Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Greg Francis 1/6/11Phrase treesPSY 200Greg FrancisLecture 27Dr. Francis says something new!Language!! Conveys information!! Allows us to know about things we havenever experienced!!moon flights!!mating habits of tigers,…!! How do we do it?!! Two key aspectsPurdue UniversityPurdue University!! SymbolsSymbols and grammar!!words are arbitrary!!the sound “dog” has nothing to do with dogs!!compare driving on parkway to parking ondriveway, blueberries and cranberries,hamburger…!! Grammar!!the order of words matters!!Dog bites man. vs. Man bites dog.Purdue UniversityGrammar!! Discrete combinatorial system!!combinations of words!! How many combinations?!!if interrupted anywhere in the middle of asentence, there are about 10 words one couldselect before finishing it up!!if sentences average around 20 words, thatmeans there are 10^20 sentencesPurdue UniversityGrammar!! But in fact, there are infinitely manydifferent sentences!!there is no limit to how long a sentence canbe!! For any sentence I give you, you canalways make it longer by addingsomething like!!Professor Francis said that, “….”Vastness!! It is amazing how powerful language is!! You have probably never heard thefollowing sentence!!moreover, it is probably its first utterance inhuman history, but you understand it anyhowWe still have a month of classes to go, but it is so warm that itfeels like it is already dead week.Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPSY200 Cognitive Psychology 1