child development.Slide14
14Genes, Brain, & Language
Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain.
Michael Newman/ Photo Edit, Inc.Eye of Science/ Photo Researchers, Inc.
David Hume Kennerly/ Getty ImagesSlide15
15Language & Age
Learning new languages gets harder with age.Slide16
16Language Structure
Phonemes: The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example:
bat, has three phonemes b · a · tchat, has three phonemes ch · a · t Slide17
17Language Structure
Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:
Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kinUnforgettable = un · for · get · tableSlide18
18Structuring Language
Phrase
SentenceMeaningful 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.Slide19
19Grammar
Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others.
GrammarSyntax
SemanticsSlide20
20Semantics
Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. For example:
Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.Slide21
21Syntax
Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example:
In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.Slide22
Identify the level of language acquiredKoko the gorilla was trained by Francine Patterson to use sign language. The Gorilla Language Project reports that Koko can use 1000 different signs, and can understand 2000 words. Koko is now creating statements by blending three to six words.
Comprehension? Phonology? Morphology? Syntax?Slide23
Identify the level of language acquiredIn 1952, researcheres Hayes and Hayes tried to teach their chimpanzee, named Vickie, to speak the English language. Vickie learned how to make four sounds, and never did produce anything that sounded much like language.Slide24
Identify the level of language acquiredAlex, an African grey parrot, was trained by Irene Pepperberg. Alex can say 70 words, including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Alex can also identify colors and textures, can use numbers from one to five, and can report if objects are the same or different.Slide25
Identify the level of language acquiredHerman, Richards, and Woltz (1984) trained dolphings to
undestand hand commands. Their dolphins can understand five=sign strings, as well as some rules of language. For instance, their dolphins Phoenix and Akeakamie, understand the order words have to be in to perform a certain command.Slide26
Identify the level of language acquiredNim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee, was trained by Herbert Terrance to understand sign language. Terrance was skeptical of many former chimp experiments.
Nim learned 125 signs, but Terrance realized that Nim seemed to simply be responding to signs that the researchers prseented rather than understanding their meaning.Slide27
27Do animals have a language?
Animals & Language
Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dancemoves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar.Slide28
28Do Animals Think?
Common cognitive skills in humans and apes include the following:
Concept formation.InsightProblem SolvingCultureMind?African grey parrot assorts redblocks from green balls.
William MunozSlide29
29Insight
Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems.
Sultan uses sticks to get food.Slide30
30Problem Solving
Apes are famous, much like us, for solving problems.
Chimpanzee fishing for ants.Courtesy of Jennifer Byrne, c/o Richard Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, ScotlandSlide31
31Animal Culture
Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations.
Dolphins using sponges asforging tools.
Chimpanzee mother using and
teaching a young how to use
a stone hammer.
Copyright Amanda K Coakes
Michael Nichols/ National Geographic SocietySlide32
32Mental States
Can animals infer mental states in themselves and others? To some extent. Chimps and orangutans (and dolphins) used mirrors to inspect themselves when a researcher put paint spots on their faces or bodies.Slide33
33Do Animals Exhibit Language?
There is no doubt that animals communicate.Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their species and other species.
Rico (collie) has a200-word vocabularyCopyright Baus/ KreslowskiSlide34
34The Case of Apes
Chimps do not have a vocal apparatus for human-like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Therefore, Gardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who learned 182 signs by the age of 32.Slide35
35
Gestured Communication
Animals, like humans, exhibit communication through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during the course of evolution.Slide36
36Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is instrumental in teaching chimpanzees a form of communication.
When asked, this chimpanzee usesa sign to say it is a baby.Paul Fusco/ Magnum PhotosSlide37
37Computer Assisted Language
Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Kanzi and Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases.
Copyright of Great Ape Trust of IowaSlide38
38Criticism
Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language.Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax.Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see.Slide39
39Conclusions
If we say that animals can use meaningful sequences of signs to communicate a capability for language, our understanding would be naive… Steven Pinker (1995) concludes, “chimps do not develop language.” Slide40Slide41Slide42
Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & LanguageLesson 3: Language
Lesson Essential QuestionWhat is the relationship between cognition and language development?Key Lesson Vocabulary:Chomsky, Inborn language acquisition device; Critical periods; Phonemes; Morphemes; Syntax; Grammar; Semantics; Whorf’s Reciprocal determinism thesis
DAILY COMMENTARY:How many languages to do speak? How did you learn to speak? Is language acquisition effortful or automatic?READINGS / Assignments:READ:Myers 410-428Chomsky HandoutNYT Language Gap StudyPiraha handoutDO / DUE:Vocab cardsReview packetSlide43
Problem SolvingA giant inverted steel pyramid is perfectly balanced on its point. Any movement of the pyramid will cause it
to topple over. Underneath the pyramid is a $100 bill.How would you remove the bill without disturbing the pyramid?Slide44
Write down your thought processWrite down everything you considered doing to solve the problem.Slide45
Does Language deter thought?In one set of studies, the subjects who were asked to verbalize their thought process solved 30% fewer puzzles.Slide46
46Language & Thinking
Language and thinking intricately intertwine.
Rubber Ball/ AlmaySlide47
47Language Influences Thinking
Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think. For example, he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think readily about the past.Slide48
48Language Influences Thinking
When a language provides words for objects or events, we can think about these objects more clearly and remember them. It is easier to think about two colors with two different names (A) than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen, 2004).Slide49
49Word Power
Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for speakers and deaf individuals who learn sign language.Slide50
50Linguistic Determinism Questioned
Although people from Papua New Guinea do not use our words for colors and shapes, they still perceive them as we do (Rosch, 1974).Slide51
51Thinking 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:Slide52
52Images and Brain
Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually performing the activity.
Jean Duffy Decety, September 2003Slide53
53Language and Thinking
Traffic runs both ways between language and thinking.Slide54
Thinking in ShapesSlide55
Reading & ReflectionFirst Read:NYT Language Gap Study
THEN WRITE (in online notebooks)Based on the NYT article, your understanding of Chomsky’s theory, and Whorf’s concept of reciprocal determinism, evaluate how educational background of parents and vocabulary use in the home environment influences the ability of children to think creatively.