INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW AUG. 28, 2013 – DAY 2 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Fall 2013

INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEWAUG. 28, 2013 – DAY 2

Brain & Language

LING 4110-4890-5110-7960

NSCI 4110-4891-6110

Fall 2013

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Course organization• http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/

8/28/13 Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/

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INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEWIngram §1


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What’s the book about?• “This book is about language processing in the human

brain and, more specifically, what happens to spoken language when certain areas of the brain are damaged.” (p.3)• Is this my idea?• Notice that processing is mentioned before damage.


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What is processing?

• Process or processing typically describes the action of taking something through an established and usually routine set of procedures or steps to convert it from one form to another, such as processing paperwork to grant a mortgage loan, processing milk into cheese, or converting computer data from one form to another.

• A process involves steps and decisions in the way work is accomplished, and may involve a sequence of events.


What is online processing?

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What is language processing?• “Language processing is what takes place whenever we

understand or produce speech.” (p.3)


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Is there any other kind of language besides speech?


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What does ‘modularity’ mean?• Modularity is designing a system that is

divided into a set of functional units (named modules) that can be composed into a larger application. A module represents a set of related concerns. Modules are independent of one another but can communicate with each other in a loosely coupled fashion.

• Imagine an online banking program. The user can access a variety of functions, such as transferring money between accounts, paying bills, and updating personal information from a single user interface. However, behind the scenes, each of these functions is a discrete module. These modules communicate with each other and with back-end systems such as database servers. Application services integrate components within the different modules and handle the communication with the user. The user sees an integrated view that looks like a single application.


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Language and modularity• What does it mean to say that language is modular?

• How can you tell?

• What other cognitive ability might be modular?


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What does ‘localization’ mean?

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Brodmann’s areas, functions

What is aphasia?

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What is phrenology?

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What is this?

Signified Signifier

dogperroHundkalbtxakurgaooficanjagua

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the relation is arbitrary

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Representation• What is a symbol?• How many linguistic symbols do you know?

• “language … involves a kind of doubling of our perceptual universe” (p. 6)

• This implies a doubling of the computational capacity of the brain.

• What is representation?• What is first-order representation?

• Ingram: the brain’s representation of objects (perception) and events (episodic memory)

• What is second-order representation?• Ingram: a language’s representation of objects (nouns) and events

(clauses)

• More standard in philosophy of language• First-order: That is a dog.• Second-order: Mary knows that that is a dog.


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What is evolution?

Darwinian or natural selection Sexual selection


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How/why did language evolve?

Darwinian or natural selection Sexual selection


Watch out for the snake!

Story-tellers are sexy!

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What is co-evolution?

• What examples of co-evolution can you think of, besides the brain and language?

• So, how could the brain and language have co-evolved?

• Will we ever know? – Don’t answer! See next slide.


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What is falsifiability?

• Are all swans white? • The classical view of the philosophy

of science is that it is the goal of science to ‘prove’ observational data.

• This seems hardly possible, since it would require us to infer a general rule from a number of individual cases, which is logically inadmissible.

• However, if we find one single black swan, logic allows us to conclude that the statement that all swans are white is false.

• Falsificationism thus strives for questioning, for falsification, of hypotheses instead of proving them.


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Falsifiability• Is it good or bad?• Is the theory of the co-evolution of the brain & language

falsifiable?


NEXT TIMEAspects of linguistic competence, Ingram §2.

Read the study questions on the last page of the chapter before you read the chapter.

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INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW AUG. 28, 2013 – DAY 2 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Fall 2013