Anthropology 1027A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Vocal Folds, Survival Function, Noam Chomsky

• School: Western University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: Anthropology 1027A/B
• Professor: Olga Kharytonava

Document Summary

Scientific study of language: takes a scientific perspective, how it works, how it is used, and how it changes. Language makes us human: all humans have an innate ability to learn language, all humans learn a language. Language plays an important role in: communication, conveying thoughts, emotions, differentiating groups: social, national, cultural. Move food to teeth and back into throat. Language is a system regulated by rules - a grammar. It is not always obvious what constitutes a rule and constraint in a language. It is not always written in grammar books and explicitly taught. Language is a creative system (lexicon + grammar: language allows innovation (within limits) Speaking is parallel to walking: no understanding of the principles of balance that allow us to walk is necessary. Linguistic performance: what we say and understand on a given occasion, may contain errors. Inaccessibility - grammatical knowledge is subconscious: track grammatical changes.