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Study Questions:
Video The Mind--Language
(APS reader, p. 103)
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Question topics and weeks these topics were covered:
1. Teaching apes ASL: purpose I. (Week 8) What was the
purpose of experiments such as those with Vicki, Washoe, and Koko?
Vicki and Koko experiments (and, of
course, Washoe) were designed to see whether apes could use a
communication system different from their "natural"
one and significantly like human language.
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2. Teaching apes ASL: purpose II. (Week 8) How did Premack's
experiments differ in focus from the ones mentioned in question
#1? In what two ways does Premack believe his experiments have
shown a chimpanzee to be cognitively different from humans?
- Premack is interested in exploring
the cognitive capacities of apes in their own right and the nature
of language only more indirectly by comparing ape and human capacities.
- Premack believes that (1) there is
no evidence that apes formulate "rules of grammar"
and (2) there is no evidence that apes "think" in terms
of the symbols they have been taught (the symbols involve a direct
physical relation to their referents).
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3. Evolution of the vocal organs. (Week 9) Why does
Lieberman believe that the reconstructed vocal organs have implications
for how the brain has to be reconstructed? Why does he believe
that Neanderthal could not have had speech as we know it? What
evidence does he give for the selective advantage of speech?
- Lieberman would argue that the "design"
of an organism's brain is directly related to its functions,
including the motor skills it is required to drive.
- According to L's reconstruction, Neanderthal
could not pronounce the vowels a, u, or i,
and all vowels would have been heavily nasalized; these features
would, at the very least, require a phonological organization
different in kind from any human language,
- Speech must have been selectively advantageous
because the vocal organs that we have developed are inefficient
in a number of ways not true of other species.
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4. Language and the brain: lateralization. (Week 7)
What is "lateralization"? What is the significance
of the left hemisphere of the brain for experiments such as those
of Neville, Raichle, and Damsio?
- "Lateralization" is the specialization
of the two halves of the brain for different cognitive functions.
- Neville: the right hemisphere is specialized
for vision and spatial cognition, yet it is the left hemisphere
that is stimulated by signing and sign perception; Raichle:
when motor aspects of language are subtracted from PET scans
of areas stimulated during language use, the main areas of activity
are in the left hemisphere; Damasio: aphasics with left hemisphere
lesions show perturbed syntax.
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5. Language and the brain: implications of sign language.
(Week 7) Why does the study of the sign language of the deaf
have special significance for understanding language in the brain?
What have experiments shown about how sign language is processed
in the brain? What kinds of evidence show that the linguistic
development of a deaf child is like that of hearing children?
(What implications does sign language research have for Lieberman's
theories, which focus on the vocal apparatus?)
- By comparing signing and speech, we
can abstract away the fundamental aspects of language not directly
tied to mode of delivery/reception.
- Sign language, like spoken language,
is processed in the left hemisphere (see previous question, comment
on Neville in question 4).
- Children babble in sign and make the
same kinds of errors as children acquiring spoken language, e.g.
confusion of 1st and 2nd person pronouns, despite apparent iconicity
in sign language.
- Implication for Lieberman's theories:
Lieberman ties linguistic evolution very directly to development
of specialized speech organs and the ability to process speech
sounds very rapidly; the fact that sign language uses none of
these capacities, yet embodies many aspects fundamental to spoken
language, indicates that the evolution of cognitive capacities
for human language was at least to some extent independent of
the evolution of the "language organs".
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6. Language acquisition: very young children. (Week
6) What kinds of experimental evidence with babies show that we
are endowed with linguistic abilities from birth, even though
children typically do not begin to speak until they are a year
old or more?
Experiments show that babies have perceptual
abilities (e.g. discrimination of vowels, even with speakers
varied) like those of adults at an early pre-speech phase.
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7. Pidgins and creoles: evidence for "hardwiring"
of language in the brain. (Weeks 1, 7) What is the difference
between a "pidgin" and a "creole"? Why does
the formation of Surinam creole suggest that we are "hardwired"
for language from birth? Why are there so many different languages,
i.e. why don't we all speak creoles?
- A "pidgin" is not a real
"language" in that it has very "loose" phonology
and syntax, a vocabulary limited to immediate work or other social
requirements, and is not the native mode of speech for anyone;
a "creole" is a full-fledged language in every sense.
- Surinam creole is apparently unique
in that it was "created" by children from a "pidgin"
used by adults who had no common language (this contrasts with
most cases of creole formation, where the "basilect"-the
actual "base" language, such as English or Portuguese-is
spoken to a significant extent in the milieu).
- We don't all speak creoles because
under normal circumstances, a significant part of the community
will share a common "real" language, which the next
generation will acquire.
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8. Language and the brain: direct studies of the brain.
(Week 7) Describe how it is experimentally possible to show where
specific linguistic abilities are stored in the brain.
See description of Raichle experiments
in the video outline: a PET scan can show areas of the brain
which are active; during a speech act, by subtracting stimulated
areas known to be associated with motor activity, stress, etc.,
the remaining stimulated areas must be those stimulated by purely
linguistic factors.
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9. Language and the brain: aphasia. (Week 7) How would
the language deficits of aphasics show how the brain stores grammar?
What in the film tells us that Damasio's stroke patient had left
hemisphere damage (other than him saying so)?
- By studying the specific deficits and
intact abilities of aphasics, it is possible, because of knowledge
of where brain damage is localized, to associate the deficits
with those locations.
- Damasio's stroke victim reported numbness/loss
of motor skills on the right side of the body; motor functions
are controlled by the hemisphere opposite to the side controlled,
hence damage must have been in the left hemisphere.
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10. The Whorf Hypothesis: language and thought. (Week
1) What is the "Whorf Hypothesis"? What evidence did
Whorf think Hopi gave for this hypothesis? What is Malotki's
view (and the view of virtually all linguists today) on this hypothesis?
If Whorf was wrong, what would explain the Eskimos having many
words for snow [if, in fact, they did] or nomadic Arabs having
many words for camels?
- The "Whorf Hypothesis" claims
that the way a person views reality is shaped by the language
s/he speaks; Whorf claimed that Hopi had no words for time and
no grammatical category of tense and that Hopis, as a consequence,
did not perceive "time".
- Malotki in the film, along with virtually
every other linguist working today, does not accept the strong
version of the Whorf hypothesis. Evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates
that linguistic structure and perception of the world are independent,
with perception of the world a function of culture, not language
[indeed, some concepts, such as the fact that time passes, would
be human universals, not even controlled by culture].
- The Eskimos have lots of words for
snow just because snow is important to them and it is useful
to have simple ways to characterize it. One should add, however,
that the basic claim that Eskimos have many words for snow is
doubtful-see Pinker, pp. 64-65.
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