Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them as we think and communicate

-Grammar -A system of rules that allows for understanding

-Generativity-The ability to create infinite amount of expressions using a limited amount of words

-Displacement -Ability to communicate about matter that are not here-and-now

The building blocks of language

-Phonemes -Set of basic sounds-In English some different letters create the same phonemes (boot and tube, enough and fluff) so linguistic symbols are used instead (schwa)

-Morphemes-The smallest unit of language that has meaning

-Root words carry the primary semantic content of a word-Prefixes (pre, un, de, ex, post, anti, ante)-Suffixes (able, ed, s, ify, ize, esque, less)

-Grammar-A system of rules that enables understanding-Rules diveded between Syntax and Semantics

-Syntax-Rules used to order words in sentences-Can affect the semantics of the sentence

Grammar

-Semantics-Rules used to derive meaning -Is the meaning of clip in “putting my hair in a clip” the same as “moving at a decent clip”?-What happens if you add morphemes like “er”, “s”, or “ed” to clip?

-Development mirrors structure (phonemes learned first, then morphemes, etc)

-Children learn their native languages before learning to add 2+2

We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate from high school.

Skinner

-Operant Learning-Language learning is similar to other forms of learning

-Association, imitation, and reinforcement create understanding

Noam Chomsky

-Inborn Universal Grammar

Stephen Pinker

-Language and Thinking-Took Chomsky’s ideas and expanded on them-Claimed that language is so tied into humanity that it must have evolved like eyes or hands-“The Language Instinct”

Pinker:

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn “x”

(t gts lttl hrdr f y dn’t kn whr th vwls r)

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Linguistic Determinism

-Language shapes us as much as we shape it-People who speak different language think in different ways-Can a society without a past tense think about the past? Will it make thinking about the past harder? Will it happen less often?

We often think in words. Can we think without words?

Is thinking limited without thinking in words?

When not thinking in words, what do we using instead?

To what degree are thinking and language inseparable?