PSYC344 Psychology of Language Fall 2016 TR , 132 Alison

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1 PSYC344 Psychology of Language Fall 2016 TR , 132 Alison Instructor: Dr. Anna Papafragou Office: 109 Wolf Hall Office hour: Tues Tel: (302) Teaching assistant: Alyssa Kampa Office: 401 Wolf Office hour: Thur Course description: This course describes the nature of human language, how it is used to speak and comprehend, and how it is learned. Subtopics include language and thought, language in special populations (such as children born deaf or blind), animal communication, and language acquisition. Course goals: The goals of the course include (a) knowledge of theory and research in the Psychology of Language, (b) understanding of research design, data analysis, and interpretation of empirical findings, (c) the ability to evaluate the adequacy of claims about human language, and (d) the development of the ability to express arguments in a clear and concise fashion and more generally the development of communication skills. Course reading: 1. Book: S. Pinker (1994). The Language Instinct. Penguin Books. 2. Papers (see list below; available from course webpage). 3. Lecture material (lecture slides will appear on webpage). Course webpage: This course has a sakai site, which you can access via Important course-related information including announcements, changes to the syllabus, lecture slides, and grades will be posted there. Though there will be frequent reminders of course-related news in class, it is ultimately your responsibility to check the Sakai site regularly for updates.. Grading: Your grade will be a weighted sum of the following: Exam 1 24% Exam 2 24% Exam 3 24% Short Quiz 1 (in class) 14% Short Quiz 2 (in class) 14% Exam/test details: Exams and short quizzes will follow the same format and will include, e.g., true/false or multiple choice answers, sentence completion, and short paragraphs. 1

2 Sample quiz and exam questions will be posted on the course webpage. Exam 3 is not cumulative. There will be an optional test during finals week. This is meant for those people in class that are not happy with one of their grades. You can take this test and then have your lowest (quiz/exam) grade dropped (if you do worse on this test than in earlier tests, this grade will be dropped). If you are happy with your grades (this will be the case for the majority of you), you will need to do nothing beyond the last day of class. The optional test will be purely based on the essay questions that have been published on sakai for Quizzes 1-2 and Exams 1, 2 and 3. You will get 7 of these questions. If you want to replace a quiz grade, you will have to answer 2 questions. If you want to replace an exam grade, you will have to answer 4 questions. Grading policies: Do not miss an exam/short quiz. With the exception of authorized university absences, exams/quizzes will not be rescheduled. If you miss an exam/quiz, the corresponding percentage of the grade will be automatically deducted from your final grade. The final exam will never be used to make up a missed exam/quiz. If you have a question or concern that there was an error in grading your work, you must submit a request in writing to have the work regraded, no more than one week after the grades have been announced. No requests will be considered beyond this date. If you submit a request, your work will be regraded in entirety, and your final grade could be higher or lower than your original grade. The grading scale for the course is the following: 97% -100% --- A (University does not award A+) 93% - 96% --- A 90% - 92% --- A- 87% - 89% --- B+ 83% - 86% --- B 80% - 82% --- B- 77% - 79% --- C+ 73% - 76% --- C 70% - 72% --- C- 67% - 69% --- D+ 63% - 66% --- D 60% - 62% --- D- 59% - 0% --- F Other policies: Please silence any device you have that makes noise while in class. Cell phones should be stowed, i.e. no calls or texting during class. Course-related laptop use is fine. Academic integrity: Students are expected to abide by UD s Code of Conduct with respect to Academic Honesty ( Any cases of violations of the policy on academic honesty will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. 2

3 Questions: If you have a question about the course (e.g. the lecture material, readings, exams, short tests, grading, or the course webpage), feel free to contact me. Learning outside the classroom: There will be a number of opportunities to participate in events outside of class where you can see real, live psycholinguistics in action. These include: Research participation: Various research projects are now under way in our Language and Cognition lab (401 Wolf). We are always looking for participants for these studies. If you are interested in participating, get in touch with me. Research experience: If you want to get some hands-on experience in designing and running a language study, there are several opportunities to do so in the L&C lab. To learn more about how you can get involved (and the eligibility requirements, where appropriate), get in touch with me, or visit: o Colloquia/Seminars: Various groups on campus hold regular talks which are often related to topics in the psychology of language. Attending a talk gives you the opportunity to find out what is happening at the cutting edge of research. You may find talks of interest in: o Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences: o Department of Linguistics & Cognitive Science: 3

4 Class Schedule Week Date Topic Assignment 1 Aug 30 Introduction ---- Sep 1 The nature of language Pinker, Ch. 12: The language mavens 2 Sep 6 Universality of language learning Pinker, Ch. 2: Chatterboxes Sep 8 Film: Discovering the Human Language Pinker, Ch. 1: An instinct to acquire an art 3 Sep 13 Language learning: Nature and nurture Gleitman & Newport, The invention of language by children Sep 15 Language and thought Pinker, Ch. 3: Mentalese 4 Sep 20 Language and thought (cont.) Majid et al., Can language restructure cognition? Li et al., Spatial reasoning in Tenejapan Mayans Sep 22 Language and thought (cont.) Papafragou, Massey & Gleitman, Shake, rattle, n roll 5 Sep 27 Structure of language Pinker, Ch. 4: How language works Sep 29 EXAM Oct 4 Sounds of language Pinker, Ch. 6: The sounds of silence Oct 6 Acquiring the sounds of language Werker, Exploring developmental changes in cross-language speech perception 7 Oct 11 Words Pinker, Ch. 5: Words, words, words Oct 13 Word learning Markman, Constraints children place on word meanings 8 Oct 18 Semantics SHORT QUIZ 1 Armstrong, Gleitman & Gleitman, What some concepts might not be 4

5 Oct 20 Semantics (cont.) AG&G (cont.) 9 Oct 25 Acquisition of semantics Grimshaw, Lexicon Oct 27 Acquisition of semantics (cont.) Gleitman & Gillette, The role of syntax in verb learning 10 Nov 1 Film: Acquiring human language ---- Nov 3 EXAM Nov 8 NO CLASS ---- ELECTION DAY Nov 10 Syntax Pinker, Ch.9: Baby born talking describes heaven 12 Nov 15 Acquisition of syntax Crain, Language acquisition in the absence of experience Nov 17 Communication SHORT QUIZ 2 Pinker, Ch. 7: Talking heads 13 Nov NO CLASSES THANKSGIVING WEEK 14 Nov 29 Learning how to use language to communicate Papafragou & Musolino, Scalar implicatures Dec 1 Guest class by Sarah Fairchild: Bilingualism. Kroll et al., Two languages in mind 15 Dec 6 Language and the brain Pinker, Ch. 10: Language organs and grammar genes Dec 8 EXAM Finals week Optional final exam/quiz 5

6 Papers Armstrong S., Gleitman L. & Gleitman H. (1983). What some concepts might not be. Cognition 13: Crain S. (1992). Language acquisition in the absence of experience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14: Reprinted in P. Bloom, ed. (1993), Language Acquisition: Core readings. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gleitman L. & Gillette J. (1997). The role of syntax in verb learning. In P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney (eds.), Handbook of Child Language. Oxford: Blackwell. Gleitman L. & Newport E. (1995). The invention of language by children: environmental and biological influences on the acquisition of language. In L. Gleitman & M. Liberman (eds.), An invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Grimshaw J. (2001). Lexicon. MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kroll, J.F., Bobb, S.C., & Hoshino, N. (2014). Two Languages in Mind: Bilingualism as a Tool to Investigate Language, Cognition, and the Brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science 23: Li P., Abarbanell L. & Papafragou A. (2009). Spatial reasoning in Tenejapan Mayans. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Majid A., Bowerman M., Kita S., Haun D. & Levinson S. (2004). Can language restructure cognition? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8: Markman E. (1990). Constraints children place on word meaning. Cognitive Science 14: Reprinted in P. Bloom, ed. (1993), Language Acquisition: Core readings. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Papafragou A, Massey C. & Gleitman L. (2002). Shake, rattle n roll: The representation of motion in language and cognition. Cognition 84: Papafragou A. & Musolino J. (2003). Scalar implicatures: Experiments at the semanticspragmatics interface. Cognition 86: Werker J. (1995). Exploring developmental changes in cross-language speech perception. In L. Gleitman & M. Liberman (eds.), An invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 1: Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 6

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