Describe the levels of language structure and processing
Describe the four levels of language structure and processing.
Complete discussion questions. Reply must be 75 words or more Please provide references for answers. Using this text book for this course:
Reference
Galotti, K. M. (2014). Cognitive Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
1. Reflect on the structure of language and discuss the following: As discussed in this week’s reading assignment, language structure is important in cognition, but is it really? For example, if a child said to you, “You, me, cookie, go now, hurry,” you would know what the child meant, even though what is said is not grammatically correct. How is that possible?
Reflect on the critical periods of language acquisition and discuss the following:
2. One of the concepts discussed during Week 4 is the critical periods of language acquisition. Is there a critical period for language? If so, what might this imply about learning multiple languages in school?
Reflect on the question as to whether or not animals have “language”.
3. Please explain your response using our course material: Galotti, K.M. (2014). Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Anecdotal reponses will not be marked as substantive. These include ” Animals have language because my dog Bandit does his happy dance when we feed him. He is obviously communicating his happiness over getting his bowl filled. So yes, dogs have language”.
There is a very large body of scientific material in our text and at the library on this topic. Students are encouraged to review some of this material. In one of our videos for the week (Cohen, 2009) provides a lot interesting material for us to investigate. Throughout there are multiple languages spoken. I challenge everyone to think about this for a moment. The idea that the words that we learn, the concepts that we learn via language structures the way we think about (our minds) our environment. For all of you parents out there, I’m sure that it is not too far of a leap of imagination to intuit the meaning behind this idea.
4. For the rest of you – how might this idea of language formulate culture in all of its glorious manifestations?
5. How far out there can this idea extend?
Believe me, the idea that language affects thought is not lost on major corporations who spend a lot of time and effort into manipulating our thinking with how certain products are marketed with all kinds of language.Specifically, and to the point, I would like to mention of the Whorfian hypothesis. Alisa brought up how culture influences thought and how language is tied into this. Several times throughout our text the author discusses the relative merits of this hypothesis (Galotti, 2014). For example, (Galotti, 2014) says that “The Whorfian hypothesis is that language both directs and constrains thought and perception.” (p. 242).
6. My question to everyone is this: does anyone find this to be informative? If so how?
I was intrigued to read that “A natural language has two necessary characteristics: It is regular (governed by a system of rules, called a grammar), and it is productive, meaning that infinite combinations of things can be expressed in it” (Galotti, p. 215, 2014). A natural language definition is not provided to us by our course main text (Galotti). The text does go on to state “All human languages are communication systems, but not all communication systems have the prerequisites to be classified as natural languages” (Galotti, p. 215, 2014). Textbook:Reference: Galotti, K. M. (2014). Cognitive Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
This has particular importance to us as we delve into this week’s learning objectives –
4.1 Define language and lexicon. 4.2 Evaluate key features of language. 4.3 Describe the four levels of language structure and processing. 4.4 Analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology.
7. Who can share with the rest of us what some of these feature above are?
Watch the “Broken English: The Effects of Brain Damage on Language” video located in this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings. Discuss the video. Video located at link: http://fod.infobase.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=11355
8. Please give a point taken from the video.
