Language II

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Language II

• Psycholinguistics
• Linguistic relativity

Solso, Chapter 11 Attention the paper is due
June 19th
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Psycholinguistics

• 50s, 60s Linguistics (Chomsky) as one of the
  main factors in shaping modern cognitive
  psychology
• Psycholinguists task checking psychological
  reality of concepts proposed by linguists (in
  language processing and in ontogeny)
• 70s Enthusiasm weakens...
• Grammarians are more interested in what could
  be said than in what people actually say, which
  irritates psychologists, and psychologists insist
  on supplementing intuition with objective
  evidence, which irritates linguists
• George Miller, 1990

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Competence vs performance

• The gardener run away.
• The gardener the lady married run away.
• The gardener the lady the lord loved married run
  away.
• The gardener the lady the lord the farmer bit
  loved married run away.

The gardener the lady the lord the farmer the dog
hated bit loved married run away.
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Psycholinguistics today

• Cognitive bases for language, cognitive
  prerequisites
• How was language evolution possible from a
  cognitive point of view (intersubjectivity,
  intentionality, symbolization)
• Psychological reality of linguistic explanatory
  concepts
• The influence of language on cognition

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Language and thought

• Linguistic relativity hypothesis (Sapir-Whorf)
• Perception of reality and our picture of the
  world depend (among other factors) on the
  structure of the language we speak

Every language is a vast pattern-system,
different form others, in which are culturally
ordained the forms and categories by which the
personality not only communicates, but also
analyzes nature, notices or neglects types of
relationship and phenomena, channels his
reasoning, and builds the house of his
consciousness. B.L. Whorf, Language, Thought,
and Reality
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Levels of linguistic influence on cognition

• WORDS
• GRAMMATICAL STRUCTRES
• NARRATION (topics the role of language in a
  culture)

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WORDS

• COLOR NAMES (Dani mili i mola)
• 50s Dani should perceive (categorize) and
  remember colours differently
• 60s,70s NO! Heider (Rosch) they are able to
  learn and recognize colors as well as westerners
  e.g., better memory for basic colors there are
  universal color names
• BUT
• Color codability and communicability correlates
  with recognition (Brown Lenneberg, 1954)
• Using color names influences categorization (Kay
  Kempton, 1984)

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Color codability correlates with color recognition

• Brown Lenneberg, 1954
• Codability measures as
• Number of syllables in a name
• Number of words in a name
• Time necessary for color naming
• Consistency among and within people
• Correlation grows with time between presentation
  and recognition

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Using color names influences categorization (Kay
Kempton, 1984)
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• Procedure 1 Three colors presented
• Question which two of the three colors presented
  are most similar?
• Americans overestimated the distance between blue
  and green
• Tarahumara equal distance
• Procedure 2 Three colors presented, but only two
  could be seen at the same time
• Question Which difference is bigger 1-2 in
  greenness or 2-3 in blueness
• No difference between Americans and Tarahumara!

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• Recent studies on color memory and categorization
  support linguistic relativity hypothesis
• Davidoff Roberson
• Spatial relations
• Relative reference system (right, left) western
  culture
• Absolute reference system (North, South) eg.,
  Tenejapan in Mexico

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Grammatical structures

• Verb aspect (Whorf Hopi)
• Grammatical gender (Boroditsky Spanish and
  German)
• Structure of language and the rate of development
  of cognitive abilities (Gopnik, Choi, Baumberger
  Korean)
• Verb syntax and event perception (Boroditsky
  Indonesian and English)

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• The elephant ate the peanuts.
• Information included in verb syntax
• English tense
• Polish tense, gender (past), completing the
  activity/not
• Turkish witnessed/not
• Indonesian null

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Perception of events similarity in speakers of
English vs Indonesian
Boroditsky, L., Ham, W. Ramscar, M. (2002).
What is universal about event perception?
Comparing English and Indonesian speakers.
Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the
Cognitive Science Society. Fairfax, VA
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• Better memory for temporal features in English
  speakers
• Or for bilingual speakers tested in English!

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CONCLUSIONS

• Linguistic classification influences similarity
  perception, memory. Effects can be blocked.
• Two stages of experience?
• Neurophysiological, universal, prelinguistic
• Metaphorical, different in different cultures
• Whorf language shapes the habits of thinking.
• Some conceptual domains are more susceptible to
  linguistic influence than others.
• The strength of linguistic influence depends on
  the role that language plays in culture.

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M. Cole, Liberia, interview with a Kpelle tribal
leader (testing syllogistic reasoning)

• At one time spider went to a feast. He was told
  to answer this question before he could eat any
  of the food. The question is Spider and black
  deer always eat together. Spider is eating. Is
  black deer eating?
• KTL Were they in the bush?
• MC Yes.
• KTL Were they eating together?
• MC Spider and black deer always eat together.
  Spider is eating. Is black deer eating?
• KTL But I was not there. How can I answer such
  a question?

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• MC Cant you answer it? Even if you were not
  there, you can answer it (repeats the question).
• KTL Oh, oh, black deer is eating.
• MC What is your reason for saying that black
  deer is eating?
• KTL The reason is that black deer always walks
  about all day eating leaves in the bush. Then he
  rests for a while and gets up to eat again.

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USA Black English

• Communication as creation of community
• Forms
• Calling and answer
• Rappin
• Dozens battle with words

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Differences in cognition correlate with
differences in languages

• Linguistic differences are
• Flags which mark areas of possible cognitive
  differences
• Windows through which one can observe
  modifiable elements of cognition
• Studies lead to better cross-cultural
  understanding
• Linguistic Engineering?