Language and Thought: Which comes first?

During years this question has taken place in different debates and research. If we started thinking its very difficult to say that language comes first than thought or vice versa, because we expresed by language what we think, but also we think with words (language). No one knows the answer to this query, but different scientists have raised their ideas. For example:

"The Language of Thought Hypothesis" of Aydede, Murat, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, best known as "LOTH" postulates that thought take place in a mental language. Of this statement I understand that that, to make thought we requiere this mental language that there says, so that means that in this Hypotesis, Language go first, because without language, we don´t have thougths, and language allow to have thoughts.

Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many discoveries before, in what linguistics is. Saussure postulates that language is linked with thoughts, and you can´t separate them. Also incorporated new terms: Langue and Parole. Langue refers to the abstract system of signs and rules that make up the structure and nature of language. And parole is the realization of language in practice, the words, phrases and sentences as they are actually used.

Sources: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/language-thought/

              http://changingminds.org/explanations/critical_theory/concepts/langue_parole.htm

Debate Activity

Last week, in classes we were working in a debate, in which the 2 motions were: "Humans are born with an ability to create language" vs. "Language is a learned construct like the rules governing a sport". My group, was composed by Mr. Elgueta, Mr. Hagedorn and I, and we defended the second motion. I was the second speaker in my group, and my argument was the following: "Humans learn language by stimulation, if there not stimulation, language can´t be learnt".

Mainly my argument talk about that babies develop language helped by the stimulous of their parents, or of the people that surround him. Later I gave an example of a baby, alone, without stimulous around him, who would not be able to communicate, for the only reason, he have never been imvolved in what language is. Finally I concluded, with a comparison between talk and walk: "The ability to talk, it´s the same as walk, we born with legs to walk, but we must learn who to use them".


In general it was a nice activity that let us improve our abilities to express and argument. I wish that we repeat the debate, or do some activity similar.

Theories of Language

In the mind map above, show 3 theories from differents scientifics, like Noam Chomsky, Charles Darwin and Steven Pinker, for the question: How do we learn language?. Which I liked most was the way of thinking of Charles Darwin, who wrote "The Descent of Man" in which he said that humans born with a desire to speak, but they must learn how to speak.

What is Language?

During these weeks I have been posting about History of Language and Why do we talk? But something is missing: What is Language? A very interesting question, that it´s explained in the mindmap below.

Celebrates wearing green: St. Patrick´s Day.

Officially St. Patrick day is celebrated on March 17th, but some nations estimate that this celebration deserves a whole weekend, so some nations, specially UK, ends the celebrations today. 

The  traditions of this celebration have changed through the time. At first people met the basic traditions that were wearing some green dress, have some shamrocks and drink a cold Ireland beer. But nowadays people do amazing things to appreciate St. Patrick, like paint and dressed completly in green, paint their drinks and food with some dyes, up to paint a huge river with green. I must include the large number of people who come together for paredes in honor of the patron saint.

History of Language.

When did human started talking? That´s a vert interesting question, that take us back to our ancestors. Now I invite you, to learn more about the History of Language, with some videos and questions below.

                                                Video 1:

1) Why is it said that people in East Africa develop more than the rest?
 -  The reason that people in East Africa develop more than the rest, is because they develop a better language.


2) What happened to the earlier language on the Earth?
 -Through time, the ancients languages have been erased and historians confirm that their trace were lost.


3) Accoring to Dr. Johanna Nichols, what were the first utterances made by Humans?
 - The first utterances consist of things that were transactionally between calls and words. Maybe that calls appear against the need to talk or to take the attention of others.





Video 2


 1. What is the biblical story of "the Tower of Babel"?
Is a story that tell, when people organized to make a big tower to reach the sky. God saw ambition in the people, so He punished them making that each one speak a different language, so they could not understand what did the other want to say and they could not get in agree on what to do.


2. What does historical evidence tell us of this biblical event?
Historical evidence, try to explain the evolution of language. People start moving around the world, and the encounter with different cultures, change the different language. This biblical event can explain why now days, they are thousands of different language.


3. What's the relationship between genes and language?
That´s a very important relationship. Genes determine how I would speak and the language I would speak.


4. Why do languages constantly change?

Language change through generations changes, because different generation have different words and ways of speaking. So if we think in 200 years langauge can be very different as we know it now days

Why do we talk?

Why do we talk? How do we learn to speak? Those are very interesting question, that I have never ask before, but now they have attracted my attention. Below is a video that will explain better this topic; also I have answer some question related to this interesting topic. Enjoy!

QUESTIONS.


1. Which is the 'trick' (process) that enables us to communicate something to others? 
The ´trick´that enables us to communicate, is to transfer what we are thinking (thoughts) by a sequence of sounds that both people can understand.


2. Do animals talk? If not, What do they do to communicate? 
Animals don´t talk, they communicate by making some sounds or gestures that they understand. Animals communication, it´s completely different from our language, including that scientists are not sure that animals understand all what they try to communicate each other.


3. What do we express when we talk? 
When we talk, we express all what happens in our mind, as ideas, emotions, information we must tell to somebody, etc.


4. What did Dr Deb Roy try to achieve in his house?
Dr. Deb Roy try to study how language develops in children. He used his son for the experiment, recording all the movements of the child and all the words that he said.


5. Which are the earliest stages in language for a child? 
First of all, children start babbling. Later thet start saying the basic words that many children learn first: "dad" and "mom". Then they start joining two words, that are almost always  related to food or their toys. And finally they join more words, and made more complex sentences.


6. What external and internal factors made the data recollected in the experiment into something they could use? 
All the data recollected in this experiment is very useful, but the information must be analyzed, as every experiment, and then get some conclusions about how the environment affect the childern develops.


 7. How did the parents' speech change from their son's first word until he could utter more complex structures? 
When children start saying some words, parents try to help them, in other words, they simplify their language, and over time passes, that unconscious help from parents help a lot to start more easily creating complex sentences.


8.What does Dr Deb Roy compare the "blossoming" of a speech form? 
It was about, how does the child learn to say water, a very difficult word at the beginning. First the child start making some strange sound (GA-GA). Later he began to approach to the pronunciation of the word, (wa-da). Finally the child pronounce the word correctly.

New Blog for Language and Literature

This is my new blog for Language and Literature classes, in which I will write all weeks about what I learn in classes!