Language and Cognition

Question 1

What is linguistic determinism?

Answer 1

• Looking at relationship between language and cognition
• It is the claim that speakers of different languages are constrained to think and perceive in certain ways because of their specific language
• E.g if a language doesn’t have a colour for blue, then they can’t see blue, or if no term for justice, then they have no justice
• It is largely rejected

Question 2

What is linguistic relativity?

Answer 2

• A weaker version, so it is the claim that different languages shape or bias (rather than determine) the thoughts of its speakers
• E.g It is easier to perceive difference between two colours if your language distinguishes between them
• On this view, language does not fundamentally restrict our perceptual abilities, or prevent us from entertaining any thouught. it rather biases thoughts

Question 3

What is thinking-for-speaking?

Answer 3

• The weakest version, and the claim here is that different languages shape thoughts (perceptions) of speakers while speaking
• This contrasts linguistic relativity research which generally focuses on the impact of language on non-linguistic thinking.

Question 4

Define linguistic relativity

Answer 4

• Linguistic relativity is whether language shapes thoughts in sone way other than through the semantic information that it conveys.
• It is basically whether the structure of language e.g syntactic, morphological, lexical, phonological etc has an effect on thought

Question 5

What can we research about linguistic relativity?

Answer 5

• Do different ways of talking about TIME lead to differences in how people think and reason about time?
• What about SPATIAL references?
• What about grammatical gender of objects etc in Spanish, French but not in English- do people actually view objects in a feminine/masculine way?

Question 6

Why is the perception of colour and speech sounds being investigated?

Answer 6

• Our perception of colour and sounds demonstrate categorical perception
• Categorical perception is when we perceive discrete categories in the world when the world in continuous
• Two features of categorical perception is : 1) Sharp labelling (identification) function and 2) Discontinuous discriminations

Question 7

How does colour link with categorical perception?

Answer 7

• Colour is a classic case of categorical perception e.g when our perceptions categorise stimuli in an arbitrary manner given the nature of the physical worlds
• Our colour perceptions do not mirror the physical properties of light.Perceived differences among wavelengths tat fall into different categories are exaggerated whilst differences among wavelengths that fall within the same category are minimised.

Question 8

Who do we show categorical perception in the domain of vision and speech?

Answer 8

• The languages we speak impact on our perception of colour and speech sounds
• Another explanation is that the physiology of the visual and auditory systems is such that we would show categorical perception independent of language
• At about 6 motnhs, babies are better at discriminating phonemes in all languages, but perception changes with more exposure to their native language, which then makes it more difficult to distinguish phonemes from other languages.

Question 9

Summarise the speech and colour perception results

Answer 9

• There is evidence that language impacts our perception of sounds and colours
• It is consistent with linguistic relativity, but it not evidence for linguistic determinism