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HUMAN LANGUAGE and the MIND is a course in human thinking and speaking that deals with psychological, cognitive and anthropological aspects of language as a key to mind, intellect and creativity; interrelation of language, thoughts and brain; language in mediating experience, remembering and creating meaning; the instinctive, emotional and rational in our cognition; pre-linguistic cognition of hominids; children’s language acquisition; and language diversity. Poslední úprava: Eckertová Eva, prof. doc., Ph.D. (27.01.2021)
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Course requirements
Poslední úprava: Eckertová Eva, prof. doc., Ph.D. (18.01.2023)
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Language in Mind: Introduction to Psycholinguistics, by Julie Sedivy 2018 Diessel, G. Learning vs. Growth, in Language in Use, pp. 313-19 Kress, G. and T. Leuwen, Semiotic Landscape, in Language in Use, pp. 344-9 Pinker, Steven 1995 Language is a human instinct, in Third Culture 1995, ch.13, Simon& Schuster Plag, Ingo Productivity and the Mental Lexicon, in Language in Use, pp. 106-13 Premack, David 2004. Is Language a Key to Human Intelligence? in Science Sperber, D. and D. Wilson 1996. Relevance: Communication and Cognition, pp. 1-24, 38, 46-9,172-9 Poslední úprava: Eckertová Eva, prof. doc., Ph.D. (27.01.2021)
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HUMAN LANGUAGE and MIND: Thinking and Speaking consists of a presentation that leads into seminar discussions, the space is shared by the teacher and students. Poslední úprava: Eckertová Eva, prof. doc., Ph.D. (27.01.2021)
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WEEK 1: ORIGINS of MODERN MAN and LANGUAGE Feb. 21 Cognition, intelligence and creativity Nativist views/ Language as instinct vs. social learning Human ancestors vs. modern humans: What we need to add to the mind to get language? (J. Searle) Animals’ communication systems vs. the language of humans (D. Premack) What are the reasons for the rise of humans and modern language? TED Talk by Y. N. Harari Readings: Language in Mind: Introduction to Psycholinguistics, by Julie Sedivy 2018, ch. 2, pp. 9-31 WEEK 2: HOW HUMANS INVENT LANGUAGE Feb. 28 Inventing and learning language Gesturing, babbling, speaking, writing and signing Language change: Survival of the fittest? Language diversity The birth of a language documentary (Nicaragua sign language) Readings: Sedivy, ch. 2, Evolution of speech, pp. 31-50 WEEK 3: Language and the Brain March 7
WEEK 4: MAPPING LANGUAGE in the BRAIN March 14 How does brain process, perceive and produce language? Reading: Sedivy, ch. 3, pp. 67-84 McGilchrist,The Divided Brain, TED Talk Assignment: Web activity in http://sites.sinauer.com/languageinmind/ WEEK 5: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: LEARNING SOUND PATTERNS March 21
WEEK 6: L ACQUISITION: Sounds and words, part II March 28 How child learns language What are the sounds and where are the words? Why do we talk https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Why+do+we+talk+ Readings: Sedivy, ch. 4, part II and if you want to go further: Language and the mind, by Hickey, Raymond Learning vs. growth, in Language in Use, by G. Diessel, pp. 313-19 Digital mind in an analog world, in Language Instinct, by S. Pinker 1994, pp. 269-87 Semiotic Landscape, by G. Kress and T. Leuwen, in Language in Use, pp. 344-9 ASSIGNMENT: Relevant web activities in Sedivy, online WEEK 7: WORDS and GRAMMAR April 4
WEEK 8: LEARNING WORDS, L ACQUISITION part 3 April 11 Language in sculpting infants' brain Understanding speakers' intentions Parts of speech; Words vs. rules Reading: Learning words, in Sedivy, ch. 5, part II Lupyan, Gary & Ben Berger, How Language Programs The Mind for recommended readings, see below ASSIGNMENT: Relevant web activities in Sedivy, online WEEK 9: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: BUILDING SENTENCES April 25 Topic: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: LEARNING THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES Description: How does mind build “logical“ sentences and “correct“ grammatical structures? The nature of syntactic knowledge; Learning grammatical categories Readings: Sedivy, ch. 6, pp. 185-200 ASSIGNMENT: Relevant web activities in Sedivy, online WEEK 10: Propaganda and words May 2 Communication from diverse perspectives TED Talk Language shapes our thinking, by L. Boroditsky Speech acts and performative speech acts Readings: review Sperber & Wilson's Relevance: Communication and Cognition The language of communist power, by Petr Fidelius 1989, in M. Goetz-Stankiewicz The process of communication accommodation, by H. Giles, in New Sociolingcs Reader 2009 WEEK 11: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY and UNIVERSALS May 9 What do languages have in common and how to explain it? How universal are language universals? Reading: Sedivy, ch. 12, part I Assignment: Relevant web activities WEEK 12: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY May 16 Words, concepts and culture
Poslední úprava: Eckertová Eva, prof. doc., Ph.D. (05.02.2022)
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