PSYCH 1X03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Language Production, Operant Conditioning, Kanzi
6 Nov 2016
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Language is regulated by the rules of grammar. La(cid:374)guage is (cid:862)regular(cid:863) (cid:373)ea(cid:374)i(cid:374)g that it is go(cid:448)er(cid:374)ed (cid:271)(cid:455) rules a(cid:374)d gra(cid:373)(cid:373)ar. Words in a language arbitrarily represent what they mean. What specific sound is assigned to represent a concept is completely arbitrary. Words in a language can be combined in many productive ways. There are almost limitless ways to combine words to describe objects, situations and actions. Particularly evident when observing native language development in infants. Infants have an impressive propensity for learning language and actively experiment with novel word and sound combinations that have never been explicitly taught. You use language to communicate with others but you also use language to form your thoughts. When you think to yourself, you run through a private dialogue in your native language. Native language contains 3 counting words: one, two and many. If the whorf-sapir hypothesis is correct, the tribe would have trouble understanding fine numerical concepts.
