Office hours-- I will be available usually immediately after class and by appointment.
My office is in 108 Conant Hall. If you want to reach me by phone during office hours, try 2-3175. If I do not answer, call 2-2690 and leave a message with the secretary. DO NOT leave a message on my voice mail. Use email for best results--be sure to put 712 in all message subject headings.
Laptop policy? With wireless available in classrooms, some guidelines may need to be established for laptop use in class. More to come on this topic if needed.
This course deals with the use, development and evolution of human language. Each year we focus on some topic or topics relating to language. Some of these will be determined by your interests (see first assignments) and mine. This year I want to continue exploring a very ancient topic-- the relationship between language and certain aspects of thought and meaning.
We will also read a number of clinical papers on some aspects of language disability, along with other topics of interest.
Your grade will be based on a number of short assignments including reports to the class, three essay/short answer exams, class participation, and a final research paper. The short assignments are important (maybe 20-30%) so don't ignore them or turn them in late . I will drop the lowest one of about 10 short papers so there is no reason everyone shouldn't get a high average on these assignments -- unless you don't turn them in on time (see below).
attendance and late work
I expect everyone to attend regularly and to turn in written assignments on time. E-mail copies are not acceptable except when part of the assignment or in an emergency. In such cases, I expect a printed version as soon as possible. Late papers will lose at least a point off for each class (2 points off 10 each week.) Excessive absences will cost you! If you can't make the class regularly because of work, religion, sleep loss or bla bla bla, take another class.
I have ordered Steve Pinker's old but excellent (1994) book, the Language Instinct (paperback at the Durham Book exchange on Main street ($cheap).
Depending on how our interests go, we will read a number of research papers. We may also read some of his new book,
( Pinker, S. (2007). The stuff of thought. New York: Viking Penguin.) I will try to put most of these on Blackboard if they are not directly accessible online.
Sometimes you will be assigned to find your own readings on a topic!
Read ch.1 in Pinker this week and ch.2 next week.
Tell me a little about yourself -- especially in connection with languages -- and give me a one page list of at least 3 topics related to language that you would be interested in exploring. (If you are not yet registered for the course, tell me why I should add you. )
"Psychology is the Science of Mental Life...such things as we call
feelings, desires, cognitions, reasonings, decisions, and the like. ...a
certain amount of brain-physiology must be presupposed or included in
Psychology...Our psychology must therefore take account not only of the
conditions antecedent to mental states, but of their resultant consequences as
well...But actions originally prompted by conscious intelligence may grow
so automatic by dint of habit as to be apparently unconsciously performed. Standing,
walking, buttoning and unbuttoning, piano-playing, talking, even saying one's
prayers, may be done when the mind is absorbed in other things. The performances
of animal instinct seem semi-automatic, and the reflex acts of self-preservation
certainly are so. Yet they resemble intelligent acts in bringing about the same
ends at which the animals' consciousness, on other occasions, deliberately aims.[p.6]
Shall the study of such machine-like yet purposive acts as these be included
in Psychology?
-- William James definition of psychology, 1890 in his famous Principles
of Psychology -- perhaps the first modern psychology text.
What do you think about James' question underlined above? Should language ("talking") be part of psychology? Why or why not? What is he worried about anyway?
No writing on this yet!
Imagine you were a bright chimp or dog or parrot – a creature without a human language. How would your life be different? Or suppose you somehow lost the use of your human language. How would your life change. This is a question about the functions of language. Be brief, but try to be very specific. I expect you to say something more specific than communication would be different or difficult. Say how so and what else?
See "daily notes" for more information on these and subsequent assignments.