links [[Books Index]] #language [[🏠 030 Language and Psychology]] (Copied from evernote: 20190609 - Book Notes for "The Study of Language" George Yule) # 202011030830 Book Notes from The Study of Language ## Chapter 1: The Origins of Language * Where does language come from? * Divine Source: No one knows for sure. Is it given by a divine source? Unable to test it. What will be the effect of children growing up without language? * Nature Sound Source: Onomatopoeic (echoing nature sounds) * The oral-gesture source: * Ok there are different theories on explaining the origin of human language. Physical aspect of it, such as the development of teeth, and larynx. * The function of language (This author argues that function of language is social [[How language distorts reality]]) * Interactional - Humans use language to interact with each other socially or emotionally. * Transactional - to communicate knowledge, skills and information ## Chapter 2. The development of writing * Large number of language are spoken. * Pictograms and Ideograms - * Pictograms - When some picture represent particular image in consistent way. like sun. * Over time, simplified, abstract version, that still represent the meaning is Ideogram (the idea is there) * Logogram - Symbols that represent words in a language (like chinese characters) * Rebus writing (Ok. Abit technical) ## Chapter 3. The properties of language * Intentional and unintentional communication - We may not be intentionally communicating something, but we send out unspoken body languages, appearance etc. * Unique properties of human language (assuming that other creatures lack such) * Displacement * human being can talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment. (We can talk about past and future. Animals can only communicate present). The degree of displacement, Bees can tell you the most recent source, but not the one found last week. * Allows human to talk about fiction and future worlds. * Arbitrariness * Words, does not have “natural” connection to meaning and sounds. * Productivity * Human language is capable to generating new words, creative to come out with new words to express new ideas, and thoughts. Unlike animals, their signals are limited. * Cultural Transmission * language not inherited. Got to learnt after birth. Unlike animals. * Discreteness * Each sound in the language is treated a discrete, need to be clear and specific. e.g B and P. * Duality * Human can produce individual sounds, rearrange them, to form new words. * Other properties ## Chapter 21. Language, Society and Culture * Language and Culture * “In the study of the world’s cultures, it has become clear that different groups not only have different languages, they have different world views which are reflected in their languages. e.g The Aztecs do not have figure in their culture like Santa Claus, they did not have a word for this figure. In a sense, language reflects culture, this is a very important observation and the existence of different world views should not be ignored when different languages or language varieties are studied. * Language Determinism * If two languages appear to have a very different ways of describing the way the world is, then it may be that as you learn one of those languages, the way your language is organised will determined how you perceive the world being organised. * “Language determines thought" * Eskimo different words to describe snow. * Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf * The languages they have learned reflect the different cultures. Our languages reflect our concerns. (?So do thought/belief determine language, or language determine thought/belief?). * In psychosis, ?child grow up in a schizophrenic-style-of-communication shaped how he/she perceive the world. But can be reversed?) * There is a book ![[🏠 030 Language and Psychology#^80b6dc]] * Agument against Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: The human manipulates the language, not the other way around. * Languages in the world are universal. Like different OS, each OS have it’s own rules, ?