LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

• WHAT IS LANGUAGE? • WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

Language..

Language is…… “a set of (finite and infinate) sentences. Each

is finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements” (chomsky, 1957)

A collection of symbols with rules and collectively they can create an infinite variety of messages i.e. a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate.

The systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols according to rules to create a message that has a common meaning for users and recipients.

Grammar …

The grammar of a language is the complete set of rules that will generate or produce all the acceptable sentences and will not generate any unacceptable, ill-formed sentences

Grammar operates at three levels: Phonology of language deals with the sounds of language; Syntax deals with word order and grammaticality; And semantics deals with accessing and combining the

separate word meanings into a sensible meaningful whole

Language

Human interact with each other using LANGUAGE.

There are many language around the world, depending on different region and culture.

Since there are many different words & grammer involved in a language, so how do human understand each other?

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

Does language relate to thoughts? How are they related? Piaget, Whorf and Vygotsky views on

the relationship between language and thoughts are different

Language & Thoughts Piaget

Language development depend on mental development, i.e. before a person is able to learn a word and use it grammatically, one must first develop the mental concept of the word.

Whorf Thoughts is express in language i.e. A person

language ability could limit or shaped his/her thoughts.

Language provide the categorical distinctions or bounderies between things and guide what conceptual features or characteristics a person can acquire.

Relationship Between Language and Thoughts

Vygotsky Language & thoughts are not intrinsically linked

but since they come from the same source (cognitive process) or mind , they would surely influence one another.

Infant not able to understand language in the beginning , but later through interaction with its environment (parents/adult) they will later do so. But when language is acquired, children will use it to

represent their thoughts.

Relationship Between Language and Thoughts

Many researchers were interested to study the relationship between Language and thoughts (thinking).

Many feels that Language (most important tool in communication) cannot be seperated from thought.

What do you think????

Relationship Between Language and Thoughts

According to Plato, both thoughts & language originate from an abstract concept called “forms” and which all the “entities & qualities designated thereby can be subsumed”(Gill, 1977).

Wilhelm Von Humboldt, stated that language determines many aspect of thoughts. Humboldt viewed language as the expression of the spirit of a

nation. According to Humboldt, the diversity of languages is not a

diversity of signs and sounds but a diversity of views of the world.

Many other researchers also look into cognitive variables such as: Perceptual discrimination Availability in memory Classification

Sapir-Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

What is Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis? Linguistic relativity is the idea that differences in the

way languages encode cultural and cognitive categories affect the way people think so that speakers of different languages will tend to think and behave differently depending on the language they use.

Human Cognitive classification is affected by the different cultural concepts and categories that are inbuilt in different language therefore different people from different countries think & behave differently because of the cognitive classification.

What is Sapir-Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

Also popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis or Whorfianism, where Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis of linguistic relativity holds that the language we speak both affects and reflects our view of the world.

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis theorizes that thoughts and behavior are influences by language, which are determined by the individual culture and community. Showed that language is the medium by which

one views the world, culture, reality and thoughts.

Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis

Edward Sapir agree with Humbold idea that languages contained the key to understanding the differing world views of peoples.

According to Sapir… Since there are differences in the grammatical systems of

languages, no two languages were ever similar enough to allow for perfect translation between them.

because language represented reality differently, it followed that the speakers of different languages would perceive reality differently. According to Edward Sapir:

Thus…. “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached”.

Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis

Sapir never did suggest how languages affected the thought processes of their speakers the notion of linguistic relativity but it was taken up by his student Benjamin Lee Whorf.

Whorf introduced "the principle of linguistic relativity“ i.e., instead of merely assuming that language influences the thought and behavior of its speakers, he further analyzed the native american languages, and attempted to account for the ways in which differences in grammatical systems and language use affected the way their speakers perceived the world.

Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis

Example in which Whorf attempted to show that language use affects behavior, where the indigenous language has several terms for a concept that is only described with one word in English and other European languages; Water (Hopi language describes water with two different words

for drinking water in a container versus a natural body of water) Snow (Inuit language) - refers to many meaning

The varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in different languages affect the cognitive classification of the experienced world in such a way that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it.

Language you know shapes the way you think about events in the world around you

Critics on Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis

Researchers have argued and debated about the following three positions in relation to Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis:-

1. Language heavily influences thoughts (strong interpretation)

2. Language does not influence thoughts

3. Language partially influence thoughts (weak interpretation)

Language heavily influences thoughts

Whorf’s strongly suggested that thoughts is based on language his hypothesis was supported from his research on Native American language.

Critics on his finding: solely based on is study of Native American – conclude

the cognitive differences between two languages only – English & Hopi/ etc….

Even though many researchers agreed with Whorf that thought & language is clearly dependent on each other, but still felt that the findings were not successful in showing the relationship between language & thoughts.

Language does not influence thoughts Many researchers agreed that Language does not influence thoughts

on 3 main key points:- Translatability

Although language may vary in terms of ways of expressing certain details but it is still possible to translate the detail from language to another

Differences between linguistic & non linguistic. Lenneberg argued that there is no means to define language as

influencing thoughts, when there is no differences between them (i.e. Language & thoughts) – especially when the evidence that suport the hypothesis is solely based on linguistic differences

Universals Based on Chomsky – the concept of universal, i.e. there are deep

structures that are common to all language. Therefore all cultures would be related dan have similar realities (contrast to Sapir-Whorf’s that claim all culture see the world differently due to their language.)

Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis: Language partially influence thoughts

Most researcher find it difficult to conclude that language determine thoughts – but through examples from Whorf’s study, they agreed that: Its’ valid to suggest partially language does

determine thoughts. According to Wierzbicka (1992), the question is

not whether language affect thoughts but to what extent that it affect thinking!!

Social & Cultural Influences on Language & Thoughts

How do we acquire communication skills in our everyday life?

Through interaction and context with other people….. o Within the same community.o Within the same culture.

Many researcher are aware of the importance or OTHER PEOPLE (within the same society/culture) on individual language and thoughts development.

Social Interactionist Theory

Social Interactionist Theory emphasize the importance of environment and the context in which the language is being learned as a determinant to language acquisition.

According to Snow (1981), the interaction between a child and a caregiver, plus biological and environmental influence is responsible for the development and acquisition of language among children.

Social Interactionist Theory Since its emergence few years ago, the Social Interactionist

approach to language acquisition research has focused on three areas: cognitive approach to language acquisition process or the

developmental cognitive theory of Piaget. the information processing approach or the information processing

model of MacWhinney & Bates (the competition model) Social interactionist approach or social interaction model of Vygotsky

(socio-cultural theory).

Although the initial research attempt to describe language development from the stand point of the social development but recently, researchers have been attempting to explain few varieties of acquisition in which how learner factors lead to differential acquisitions among learners by the process of socialization and this is called the theory of “social interactionist approach”.

Social Interactionist Theory

Social Interactionist Theory focuses on the pragmatics of language rather than grammar (which should come later). In this approach, the beginning speaker and the

experienced speaker (either a child + adult or second-language learner +fluent speaker) exist in a negotiated arrangement where feedback is always possible.

The general elements of this theory: The interaction of communicative functions. The influence of the child’s world

Social Interactionist Theory

According to SIT, children learn verbal and nonverbal communicative behavior from adults around them. Cth…verbal? Cth nonverbal…..?

So, children how to behave and speak politely (impolite way) – how to communicate with their community (in a society) – based on their interaction with adults.

Social Interactionist Theory Therefore, the rules for communicative competence are

influenced by social and cultural factors. Certain words that may be appropriate for one

culture/ society may not be appropriate or acceptable in another culture. Examples…..??????

Rules of a particular society/culture help in the development of beliefs & values, as can be seen from our communicative behavior.

Why is this rules important? Helps to teach & guide our action and interaction in

our environment. A person socialization practices are being enhances

and strengthened through social interaction based on individual cultural differences.

SCL: Discuss

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: Think about the application of linguistic relativity

hypothesis in your own language and culture Give examples of objects that are describe in

detail in your language How culture can be transmitted from one

individual to another? Think of a word/sentence that may not be

acceptable to another culture or society?

MEMORY, PERCEPTION &

LANGUAGE

Memory the storing of learned information, and the ability to recall that which has been stored.

The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience.

Power or process of recalling or reproducing what has been learned or experienced. Research indicates that the ability to retain information

is fairly uniform among normal individuals what differs is the degree to which persons learn or take account of something to begin with and the kind and amount of detail that is retained.

What is Memory?

3 processes occur in remembering: perception and registering of a stimulus; temporary maintenance of the perception, or

short-term memory; lasting storage of the perception, or long-term

memory. Two major types of long-term memory are procedural

memory, involving the recall of learned skills, and declarative memory, the remembrance of specific stimuli.

What is Memory?

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information.

The word perception comes from the Latin perception-, percepio, , meaning "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."

What is Perception?

Many cognitive psychologists hold that, as we move about in the world, we create a model of how the world works, i.e. we sense the objective world, but our sensations map to percepts, and these percepts are provisional, in the same sense that scientific hypotheses are provisional (cf. in the scientific method).

As we acquire new information, our percepts shift.

Perception Is Subjective

Internal Informatio

n•Prior Expectations•Current Mental State•Experience

External Information

•Actual Words/Actions•Image Reflected from Objects•“Sound” Waves

Both DetermineBoth DetermineOur ExperienceOur Experience

of the Worldof the World

What is language? How do we understand language? How do we create meaning from linguistic

symbols (such as words)? How does our experience guide the way we

comprehend and produce language?

Language

Memory is a critical component of many aspects of human thinking, including perception, learning, language & problem solving.

How does language conveys meaning? the comprehension of language is grounded in our own bodies'

systems of perception and action planning. Eg…◦ Understanding a sentence - "He turned up the volume on his

stereo," requires the use of one's action planning system to internally do the action involved in turning up the stereo (rotate the volume knob in a clockwise direction).

Memory - a person will remember the action involved Visual/auditory Perception – need memory to interpret Language comprehension experience shapes the

relationship between perception, action, and language.

Is memory, perception & language related?