language Flashcards
(23 cards)
Language is…
innate and cultural
- from the perspective of brain/cultural
Aphasia
language disability
Broca’s aphasia
Affects the frontal lobe
- seem to have a solid grasp of what is being said to them, and easily use body language to explain themselves. However, they are unable to generate proper speech. In some forms of the condition, patients are stuck on a syllable or two
- can generate some simple multisyllabic words
- other forms of Broca’s aphasia, patients can say complete words, but cannot produce proper sentences
Wernicke’s aphasia
Affects the temporal lobe
- the inability to connect language elements (words, phrases, sentences) to their meaning
- affects both speech (you can’t find the word for what you are trying to say) and comprehension (you can’t figure out what the words mean)
- the words affected are the ones that carry most meaning — nouns, verbs — whereas filler words and conjugations are used correctly and fluently
- inability to process meaning
old view (wernicke)
speech comprehension, but not production
new view (wenicke)
connection between language units (words, phrases…) and their meaning
- both speech and comprehensoin1
old view (broca)
speech production but not combrehension
new view (broca)
can’t understand meaning
- cant assemble language structures
- assembly and disassembly of language limits into structures
- both speech and comprehension
Piraha people
don’t need anything
- people usually offer things but they only want clothes
- disregard for private property even allowed divorce
- don’t plan for future - relaxed life
- think sleep is bad so only rarely do
- very happy
LACK WORDS for specific numbers (1,2,3, many)
- their number system is flexible
- can point to kids but can’t identify how many (only a lot or a few)
Cognition and language
Language comes first:
- can’t develop words so can’t grasp it
or
Cognition comes first:
- is it something wrong with cognition so can’t come up with language
language comes first…
- Piraha do exchange genes from outside world
- genes are not different so brain is not different
whne don’t have word ==> can’t grasp it
to understand what ‘10’ is - need a word
Neo-whorfianism
Language first then cognition
Sapir-whorf (1930s)
Language first then cognition
Piraha
Language first then cognition
Noam Chomsky (‘externalisation’)
Cognition first then language
Sapir-whorf Hypothesis
Linguistic relativity
Noah Chomsky
Cognition is primary / Language is secondary
1) Poverty of stimulus
2) universal grammar
- key element: recursion
- embedding of language units into other units to infinity
Lera Boroditsky
Neowhorfianism
Different language have a different breacher of colour spectrum
- English speaking think two cards are the same
- Russian speaking think they are different
BUT
if recite numbers from one to give - Russians see no difference
- cannot do 2 language tasks at the same time
- colour discrimination is also a language task
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Proves Chomsky and Sapir Whorf Hypothesis are both right
- they have words for desire
- but no words for thought process/think so can’t process internal motivations
No ape can pass down ‘language’ like man do
language –> viral –> brain more advanced
Meme
- element of culture being imitated
- that which is imitated
- evolve the same way genes evolve
(Variation/ selection/ imitation (instead of inheritance)
culture
- sustained limitation
- emphasises innate genetic trends
meme centric view of culture
we don’t create culture
- it passes through us like genes, except by imitation rather than reproduction
polarisation
imitating traits you already like leads to polarisation
- cultural evolution
- culture takes off when language is invented
