Lesson Notes

Lesson 8.2a  Language and Thought: A Complex Interaction

In this lesson we will learn what is “language” exactly. Language is a form of communication with different sounds and symbols that when combined according to rules make sense. Worldwide there are over 6,000 languages. Among these languages are ones that use characters (i.e. Chinese or Japanese) and others that use an alphabet (i.e. English or Italian).  Language allows us as a species to let others know what we are thinking, feel, and believe. If you use Facebook, you use words in your status. Depending on the words you use will determine the message you are trying to get across in your status.

In 1956 Benjamin Whorf came up with his theory of Linguistic Relativity. His study with the Inuit people resulted in Whorf concluding that vocabulary determines how we perceive and categorize the world. He believed that language influenced thought. To put it another way, some boys may use the word “dude” to mean many different things depending on the rise (inflection) in their voice or the context in which the word is used. Dude can be a calling, a question, a means of disappointment etc.

Essentially, all languages are composed of three components:

• Phonemes: These are the most basic sounds in speech. In the English language there are 40-50 phonemes. This would be sounds like “ah” or “eh” to represent A or a.
• Morphemes: These are the smallest meaningful parts of language. Morphemes can be    broken down into two types, content (the basic meaning of the word) and function (prefixes and suffixes). For example, the word “going” can be broken down to go (content) and ing (function)
• Grammar: This final rule for langue provides syntax (the rules for what order the words should be in) pragmatics (matching the language to the audience) and semantics (the meaning of the words).

8.2bLanguage Development: From Crying to Talking

This lesson takes a look at how our language and communication develops over time. From the time we are babies we communicate with the world. Where a baby cannot say words or sentences, it communicates through their cries, facial expressions, and body language (the last two are non-verbal cues). Noam Chomsky investigated how we develop language and came up with the Language Acquisition Device.  This innate (born with) ability to speak only needs minimal exposure for it to be activated. From a learning perspective, language can also be attributed to how we are reinforced, punished, and model the behaviours of those around us. Can you think of a time when you saw a parent talking to a baby and asking them to repeat the word. The repeating is modelling and when the parent gets excited that is the reinforcement.

An interesting fact with language acquisition is that there is also the theory that we have a critical period for learning language. This critical period is approximately 7 years of age. This has been shown in children who were abused when little and not exposed to people talking. What ultimately does this mean, it means that these kids will never learn to speak like you or I.

Language Development can be broken down into different stages. These stages begin at birth when the baby cries. Babies typically cry for one of three reasons – hunger, pain, or anger. From this point forward language development moves from the cooing stage all the way into adolescence where the average teen knows about 60,000 words! Even more impressive is that the average teen will learn 3,500 new words a year (10 per day). If you don’t believe it, think of all the new words you learned just by going through this lesson.

Lesson 8.2cAnimals and Language: Can Humans Talk to Nonhuman Animals?

In 1933 Winthrop Kellogg decided to see if he could raise a chimp as a human. He brought the chimp home and raised it with his baby boy. – you can see this video to see some actual footage.  The hope was that the chimp would pick up language as his boy did. Unfortunately, Kellogg realized that the boy began to pick up the language of the chimp, so he called off the experiment. This lesson takes a look at the controversial topic of animal language. Does it exist and if so at what level?