Linguistics
Uniqueness of Human Language
Acquired with no conscious awareness
Knowledge of language
Have the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand and interpret sounds produced by others
Can speak and be understood by others who know that language-knowledge of the sound system, knowledge of words, creativity of linguistics knowledge and knowledge of sentences & non-sentences
Universal Properties of Language
Modularity
Constituency & Recursion
Discreteness
Productivity
Arbitrariness
Reliance on context
Variability
Language= a modular system
Production & interpretation of language through usage of a set of component subsystem
-sound (phonology)
-words (morphology)
-meaning (semantic & pragmatic)
-rules of sentences pattern (syntax)
Language used varies depending on who's speaking and the situation in which they are speaking
No principled or systematic connection between words and their meanings
Nothing about the pronunciation which logically associates word with meaning
Principles of one language for arranging words inherently no better or worse than those of another
Exception= onomatopoeia (meow, clang). The creation of word such that it sounds like what it means
continuous stream of sounds divided into individual units
combine minimal units of meaning into novel words
Dynamic- changes over time
coining new words with new meanings
Reliance on connection between form (what is said) and context (when, where, by whom & to whom it is said)
Language= organized into constituents
grammatical processes applied repeatedly (embedding)
Grammar
Phonology (Rules regarding the sound system)
Morphology (Rules regarding word structure)
Syntax (Rules regarding the structure of sentences)
Semantics (Rules regarding the meaning of sentences)
Rules of language
sounds
words
sentences of our language
recognize when they are not being followed
Approaches in the field of Linguistics
Linguistic competence
Effortlessly and usually without awareness
Rules of language
Parts that are left out
Recognize and create ambiguous sentences
Paraphrase
Utterance
John B.Watson & B.F.Skinner
With the advent of the "behavioristic" paradigm, the "mantalistic" approach to the study of language was abandoned
Behaviorism= what goes on in the mind that is not directly observable or measurable is not an appropriate and useful subject of research
B.F.Skinner
Interpret and explain the major aspects of linguistic behavior within the behaviorist framework
Noam Chomsky refuted Skinner's argument
Noam Chomsky
Brought the study of linguistics back into the domain of the mind
Determined the direction of linguistics
Contributions of Chomsky
Sets of rules exists in the minds of speakers and hearers
capacity in the brain to function without conscious awareness of the person
Return of the cognitive: Contemporary Linguistics
Vast & largely unconscious rules exist in Human Mind
Proposed method of formalizing rules of language components
Behaviorist explanation CANNOT account for language
Relevance of the rules to Cognitive Science
Appreciate what was involved in the new linguistics of the 20th century
Establish a formal means of encoding rules of language
Rules that are made explicit- increase our understanding of the way children learn their first language
Develop linguistic capabilities in computers
To model aspects of human intelligence
Computer programs- precise and unambiguous instructions
How infants acquire rules
Adopted children- learn language of adoptive culture