PSYC 110: Introduction to Psychology

Lecture 6 - How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth
and the Hands
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Overview:

One of the most uniquely human abilities is the capacity for creating and understanding language. This lecture introduces students to the major topics within the study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax and recursion. This lecture also describes theories of language acquisition, arguments for the specialization of language, and the commonalities observed in different languages across cultures.

Reading assignment:

Gray, Peter. Psychology (5th edition), chapter 11

Pinker, Steven. "The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language." In The Norton Psychology Reader. Edited by Gary Marcus. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. pp. 97-107

Baker, Mark C. "The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar." In The Norton Psychology Reader. Edited by Gary Marcus. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. pp. 108-114

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Transcript
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Resources:

PowerPoint slides from screen - Lecture 6 [PDF]
Due to copyright restrictions, certain content has been removed from the PowerPoint slides.