PSYCH 1X03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Morpheme, Vocal Folds, Language Production
16 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Language is the most complex form of communication: use language to form thoughts. Natural language: language is regular and is governed by rules and grammar. A reorganized sentence can still retain its meaning. Language is arbitrary: the sounds of words do not reference to the object they are talking about, lack of resemblance between words and their meaning. Language is productive: there are limitless ways to combine words in order to describe objects, situations and places. This is seen by analyzing infants who experiment with words in order to convey a message. The whorf-sapir hypothesis: our thoughts are highly influenced by the native language we speak in. Groups greater than two resulted in a decrease of performance. The tribe members were limited by their language. The whorf- sapir hypothesis theory can be countered: some indian tribes use a single word in order to describe any male elder.
