Language and Thought

LANGUAGE: our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phonemes: the smallest, distinctive sound unit of a spoken language.
Ex: Ching has 4 phonemes... ch... i... n... g.
Morphemes: the smallest unit in a language that carries meaning.
-Prefix or Suffix
Grammar: A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.
Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language. 
Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Language Development

Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds.
One-word Stage: 1-2 years... uses one word to communicate big meanings. "NO"
Two-word Stage: age 2... uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.

How do we explain language development?

Skinner

-Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory.
Social Learning Theory: states that social behavior (any type of behavior that we display socially) is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others.

Chomsky

Inborn Universal Grammar

-We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
-We have this "learning box" inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.

Whorf's Linguistic Relativity: the idea that language determines the way we think.

Thinking without Language

• We can think in word
• We think in mental pictures more often.

Kohler exhibited that chimps can problem solve.