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Language and Thought

Module 30

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Thinking and Language

Language Language Structure

Language Development

Thinking & Language Language Influences

Thinking

Thinking in Images

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Thinking and Language

Animal Thinking and Language Do Animals Think?

Do Animals Exhibit Language?

The Case of the Apes

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Language

Our spoken, written, or gestured word, it is the way we communicate meaning to

ourselves and others.

Language transmits culture.

M. &

E. B

ernheim/ W

oodfin Cam

p & A

ssociates

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Language Structure

Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound unit in a spoken language. For example:

bat, has three phonemes b · a · t

chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t

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Language Structure

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

Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kin

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

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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.

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Grammar

A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Grammar

SyntaxSemantics

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Semantics

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.

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Syntax

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example:

In English syntactical rule is that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish it is reversed; casa

blanca.

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Language 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 high school.

Tim

e Life Pictures/ G

etty Images

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When 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.

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When do we learn language?

One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around the first birthday, a child starts to speak one-word and makes family adults understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.

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When 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 in which the child speaks like a telegram —“go car,” means that, I would like to go for a ride in the car.

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When do we learn language?

Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech children start uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball), with syntactical sense and by early elementary school they are enjoying humor.

You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.

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When do we learn language?

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Explaining Language Development

• Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development can be explained on the basis of learning principles, such as association, imitation and reinforcement.

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Explaining Language Development

2. Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinners ideas and suggested that rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it was inborn.

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Explaining 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 analysis are learned during critical periods of child development.

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Genes, Brain & Language

Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the

brain.

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hael

New

man

/ Pho

to E

dit,

Inc.

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of

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ence

/ Pho

to R

esea

rche

rs, I

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Dav

id H

ume

Ken

nerl

y/ G

etty

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ages

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Language & Age

New language learning gets harder with age.

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Language & Thinking

Thinking and language intricately intertwine.

Rubber B

all/ Alm

ay

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Language influences Thinking

Linguistic Determinism: Whorf’s (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think, e.g., Hopi, he noted, did not have past tense for verbs therefore Hopis could not think readily about the past.

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Language influences Thinking

When a language provides words for objects or events we can think about these objects more clearly and retain them. It is easier to think

about two colors with two different names (A) than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen,

2004).

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Word Power

Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for speakers and deaf who learn a

sign language.

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Linguistic Determinism Questioned

People from Papua New Guinea without our words for colors and shapes still

perceived them as we do (Rosch, 1974).

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Thinking in Images

To a large extent thinking is language based. Like when alone we 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:

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Images and Brain

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

performing the activity.

Jean Duffy D

ecety, Septem

ber 2003

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Language and Thinking

Traffic runs both ways between thinking and language.

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Do animals have a language?

Animals & Language

Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dancemoves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar.

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Do animals think?

Common cognitive skills in humans

and apes.

1. Concept formation.

2. Insight3. Problem Solving4. Culture5. Mind?

African grey parrot sorts redblocks from green balls.

William

Munoz

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InsightChimpanzees show insightful behaviors

when solving problems.

Sultan uses sticks to get food.

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Problem Solving

Apes are famous for solving problems

much like us.

Chimpanzee fishing for ants.

Courtesy of Jennifer B

yrne, c/o Richard B

yrne, D

epartment of P

sychology, University of S

t. Andrew

s, Scotland

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Animal Culture

Animals display custom and culture learnt and transmitted over generations.

Dolphins using sponges asforging tools.

Chimpanzee mother using andteaching a young how to use

a stone hammer.

Copyright A

manda K

Coakes

Michael N

ichols/ National G

eographic Society

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Mental States

Can animals infer mental states in themselves and others?

To some extent. Chimps and orangutans (and dolphins) have used mirrors to

inspect themselves if a researcher has put a paint spot on their face or bodies.

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Do Animals Exhibit Language?

There is no doubt that animals

communicate.

Vervet monkeys, whales and even

honey bees communicate with members of their specie and other

species.Rico (collie) has a

200-word vocabulary

Copyright B

aus/ Kreslow

ski

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The Case of Apes

Chimps do not have vocal apparatus for human-like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951).

Gardner and Gardner (1969) therefore used American Sign Language (ASL) to train

Washoe (a chimp), who learnt 182 signs by age 32.

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Gestured Communication

Animals show communication through gestures as do humans. It is possible that

vocal speech developed from gestures during evolution.

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Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) has been instrumental in teaching a

communication form to chimpanzees.

When asked, chimpanzee usesa sign to say it is a baby

Paul Fusco/ Magnum

Photos

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Computer Assisted Language

Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can learn even larger vocabularies

and perhaps semantic nuances in learning language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Kanzi and

Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases.

Copyright of G

reat Ape T

rust of Iowa

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Criticism

1. Apes gain their limited vocabularies with great deal of difficulty unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.

2. Chimpanzees can make signs to get rewards, just as pigeon pecks at the key gets reward. But pigeon has not learnt a language.

3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax.

4. Presented with ambiguous information people tend to see what they want to see.

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Conclusions

If we say that animals can use meaningful sequences of signs to communicate means

language, our understanding would be naive… Steven Pinker (1995) concludes,

“chimps do not develop language.”