HLTA03H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Vocal Tract, Second-Language Acquisition, Linguistic Typology
Document Summary
Language is a human creation, so it should be subject to human limitations: e. g -visual perception: letters appear in a fairly constrained set of sizes and visual complexity across languages. Working memory: sentences will not be 300 words long with many nested statements. The vocal tract and auditory tracts can only perceive and produce certain sounds. Because some things people say about language (that are almost certainly wrong): Inuit have 50-(cid:1005)(cid:1004)(cid:1004) (cid:449)ords for (cid:862)s(cid:374)o(cid:449)(cid:863)= (cid:373)yth. Ppl whose language has no word for a concept has trouble thinking about that concept. ***overarching aim of the course: explore how the scientific study of language can advance our knowledge of how humans (a(cid:374)d other creatures) co(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)icate *** A brief example of the scientific method: -lexical decision task -a means of measuring when we are able to identify that a set of letters forms a word.
