PS102 Lecture Notes - Functional Fixedness, Kanzi, Deductive Reasoning
Document Summary
Effortlessly create new sentences: have a finite vocabulary that can be combined in infinite ways, wanna go out for dinner, want to fetch some grub, would you like to dine out, structured. Although creative there are some restrictions. These are regularities of language (not necessarily grammar rules) E. g. can end a sentence with a preposition and be understood, can"t say. Each word represents an idea: object (cat or dog), action (bites), abstraction, quality . Grammar/structure also contribute to the ideas: dog bites cat or cat bites dog, communication. Some language is private for ourselves. Most language is directed at and around others, social activity. Need to know the sounds, words, sentences of language and principles of conversation: conversations: pragmatics, knowing how to speak to whom, child, loved one, stranger, employer, enemy expert etc, structure of language, phonemes. Smallest unit of sound recognized as separate in a given language.
