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

• Smallest unit of meaning within a language.

• Playing is two morphemes… play and ing.

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 “woman-child”. 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”.