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HUMA 1000A (Week 2: nature and psychology of language (6 key features of…
HUMA 1000A
Week 2: nature and psychology of language
What is language?
knowledge of sounds
inventory of sounds in a language
sequence of sounds in the words
knowledge of words
Form and meaning are aribitrary
creativity
There's no such thing as the longest sentence in the world, we can keep making it longer and longer
knowledge of rules
unconscious rules that we acquire as young children
grammar
grammatical vs meaning
language as a uniquely human trait
language makes us human, is is an intrinsic part of who we are
language is a cornerstond of human cognition
developed in the use of social interaction and communication
result of a genetically determined neurobiological evolutionary step, the genectic s of which still remains to be specified
6 key features of human language
Displacement
alk about things, reflect on things in a different time
The ability to refer to abstractions
Innateness
some level of knowledge of language exists as birth
The existence of meaningful units (words) as evidenced by appropriate behaviour on the part of listeners
interactive feature of language
Rules that might constitute a grammar
The ability to create novel language extensions
creativity, productivity, dominant characteristic of differentiating between human and animal languages
Universal grammar
biologicially endowed human language facility
a blueprint that all languages follow that forms part of the child's innate capacity for learning
Children are hard wired with UG
universal characteristic of all languages means for any normal child exposed sustainably to language, they will be able to pick up any language
search for linguistic universals
Sign language
Phonological universals
common vowel sounds and consonant sounds in all languages
Semantic universal
colours
each language has around 11-12 colour terms, concerptualisation of colours follow the same pattern, from black and white to red to blue and so on
perception is independent of language
syntactic universal
over 80% of all 7000 languages fall within 3 syntactic forms of dominant word orders
The human brain
4 lobes
occipital
visual info
frontal
problem solving, memories, reasoning etc
parietal
senses
temporal
processing sounds
contralateral brain function shows that the two halves of the brain are connected with different sides of the body
Phrenology skull model shows the localisation of use of the brain, that the brain does not function in a uniform mass
Memory disorders
Areas of the brain in language
Broca's area
expressive aphasia
problems with following syntactic rules, expressions are used as chunks stored in memory, but not necessarily grammatically correct
No problems with comprehension, but non-fluent speech
Wernicke's area
receptive aphasia
fluent but not contextual, can follow perfect intonation and articulation, but semantically incoherent
both lead to aphasia developing, but different parts of the brain leads to different disorders of brain performance
handedness and cerebral dominance
lateralisation of language
the left hemisphere is mainly dominant for language in most right handed people, and for 60-70% of left handers
however during the early stage of language development, the right hemisphere can take over many of the language functions normally resided in the left hemisphere, this is called brain plasticity
different language skills involve different parts of the brain
Critical period hypothesis
there is a period early in life in which we are especially prepared to acquire a language from birth to middle childhood
during the crit period, language acquisition proceeds easily, swiftly and without intervention
after the period the acquisition of grammar is difficult and for most individuals never fully achieved
children deprived of language during this critical period show a atypical pattern of brain localisation
language acquisition
first
exposure to language and nothing else can trigger the inborn ability or the innate template to acquire grammar the Universal Grammar
Children can extract the rules from the language they hear around them all on their own, and reinvent the grammar of mature speakers
They do not require any specific kind of environment to do this
Children exposed to different languages under different cultural and social circumstances all develop their native languages during a narrow window of time, going through similar and possibly universal developmental stages
second
different cognitive faculties are employed
after crit period, the inherent capacity for language strongly takes over the features of the first language
results in loss of flexibility to receive the features of another language
genetic basis
KE family ; FOXP2 gene
first studies to employ genetic analysis into language disorders
Week 3: Language thought and culture
saussure and language as a representational system
words represent labels and concepts, and signs are made of signifiers and signified
for saussure, speakers of different languages engage in an arbitrary division of reality, that is that different languages cut up reality in different ways
thus every language can be said to be a particular system of representation that mirrors and reinforce the world of the speakers
one language, one folk, one nation; spirit, essence, understanding of people in the nation are the same, there's no necessary connection between language and culture or language and race
edward sapir
humans are at the mercy of the particular language which has become their medium of expression in their society, we see, hear, experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation
benjamin lee whorf
the relationship between language and culture are deterministic, the social categories we create and how we perceive the events and actions are consumed by the language we speak
each language is not merely reproducing instrument for voicing ideas, but rather itself is the shaper of ideas... we cut nature up organise it into concepts because we are parties to an agreement to organise it in this way, an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language
Sapir-whorf hypothesis
linguistic determinism
the prison house view of language
The language we speak determines how we percieve and think about the world
language acts like a filter on the world and reality
able to only think in the categories that the language provides
largely discarded
linguistic relativism
different languages encode different categories and speakers of different languages therefore think about the world in different ways
language influences our thoughts about reality
generally accepted
counterarguments
language universals
language change
multilingualism
language and thought
mutual linguitic comprehension
translatability
studies triggered
shape or colour? (1950)
navajo vs english, where the navajo children remember things or notice thins by shape, while english remember by colour
colour (1960, 1991)
in all languages (98 languages collected) there were at least 2 but no more than 12 colour terms
grammatical gender (2003)
objects genedered in different languages
revisiting of the hypothesis
if different languages influence our minds in different ways this is not because of what our language allows us to think, but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about (2010)
Newspeak: language as thought control
thought diverging from IngSoc should be virtually unthinkable, at least as far as thought is dependant on words. vocab is constructed to give exact and very subtle expression, while excluding all other meanings, this is done by inventing new words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings
The premise is that as least so far as thought is dependant on words
Cultures and Values
Week 1: language communication and society
What is culture?
In the pyramid of human uniqueness, culture is learned.
iceberg metaphor of culture
surface level
popular culture
intermediate level
symbols, meaning and norms
deep level
traditions, beliefs and values
facets of culture
culture as learned
culture as shared
culture as relative
ethnocentrism vs ethnorelativism
culture as dynamic and mediated
culoture as individual, fragmentary and imagnary
culture as contested
culture as communication
Kluckhohn and strodbeck's cultural framework
Five challenges all cultures face
What is innate human nature
What is the relationship betweeen humans and nature
What is the relationship between humans
What is the preferred personality or modality of human activity
What is the temporal focus of human life (orientation towards time)
be aware that
cultures are dynamic and heterogenous
potential risks to essentialise ppl to mere stereotypes based on these value orientations
the value patterns exist on a continuum and are all present to varying degrees in all societies
What are values?
Shared ideas about what's right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, kind or cruel, or important or unimportant
hofsteade value orientations
power distance
femininity vs masculinity
collectivism vs individualism
long term vs short term
indulgence vs restraint
low uncertainty vs high uncertainty
language as human value
nature and psychology of language
language and thought, language and power
language culture and identity
communication as human value
cultural diversity in communication styles
nonverbal codes across cultures
media pop culture and intercultural communication
society (sociolinguistics and equality)
language, gender and sexuality
myths of globalisation and linguistic hegemony
culture, identity and language policy
Week 4: Language, culture and identity