PSY270H1 Chapter : Ch11 Textbook Notes
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PSY270H1 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Language, a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Language makes it possible to create new and unique sentences because it has a structure that is (1) hierarchical (consists of small components that can be combined to form larger units) and (2) governed by rules. Enables humans to communicate whatever they want to express. Predominant staging ground for language is one person conversing with another. When deaf children find themselves in an environment where nobody speaks or uses sign language, they invent a sign language themselves. Everyone with normal capacities develops a language and learns to follow its complex rules, even though they are usually not aware of these rules. There isn t a single culture that is without language. Skinner proposed that language is learned through reinforcement. Chomsky proposed that human language is coded in the genes.
