PSYC 2450 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Zav, Natural Kind, Bird Feeder
18 Jan 2017
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Koko: gorilla that mastered gorilla sign language. >1000 words (same as a 2/2. 5 year old child: koko invents new words by combining words, koko able to communicate her emotions after her cat is killed (bad, sad, frown, cry, etc. ) What non-human species do have: birds and whales learn their songs by imitating other members of their species, human language = productive; genetically specified. Recursivity: a clause can contain another clause. The dog is running + i see = i see [the dog is running: a noun phrase can contain another noun phrase. [[the chimpanzee]"s lips] : multi-modality: auditory, visual (reading), tactile (brail), gestural (sign language, abstract, imagined/hypothetical, past/present. Displacement: ability to refer to events that are not at the same time or place as the speech event. Thinking like a scientist (hypothetico-deduction hallmark of formal operations) Language seems overly complex to simply learn . Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation (noam chomsky)
