The final exam for our course will take place on Thursday, December 16th, from 3-5pm, in our usual classroom. I will be holding my regularly-scheduled office hours on Tuesday, December 14th, from 2-3:30pm–please feel free to stop by with any last-minute study questions. I
For Monday 12/6, please read the following two article, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Gordon, Peter. 2004. Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia. Science 306: 496-499. Frank, Michael C., Daniel L. Everett, Evelina Fedorenko & Edward Gibson. 2008. Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition 108: …
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For Friday 12/3, please read the following article, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Colapinto, John. 2007, Aug. 16. The interpreter. The New Yorker. As I mentioned in class, the article describes recent research investigating the language of the Piraha, an indigenous group of the Amazon.  In particular, it has been …
For Wednesday 12/1, please read the following article, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Boroditsky, Lera. 2oo1. Does Language Shape Thought?: Mandarin and English Speakers’ Conceptions of Time. Cognitive Psychology 43: 1-22. Note: Â In pgs. 8-18 of the article, the author describes three different psychological experiments that she conducted with …
For Monday 11/29, please read pgs. 114-127 of the following book chapter, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Whitney, Paul. 1998. The Psychology of Language, Chapter 4 (‘Theories of the Language-Thought Relationship’). Also, please read the following (extremely short) article: Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1989 The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. Natural Language …
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(Note:  due to the cancellation of this Friday’s (11/19) class, the following reading is now assigned for Monday 11/22.) For Monday 11/22, please read pgs. 208-235 of the following book chapter, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Devlin, Keith. 1997. Goodbye Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a …
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For Wednesday 11/17, please read pgs. 143-149 and pgs. 160-172 of the following, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Devlin, Keith. 1997. Goodbye Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind, Chapter 7 (‘Machines That Think’). (Note:  pgs. 154-160 are optional, though highly recommended. …
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For Friday 11/12 and Monday 11/15, please read the following article, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Bickerton, Derek. 2007. Language Evolution: A Brief Guide for Linguists. Lingua 117: 510-526. UPDATE: Â You should skip sections 3.2 and 5 of the paper.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s class, your second midterm exam will be next Wednesday, November 10. The exam will cover material from our readings and lectures pertaining to the following topics: Â sentence comprehension, sentence production, language and the brain, as well as the critical period in language development, and pidgins/creole languages. Â The emphasis will be …
For Monday 11/8, please read the following, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website: Hauser, Marc D. 2000. Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think, Chapter 8 (‘Gossip on the Ark’).