COGS 200 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Dynamic Equilibrium
13 Jan 2017
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BOLINGER COGS
CHAPTER 1
Brain areas for speech last to develop
Babies are good for learning language
Ancestry makes no difference in language. Born with predisposition for language, but not for a particular
language
The notion of speech as a purely overlaid function is false
Three things needed to learn language:
• Predispositions, as well as physical capacities, developed through countless centuries of natural
selection
• A pre-existing language system, any one of the many produced by the cultures of the world
• A competence that comes from applying the predispositions and capacities to the system through
the relatively long period during which the child learns both to manipulate the physical elements
of the system, such as sounds, words, and grammatical rules, and to permeate them with meaning.
Society cannot exist without language and humans cannot exist without society. Natural selection
ensures language exists.
Language is species-specific
Do not know extent to which language is taught vs learned in children. If instinctive, children will learn
whether taught or not. If instinct to learn, there may also be an instinct to teach.
Stages of language development:
• Holophrastic stage- utterance and things are related one to one
• Joining stage- child brings together two names for things or actions
• Connective stage- connecting words in more complex sentences to direct grammar and syntax
• Recursive stage- awareness of linguistic structures as such
Language never stops being learned, it is always changing and is held differently in everyones mind.
Chapter 2
Learning a new language is always in some measure repeating an old experience
Human language is a system of human auditory communication, interacting with the experiences of its
users, employing conventional signs composed of arbitrary patterned sound units and assembled
according to set rules
Instinct to babble. Intelligence not required for language, yet humans are the only ones to do it.
The essence of a language is a way of acting.
Stratification- organization of levels on levels
Every living language is in a state of dynamic equilibrium
• Systematic and receptive to change
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Document Summary
Born with predisposition for language, but not for a particular language. The notion of speech as a purely overlaid function is false. Society cannot exist without language and humans cannot exist without society. Do not know extent to which language is taught vs learned in children. If instinctive, children will learn whether taught or not. If instinct to learn, there may also be an instinct to teach. Language never stops being learned, it is always changing and is held differently in everyones mind. Learning a new language is always in some measure repeating an old experience. Human language is a system of human auditory communication, interacting with the experiences of its users, employing conventional signs composed of arbitrary patterned sound units and assembled according to set rules. Intelligence not required for language, yet humans are the only ones to do it. The essence of a language is a way of acting.
