Language and Thought People to Know

Chomsky

(Generativist) Revolted against the idea that language is part of behavioralism in that language is a mental phenomenon. There's not enough information for children to learn everything in a given language without actually learning (Poverty of Stimulus), therefore, language must all be the same and is "inbred" through an organ containing specific content about language structure called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). The set of structures that all languages share is called Universal Grammar

Evans and Levinson

- Denounce Universal Grammar by claiming that it is empirically false, unfalsifiable, or misleading, referring to tendencies instead of universals - Claimed that experts cannot formulate accurately and the languages are not parametric (binary) - Expanded upon Greenberg's Chart of Universals: Unrestricted Exceptionless: All have X (none) Restricted Exceptionless: If Y, then X (few) Unrestricted Statistical: Most have X (Many) Restricted Statistical: If Y, then it tends to have X (some)

Skinner

Behaviorist; focused on animal learning and stimuli: Speaking is a response to stimuli, anything pertaining to mental cognition is off-limits because it cannot be observed

Mutsumi Imai

Built upon Lucy's experiment of Shape and Substance and showed that Japanese adults fall in line with the Linguistic Relativity predictions. In this experiment, function-neutral materials are important. An interesting note that was observed was that children don't always pattern like adults however, the social tendency tends to emerge in middle childhood.

Jean Piaget

Child psychologist who believed that early speech is "egocentric" without reference to others. Child development is an individual process of discovery (Lone scientist) and development is the same regardless of social context (Universal Stages). Later, the child directs speech skills towards social others (Psychological -> Social)

Lev Vygotsky

Child psychologist who believed that early speech is social and based on input from others. Later, the child internalizes speech rules and pattern; supports possibility of culturally diverse cognitive outcome (Social -> psychological) Proposed the Zone of Proximal Development which is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can't

Yevgeny Polivanov

First to recognize importance of native language on perception of physically identical speech sounds: L1 affects how speech sounds are labelled, the levels of fine, phonetic detail, wait of cues, and phonetic contrast; L1 organizes phonetic distinctions and phonetically distinct contrasts but the influence is not all-encompassing; L1 does not exert an iron grip on the perception of non-native speakers

Eleanor Rosch Heider

Focused on the idea of prototyping and categorization; proposed that there are two basic principles for the formation of prototypical categories for the sharing of maximum information: Cognitive Economy: To reduce infinite differences and discriminate what belongs in each category Perceived World Structure: How natural object correlate ((Vertical dimensions: level of inclusiveness (Kingdom -> species); Horizontal dimensions: Same level of inclusiveness in different categories)) Categorization is based on imagery, perception, motor movements, similarity in shapes, development, and language The more prototypical a member is rated, the more attributes it has in common with other members and "best examples" seem to exist in thinking and cognition. This also goes along with the study of events in that flows of experience use units to define events

Steven Pinker

Generativist like Chomsky, supported LAD in that people are born with an innate capacity for language and supported the idea of a UG. Believed in the Autonomy of Syntax in that, because the LAD belongs to an impermeable mental module, language cannot have input into speakers' conceptualization

Alfred Kroeber

Identified and proposed 8 dimensions of familial contrast: 1. Generational 2. Lineal/ collateral 3. Difference of age within generation 4. Sex of relative 5. Sex of speaker 6. Sex of relatum 7. Blood/ marriage relationship 8. Condition of life (English uses 1, 2, 4, 7)

Alexander Luria

Influenced by Vygotsky and has the earliest recorded research on literacy and cognition. Posed syllogisms and sorting tasks to the people of Uzbekistan who had new literacy programs. The degree of literacy is often confounded with exposure to school in that schooling enforces a very particular type of literacy, one decontextualized from normal lines of thought. Decontextualization sets aside normal knowledge for a world sealed off from context and is enforced by WEIRD speech patterns. Therefore, those exposed to WEIRD language are more likely to be able to decontextualize. - Paradigmatic sorting: Putting things together based on usage (WEIRD) - Syntagmatic sorting: Putting things together that naturally belong together

Jonathan Winawer

Linguist who ran experiments questioning color distinction between the Russian blues and argued that language may alter a subject's objective ability to discriminate colors. In this experiment, he posed unambiguous questions to make subjects rely on linguistic encoding with stimuli requiring perceptual decision. From this study, he claims that group discrimination differs across languages and that habitual or obligatory categorical distinctions made in one's language result in language-specific categorical distortions in object-perception tasks, thus achieving Relativistic Categorical perception results that are analogous to those from speech sounds.

George Lakoff

Many abstract concepts are explained through metaphor as a structure of perception (i.e. Love is a journey, argument is war) The human thought process is largely metaphorical as a way to invoke image schema and does so through the Invariance Principle, stating metaphorical mappings preserve cognitive typology of the source domain consistent with that of the target domain (consider "uncle")

Benjamin Whorf (Neo-Whorfianism)

Proposed the idea of Linguistic Relativity and supported this idea of Determinism with postulates: 1. Language affects thought because we get information from reading and conversation 2. Sentence structures can effect the way people the way people frame an event 3. Stock of words in a language represents what people deal with in everyday life and what they think about 4. Language is used to invoke meaning and, through invoking meaning, alters thought 5. Attributes come with the mention of an entity 6. Computational systems must have the means to store products of its computation 7. Every language focuses on certain aspects of the world 8. Words and grammar structures have a profound effect on how speakers reason (even when they aren't speaking or reasoning) 9. Medium of thought consists of actual words and sentences in the language that a person speaks, therefore, people cannot conceive a concept that lacks a name in their language 10. If cultures speak different languages, then communication is impossible

Carl Linnaeus

Proposed the initial categorization of species; proposed only "Genus" and "Species" levels; called into question when considering folk taxonomies

John Lucy

Researched comparative perspective based on cultural diversity starting with cross-linguistic data, inferring language-relevant criteria for different construals of reality (i.e. animacy, stability...) instead of presumed universal realities (i.e. color, counting, space...). Found a relationship between language spoken and classification preference in his study of English and Yucatec Maya, supporting the idea of an implicational hierarchy, demonstrating both points of convergence and divergence, and supporting universalism and relativity

Berlin + Kay

Researchers focused on finding the best examples of colors across cultures; colors must be at a linguistically generic level only and must follow the four requirements: 1. Monolexemic 2. Not a type of a monolexemic color (ie. scarlet) 3. Not restricted to a narrow class of objects (ie. blonde) 4. Psychologically salient (ie. independent from other objects) Are languages relative or do they not vary much?

Caleb Everett

Set up ground rules for empirical investigation on Linguistic Relativity when comparing speakers of two or more languages in some respect of "habitual thought:" 1. Avoid circular arguments as measures of thought should go beyond language 2. Avoid confirmation bias as anecdotes are subject to bias 3. Correlation =/= Causation as multiple studies are needed Also, evidence for what "seems likely" is inadmissible and Metalanguage should be monitored

Speech-sound perception

Small acoustic differences make a big linguistic difference that is perceptually magnified but the same acoustic differences don't make big linguistic differences. These differences are acquired from language to language in the adult perception and are directly associated with linguistic categorization. An arbitrary boundary is imposed onto a natural continuum, creating two distinct categories: (analog becomes digital)

Li et al.

Stated that experiments in Linguistic Relativity should only have one correct answer. Focused on Frame of Reference as a cognitive tool with Tenejapan Mayans. Allocentric Extrinsic: Anchor is distinct and outside of speech (Absolute) Allocentric Intrinsic: Anchor is included in the ground but outside of speech (Object-centered) Egocentric Extrinsic: Anchor is distinct from the ground but is inside speech (Relative) Egocentric Intrinsic: Anchor is included in the ground and is inside in speech (Direct)

Importance of Grammar over Vocabulary

Vocabulary changes fast, responding to cultural and ecological interests of speakers, meaning that other cultural factors could be in play. It's available to the speaker's conscious introspection and possibly involves intentional reasoning. Words are used relatively infrequently and a range of choice is available Grammar changes slowly, and is less directly affected by culture and ecology. It's much less available to conscious introspection and often relies on a 'default' cognition. Grammatical contrasts are applied in almost every utterance and distinctions are often obligatory