Transcript 023_W2004_LangDevel_web

Three Minute Review
LANGUAGE
• Sounds  phonemes  morphemes  words  sentences 
meaning
– phonology
• sample problem: mondegreens
– morphology
– syntax
• sample problem: ambiguous grammar
– semantics
– deep meaning
• Language in the brain
– Broca’s aphasia vs. Wernicke’s aphasia
• How much does language influence thoughts?
– do words enable concepts?
– Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
• thin slices of behavior can be excellent predictors
– 65-95% of communication is nonverbal
• interpersonal distance
– intimate-personal-social-public
– affected by relationship, situation, status, gender, which
direction people are facing
• physical touch (haptics)
– affected by relationship
• facial expression
– common across cultures
– similar among primate species
– can’t always be totally faked, esp. smiles
Test Yourself
The words “bear” and “bare” involve:
A. different morphemes and phonemes
B. the same morphemes and phonemes
C. different morphemes but the same phonemes
D. the same morphemes but different phonemes
Zygomatic Smile
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
How do we learn grammar?
B. F. Skinner
Noam Chomsky
• language and grammar are learned
through operant conditioning
• there is an innate language module or
instinct -- Language Acquisition Device
(LAD)
• there are too many combinations to
learn
• kids say things they’ve never heard
adults say, e.g., “I gived it to her”
• people can determine whether novel
nonsense is grammatical, e.g., “Colorless
green ideas sleep furiously”
Grammar Learning in Children
• generalization and
overextension
– words
• Baby Kate’s “door-door”
– rules
• children can generalize (the wug
test)
• sometimes they overgeneralize
–
–
–
–
–
kick  kicked
play  played
blink  blinked
think  thinked (thought)
drink  drinked (drank)
Acquisition of Language in Humans
• critical period for phonemes
– babies under ~ 6 mos. can learn to distinguish
phonemes from any language
– after that, it is very difficult to learn
– adult Japanese have a hard time distinguishing /l/
and /r/
• word learning
– babbling
• “ba-ba-ba”, “dee-dee-dee”
• “ba-dee”, “dah-dee”
– 0 to 60,000 words
Acquisition of Language in Humans
• critical period for grammar
“Genie”
• discovered in 1970 at age 13 in L.A. suburb
• blind mother, highly-abusive mentally-ill father
• 4’ 6”, 59 lbs., severely neglected and abused
• had been confined to a small bedroom her whole
life, tied to a chair, caged in a crib
• could speak in only a few words, e.g., “Stop it!”
and “No more” and could not speak in full
sentences
• received language tutoring from linguists and
psychologists
• learned a large vocabulary
• learned to speak in immature, pidgin-like
sentences
• “At school scratch face.”
• “Applesauce buy store.”
• “Neal come happy; Neal not come sad.”
• problems with grammar such as “the man was
bitten by the dog”
For proper grammar, language has to be acquired before ~6
Can Animals Learn Language?
• non-human primates do not
have vocal apparatus for
speech
• changes to human ancestors
about 250,000 years ago
enabled speech
– larynx became lower
• enabled speech
• risk of choking
Can Animals Learn Language?
Nim Chimpsky (chimp)
sign language
Washoe (chimp)
sign language
Koko (gorilla)
sign language
Kanzi (bonobo)
symbolic language
How good is animal “language”?
• some researchers (e.g., the Gardners who
raised Washoe) were very secretive about
their data
• apes’ sign language was a very coarse
approximation of real American Sign
Language
• vocabulary estimated at 25 - 125 “words”
• Jane Goodall remarked that many of the
signs were also seen in chimps in the wild
• bonobos might be better than common
chimps (Kanzi learned when mom was
trained unsuccessfully)
• it’s communication, but is it language?
How good is animal “language”?
• typical two-year old human child
– “Look at that train Ursula bought.”
• Nim Chimpsky
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–
–
–
–
“Nim eat Nim eat”
“Tickle me Nim play”
“Me banana you banana me you give”
“Banana me me me eat”
“Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange
give me you”
• Jean Chretien
– "A proof is proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof
and when you have a good proof it's proven" (Sept. 2002)
– They say that the money we promised three years ago -- bo be new
money this year -- is no longer new money. We have not paid it yet
and it’s old new money versus new money. For me new money is new
money.” (Feb. 2003)
Evolution of Language?
One theory (Giacomo Rizzolatti)
•
through evolution, a brain area in left
frontal cortex (F5 in monkey; Broca’s
in human) becomes specialized for:
1.
2.
3.
4.
mirror neurons
• “monkey see, monkey do”
own hand actions’
others hand actions
others’ gestures
others’ verbal communication
…but what about “that damn bird”?
Alex Pepperberg
African Grey Parrot
• identifies ~50 objects, shapes, colors, material, numbers<7
• can answer comparison and combination questions
• babbles at dusk