language how do we communicate? its all about communication!!!
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LanguageHow do we Communicate?
Its all about communication!!!
Apes & Signing
Honeybees seem to communicate
Warm Up:"Curious blue ideas sleep furiously."
At what level is this statement ambiguous?
Don’t know this word???Look it up!
SEMANTICALLY AMBIGUOUS: Semantics: the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.Ambiguous: unclear or inexact because a choice between alternatives has not been made.
"Curious blue ideas sleep furiously." At what level is this statement ambiguous?
LANGUAGE complex communication system that involves the use of abstract symbols to convey unlimited messages.
Human language can convey meaning about things that...
haven't happened yet, happened in the past,
may never happen.
Because we can transcend time and space with language, we have an unlimited ability to communicate ideas.
Language is an amazing gift★ distinguishes humans from other
species★ essential to human cooperation★ it is mysterious - how did it start,
evolve, & change?★ it is central to human life ★ we take it for granted
Language has been found in EVERY society ever found. 6,000 different languages.
“Man has an instinctive tendency to speak as we see in the babble of our young children while no child has an instinctive tendency to bake, brew, or write.”
- Charles Darwin
What can studying language help us understand about human behavior and the human mind?
Language is an amazing gift
Language is not thought.Do we have to have language to think? No.Can we have sophisticated cognition, cause and effect, objects, & intentions of others w/o speech
Babies - before they have learned to speakAnimals - chimps using sign language helped to show us that they were thinking
At times, we ‘think’ without language. Spatial relations is a great example
We use tacit (understood or implied) knowledge to understand language.
Cognitive psych has shown us that long term memory remembers the ‘gist’ rather than the exact form of words. We don’t reproduce entire sentences we have heard. What sticks is abstract - meaning, content, semantics
Language is an amazing gift
Language can definitely impact thought though. It can impact the perception of a person who fumbles common grammar rules & syntax.
Language is really 3 things:1. Words (our personal dictionary)
2. Rulessyntax- rules to assemble sentences; morphology- rules to create words from smaller portions; & phonology- rules to combine vowels & consonants into the smallest words
3. Interfaces (methods of communication)
Structure of Language:
Multi-layered process.
Phonemes: smallest unit of sound in a language. All the letters of the alphabet are phonemes.
In English we produce all the unique sounds that we are able to make by combining about 40-50 unique phonemes.
Other languages make due with less.Hawaiian = 30 phonemes.
Morphemes: smallest unit of meaning in a language. Small words: cat or walk Also: prefixes & suffixes If we add the letter s to cat, we now have two morphemes (cat(s)), and if we add-ing to walk, we have two morphemes (walk(ing)).
"Unbreakable" 3 morphemes:
un- (a bound morpheme signifying "not"), -break- (the root, a free morpheme), and -able (a bound morpheme signifying "do-able").
Semantics: the way we understand meaning from words by their morphemes and from their context. ★ Adding an -s to the end of a word - referring to
more than one★ Words can have different meanings depending on
the placement in a sentence or on the context.
"I'm dying!" Very different meanings ★ when said by a person who is bleeding on
the ground ★ versus an adolescent preparing for her first
middle school dance.
Grammar: system of rules used in a language.
Syntax: rules that refers to the way we order words to create meaning.
"Your new please away shoes put" …makes us confused, whereas
“Please put away your new shoes" …is quite clear.
How Do We Learn Language?Behaviorists exposed to environment, reinforcement, & repetition (Skinner-OC)
Nativists Argue that we are "hardwired" to learn language & that humans are unique in that respect. (Social Learning
Both sides have supporters, evidence isn't clear which is correct.
Milestones in Language AcquisitionAGE --> MILESTONE
To 2 months --> Cooing2 months to 12 months --> Babbling
Approx. 12 months --> First word ( matching a simple sound: "DA")
Approx. 16 months --> 2-word utterances (telegraphic speech)
2-6 years --> Add 6-10 new words a day; learn grammar. Over-extension.
("doggies" for ever 4-legged animal)
Age 5 --> Overregularization: "I go-ed to the store."
From Age 5 on --> Add words to vocabulary; learn subtleties of language.
**Other languages show the same pattern of acquisition (not just English).
A 40-year-old couple emigrate from Italy to the United States. They have an two daughters, one is 15 and the other is 7. Based on research that has investigated mastery of English as a second language,
Which family member will master English first?
7-year-old daughter will master English more quickly.
Language Development
How many words do you think you know now?
Probably close to 80,000
After age 1 you average 13 words a day.
What made these Super Bowl commercials funny?The joke was “language acquisition” – funny/odd to see a baby talk like a
trader.
LANGUAGE & THOUGHT Do our words shape the way we think, or do we have ideas first and then look for ways to articulate them?
Linguist Benjamin Whorf believed in…linguistic determinism: our words shape & restrict our thinking.
Whorfian hypothesislanguage affects thought, and the structure of the language itself affects cognition.Not THAT Worf!
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Language determines our experience of reality, and we can see and think only what our language allows us to see and think.
For example, the Inuit are said to have many different words for snow, and their sophisticated snow vocabulary make it easy for them to communicate and understand each other. Therefore, they see and experience ‘snow-covered landscapes’ quite differently from the rest of us.
Although the Inuit have many different words for snow, it does does not show that language determines reality, but instead suggests that reality determines language.
The reason the Inuit have many words for snow is because of their environment, they live in snow. In contrast, the reason there are not many words for ‘snow’ in Australia is that it does not snow very often in Australia.
Modern Family and how language can effect our view of others
●https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g68KgoHWupg
Thinking and Problem Solving
Do Animals think? Kohler: Insight Learning - Chimps can problem solve.It has been observed that the manner in which chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of retrieving bananas positioned out of reach, is not through trial-and-error. Instead, they were observed to proceed in a manner that was unwaveringly purposeful.
Animals of quite a range of species are capable of solving a range of problems that are argued to involve abstract reasoning;
Modern research has tended to show that the performances of Wolfgang Köhler's chimpanzees, who could achieve spontaneous solutions to problems without training, were by no means unique to that species, and that apparently similar behavior can be found in animals usually thought of as much less intelligent, if appropriate training is given.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING 1. ALGORITHMS step-by-step approach.
2. HEURISTICS a procedure that has worked in the past and is seen as likely to work in the future.
3. MEANS-END ANALYSIS keeps in mind the final goal when setting sub-goals.
4. WORKING BACKWARD start with the goal state and work backward until you reach the present state.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVINGALGORITHMS step-by-step approachSome algorithms involve simple trial and error. If X is a possible solution to a problem, the algorithm for a solution might be stated: "Try X; if X works, then X = solution; if X doesn't work, then try next X."
Clearly, this could go on as many times as there is another possible X.Algorithms guarantee a solution but can be very time consuming.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVINGHEURISTICS a procedure that has worked in the past and is seen as likely to work in the future.
Heuristics are "rules of thumb" based on past experiences.
If the light in your room goes out, you could check the fuse box, change the lightbulb, check the wires in the wall or lamp, check the socket, and so on. Because experience suggests that the probability of the light bulb burning out is higher than the other choices, you try that first. Heuristics take less time than algorithms, but they may not result in a solution.
MEANS-END ANALYSIS
final goal is in mind when setting sub-goals
★ In planning your study for finals, you might start with math but will set a time limit because you have exams in three other subjects.
★ Will you need to spend the same amount of time on each?
★ What exactly do you need to focus on?
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
WORKING BACKWARD start with the goal state & work backward until you reach the present state.When a company wants to know how its competitor's product works, it will "reverse engineer" that product. This means beginning with the product and analyzing its construction to see what each part does. The company can then begin with its own parts and reconstruct a similar product.
4 STRATEGIES TO PROBLEM SOLVING
Examples of Availability Heuristic
★ After seeing several television programs on shark attacks, you start to think that such incidences are relatively common. When you go on vacation, you refuse to swim in the ocean... WHY?
★ After seeing news reports about people losing their jobs, you might start to believe that you are in danger of being let go. You start lying awake in bed each night worrying that you are about to be fired.
★ After read about lottery winners, you overestimate your own likelihood of winning the jackpot. You spending more money than you should each week on lottery tickets.
★ Your mother, next door neighbor and best friend have all been in a car accident this year. According to the availability heuristic, you will feel that your chances of being in an accident yourself are much higher.