Psychology 2040A/B Lecture Notes - Bootstrapping (Linguistics), Literal And Figurative Language, Teddy Bear

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: Jackie Sullivan

Document Summary

Syntax: the rules by which words are arranged into sentences. Morphology: the use of grammatical markers indicating number, tense, case, person, gender, active or passive voice & other meaning (-s & -ed: pragmatics refers to the rules for engaging in appropriate & effective communication. Are developed in this order, i believe. Chomsky proposed this theory that regards language as a uniquely human accomplishment, etched into the structure of the brain. Some species can learn some vocab & can produce short utterances but its less consistently than a preschool child. Chimps have been taught asl & other forms of communication (key-board symbols), but are unable to produce strings of 3 or more symbols that conform to a rule-based structure. Bonobo chimps are more intelligent amazing comprehension of english words (does not exceed past a 2 year old) No evidence exists that even the brightest animals can comprehend & produce sentences that are both complex and novel: language areas in the brain.