Human language and mind
Topic outline
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Fall 2021, Monday 10–11:30 am, Oct. 11-Dec. 20, 2021
Prof. Eva Eckert, Ph.D. eeck233@gmail.com
Meetings at FF UK, Palachovo nám., rm 129
Office hours: Monday after the class at 11:30 or by appointment- Course description
HUMAN LANGUAGE and the MIND is a course in human thinking and speaking that deals with psychological, cognitive and anthropological aspects of language as a key to mind, intellect and creativity; interrelation of language, thoughts and brain; language in mediating experience, remembering and creating meaning; the instinctive, emotional and rational in our cognition; pre-linguistic cognition of hominids; children’s language acquisition; language diversity and memory.
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Cognition, language intelligence and language creativity
Social learning and cognition
The brain of thinking men
Human ancestors vs. modern humans: What do we need to add to the mind to get language?
Animals’ communication systems vs. the language of humans (D. Premack)
The search for human ancestors in Ethiopia, TED Talk, by Z. Alemseged https://www.ted.com/talks/zeresenay_alemseged_looks_for_humanity_s_roots?language=en
What are the reasons for the rise of humans and modern language? TED Talk, by Y. N. Harari
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Inventing and learning language
Gesturing, babbling, speaking, writing and signing
Language change: Survival of the fittest? Language diversity
The birth of a language documentary (investing sign language in Nicaragua)
Web activity 2.1-2.5 in Sedivy http://sites.sinauer.com/languageinmind/
Readings: Sedivy, ch. 2, pp. 31-50
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Sounds of the human language: How different from those of other primates and animals
Sign language: Inventing language and vocal learning
Language change: What characteristics enable survival; Cultural transmission and universal cognition
Genetic disorders: Specific language disorder, dyslexia, etc.
The quest to understand consciousness, TED Talk by A. Damasio
Understanding language, by J. Elman (cont.)
Readings: Sedivy, ch. 3, pp. 54-67
Assignment: Answering questions of the week
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Genetic disorders: Down's and Williams' syndromes and their symptomes
Interconnecting "intelligence", linguistic intelligence and genes
Non-genetic disorders and their diagnosis:
Specific language disorder and dyslexia
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How does brain process, perceive and produce language?
Brain hemispheres and the corpus callosum
The left hemisphere and its "language centers"
Aphasia types and their language effects
Brain anatomy
Functional anatomy of the brain: Language functions and tasks distributed into interconnected neural networks
Neural networks and sharing cognitive resources in language production
Reading: Sedivy, ch. 3, pp. 67-84
recommended: the TED Talks of Week 5
J. Ellman's lecture, minutes 21-35, 45 to end, in particular
Assignment: Answer week 5 questions
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Reviewing where language is in the brain, what fMR scans reveal and what the discoveries about language organization in the brain are
SOUNDS, SYMBOLS, LETTERS and MEANINGS
How infants learn by swimming in the sea of sounds:
Engaging the frontal lobe through joint attention while learning and imitating
Recognition sounds and matching sound clusters to early meanings
Revisiting the nature of speaking
Sounds and human language sounds; the sounds of American English
Alphabets
Concepts and reference
Reading: Learning sound patterns, in Sedivy, ch. 4, pp. 105-119, in particular; pp. 120- are on phonetics and phonology
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Topic: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: LEARNING WORDS
Description: The nature of speaking; Sound recognition and matching sounds to words;
Concepts and reference
Reading: Learning words, in Sedivy, ch. 5
Assignment: Submit your research proposal (using the form in Moodle course; by email)
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Topic: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: LEARNING THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES
Description: How does mind build “logical“ sentences and “correct“ grammatical structures?
Readings: Learning the structure of words and sentences, in Sedivy, ch. 5, pp. 168-80, and ch. 6, pp. 185-200
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LANGUAGE DIVERSITY
Description: Language universals; Speakers‘ learning biases
Reading: Sedivy, pp. 471-492, ch. 12.1 and 12.2
Assignment: web activities of http://sites.sinauer.com/languageinmind/
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LANGUAGE DIVERSITY
Description: Words, concepts and cultures
Reading: Sedivy, pp. 492-516, ch. 12.3-12.5
Assignment: web activities and maps on variation across languages
Mapping features and patterns to show their distribution and concentration, e.g....Consonant inventories
Structural marking for hearsay
Preference for prefixes vs. suffixes
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