Module 36: Thinking and Language

Language

our spoken, written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)

grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Semantics

is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds

Syntax

is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Noam Chomsky

proposed that all human languages share a universal grammar and that humans are born with a predisposition to learn language

universal grammar

the basic building blocks of language

receptive language

the ability to understand what is said to or about you; develops before productive language

productive language

the ability to produce words

babbling stage

beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

one-word stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

two-word stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram —”go car”—using mostly nouns and verbs

Critical periods

those who have not been exposed to a spoken or signed language by age 7 lose their ability to master any language. Deaf children born to hearing nonsigning parents often demonstrate the impact of early language experiences

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)

Broca’s area

helps control language expression—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke’s area

a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

linguistic determinism

the strong form of Whorf’s hypothesis—that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us

linguistic influence

the weaker form of “linguistic relativity”—the idea that language affects thought (thus our thinking and world view is “relative to” our cultural language)

thinking in images

can increase our skills when we mentally practice upcoming events