Watch the following video lecture by cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, from Ha
ID: 56904 • Letter: W
Question
Watch the following video lecture by cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, from Harvard University titled "Linguistics as Window to Understanding the Brain"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE
and answer the following questions:
(1) Steven Pinker outlines four study areas concerning "How Language Works" in Linguistic Studies areas. What are these and give a brief summary of each.
(2) Pinker describes three fields of study within linguistics. (a) What is the field in linguistic that studies how language is processed in real time? (b) What is the field in linguistic that studies how language is acquired by children? (c) What is the filed in linguistic studies that studies how language is computed in the brain?
(3) Pinker states that we should not confuse language with three other things that are closely related to language. What are these and describe each?
(4) (a) What does Pinker say is the difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammar? (b) What are two popular culture reference that Pinker uses to illustrate this difference and argue that the difference is arbitrary?
(5) What is the African American Vernacular English example that Pinker provides and how does this example illustrate that dialects are just as sophisticated as standard languages?
(6) What is Pinker trying to convey in the example of "Wet hair, lather, rinse, repeat" ?
(7) Pinker contends that there are three main components of "what language is". What are those three main components and provide a summary of what Pinker says about each of these?
(8) What does Pinker say are the four main contributions of Noam Chomsky to the science of language?
(9) What three things does Pinker say phrase structure rules allow for?
(10) What is the "poverty of the input" and how does this relate to Chomsky’s idea that children are pre-wired with universal grammar.
(11) Explain what Pinker means by Chomsky’s idea that "Children’s use of structure dependent rules suggests they are hard-wired with a universal grammar."
(12) What does Pinker say the three critiques by some other language scientists concerning Chomsky’s ideas about universal grammar?
(13) How does Pinker define an "accent" in spoken language?
(14) List the Language Interfaces that Pinker discusses (you do not need to define nor describe, just list).
(15) According to Pinker, what makes it easy for a human, but hard for a computer (such as computer with speech recognition software) to recognize speech?
(16) What does Pinker try to explain by using the following word plays?
"Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he?"
"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream."
(17) Describe what Pinker means by the "cooperative principle" of pragmatics?
Explanation / Answer
Steven Pinker outlines four study areas concerning "How Language Works" in Linguistic Studies areas. What are these and give a brief summary of each.
(2) Pinker describes three fields of study within linguistics. (a) What is the field in linguistic that studies how language is processed in real time? (b) What is the field in linguistic that studies how language is acquired by children? (c) What is the filed in linguistic studies that studies how language is computed in the brain?
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.