LING 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Morse Code, California English, Cultural Artifact
Document Summary
Purpose of this course: the implicit knowledge of a native language arguably is the most complex ability a human being ever acquires. We will discuss some of the central questions surrounding languages: implicit knowledge. Things that you know that you don"t know that you know. Some of what you will learn in course: about language. A language is a complex rule-governed system represented in the brain of native speakers. Even the most stigmatized languages are complex rule- governed systems. Our ability to acquire and use language is part of our genetic endowment. I/we come to speak our native language much like the way we learn to walk: inevetibly with ease equally well across individuals with normal development with normal conditions: about truth. If history is any guide most of what you believe to be true is probably false and perhaps away from the actual truth.
