2. Language
• Our spoken written or
gestured words and
the way we combine
them to communicate
meaning.
This communication is
definitely a form of
language!!!
3. What is language?
Language vs. communication
Why do we say that bees do not have a “language?”
4. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that
catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
Lewis Carrol
Cognitive Psychology To Behaviorism:
“This Should Not Be Possible”
5. Grammar
• A system of rules in a
language that enables
us to communicate and
understand others.
6. Language Universals
1. Regular (grammar)
2. Semantic
3. Productive
4. Arbitrariness: random symbol
5. Naming: assign names to objects, feelings,
& ideas
7. Phonemes
• In a spoken
language, the
smallest distinctive
sound unit.
• INVARIANCE
9. Phoneme Restoration Effect
• Warren & Warren (1970)
– It was found that the *eel was on the axle
– It was found that the *eel was on the shoe
– It was found that the *eel was on the orange
– It was found that the *eel was on the table
• * was a cough
10. Syntax
• The rules for
combining words
into grammatically
sensible sentences.
Is this a black dog
or a dog black?
11. The structure of language
Context Effects
Words that fit sentence
The Eskimos were frightened by the walrus.
The bankers were frightened by the walrus.
– Lexical ambiguity
– Understand truth conditions
Garden path sentences
The cotton shirts are made from comes from Arizona
SEMANTIC GRAMMAR THEORY
12. Chomsky’s Transformational
Grammar
• Phrase structure = word groupings & their
relationships
• 2 levels of representation
– Deep structure (Logical Form (LF))
– Surface structure (Phonetic Form (PF))
• Transformational Rules: deep → surface
13. Morphemes
• In a language, the
smallest unit that
carries meaning.
• Can be a word or part
of a word (prefix or
suffix).
• Mental Lexicon
14. Semantics
• The set of rules by
which we derive
meaning in a
language.
• Adding ed at the
end of words
means past tense.
SEMANTIC CASES
19. Chomsky
Inborn Universal Grammar
• We acquire language
too quickly
– “Learning box”
• enables us to learn
any human language.
• Modularity
Hypothesis
28. Washoe
(Gardner & Gardner, 1960’s)
• Started to learn at 11 months
• Brouht up as a deaf child (games,
social activities)
► ASL, American Sign Language
30. Francine Patterson
33 year-old gorilla, learned the
language in infancy (ASL)
Supposedly knows a 1000 signs
and understands written English.
Chatted on AOL
Could communicate toothache
31. Conclusions about ape studies
ape
• Here and now
• No syntax
• explicit teaching
• Does not refuse badly formed
sentences
• Rarely forms questions
• Not using symbols spontaneuosly
• Banana me me me eat.
child
• Sense of time
• syntax
• No explicit teaching – spontaneous
signs with deaf children)
• Refuses badly formed sentences
• Frequent questions
• Referential use of symbols
• I am going to eat all the bananas.
