Language: Structure, Acquisition, and Thought

Language What is Language? • Language – our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning • Linguistics – the scientific study of language – Phonetics –study of sounds – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdQwalCPNAs Indo-European – Vedic Sanskrit – Hindi -- Persian -- Old German – Slavic – Greek -- German – English – Norwegian – Russian Example : Mara (demon) Proto-Germanic: marōn; Old English: mære; Old Norse: mara; German: mahr; Greek: Μόρα; Ukrainian: Мара; Russian: Мара Nightmare – Nahtmahr . . .· tffllUtSttcS ·£. Phoneme • • • • Phoneme – smallest distinctive sound unit Phonology – study of phonemes bat, has three phonemes b · a · t chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t – By themselves hold no meaning – B, a, t, ch – English there are 40-50 phonemes (depending on where you live ) – !KungSan – Hawai’i – Björn Morpheme • Morpheme -- Smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix; suffix; root) • Morphology – study of morphemes / words • Prehistoric -• Unhealthy -• Capitalism -• Gardener -• Aqua -• Graph -- Structuring Language Phonemes Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh. Morphemes Smallest meaningful units (100,000) … un, for. Words Meaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin. Phrase Composed of two or more words (326,000) … meat eater. Sentence Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box. Grammar Grammar – in a language, a system of rules that enable us to communicate with and understand others • Spanish – Single “el”(masculine) “la” (feminine) plural “los” • What does this tell you about romantic languages and people who speak it? Grammar Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others. Grammar Semantics Syntax Semantics • Semantics – The set of rules in which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; study of meaning • Meaning depends on the word choice, the order of the words, or stress on the words – They were hunting dogs – The fish is ready to eat Syntax • Syntax: the rules of combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language Must study • English vs Korean Syntax I – English – There are three ducks need. – Korean -- 오리(duck) 세 (three) 마리가 있다 (There are) – English adjectives come before nouns – English – Blue Car – Spanish – Coche (car) Azul (blue) Structure of Language • Surface structure – How we order the sentence – German: Gott (god) weiß (knows) ich will kein (I do not want) Engel (Angel) sein (to be) – English: God knows I do not want to be an angel • Deep structure – Underlying meaning of a sentence – I am not a good person Structure of Language What is different: the surface structure or the deep structure? Disregard that last statement Vs The last statement must be disregarded Universal Characteristics of Language 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Semanticity Arbitrariness Flexibility of symbols Naming Displacement Generativity Language Development Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images 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. 15 When do we learn language? Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ahgoo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech. 16 When do we learn language? One-Word Stage/ Holophrase stage: Beginning at or around 1 years of age and ends around 2, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. Babies' first demonstration of productive language occurs in this stage The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there. “Daddy” “Mommy” “Food” 17 When do we learn language? Two-Word Stage: around 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. “Mommy mean” “Daddy sad” 18 When 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. 19 When do we learn language? 20 Theories of Language Development B.F. Skinner (Behaviorism) • Imitation • Association -- Classical Conditioning • Reinforcement -- Operant Conditioning Noam Chomsky (Biological Perspective) • Inborn Universal Grammar (Critical Period) 22 Inborn Universal Grammar • • • • • Linguist Noam Chomsky Language is almost entirely inborn Language will naturally occur We are hard wired to learn language Children acquire untaught words and grammar at a rate too high to be explained through learning • But children do learn their environment’s language 23 Universal Grammar • All human languages have the same grammatical building blocks, such as nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, negations and questions. • We all start speaking mostly in nouns • We all follow language development stages 24 Statistical Learning • Due to the frequency of exposure of language by children from their parents or caregivers, children pick up the language spoken at home. • Children pick up the language simply by exposure – Repeated child directed speech – Children can recognize patterns and sequences Critical Period • Language development begins in early childhood – It’s more effective to learn a second language during childhood • 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. – Remember the case study of Genie • No, childhood seems to represent a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language 26 Linguistic Determinism • Whorf and Sapir’s Linguistic Determinism – Language determines the way we think and conceptualize the world – The more number words there are in a language suggests greater the importance it hold in it’s culture: • Inuit words and descriptions of snow • Japanese words for demons and spirits (aku, oni, yokai, ayakashi, kami, obake, tengu etc.) • Americans words for cars -- sedans, hatchback, pickups, truck, van, etc. – Criticism : underestimating the extent to which thinking occurs without language. • Linguistic relativity – Revision of Whorf and Sapir’s theory – Language and thought have influences on each other • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Wet – cool / attractive?????????????? Fire – cool / attractive Hella!!! – a lot (many) That’s a mood – relating Slight bussdown – showing off Flex – showing off Thicc – curvy person (sexy?) Sister – greeting to friends? Shook – shocked surprised Wack – weird unacceptable Tea – gossip Burned or flamed on – disrespected Roasted -- made fun of Mad -- a lot of Coin – money Bread -- money • • • • • • • • • • • • • Nocap—no lie (being honest) Bread – money Wet—cool Extra—over dramatic Yadadamean– do you understand Lit – fun exciting Hella—a lot Damn near – almost You feel me? – do you understand me? Sike– you thought wrong Juiced – hyped and excited Slaps – good song Slime – close friend Linguistic Relativity • Tell me popular slangs: Trigger – when you get angry grrrr Salty – When somebody is offended Beef – When you have an issue with someone Headass – Showing off Extra – Unnecessary Lit – Drugs/ fun time/ partying Shook – surprised??? Succ – Oral sex Thicc – Sexy and appealing (big) BAE Sus – suspicious Throwing shade – roasting Roasting – making fun of people Savage – when you make fun of people Finna – Im going to do something YAYO – Cocaine Drugs and partying Making fun of people Sex and Dating