Language

A Dramatic Gift Bequeathed to

Humans…

According to a Huffington Post article the top 10 most Polarizing foods are:

 Cilantro Celery Black Licorice Green Pepper Marzipan Mayonnaise Blue Cheese Vegemite/Marmite Coconut Liver

Prisecolinensinenciousolhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8

Skwerlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

What are they talking about?

Key Questions…

What is language?Do people think in language?Does the language you speak affect how you think about the world?

How does language affect society?

“Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides.” -Rita Mae Brown

Easily taken for granted; issues related to language and knowledge call for conscious scrutiny.

Thought of as a representative symbol system A tool for social coordination and behavior

control Reading, writing, speaking, some gesture

systems are all forms of language. Most linguists agree that some 6ooo languages

are actually used for communication.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE

We dwell in language, but the rules and internal grammatical

consistencies of language go largely unexamined in everyday use. Every language is chock full of

cultural, historical and socio-ethical assumptions and, whether we reflect upon it or not, our language is inextricably bound with who we are and what we have come to know about the world. We can never jump out of language or put it aside. If we have multiple languages we reap the benefits of multiple social and cognitive windows.

Infants have the ability to discern and respond to the phonemes of all of the

world’s languages.

The language, or languages, actually acquired are determined by the chance odds of birthplace and upbringing. As childhood marches on towards puberty, the ability to reproduce spoken sounds, like a native, diminishes steadily.

The acquisition of a specific language begins spontaneously in babies with

exploratory babbling. Successful utterances in the surrounding

native language are reinforced. This process is usually accelerated by the melodious “motherese” used by mothers and care givers of all ages everywhere.

All young children are natural born, grammatical geniuses.

Care givers reveal the syntactical particularities of the local language (like code), but deliberate lessons in the fundamentals of grammar seem quite unnecessary.

Linguistic Determinism & Relativism

Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist Edward Sapir, German-born linguist (1880’s-1940)

Culture determines our language Language plays a role in determining world

view Proposition #1- Linguistic Determinism:

language determines thought. (Strong role of language on our thoughts.)

Proposition #2- Linguistic Relativism: difference in language = difference in thought. (Language influences thought – weaker role of language on our thoughts).

Noam Chomsky

American Linguist and Philosopher Born with language acquisition device Universal Grammar

Language structures have similar fundamental principles and mechanisms at their cores

from a “Martian's-eye-view”, all humans speak a single language- the same symbol- manipulating machinery, underlies the world's languages.

Human language derived from specific type of mental organization.

Language is dependent on thought.

Language &Mind

Steven Pinker

The Language Instinct an ability unique to humans, produced by evolution to

solve the specific problem of communication among social hunter-gatherers. Just like other species' specialized adaptations such as spiders' web-weaving Language is an instinct

It is not a human invention. While only some human cultures possess technologies, all cultures possess language. Language is universal

the underlying structures of language, the grammar, are innate and the same for all humans;

Children's rapid acquisition is possible because they are born with the super-rules hard-wired into their brains; they learn by listening to their parents .

Language, not a cultural artifact but piece of the biological make up of the brain.

Terence Deacon

The Symbolic Species“co-evolution of language and the

brain.”   symbols are the essential element of human

language, far more important than grammar. symbols are logically connected to other

symbols in an interlocking set of relationships.

the evolution of language is not to be explained in terms of innate grammatical functions, but instead in terms of the acquisition and manipulation of symbols and symbol-relations.

The most famous linguistic story ever.

In the Inuit language there is (are?) 400 words for snow.

Deep, soft snow making walking difficult.

Snowdrift forming in the side of a hill.

Snowdrift formed by a south-east wind.

Snow with a thin hard curst that gives way underfoot.

Snow roughened by rain or frost.

It is a complete myth.It began in 1911 with Whorf’s teacher - 4 words

Whorf exaggerated it to 7Implying that it was more…

From there it “snowballed” (get it?)

How many are there in English?SnowAvalancheSlushDustingPowderWetHardpackDrift

StormFlurryBlizzardSnowfall…???????

ablation - the process of being removed. Snow ablation usually refers to removal by melting accretion - growth of precipitation particles by collision of ice crystals with super cooled liquid droplets which freeze on impact anchor ice - Submerged ice attached or anchored to the river bed, irrespective of the nature of its formation. avalanche - large amount of snow that falls down a slope due to gravity blizzard - winds of at least 35 miles per hour along with considerable falling and/or blowing snow reducing visibility to less than one-quarter mile for a period of at least three hours. blowing snow - windriven snow boilerplate - skiing term for ice that forms from liquid water (as opposed to compressed snow) bottom ice - ice that is anchored to the bottom of a body of water and cannot float border ice - ice formed along and fastened to the shore. Border ice does not extend the entire width across the river. Also called shore ice. breakup jam - accumulation of broken ice pieces that restricts the flow of water; may contain frazil ice or remnants of freezeup jam. candled ice - decayed sheet ice that takes the appearance of thin vertical crystals shaped like candles. cellular ice - growing ice crystal that proceeds as a bunch of hexagonal prisms

corn snow - snow that has partly melted and refrozen and acts like ball-bearings cornice - drift of snow that overhangs a precipice closed cavity ice - a formation like depth hoar that forms from ground water in underground cavities crushed ice - for cocktails crust - hard cohesive layer overtop of softer snow crystal - regular arrangement of water molecules with long-range order cubic ice - ice with cubic symmetry dendrite - hexagonal ice crystals with complex and often fernlike branches. depth hoar - large (one to several millimeters in diameter), cohesionless, coarse, faceted snow crystals which result from the presence of strong temperature gradients within the snowpack dry accretion - accretion through sublimation dusting - very light snowfall, usually of ice crystals that form in the lower atmosphere evaporative icing - ice that forms in an engine due to the cooling effect from evaporation of fuel fast ice - sea ice that forms at the shore and remains fast firn - glacial snow that has survived at least one season flake ice - ice that is fractured parallel to the c-axis to create flakes

flurry - snowfall combined with wind frazil - fine, small, needle-like structures or thin, flat, circular plates of ice suspended in water. In rivers and lakes it is formed in turbulent water as supercooled water is brought to the surface freeze - the process of solidification of water freezeup jam - accumulation of frazil that restricts the flow of water; may contain some broken border ice pieces. frost - ice that sublimates onto a surface frozen water - water in the crystalline solid state glacier - snow that accumulates over many years with sufficient weight to form ice under the surface glaze ice - rain that falls on supercooled objects and immediately turns to ice graupel - snowflakes that become rounded pellets due to riming. Typical sizes are two to five millimeters in diameter (0.1 to 0.2 inches). Graupel is sometimes mistaken for hail. grease ice - a later stage of freezing than frazil ice when the crystals have coagulated to form a soupy layer on the surface. Grease ice reflects little light, giving the surface a matt appearance hail - frozen raindrops hardpack - snow that has been packed to the point where it does not yield to body weight hexagonal ice - ice with hexagonal symmetry

hoarfrost - frost that grows outward from its substrate (vapor to solid phase transition) ice - crystalline water ice I through ice IVX - different crystalline arrangements that form under various temperature-pressure situations iceberg - part of a glacier that calves into the ocean and floats with the currents ice cream - frozen mixture of water, sugar and fat that tastes delicious ice cube - lump of ice used to chill a rye and coke ice embryo - sub-critical cluster of water molecules ice floe - pack ice that is moving with ocean currents ice lens - lens-shaped ice buildup that forms in soils where water moves through pores to join the crystal (responsible for frost heave) ice shelf - glacial ice that flows out over the sea and remains attached to the glacier ice stalagmites - stalagmites of ice that form on top of ice cubes when the freezing proceeds inward from the edges ice wedge - water that freezes in the crevices of a rock and cause mechanical stress through expansion ice worms - worm-like bubbles in ice cubes caused by exclusion of gas at the interface igloo - snow house made by cutting blocks from windslab snow and arranging them in a dome lake ice - ice that forms on top of a lake

melted snow - water that was once snow metamorphism - changes in the structure and texture of snow grains which results from variations in temperature, migration of liquid water and water vapor, and pressure within the snow cover mushy zone - region in which ice and solution co-exist nacelle icing - ice formation on aircraft needle ice - ice that forms in moist soil, desiccating the surrounding soil (see pipkrake) neve - glacial ice formed by enormous pressure compressing snow pack ice - long lasting ice cover over ocean water pancake ice - circular flat accumulations composed of frazil and slush ice with a raised rim; the shape and rim are due to repeated collisions permafrost - soil frost that doesn't melt in the summer pingo ice - huge ice lens that forms underneat a pond causing a hill to rise up to 50m high pipe ice - ice formation inside an enclosed pipe often rupturing the pipe pipkrake - needle-like spicules of ice that grow out of the groundwater from moist, loose soil when there is no freezing in the ground; needles are about 1mm in diameter and can be several centimeters tall. piste - slope of snow suitable for skiing plate ice - ice that forms on top of still water

powder - new fallen snow that hasn't sintered or metamorphosed precipitation - the accumulated depth of rain or drizzle and also the melted water content of snow or other forms of frozen precipitation, including hail polycrystal - a snowflake composed of many individual ice crystals quinsy - snow cave built from a pile of soft snow that is allowed to set red snow - blooms of chlamydomonas nivallus in glacial suncups during the summer rime - a deposit of ice formed when supercooled water droplets freeze on contact with an object river ice - ice that forms in a river safety snow - artificial snow at a ski resort that is slower than natural snow (derogatory term) sastrugi - skier's term for snow that has melted into breaking waves from the sun sea ice - ice that forms in salt water shear walls - ice left along shoreline when a freezeup or breakup jam fails and moves downstream shorefast ice - sea ice that is anchored to the shoreline sill ice - ice lenses that rupture the ground surface so that the ice is exposed silver frost - frost that grows from the liquid phase (i.e. from dew) rather than gas phase sintering - process of minimizing the surface area to volume ratio, similar to recrystallization slab avalanche - avalanche that begins as a fracture in the surface slab

sleet - mixture of rain and hail sluff avalanche - avalanche of powder snow much like a sandpile avalanche slurpee - delicious mix of syrup and ice crystals; the crystals are kept small and round through continuous motion and a high sugar content slush - wet snow snowbank - pile of snow from shoveling or plowing snowcave - cavern dug out of a snow drift snow core - a sample of snow, either just the freshly fallen snow or the combined old and new snow on the ground, obtained by pushing a cylinder down through the snow layer and extracting it snowburst - very intense showers of snow, often of short duration, that greatly restrict visibility and produce periods of rapid snow accumulation snow depth - the combined total depth of both old and new snow on the ground snowdrift - snow that collects in a ridge due to wind snowfall - the depth of new snow that has accumulated since the previous day or since the previous observation snowflake - a cluster of ice crystals that falls from a cloud snow flurries - snow that falls for short durations and which often changes in intensity. Flurries usually produce little accumulation

snow fort - protective walls built from snow blocks snow grains - high atmosphere ice crystals accrete rime from supercooled water droplets as they fall. snow house - shelter built from snow with a roof snow load - the downward force on an object or structure caused by the weight of accumulated snow snowman - large balls of snow piled on top of one another to resemble a person snowpack - the total snow and ice on the ground, including both new snow and the previous snow and ice which has not melted snow pellets - larger than snow grains but smaller than graupel; formed the same way. snow rollers - rolled up blankets of snow that accumulate when wet snow falls on icy crust followed by strong, gusty winds snow squall - a brief, but intense fall of snow that greatly reduces visibility and which is often accompsnowstorm - heavy snowfall, usually with wind sublimation - the process in which ice changes directly to water vapor without melting, but also in meteorology the opposite process in which water vapor is transformed to ice (also called deposition) suncups - depressions in the snow caused by sun melting supercooled - the condition when a liquid remains in the liquid state even through its temperature is below its freezing point supersaturation - the condition which occurs in the atmosphere when the relative humidity is greater than 100 percent

surface hoar - the deposition (sublimation) of ice crystals on a surface which occurs when the temperature of the surface is colder than the air above and colder than the frost point of that air throttle icing - ice that forms in an engine due to the cooling effect of expansion in the carburetor Tyndall figures - shapes with hexagonal symmetry formed inside an ice crystal due to melting vein ice - ice in soil that encapsulates solid particles vitreous ice - water in the solid state without long range order (i.e. a glass) verglas - thin coating of ice over rocks whiteout - daylight diffused through low, white clouds such that the snow and the sky are indistinguishable. No sense of direction is possible. windpack - crust of snow formed by the action of wind

We do not have words for every concept or thing. Some languages sometimes have words with no direct translation into other languages.

For instance, do we have a word in English for word “unbearably cute?

geramPortuguese does…

Do we have a word in English for word “to gain pleasure at the

misfortune of others”?German does.

Schaudenfreide

Do we have a word in English for the concept “ at the home of the

family of…”?French does.

chez

Do we have a word in English for the concept “ the state of

mind in which two people regard each other, and both want something done, but

neither of them wants to be the first to do it”?

Tierra del Fuego does.mamihlapinatapai

Do any of these words depict emotions that you are familiar with?

This is strong evidence that speakers of two languages share a common mental world, the world of human

emotion.So why do some languages depict emotions that others do not? Good

question. The most important thing is that, in spite of the language differences, the thoughts and emotions behind them

are not radically different to those of you, me, or anyone else.

The Deeper Meaning of Liffby Douglas Adams

• CORRIEARKLET (n)• ELBONICS (n)• ELECELLERATION (n)• OUGHTERBY (n)• SCONSER (n)• SCAPTOFT (n)• SHOEBURYNESS (n)

COLORS• How many color words does English have?• Different languages have different numbers of color words.• Latin has no words for brown or grey

Hugh Laurie and Ellen: British slang vs the American http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE

ACTIVITYTake out a piece of paper.5 Minutes – come up with new words

15 Minutes – rotate sheets and define new words. The definition should be something that actually exists—a thing, a phenomenon, a mental concept—but that isn’t a word yet.

Share our new words

HOMEWORKCreate a word that will represent a thought, action, or abstract concept that already exists for which there should be a word in English but isn’t. Make sure you include which part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.) it is, as well as the definition. Lastly, use it in a sentence.

TRU

DAT!!

A New Way to Look at Language The article talks about language as a representational

system. What kinds of things can language represent? Statement from the article: “Language is not a mirror. It

does not exist in order to give an accurate account of the real world. It is a machine that functions for our benefit by allowing us to analyze things so that we can take advantage of them.” What do you think this means? What are some examples of this?

Statement from the article: “Language’s ties to the world are pretty loose.” Do you agree with this statement? How might this statement be true/false? How accurate is it?

Why do you think we need to have a “grammar” to connect our language symbols?