Language and thought

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Language and thought

linguistic determinism - Whorf hyp

Empiricism - environment influences who we are and what we become

Constructivism: cog dev gives rise to various capabilities including lang

Nativism: lang is innate and independent from cog

Rad prags: lang in context not a system

behaviourists: introspection and subvocal speech - disproven by paralysis and still thought - importance of thought and beliefs

key qs: ling determinism or vice versa, what is innate what is acquired, is lang meaning fixed or context dependent?

Fundamentals of language and thought

lang of thought: separate from natural lang, has its own syntax

4 uniquely human aspects of lang: structural dependence, displacement, creativity, semanticity

lang/syntax evolved bc adaptive e.g. precision for communication - not evo spandrel as per Chomsky

broad and narrow faculties: broad - sensory-motor, conceptual-intentional and recursion - not all unique to humans, narrow - just recursion - unique to humans

recursion: 'what if', complex clauses, helps problem solving e.g. Tower of Hanoi

neanderthals and homosapiens: not diff brain size but neanderthals have limited WM capacity - lack of cultural appropriation - living separately, lack of ability to adapt to novel situations and generate new utterance, lack of creativity and dreams

fMRI: taxi drivers hippocampal differences - experience affects cog and brain - empiricist support

Nativism and thought

Piaget: lang depends on thought - emergent property of cog

thinking precedes speech, cog dev gives rise to emergence of lang, lang doesn't affect reasoning mid childhood - hard to gauge cause and effect rship

Fodor: lang of thought - concepts are innate 'mentalese' content of concepts and structure of prepositions

concepts: hypotheses re concepts internally represented and confirmed/refuted by environment - symbolic data/computer code - problematic bc not all concepts can be innate e.g. Netflix and chill

concepts not definitions - learn lang by associating words w/concepts

Mental stance: thought/belief - prepositions, Mental state: causal, structural, syntax

lang and thought are both creative, both structural and both phenom productive - thought refers not just to the thought but to the mental state it gives rise to - affirming the consequent separates beliefs from thoughts

FB: Maxi test, children lack of appreciating false beliefs of others, lack of understanding experience of others, develops over time - t of m, belief vs knowledge, not due to lack of suppression

FB - lack of linguistic competence? Deaf lack of FB and t of m - non verbal FB task - lack of awareness but not same as FB bc implicit evidence of knowing (eye movements)

chimps - competition and fb - task dependent - evolutionary differences - gestures evolved for collab for humans but not for chimps

Nativism and radical pragmatics

Chomsky: innate linguistic universals, Rad prags: language in use not just a system

linguistic universals: SVO word ordering, same across cultures - innate preference for simple word ordering bc children have to acquire and understand complex lang input w/o formal training = involves linking words w/innate concepts - lang dev occurs in environment and environment predisposes what we pay attention to - difficulty re innateness

structure and parameters: innate acquisition device guides lang dev, children abstract rules about lang use - fine tuning innate ling capabilities - deaf children can still use lang so seems support for Chomsky however diff between lang and sign lang + bilingual so diff subsets of rules

minimalist programme: optimal design for lang, bottom up and bio - syntax autonomous and accidental? questionable as v fit for purpose! interaction between lang and lang of thought code and other systems - lang as perfect system - syntactical autonomy, interacts with other systems -all thoughts find appropriate verbal expression - innate?

rad prags: lang in use, context and meaning - homonyms and polysemous words - against conceptual semantics - irony - intended vs literal meanings - naive to assume an utterance will be received exactly as intended

authorship - no single unambiguous meaning to text - implied author - real author - narrator - narratee - implied reader, real reader - more than just transfer of info - author perception of recipient influences writing - social dimension to lang

Linguistic determinism

cross cultural diffs re thought, high cog processes, diffs caused by not just reflected by lang or cultural influences

colour perception: Dani and English people - colour chips naming and memory - naming diffs but not memory diffs - against ling det - could be due to verbal aspect of task - more available names for Eng - ling reps mediate performance - hard to prove - no evidence of lang influencing non-ling thought

spatial cognition: diffs re frame of ref across cultures and langs e.g. absolute or relative - found this effect - diff ways of encoding spatial relationships? likely due to change in environment rather than lang

metaphors about time: Mandarin and English speakers - vertical and horizontal - vertical even when English task - not replicated e.g. can be taught vertical by vertical prime

linguistic relativism and relational reasoning - do we think before we speak? lang augments higher cog capabilities - array, cups, stickers, relational labels, for young children but same for all tasks?

language influences thought when thinking for specific purpose of using language e.g. write or speak- diff langs describe things in diff ways e.g. motor rich/less rich terms - reflects difference in thinking about it or just in speaking about it?