Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (6th Edition in Modules)

Module 24

Language and Thought

James A. McCubbin, PhDClemson University

Worth Publishers

Language

Language our spoken, written, or gestured

works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme in a spoken language, the

smallest distinctive sound unit

Language We are all born to recognize speech sounds from

all the world’s languages

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Percentage ableto discriminateHindi t’s

Hindi-speaking

adults

6-8 months

8-10months

10-12months

English-speaking

adultsInfants from English-speaking homes

Language Babbling Stage

beginning at 3 to 4 months the stage of speech development in

which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-Word Stage from about age 1 to 2 the stage in speech development

during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Language

Two-Word Stage beginning about age 2 the stage in speech development

during which a child speaks in mostly two-word statements

Telegraphic Speech early speech stage in which the child

speaks like a telegram-–“go car”--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words

Language

Summary of Language Development

Month(approximate)

Stage

4

10

12

24

24+

Babbles many speech sounds.

Babbling reveals households language.

One-word stage.

Two-world, telegraphic speech.

Language develops rapidly intocomplete sentences.

Language

Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience activates them as it modifies the brain

Language

New language learning gets harder with age

100

90

80

70

60

50Native 3-7 8-10 11-15 17-39

Percentage correct ongrammar test

Age at school

Language

Linguistic DeterminismWhorf”s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Language

The interplay of thought and language

Animal Thinking and Language

The straight-line part of the dance points in the direction of a nectar source, relative to the sun

Direction ofnectar source

Animal Thinking and Language

Gestured Communication