Download LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE
The
“crown jewel”
of cognition.
Language is….
• System for combining
symbols so that an infinite
number of meaningful
statements can be made
for the purpose of
communicating.
• Allows us to represent our
internal mental activity.
• Very important part of how
we think.
Levels of language…
putting the pieces together.
• Languages all over the world share
common characteristics… they are…
Grammar
• Grammar be an system of them
rules that govern the structure
and use of an language… ain’t
that right? 
• Noam Chomsky is the “psych
language guru”… he says that
while we learn different, specific
languages… the ability to
understand the complexities of
grammar are wired in.
Syntax
• Syntax is the system of
rules regulating word
order to form
grammatically correct
sentences.
• Very important…
• “John kidnapped the boy”
has a very different
meaning than “John, the
kidnapped boy”
Morphemes
unit of
meaning within a
language.
• Playing is two
morphemes…
play and ing.
• Smallest
Semantics
• Rules for determining meaning of words
and sentences.
• Sentences can have the same semantic
meaning while having different syntax:
• “James hit the ball” and “The ball was hit
by James”.
• Be thankful you speak English… it is one
of the hardest languages to learn.
• Crazy English…
– Let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in
hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
– English muffins were not invented in England or french fries in France. Sweetmeats are
candies, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
– We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can
work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a
pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and
hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the
plural of choose?
– If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what
does a humanitarian eat?
– In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send
cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on
parkways?
– How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy
are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day an cold as hell another?
– When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm
clock goes off by going on.
– When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Phonemes
• Basic units of sound.
• Si + kawl + a + gee (Psychology)
• Can be different… the “a” in cat is a
different phoneme than the “a” in day
even though it is the same letter of the
alphabet.
• Phonemes are not just letters, “th” and
“sh” are phonemes too.
• Phonemes present the biggest
problem for people trying to learn a
language.
Pragmatics
• Has to do with the “manners” and
“social niceties”
– How to take turns in a conversation.
– The use of gestures.
– Ways in which you speak to different people
(“Hello, sir” vs. “Yo, what’s up dude?”)
– Intonation… the “rhythm of the language”
(Putting the emphases on the correct
syllable)
Pragmatics gone wrong…
• In Japanese, the name “Yoshiko”
should be pronounced with the
emphasis on the first syllable
“YO-shiko” which means “womanchild”. If the stress is placed on
the second syllable “Yo-SHE-ko”
it means woman who urinates.
Gestures… be aware!!!
• Okay or…
• “I want to sleep
with your wife”
or…
• “I’ll kill you”.