Human language and mind: Thinking and speaking
Topic outline
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HUMAN LANGUAGE AND MIND: THINKING AND SPEAKING
HUMAN LANGUAGE and the MIND is a course in human thinking and speaking that deals with psychological and cognitive aspects of language as a key to the mind, intellect and creativity; interrelation of the language, thoughts and brain; language in mediating the experience, remembering and creating meaning; the instinctive, emotional and rational in our cognition; pre-linguistic cognition of hominids; children’s language acquisition and learning; and language diversity.
Course requirements
Assignment
Weight in ZÁPOČET”
Comments and learning outcomes
Attendance and active participation
READINGS and TED Talks
preparation of web activities
20%
20%
5 absences or more entails failing the course
Research proposal
10%
Presenting a topic and research thesis, outlining a plan to collect data and a strategy to analyze them, explaining the outcomes
Final test, written
30%
Concepts, experiments and readings
Presentation on the research project based on the submitted proposal
10%
Presenting on the research project (15 mins)
Paper summarizing the project
10%
cca. 3000 words
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Topics: Cognition, intelligence and creativity
Language as instinct vs. social learning
Hominids vs. modern humans: What to add to the mind to get language? (John Searle)
Animal communication systems vs. human language (David 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 2015: https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_humans
QUESTIONS TO TACKLE in class:
1. In what ways is language related to our brain and mind?
2. Why do we talk?
3. Did we invent language or come to BE through language?
4. When and where did language start? In what sort of a community?
5. Is ART an evidence of thinking and speaking?
6. How did language humanize us in anatomy, genes, brain and cognition?
7. Is language natural and instinctive?
8. What characteristics make language work the way it does? Language design
9. When did we learn/start to think?
10. In what way language is and in what way it is not universal?
11. What can we do with l. that other primates or animals can’t (or can partially)?
12. What makes the phenomenon of language possible?
13. Do we use the same sort of thinking when we do math as when we understand language or listen to music?
14. Why we do blanks when needing to retrieve words?
15. What's the reason for speech errors?
Readings: Language in Mind: Introduction to Psycholinguistics, by Julie Sedivy 2018, ch. 2, pp. 9-31
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Topics: Animal communication and chimps' language learning
Teaching dogs and chimps: The environment
Language structure
Communicative intent and joint attention
Gesturing, babbling, speaking, writing and signing
Inventing and learning language
Homesign, language sign and vocal language
Assignments: Sedivy, ch. 2
Web activities 2.1-2.5
Recommended: articles by Chomsky, Evans, Premack
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Topics: Language change: Survival of the fittest?
Genetic disorders as manifested in language
How Humans Invent Language
- Communicating from scratch
- When gestures replace language
- Language: It takes a village
- Streamlining signing
- The sensitive period and innate language ability
Survival of the Fittest Language?
- Language changes
- Evolution of a prayer
- What’s adapting to what?
- Language evolution in the lab
Language and Genes
- Williams syndrome: An island of preserved function?
- Linguistic and nonlinguistic impairments in Williams and Down syndromes
- The new frontier: Tracing our ancestors’ genes
Grey matters: Understanding language, lecture by J. Elman:
Assignments: the PROJECT, p. 53
web activities on sign language in ch. 2
dichotic listening, ch. 3 https://learninglink.oup.com/access/content/sedivy-2e-student-resources/sedivy2e-chapter-3-web-activity-1?previousFilter=tag_chapter-03
Readings: Sedivy, ch. 3, part I, Genetic Disorders, pp. 54-62 (62-7)
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IF YOU WANT TO GO FURTHER...
- Seeds of Speech, by Jean Aitchison, Cambridge U Press 2000
- Researchers Debate the Origin of Language, by Marc Hauser 2002, in Harvard Gazette and How human mind originated 2009
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The language change and Evolution of a prayer
Language and Genes
- Williams syndrome: An island of preserved function?
- Linguistic and nonlinguistic impairments in Williams and Down syndromes and what they tell us about interlinking of general cognitive and linguistic skills
- Tracing our ancestors’ genes
Disorders of language and other cognitive functions: SLI and Dyslexia
The brain is inscrutable and language is multifunctional: Tracing the functions through brain neural networks
Grey matters: Understanding language, lecture by J. Elman:
How does brain process, perceive and produce language?
Reading: Sedivy, ch. 3, pp. 60-84
McGilchrist,The Divided Brain, TED Talk
Assignment: Web activities, ch. 3: Dichotic listening (see above) and Linguistic or paralinguistic/affective use of tone, vowel length, syllable stress and clicks https://learninglink.oup.com/access/content/sedivy-2e-student-resources/sedivy2e-chapter-3-web-activity-2?previousFilter=tag_chapter-03
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For the Reading (Sedivy, ch. 3), web assignments and video materials, see Week 4.
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How infants learn: The nature of learning from language sounds
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Statistical learning: Recognition of sounds and their patterns
- TED Talk Pat Kuhl et al., Language, culture, mind and brain File
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Reading: Learning sounds, in Sedivy, ch. 4, pp. 105-119
- Recommended readings: Seeds of Speech, ch. 7, by J. Aitchison
- Review: File 2.1-2.3 (Phonetics)
- Assignment: Web activities 4.1-4.5 https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-04
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How infants learn "to speak"
What are the "meaningful" language sounds and where are the words?
Sounds vs. phonemes; Articulating sounds and rules of coarticulation;
Phonology: The sounds to distinguish meanings
Readings: Sedivy, ch. 4, part II
and if interested... Language and the mind, by Raymond Hickey
Learning vs. growth, in Language in Use, by G. Diessel, pp. 313-19
Digital mind in an analog world, in Language Instinct, by S. Pinker 1994
Semiotic Landscape, by G. Kress and T. Leuwen, in Language in Use
ASSIGNMENT: Web activities 4.6-4.9 https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-04
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The nature of speaking: Recognizing sounds and matching them to words
Concepts and reference
Reading: Learning words, in Sedivy, ch. 5, part I
Recommended readings:
Productivity and the Mental Lexicon, by Ingo Plag, in Language in Use, pp. 106-13
How do they do it?, by Steven Pinker
Tomasello, Michael, The usage based theory of language acquisition
ASSIGNMENT: web activities, ch. 5/I https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-05
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Language in sculpting the infants' brain
Understanding speakers' intentions
Parts of speech; Words vs. rules
Reading: Learning words, in Sedivy, ch. 5, part II
Lupyan, Gary & Ben Berger, How Language Programs The Mind
for recommended readings, see below
ASSIGNMENT: Web activities https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-05, in Sedivy
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Topic: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: LEARNING THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES
Description: How does mind build “logical“ sentences and “correct“ grammatical structures?
The nature of syntactic knowledge; Learning grammatical categories
Readings: Sedivy, ch. 6, pp. 185-200
ASSIGNMENT: Relevant web activities in Sedivy, https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-06
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How similar are languages and how to explain it?
Universal and biases of cognition
How universal are language universals?
Easy and complex structures
Reading: Review Sedivy, ch. 6 (note Kligton), and read ch. 12, part I, pp. 471-92
Assignment: Complete the web activity on German relative clauses in ch. 6 https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-06, and 13.1 and 13.2 in ch. 13 https://learninglink.oup.com/access/sedivy-2e-student-resources#tag_chapter-13
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REVIEW: What is the cognitive machinery that makes the language run?
DIVERSITY: Languages structures across languages, biases of learning and processing, and universals
Linguistic determinism?
One mind, two languages
Reading: Sedivy, ch. 12, part II
Assignment: Web activities of ch. 12
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