LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Universal Grammar, Koala, Benjamin Lee Whorf
31 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Examples of formal studies of word and sound structure and sentence structure. Language"s effects on world view and cognition (linguistic relativity) From: knowing the words of the language and the rules for putting them together. Function: knowing how to communicate/express yourself in the language. Speakers of all language have same tacit knowledge of their language. A language" is the shared understanding of these speci c unconscious rules. All languages have rules organizing their sound systems. All languages have rules organizing the creation of new words. All languages have rules organizing the building of sentences. Document and model the knowledge of the unconscious rules of languages. This can give us a sense of the underlying cognitive capacity that allows us to understand these rules. We know things that are never explicitly taught (e. g. active/passive formation in english) Descriptive rules are innate: speakers do not disobey them. Descriptive rule: describe some aspect of a person"s fundamental knowledge of their language.
