Psychology 2134A/B Lecture Notes - Generative Grammar, Linguistic System, Psych
10 Nov 2012
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This linguistic system we have allows us to communicate these ideas in a way that seems limitless. Conundrum in that our brains are finite, finite number of neurons, which decreases every day. We know about 50 000 words, but we have said way more than 50 000 things, more than 50 000 ideas. It"s the way we assemble these words that is so important. Many of the sentences we hear every day are new things that we have never heard before, and language has allowed us to communicate this brand new novel thing. Something about the way language allows us to combine these things; mental grammar. Gives rise to an infinite amount of utterances. Because of the infinite nature of language you"re never going to hear all the grammatical utterances possible. You cant memorize what someone has said and hear another sentence and think.
