PSY274H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Unintended Consequences, Ghoti, Sensory System
Document Summary
Ability to create novel linguistic expressions productivity. Innateness - blueprint of what language should look like, how you should use a language. Refer to abstractions - related to semanticity and displacement. Cognitive processing - not instinctive, more processed. It is a topic that is treated with disgust since there is no evidence and is just an idea. Hypotheses usually have dismissive names because of the topic. Mimicking sounds made by the environment - somehow becoming language. Evidence - existence of onomatopoeic words - words that sound like what they refer to, it is unlikely though due to the small portion of onomatopoeic words that exist. The idea of building on sounds that humans already produce, spontaneous sounds. Evidence - all languages have integrated sounds, ouch, wow but the amount of words also exist in a minority. Emerged from the noises groups make when doing work. The idea that language evolved from singing (emotionally inspired singing)
