language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism language and the mind prof....
Post on 19-Dec-2015
220 views
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism
Language and the MindProf. R. Hickey
SS 2006
![Page 2: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Table of contents
1. An instinct to acquire an art
2. Chatterboxes
3. Mentalese
4. Baby Born Talking- Describing heaven
5. Language, Darwin, Language Instinct and a few Fallacies connected with it
6. Words, Words, Words
7. The Tower of Babel
8. Mind Design
![Page 3: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
An instinct to acquire an art
• Instinct to learn, speak, and understand language
• Language = wonder of the natural world
• Language = preeminent trait
• Cognitive science
![Page 4: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
An instinct to acquire an art
• How do children learn language?
• Language = complex, specialized skill
• Cognitive scientist: language = psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module
• Conception of language as an instinct was first articulated in 1871 by Darwin
![Page 5: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
An instinct to acquire an art
• Most famous argument that language is an instinct comes from Noam Chomsky
1. Every sentence is a brand-new combination of words
2. Children develop complex grammars rapidly and without instruction and grow up to give consistent interpretations to new sentence construction
![Page 6: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Why should anyone believe that human language is part of human
biology – an instinct – at all ?
![Page 7: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• 1920s : Discovering of unexplored country
• Jabber = language
![Page 8: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• Myth: working-class people and less educated members of middle class speak a simpler language
• BEV another language?
1. He be working
2. He working
![Page 9: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• Language development in children
• Children reinvent language
![Page 10: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• How do particular languages arose in the world today?
• Mixed slaves
• Pidgin = language of the slaves
• Creole = language that results when children make a pidgin their native tongue
![Page 11: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• Sign languages: no pantomimes and gestures
• Full language using the same kinds of grammatical machinery found worldwide in spoken languages
![Page 12: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• Parents do not provide explicit grammar lessons
• Cildren know things they could not have been taught
1. A unicorn is in the garden
2. A unicorn that is eating a flower is in the garden
![Page 13: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Chatterboxes
• Language and the brain
• No one has yet located a language organ or a grammar gene but the search is on
• Stroke or bullet wound
• Intellectual functions are all preserved
![Page 14: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
You don‘t need to be middle class, you don‘t need to do well in school, your
parents need‘t to bathe you in language, indeed, you can posess all these
advantages and still not be a competent language user, if you lack just the right
genes or just the right bits of brain
![Page 15: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Mentalese
Question:
Is thought dependent on words or
Are our thoughts couched in some silent medium of the brain and clothed in words whenever we want to express them?
![Page 16: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Mentalese
Pinker says that…- we do not think in language or in words.- we think in visual and auditory images.- we think in abstract propositions about
what is true about what. - language is a way of communicating
thoughts, of getting them out of one head and into another by making noise.
![Page 17: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Mentalese
Pinker points out that…- words can be ambiguous. Example: adj. “tame”→ a tame animal, which is not afraid of human
beings→ a tame topic (tame = boring)→ two different subjects = two different meanings
of the same word
≫Therefore words and thoughts can't be the same thing.
![Page 18: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Mentalese
- famous essay called "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax" (myth: Eskimos have hundred words for snow)
- someone went to a dictionary of the Eskimo language - counted the number of words for snow- found in first dictionary only two, in bigger ones a
dozen or twenty words for snow
- But: the English language has also a lot of words for snow (avalanche, blizzard, hard pack, powder, sleet, slush)
![Page 19: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Mentalese
≠ you think more thoughts or more finely discriminating thoughts
→ if you know a lot about sth., you invent new words to express them (= slang/ jargon)
→ Conclusion: if you are an expert in something you are going to have more jargon words for it
![Page 20: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Mentalese
We think in visual images:- autobiographies of great scientists, authors, poets
etc. - all of them say that their moments of inspiration often
come from a vivid visual image- then they have to struggle to find the words to
express that image in their mother tongue- like Einstein : claimed to have come upon his insight
about relativity theory by imagining what it would be like to be in a plummeting elevator and then to take a coin out of your pocket and try to drop it
![Page 21: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Mentalese
→ Conclusion: language is a very rich part of the mind, but only one part
≫The mind has a language of its own, independent of the language that the mouth uses, which is called Mentalese.
- speaking = translating Mentalese into English or Japanese
- understanding = translating English or Japanese into Mentalese depending on which language you actually speak
![Page 22: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Mentalese
- Pinker thinks that this is why we can understand each other, can translate and why we can coin new words when we need them.
- If words and thoughts were the same thing it would be impossible to coin a new word.
But: when speaking or writing, people often have the sense that they did not express themselves properly
→ there are some researches of the subtle shades of meaning within different word orders
Example: "I sprayed paint on the wall“ "I sprayed the wall with paint."
![Page 23: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Mentalese
- sound like synonyms expressing the same thought- The thoughts they express overlap a lot, but there's
a little difference:There are two ways of understanding:1.) the wall is completely covered with paint2.) there could just be a little dab in one corner
→ even tiny differences in the order of words can convey very subtle differences in meaning
![Page 24: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Mentalese
- Mentalese = a way of thinking that is quite independent of language
□ people who were born deaf and never learned language = able to express thoughts using sign language (fully expressive, grammatical, complex language)
→ are cut off from a lot of our culture (we convey our culture through words)
→ it is clear that they have minds, which are capable of some abstract understanding
![Page 25: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Mentalese
• Question:
Is our Mentalese shaped by language nonetheless (like when you are listening to someone else's speech) ?
![Page 26: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Mentalese
• the contents of Mentalese = supplied by - language- learning about objects in faraway places - learning about abstract concepts from
conversations with other people - reading. • like the entry port into the mind• The actual sentences of Mentalese often derive
from language (we only remember the gist).
![Page 27: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Mentalese
• the evolution of the human species = evolution of language +the evolution of language in
thought
Chain: think more complex thoughts → puts pressure on you → able to share them → people supplying you with complex language→ puts pressure on you → able to have those thoughts
≫a kind of feedback loop, where each one helped the other
![Page 28: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Mentalese• a question of habits - certain language groups habitually cultivate
certain states that then they like to talk about - in the habit of dealing with different aspects of
the world→ dealing with other people who are also dealing
with those aspects→ going to invent the words to be able to
communicate them • But the fact that we can invent words is what
makes Pinker think that the experiences come first.
![Page 29: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Conclusion-Mentalese = a way of thinking that is quite independent of language; the language of the mind
- People think in visual and auditory images.
- Thoughts are expressed with words but they are not determined by language.
- Language is a way of communicating thoughts.
- Language is an instinct, because also deaf people communicate in a way in which a kind of language is used.
![Page 30: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Conclusion
- The fact that people can invent new words shows that the experiences come first.
- Mentalese is supplied by communication or reading and is, in some way, influenced by culture.
![Page 31: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
References
- Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct
- www.williamjames.com/transcripts/pinker1.htm
- ….
- …..
- …..
![Page 32: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Baby Born Talking- Describing heaven
![Page 33: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Introduction
1. Introduction
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
3. Common Grammar Mistakes
4. Conclusion
![Page 34: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
1. Introduction
The Sun, a tabloid daily newspaper published in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world:
On May 21, 1985 the Sun wrote:
-“ BABY BORN TALKING – DESCRIBING HEAVEN. Infant’s words proof reincarnation exists.’’
On June 8, 1993:
-“ AMAZING 2 HEADED BABY IS PROOF OF REINCARNATION. ONE HEAD SPEAKS ENGLISH – THE OTHER ANCIENT LATIN.”
Why does this only occur in fiction???
![Page 35: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
- most children do not speak until they are one year old
- first start combining words with about 18 months
- start speaking in fluent grammatical sentences until they are 2-3
Nevertheless Infants already have linguistic skills when they are born.
![Page 36: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
Psychologists Jacques Mehler and Peter Jusczyk:
- Babies have knowledge of their mother’s language
- French Infants suck harder when hearing their mother tongue
- The babies must have learned something in the womb of the mother and during the first days after their birth
![Page 37: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
During the first year:
- Learn the sounds of their language
- Get their speech system geared up
- Produce sounds: cries, grunts, sighs, clicks, stops and later laughs and coos ( ca. 2 months)
- Play with sounds rather then expressing their emotional or physical state ( ca. 6-7 months)
- Begin to babble: ba-ba-ba, dee-dee-dee,… ( ca. 8 months)
![Page 38: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
- Children who cannot use their speech system during their first years, are retarded in speech development
- Deaf children babble later and simpler, but if their parents use sign language, they babble with their hands!!!
Why is babbling so important?
- Infants have a very complicated piece of audio but no manual that shows them how to use it
- By experimenting with the articulator children learn how to produce all kinds of sounds
![Page 39: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
During the 2nd year:
- Babies begin to understand words and start to produce them ( ca. 12 months)
One-word stage: - Infants first words are to 50% objects (food, clothing, body
parts, …) - Words for actions, motions and routines : up, off, peekaboo,
eat, …- Modifiers, like hot, more, dirty,… - Routines, like yes, no, want ,…
![Page 40: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
- With about 18months language starts to develop very fast- Syntax begins with strings of two: All dry. All messy. All wet.
I sit. I shut. No bed. Our cat. Papa away. Dry pants.
- In 95% the word order of the Two-Word Strings is correct - There is more going on in children minds then that what the
say
![Page 41: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
2. The Stages of Language Acquisition
During the 3rd year:
All Hell Breaks Loose:
- Children's language suddenly becomes grammatically fluent- Sentence length increases steadily and becomes more complex- The number of syntactic types reaches the thousands before
the 3rd birthday
e.g.: before: Give doggie paper and Big doggie now: Give big doggie paper
![Page 42: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
3. Common Grammar Mistakes
No matter what grammatical rule is chosen, three-year-olds obey it most of the time!!!!
- Errors in sentences like: Can you broke those, Button me the rest only occur in 0.1%-8%
- In more then 90% the children are right- They are not only grammatically correct in quantity but also in quality- The errors children make often follow the logic of grammar- The most common mistake is to overgeneralize
e.g.: irregular verbs holded, heared, … plural -s tooths, mouses, mens
![Page 43: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
3. Conclusion
- Babies are born with linguistic skills
- They need an input to learn a language
- Language Acquisition happens in different stages
- 1st Language Acquisition happens very rapid and is complete
- Infants only make few grammar mistakes
- 1 Language acquisition is only guaranteed for children up to 6 years
Babies aren’t born talking!!!
![Page 44: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
References
Pinker, Steven 1994. The language instinct the new science of language and mind. Lane, Penguin Pr.
![Page 45: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Language, Darwin,Language Instinctand a few Fallacies connected with it
![Page 46: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Nonhuman communication :
• A fine repertory of calls
• A continuous analog signal that registeres the magnitude of some state
• A series of random variations on a theme
![Page 47: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
The design of human language:
• Infinite
• Digital
• Compositional
![Page 48: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
The seat of the brain:
Primates
• Vocal cords controlled by the older neural structures in the brain stem and limbic system
Humans
• Vocal cords controlled by the cerebral cortex
![Page 49: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Teaching language to animals:
ChimpanzeesGua - cross fosteringViki - cross fosteringWashoe - American Sign Language - about 130 signsLana - about 130 symbols Sarah - PremackeseNim Chimpsky - American Sign Language
Bonobo (Pygmy Chimpanzee)Kanzi - Yerkish, best 'language learner' so far - learnt about 400 symbols.
![Page 50: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
KoKo‘s case:
The claims that an ape is capable of acquiring ASL(American Sign Language)
• „Language is no longer the exclusive domain of man“
Francine(Penny) Patterson (Koko‘s trainer)
![Page 51: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
Nim Chimpsky‘s myth:• „ Every time the chimp made a sign, we were
supposed to write it down in the log…They(the hearing people) were always complaining because my log didn’t show enough signs.(…) I watched really carefully. The chimp‘s hands were moving constantly.(…) Every time the chimp put his finger in his mouth, they‘d say “Oh, he‘s making the sign for drink,“(…)Sometimes [the trainers] would say,“Oh,amazing, look at that, it‘s exactly like the ASL sign for give!“It wasn‘t.“
![Page 52: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
Typical sentences from a language-trained chimp are:
• Nim eat Nim eat.
• Drink eat me Nim.
• Me gum me gum.
• Tickle me Nim play.
• Me eat Me eat
• Me banana you banana me you give .
• Banana me me me eat.
• You me banana me banana you.
• Orange give me you.
![Page 53: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
Darwin‘s theory and the big bang
„If the basic principles of language cannot be learned or derived, there are only two possible explanations for their existence:
either Universal Grammar was endowed to us directly by the Creator, or else our species has undergone a mutation of
unprecedented magnituide, a cognitive equivalent of the Big Bang …“
Elizabeth Bates
![Page 54: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
The Wrong TheoryAmoebas
|Sponges
|Jellyfish
|Flatworms
|Trout Frog
|Lizards
| Dinosaurs
|Anteater
|Monkey
| Ape
| Chimpanzee
| Homo sapiens
![Page 55: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
The Right Theory
A B C
A.africanusGorillas Chimpanzees A.afarensis A.robustus
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
ArchaicHomo sapiens
Modern Homo sapiens
Neanderthal
![Page 56: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
Analogy and Homology:
• „Analogous“ traits are ones that have a common function but arose on different branches of the evolutionary tree
(wings of a bird and the wings of a bee)
• „Homologous“ traits are those that were inherited after the same ancestor and hence have some common structure that bespeaks their being „the same organ“ (the wing of a bat, the hand of a human)
![Page 57: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
Homology in nature
![Page 58: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
The DNA fallacy• The findings show that chimpanzees and humans
share 98% to 99% of their DNA, a factoid that has become widely circulated
![Page 59: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
The evolution of the chimp-human common ancestor
• Complex artifacts are thought t o reflect a complex mind which could benefit from complex language
![Page 60: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
The beginnings of language:
• 30,000 years ago-the age of the gorgeous cave art and decorated artefacts of Cro-Magnon humans in the Upper Paleolithic (the date most commonly given in magazine article and textbooks
for the origin of language)
![Page 61: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
The Traces of Language
• Australopithecus afarensis-5 to 7 million years ago(probably the first traces of language)
• Homo habilis-2,5 to 2 million years ago(caches of stone tools,imprints of the wrinkle patterns of the brain)
• Homo erectus 1,5 to 500,00 years ago(control of fire, well-crafted hand-axes)
• Homo sapiens-thought to appear 200,000 years ago(biologically they were us)
![Page 62: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/62.jpg)
• „Can the problem of the evolution of language be addressed today? In fact, little is known about these matters. Evolutionary theory is informative about many things, but it has little to say as of now, about questions of this nature. The answers may well lie not so much in the theory of natural selection as in molecular biology, in the study of what kinds of physical systems can develop under the conditions of life on earth and why, ultimately because of physical principles. It surely cannot be assumed that every trait is specifically selected. In the case of such systems as language . . . it is not easy to imagine a course of selections that might have given rise to them.”
Chomsky
![Page 63: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/63.jpg)
Topic
Words, Words, Words
![Page 64: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/64.jpg)
Introduction
• - sentences are built out of words (syntax)- words are built out of smaller units (morphology)
- small units of words are called morphemes
English morphology:
noun = two forms (ball, balls)verb = four forms (kick, kicks, kicked, kicking)
![Page 65: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/65.jpg)
inflectional morphology
- modifying a word to fit into a sentence (e.g. times)
derivational morphology
- create a new word out of an old one (e.g. add a suffix)
compounding
- „glue“ two words together (e.g. noun + noun = new
word)
![Page 66: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/66.jpg)
First rule
A noun can consist of a noun stem followed by a noun inflection.
N
Nstem Ninflection
ball -s
![Page 67: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/67.jpg)
Second rule
A noun stem can consist of a noun stem followed by another noun stem.
Nstem
Nstem Nstem
foot ball
![Page 68: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/68.jpg)
Third rule
An adjective stem can consist of a stem joined to a suffix.
Astem
Vstem Astemaffix
crunch -able
![Page 69: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/69.jpg)
- verb + -able = adjective
- verb + -er = noun
- adjective + -ness = noun
![Page 70: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/70.jpg)
Fourth rule
A noun stem can be composed of a noun root and a suffix.
Nstem
Nroot Nrootaffix
electric -ity
![Page 71: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/71.jpg)
Irregularity
messy patterns in irregular plurals
- mouse-mice, man-men
messy patterns in irregular past-tense forms
- drink-drank, seek-sought
- irregular verb forms often come in families
- irregular forms must be learned
![Page 72: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/72.jpg)
• when a big word is built out of smaller words, the big word gets all its properties from one special word sitting inside it at the extreme right: the head
V N
P V N N
over shoot work man
![Page 73: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/73.jpg)
Conclusion
• 1. Words consist of morphemes
2. Regular forms can be formed easily
3. Irregular forms must be learned
4. New words have the properties from their heads.
![Page 74: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/74.jpg)
The Tower of Babel
![Page 75: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/75.jpg)
• And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. [....] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered aboard upon the face of the whole earth. [….] And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. [….] (Genesis 11:1-9)
![Page 76: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/76.jpg)
Differences vs. Universals• 1957:• Linguist Martin Joos• - Joos declared that “languages could differ from
each other without limit and in unpredictable ways, so God had gone much farther in confounding the language.
• Chomoskyan-Revolution -> publication of “Syntactic Structures”:
• -a visiting Martian scientist would conclude that aside from their different vocabularies, Earthlings speak a single language
![Page 77: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/77.jpg)
• Linguist Joseph Greenberg:• -1963 he examined a sample of 30 languages from
5 continents, including Serbian, Italian, Basque, Finnish, Swahili, Nubian, Masaai, Berber, Turkish, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Burmese etc.
• -In the first investigation, which focused in the order of words and morphemes, he found more than 45 universals.
• Example: No language forms questions by reversing the order of words within a sentence
![Page 78: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/78.jpg)
• Chomsky’s claim is based on the discovery that the same symbolmanipulating machinery, without exception, underlies the world’s languages:
• -Languages use the mouth-to-ear channel
• -a common grammatical code
• -words have stable meanings, linked to them by arbitrary convention
• -speech sounds are treated discontinuously:
• a sound that is acoustically halfway between bat and pat doesn’t meaning something halfway between batting and patting
• -languages can convey meanings that are abstract and remote in time or space from the speaker
• -all languages have a vocabulary in the thousands or tens of thousands, sorted into part-of-speech categories including noun and verb
![Page 79: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/79.jpg)
• A few properties of language are simply not specified in Universal Grammar:
• -it is upon to each language to choose whether the order of elements within a phrase is head-first or head-last (eat sushi and to Chicago versus sushi eat and Chicago to)
• -whether a subject is mandatory in all sentences or can be leave out when the speaker desires
![Page 80: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/80.jpg)
We need to understand why there is more
than one language • Darwin himself expressed the key insight: We find
in distinct languages striking homologies due to community of descent, and analogies due to a similar process of formation.[…] Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groups under groups; and they can be classed either naturally, according to descent, or artificially by other characters. Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, and lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A language, like a species, when extinct, never [...] reappears.
![Page 81: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/81.jpg)
• -English is similar to German for the same reason that foxes are similar but not identical to wolves:
• English and German are modifications of a common ancestor language spoken in the past.
• And foxes and wolves are modifications of a common ancestor species that lived in the past.
• Differences among languages, like differences species, are the effect of three processing acting over long spans of time:
![Page 82: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/82.jpg)
1. Variation-Genetic- Inheritance • -learning is an option like camouflage or horns, that nature
gives organisms as needed• -evolutionary theory has shown that when an environment
is stable, there is a selective pressure for learned abilities to become increasingly innate
• -why might it pay for the child to learn parts of a language rather than having the whole system hard-wired?
• -a reason for language to be partly learned is that language inherently involves sharing a code with other people
• -an innate grammar is useless if you are the only one possessing it
• -evolution may have given children an ability to learn the variable parts of language as a way of synchronizing their grammars with that of the community
![Page 83: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/83.jpg)
2. Variation-Mutation • -some person, somewhere, must begin to speak differently from
their neighbours
• -this innovation must spread and catch on like contagions disease
• -Change can arise from many sources:
• words can coined
• borrowed from other languages
• stretched in meaning
• and forgotten
• -new speech styles then infiltrate the mainstream
• -people are occasionally apt to reanalyze the speech they hear:
• orange -> borrowed from the Spanish: naranjo
• a creative speaker reanalyzed a norange as an orange
![Page 84: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/84.jpg)
3. Separation
• -separation among groups of speakers is the cause that successful innovations do not take over everywhere but accumulate separately
• -at all times, in all communities, language changes in different ways
• -some old dialects are still spoken elsewhere:
![Page 85: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/85.jpg)
• afeared - afraid
• yourn - your
• hisn - his
• et - eat
• holp - help
• clome - climb
![Page 86: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/86.jpg)
• From the Proto-Germanic (1st millennium B.C.)• The tribe splits into groups and came to speak:• -Anglo-Saxon• -German and offshoot Yiddish• -Dutch and offshoot Afrikaans• -Swedish• -Danish• -Norwegian• -Icelandic
![Page 87: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/87.jpg)
4) Languages are perpetuated by the
children who learn them • -when a language is spoken only by adults, it is doomed• • The linguist Michael Krauss estimates:• -150 North American Indian languages (80% of the
existing ones) are going to die • -40 languages in Alaska and northern Siberia • -160 in Central and South America• -45 in Russia • -225 in Australia• -perhaps 3000 worldwide• -only about 600 are reasonable save
![Page 88: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/88.jpg)
The Language Mavens
Hannah HeinrichsenLanguage and Culture
Prof. R. HickeySS06
Hauptstudium LN
![Page 89: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/89.jpg)
Contents
1. Rules
2. “Correct English“
3. Language Mavens3.1 Types of Mavens
3.2 History of the Mavens
4. Standard English vs. Non Standard English
5. Conclusion
6. References
![Page 90: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/90.jpg)
1. Rules
• Prescriptive rules: prescribe how one „ought“ to talk
• Descriptive rules: describe how people do talk
• Fundamental rules: create sentences, define the infinitives and list the words…
![Page 91: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/91.jpg)
2. „Correct English“
• What is “correct English”? Who tells us so?
– no English language Academy– no Founding Fathers at some English Language
Constitution Conference at the beginning
![Page 92: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/92.jpg)
2. „Correct English“
– Legislators of “correct English”:• network of copy-editors
• dictionary usage panellists
• style manual and handbook writers
• English teachers
• Essayists
• Columnists
• pundits
![Page 93: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/93.jpg)
3. The Language Mavens
• Maven from a Yiddish word meaning expert
• make prescriptive rules or keep them alive
![Page 94: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/94.jpg)
3.1 Types of Mavens
1. The Wordwatcher
2. The Jeremiah
3. The Sage
4. The Entertainer
![Page 95: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/95.jpg)
3.1 Types of Mavens
1. The Wordwatcher
Wordwatchers train their binoculars on the especially capricious, eccentric, and poorly documented words and idioms that get sighed from time to time
![Page 96: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/96.jpg)
3.1 Types of Mavens
2. The Jeremiah
Jeremiahs express their bitter laments and righteous prophecies of doom
![Page 97: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/97.jpg)
3.1 Types of Mavens
3. The Entertainer
The entertainer shows off his collection of palindromes, puns, anagrams, rebuses, malapropisms, Goldwysms, eponyms, sesquipedalian, howlers, and bloopers.
![Page 98: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/98.jpg)
3.1 Types of Mavens
4. The Sage
The sages are known for taking a moderate, common-sense approach to matters of usage, and they tease their victims with wit rather than savaging them with invective
![Page 99: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/99.jpg)
3.2 History of the Language Mavens
18th century: • London political and financial centre of England• England centre of a powerful empire
→London dialect suddenly became an important world language→Unprecedented social mobility for anyone who desired education→demand for handbooks and style manuals→Competition: manuals tried to outdo one another by including
greater numbers of increasingly fastidious rules that no refined person could afford to ignore
![Page 100: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/100.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• The American Language (H.L. Mencken):– dialect of English spoken throughout the
country – didn’t become the standard of government and
education– the language maven claims that non-standard
American English is not just different but less sophisticated and logical
![Page 101: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/101.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• e.g.: the notorious double negative
– Non Standard English:“I can’t get no satisfaction.” The two negatives chancel each other out
– “I can’t get no satisfaction.” = “I am satisfied.”
– Standard English: “I can’t get any satisfaction”
![Page 102: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/102.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• Logical grammatical errors:
– Everyone returned to their seats.
– Everyone means every one, singular subject which may not serve as the antecedent of a plural pronoun like them
– Everyone returned to his seat.
![Page 103: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/103.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• Logical grammatical errors:
– If anyone calls, tell them I can’t come to the phone.
– Anyone means any one, singular subject which may not serve as the antecedent of a plural pronoun like them
– If anyone calls, tell him I can’t come to the phone.
![Page 104: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/104.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• Further Errors:
– Hopefully, the treaty will pass.
– Mavens say, it should be used only when the sentence refers to a person who is doing something in a hopeful manner
– Mavens’ suggestions:
• It is hoped that the treaty will pass.
• If hopes are realized, the treaty will pass.
![Page 105: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/105.jpg)
4. Standard vs. Non Standard
• 2 kinds of adverbs:
– “verb phrase” adverbs, e.g. carefully refer to the actor
– “noun phrase” adverbs, e.g. frankly indicate the attitude of the speaker toward the content of the sentence
– some other sentence adverbs:
accordingly curiously oddly admittedly generally honestly
![Page 106: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/106.jpg)
5. Conclusion
The whole presentation is based on Steven Pinker‘s book "The Language instinct.“ In his chapter about the language Mavens it becomes obvious that not all rules the Mavens prescribe make sense, nor are they useful.
![Page 107: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/107.jpg)
6. References• Steven Pinker; The Language Instinct:
The New Science of Language and Mind, Penguin 1994
![Page 108: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/108.jpg)
Mind Design
• 3 models of how the mind is designed– Standard Social Science Model (SSSM)– Integrated Causal Model – Folk Biology
![Page 109: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/109.jpg)
Standard Social Science Model
• „there is no universal human nature“• „there is no existence of a language
instinct“BUT:• „behavior is determined by culture and an
autonomous system of symbols and values“• „babies are born with only a few reflexes
and the ability to learn“
![Page 110: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/110.jpg)
Margaret Mead:• „…human nature is almost unbelievably malleable,
responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions…“
John Watson:• „Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and rain him to become any type of specialist I might select, …, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.“
![Page 111: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/111.jpg)
all behavior based on interaction between nature and nurture
But:
- heredity factors cannot be ignored
![Page 112: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/112.jpg)
pre – scientific model
Heredity causes
Behaviorcauses
Environment
![Page 113: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/113.jpg)
Pinker says:
• „language instinct is more than dichotomies of heredity – environment, nature – nurture,
innate – acquired, ...
following model is much better
![Page 114: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/114.jpg)
Environment
provides input to
develops and
builds accesses
Heredity innate psychological mechanisms, skills, including learning mechanisms values,
knowledge
causes
Behavior
learning is not an alternative to innateness
![Page 115: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/115.jpg)
• important roles for heredity and environment are given
• no two people‘s behavior is the same
• a person‘s potential behavior is infinite
• language comes naturally to us but mental language mechanisms must have a complex design
underlying machinery of the Universal
Grammar
![Page 116: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/116.jpg)
• learning without the basic design built into the mechanism = impossible
• learning mechanisms designed for particular areas
![Page 117: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/117.jpg)
Integrated Causal Model
• language requires its own well–engineered software
• there is no learning without some innate mechanisms that makes the learning happen
• learning accomplished by different modules keyed to different domains
• language = process whereby the different speakers in a community acquire highly similar mental grammars
![Page 118: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/118.jpg)
• language is universal among human societies
• assumption of an infinitely acquisitive learning ability:
- least important: pedagogy
- most learning takes places through
generalization
- generalization according to SIMILARITY
![Page 119: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/119.jpg)
• similarity = mainspring of the hypothetical
general-purpose-learning
device
• similarity spaces must be innate
![Page 120: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/120.jpg)
concerning language acquisition:
• similarity = analysis of speech inot nouns, verbs, phrases
computed by the Universal
Grammar
e.g. John likes fish. similar to Mary eats apples.
John might fish. not similar to John might apples.
![Page 121: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/121.jpg)
• learning a grammar from examples requires a special similarity space
there must be many similarity spaces to generalize in a particluar domains of knowledge
![Page 122: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/122.jpg)
Folk Biology
• = cognitive study of how people classify and reason about the organic world
• people classify plants and animals into species-like groupsgives people‘s intuitive concepts a logical structure
• reasoning about natural kinds differs from reasoning about artefacts
![Page 123: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/123.jpg)
Special intuitions about living things begin early in life:
• 3-6-month infants:- know about objects and their possible motions and their number
• before 12 months:- know distinction between living and nonliving things
• little children:- generalization follows the similarity defined by category membership
![Page 124: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/124.jpg)
Summary
• The language instinct:
- is innate
- suggests a mind of adapted computational
modules
- people all have the same minds
existence of a single universal mental
design
![Page 125: Language as an innate phenomenon; language and psychology; behaviourism Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022062421/56649d385503460f94a11655/html5/thumbnails/125.jpg)
The end