Chapter 8- Language and Thought

Question 1

Human language

Answer 1

Open and symbolic communication system specific to Homo sapiens
Follows rules of grammar
Allows its users to express abstract and distant ideas
Over 7000 different human languages, each is distinct from each other, however each is similar enough and different enough from animal communication

Question 2

“Open”

Answer 2

Means that the system is dynamic and free to change

Ex: thousands of new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary

Question 3

“Symbolic”

Answer 3

Means that there is no real connection between a sound and the meaning or idea associated with it
Allows for flexibility in expressing meaning (ex: there are hundreds of ways to combine morphemes and phonemes to greet someone)
Ex: nothing about the word “cat” links it to the four-legged meowing creature it represents

Question 4

The Hierarchial Structure of Language

Answer 4

Every language spoken can be broken down into these five levels: Sentence, phrases, words, morphemes, phonemes

Question 5

Morphemes

Answer 5

The smallest units of meaning in a language

Represented by phonemes

Question 6

Phonemes

Answer 6

The smallest units of sound in a language

Basic consonant and vowel sounds

Question 7

Semantics

Answer 7

The meaning of words and combinations of words in a language

Question 8

Syntax

Answer 8

Rules for arranging words and symbols in sentences (or parts of sentences)

Question 9

Grammar

Answer 9

Entire set of rules for combining symbols and sounds
Used to speak and write a particular language
Includes matters like subject-verb agreement, plurals, possessives, etc.

The arbitrary nature of the connection between sound and meaning is evident when we consider that we can say the exact same sentence in almost every language in the world.

Question 10

Social context

Answer 10

also influences the meaning of language

Question 11

Pragmatics

Answer 11

The rules associated with the use of language across social situations
Involves knowing how to take turns in a conversation or how to speak differently to different people

Question 12

Being able to communicate effectively in a language includes

Answer 12

knowing when and how to use the language appropriately across social situations

Question 13

Why is Human Language Unique?

Answer 13

Because it is the only system capable of transmitting abstract ideas
Humans can discuss not only immediate feelings and needs but also abstract and remote ideas or states of being (such asa infinity, the afterlife, the universe- or whether apples are better than oranges)

Question 14

Protolanguage

Answer 14

Rudimentary language also known as pre-language
Used by earlier species of humans, such as Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis
Differs from true human language in that it is thought to consist of words without syntax

Question 15

Grammatical and syntactical language

Answer 15

First used by Homo sapiens
Language is less than 150,000 years old
Differs from animal communication
As our ancestors moved from protolanguage to grammatical language, they required brains with greater working memory and the ability for abstract thought

Question 16

Animal communication

Answer 16

Focuses on immediate events related to mating, survival, and social identity
Usually prompts an immediate response from the listener

Question 17

Theories of Evolution of the Human Language

Answer 17

Many scientists believe that the evolution of language and the evolution of the brain were intertwined
Human language relies upon other neural circuits than those used in the production and comprehension of animal calls
Increases in the size of human social groups may have triggered increased brain size and specialization, the more complex a group is, the greater the need for its members to communicate

Question 18

Wernicke’s area

Answer 18

Left hemisphere of brain

Language comprehension

Question 19

Broca’s area

Answer 19

Left hemisphere of brain

Language production

Question 20

Since infants understand language before they start speaking suggests

Answer 20

suggests that Wernicke’s area develops earlier than Broca’s area

Question 21

Stages of Language Development

Answer 21

cooing
babbling
one-word utterances
two word utterances
sentence phrase

Question 22

cooing

Answer 22

The first sounds humans make other than crying
During first 6 months
Repeated vowel sounds
“aah, ee, ooh”

Question 23

2) Babbling

Answer 23

Infant’s experimentation with a complex range of phonemes, including consonants and vowels
Sounds are not recognizable as words
5 to 6 months of age
First babble single syllables “buh” and “duh”. Later they utter gibberish which is a string of single syllabus “ da, buh, ma, wee…”

Question 24

Babbling Babies

Answer 24

Make more sounds than they hear in their native language
Can make more sounds and hear more sounds than their parents
Adult Asians cannot distinguish between the phonemes “r” and “l”. Their toddler children do, which suggests that the ability to discriminate sounds declines at some point in development.

Question 25

Experiment:

Janet Werker and Richard Tees were able to determine the age at which the ability to discriminate sounds disappears

Answer 25

Exposed English-speaking children of different ages to phones from English, Hindi and Salish
Children from six to eight months could easily discriminate between non-English phonemes that adults could not
However, this ability was lost in children by the time they reached the age of one year
As children progress through the babbling stage and with repeated exposure to the sounds in their native language, they lose the ability to say or perceive sounds that are not used in their language

Question 26

One-Word Utterances

Answer 26

Single word speech, like “mama”, “dada”, “more”, or “no!”
12 months of age
Likely descended from protolanguage

Question 27

How Children Learn Words

Answer 27

hildren tend to learn words that are spoken at the end of sentences first
Example:
In languages that are structured in the order of subject-verb-object, like English, children acquire sounds earlier than verbs because nouns are objects that tend to appear at the end of sentences
In languages that are structured subject-object-verb, like Japanese or Mandarin, children acquire verbs earlier than nouns

Question 28

Recency Effect

Answer 28

Tendency to remember/learn the last word in a sentence first
How babies learn language

Question 29

4) Two-Word Utterances

Answer 29

Phrases children put together
18 months
“my ball”, “mo wawa” or “go away”
Parents act as translators

Question 30

5) Sentence Phrase

Answer 30

The third phase of language development 
Speaking in fully grammatical sentences
Happens quickly 
Age 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old
Example: “I going come in fourteen minutes. You dress me up like a baby elephant. You know how to put it back together”

Question 31

Are Girls Better than Boys?

Answer 31

Girls slightly outperform boys in the acquisition of language skills, particularly vocabulary
This is true regardless of the language spoken and geographical area
The female advantage is not as apparent by the age of six and gender differences in language ability in adults are not as clear

Question 32

The Sequence of Acquiring Language

Answer 32

Cooing to babbling, one-word utterances, two-word utterances, adult-like sentence structure

Question 33

Association Between Brain Growth and Language Development

Answer 33

Steep rise in brain growth and language between the ages of one and three
The rapid development of language matches the rapid growth of the brain
Age one
child’s brain is less than 50% of its adult size
Infant is babbling and perhaps saying a few words
Age three
Brain is 75-80% of its adults size
Child says two-word phrases and short sentences

Question 34

Sensitive Period

Answer 34

If children are not exposed to any human language before a certain age, their language abilities never develop
Begins in first years of life and ends at about age 12
Optimal time for learning language
Severe neglect and lack of exposure during this period cause permanent problems in language development
We need verbal stimulation from others while we are young children in order to develop the ability to speak

Question 35

Case of Genie

Answer 35

Abused and severely neglected
Diagnosed as mildly retarded at 2 years old
Father tied her to a chair all day and caged her in a crib at night
Was beaten every time she tried to speak and yelled at
Abuse lasted until Genie was 13 and 1/2
Social worker thought she was 6 or 7 years old based on her body
Could only speak a few words like “stopit” or “nomore”
Age 17 and four years of language training, her language skills were extremely delayed
Could communicate simple ideas, but her speech was ungrammatical sentences
“Spot chew glove” or “Applesauce buy store”
Language on par with young child
Language comprehension was much better than language production
Brain activity while speaking was located in the right hemisphere, language ability is located in the left hemisphere

The Case of Genie suggests that left hemisphere speech development requires stimulation from the environment during a certain sensitive period if it is to develop properly

Question 36

Environmental Influence theory

Answer 36

We learn language from the people around us
Acquire vocabulary by hearing others speak
Figure out what people mean by context

Children who hear more total and unique words and complex sentences develop their language faster and more richly than those who do not

Question 37

Social and Learning Theorists

Answer 37

Argue for the importance of social input and stimulation

Question 38

Environmental Influences on Language

Answer 38

Culture
Socioeconomic status
Birth order
School
Peers
Television
Parents

Question 39

Development of Vocabulary as a Function of Socioeconomic Status of the Family

Answer 39

Examined language development in families with children from three different economic groups: professional, middle and working class, and unemployed
All children started to speak around the same time and developed good structure and use of language
Children from professional families heard 2153 words per hour, those from middle and working families heard 1251 words per hour, those from unemployed heard 616 words per hour.
By age three, the average vocabulary of children from unemployed families was around 500 words
Children from professional families was 1100 words
Children from professional families heard more encouragement words than discouragement words than all of the others

Question 40

Imitation

Answer 40

Doing exactly what you see someone else do
Much of what we learn comes from imitating family members

Newborns will stick out their tongues or open their mouths when they see an adult do so
Older babies try to imitate sounds they hear

Question 41

Child-directed speech

Answer 41

Changes in adult speech patterns when speaking to young children or infants
Universal
Characterized by:
Speaking in a higher pitch
Raise and lowering volume of voice
Using simpler sentence structures
Emphasizing the here and now
Using emotion to communicate their messages

Question 42

Mirror neurons

Answer 42

Clusters of brain cells that fire when an individual both performs a task and observes another person do the same task
Facilitate social learning and imitation
Humans have mirror neurons that become active during both language and imitation tasks, suggesting an important relationship

Question 43

Spoken language

Answer 43

relies on auditory input and oral output

Question 44

Sign language

Answer 44

relies on visual input and manual output
Are true languages
Recruit the same left hemisphere areas used in spoken language
Also involves right hemisphere, which has strong role in spatial cognition
Degree of right hemisphere activation in signers is strongly influenced by early life experience
Individuals who learned ASL before puberty show much more right hemisphere involvement than signers who learned after puberty

Question 45

Conditioning and Learning Theory

B.F Skinner

Answer 45

Believed that language is like any other behaviour: something that exists because it is reinforced and shaped
Proposed that we don’t speak because we want to convey an idea or feeling
We speak because we are reinforced to

Question 46

Conditions That Reinforce Verbal Behaviour According to Skinner

Answer 46

Parent’s reaction has reinforcing effect that shapes children behaviour
Whenever children say anything that comes close to a word, the parents smile and say “Wow! She said Mama!”

Language development is shaping, successive approximations, and reinforcement
The first approximation of a complex behaviour will be reinforced
A toddler utters “mama”, she gets more of her mother’s attention and smiles than when she utters “baba”
The child learns that the word “mama” matters and then learns what it means
Each step is subsequently reinforced until the child reaches the final behaviour, speaking in fully grammatical sentences
Cannot fully explain how we learn language, parental reinforcement does not consistently occur for aspects of language development like syntax and grammar rules

Question 47

Nativist View of Language

Answer 47

We discover language rather than learn it
Language development is “native” or inborn
The brain is structured for language learning

Question 48

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 48

An innate, biologically based capacity to acquire language
Proposed by Noam Chomsky as part of his nativist view of language
Humans are biologically built to speak
Must have principles of universal grammar that allow a child to learn any language as her/his native language

Question 49

Chomsky

Answer 49

Suggested that there is a universal grammar underlying all human languages
Each individual language is simply a specific expression of this universal grammar
A cornerstone of universal grammar is that all languages embed clauses within clauses

Question 50

Nativist Theorists

Answer 50

Argue for the importance of brain structures and genetic factors

Question 51

“Innately guided learning”

Answer 51

We learn to speak, but in doing so we are guided by our innate capacity for language learning
Grammar: more innate and genetically influenced
Vocabulary: more strongly shaped by the environment

Question 52

FOXP2

Answer 52

a gene involved in both understanding and producing speech
Variants found in all mammals, but human form differs from chimpanzees/ closest living relatives
Recently found in Neanderthal DNA

Question 53

Can Apes Learn Human Language?

Answer 53

Chimps do not have vocal apparatus that allows them to speak, physically incapable of making same range of sounds as humans

Can be taught to communicate using non-vocal sign language, ASL (American Sign Language)

Allen and Beatrix Gardner have compiled more than 400 ASL signs that three chimps named Dar, Tatu, and Moja learned

Range: 100=400 words

Kanzi was son of Matata, who were both captured in the wild
Adult Matata had little success in learning sign language
Kanzi was present for all sessions but not formally taught any signs
Kanzi was paying attention to the signs they taught his mother
He learned more quickly and developed a larger vocabulary than his mom
Equivalent language comprehension to that of a two-and-a-half year old human child
Kanzi knows 3000 words

Question 54

Can Apes Use ASL to Communicate With Each other?

Answer 54

Sometimes

Question 55

What do Apes Sign about?

Answer 55

88% conversations about social interaction, play, and reassurance
12% about feeding, grooming, cleaning, discipline, and “talking” to themselves

Question 56

Washoe

Answer 56

Chimp who taught her son Louis how to sign

In 8 weeks, Louis regularly signed with humans and learned about 20 signs after 18 months

Question 57

Apes are still limited compared to humans

Answer 57

Do have some basic level of metacognition
Acquire signs slower than humans
Apes rarely progress beyond two or three word combinations
Highest level of language learning is equivalent to the level of a toddler in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure
Do not understand or correctly use syntax

Question 58

Metacognition

Answer 58

Knowing what they know and do not know

Question 59

Border Collie Named Rico

Answer 59

Vocabulary of 200 words, similar to that of human toddler
Can fetch objects based on their spoken name
If asked to retrieve object he has never heard of before, will fetch an unfamiliar object over familiar ones
Can make the link between an unfamiliar, arbitrary sound and an novel object, a process important in human children

Question 60

Natural Language Lab at Simon Fraser University

Answer 60

Created computer programs that can learn, understand and translate language

Question 61

Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis

Answer 61

Language creates thought as much as thought creates language
Benjamin Whorf and Edward Sapir
Language shapes our thoughts and perceptions to the extent that people who speak languages that lack a common foundation (Like English or Chinese) have difficulty directly communicating and translating their ideas from one language to another
Leads to the linguistic determinism hypothesis

Question 62

Linguistic Determinism Hypothesis

Answer 62

States that our language determines our way of thinking and perceptions of the world
If there are no words for certain objects or concept’s in one’s language, it is not possible to think about those objects or concepts

Question 63

Linguistic realism

Answer 63

The view that language influences our thinking (not determines)
If languages differ in the words they use to define categories, one might have a cognitive advantage with a larger amount of categories