PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Noam Chomsky, Speech Segmentation, Universal Grammar
26 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Language is regular, governed by rules and grammar. A sentence can be reorganized and still retain it"s meaning due to the system of rules that language follows. Language is arbitrary (speci c sounds are assigned to represent a concept, cat does not relate to the actual fuzzy animal in any way whatsoever) There are almost limitless ways to combine words, to describe objects, situations and actions. Language may in uence how we perceive and experience the world. A tribe in brazil had a language that only counted low numbers, this re ected on their ability to perceive the number of objects in front of them. Despite all languages having speci c words for family members, we understand how we are related to people (ex: uncle can be mother"s brother or father"s brother) Smallest units of sound that contain information (or units of signs in sign language)
