COGSCI 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Linguistic System, Animal Communication, Universal Grammar
Document Summary
Acoustic disturbances are interpreted as an infinite number of things. Languages are creation of culture, passed down over time by imitation & reinforcement. Other animals have linguistic systems too -- human language is the most complex. Animal communication is innate, human language is culturally learned. Languages grow & live in our brains -- many possibilities. Babies have universal grammar ready in their heads. Humans can translate acoustic disturbances to a language, animals can"t exactly do the same. Possible human languages - all the languages that could ever possibly appear. We can ask ants the cosine of 37 . We can ask honeybees where the sun is at all times. We can ask monkeys what a face looks like. We can ask chicks where they think light comes from. We can ask infants how the world works= Describing at a higher level (ie. not neural processes, etc. ) Develop theories of what you know when you know a language.
