Mary Elizabeth McNabb Ed.D.’s Post

🗣️ Language is a limit for understanding. If a concept can’t be articulated in language, it is not fully understood. Language provides the categories and structures through which we understand the world. If a word can’t be described literally as it occurs in reality, like the word orange, it can’t be truly defined. When we think about it, many words are like this. What is a “game”? What is “happiness”? It can’t be described, so it can’t be defined. It is futile to try to understand it in the realm of language. It should be understood in the realm of context.

💡 OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE CONVEYS DEEPER MEANING 💎 Scientists discovered we process difficult decisions faster in our native tongue than a second language. 🤔 Why it Matters: Words convey more than little packets of meaning. They can trigger complex patterns of resonance. Our minds evolved for analog asynchronous associations, not linear digital processing. Our native language has a special power to launch those associations. 🗝️ Key Idea: We solve moral dilemas fastest in our native language. 🔗 Go Deeper: 📝 https://bit.ly/40QNCXe #Language #Thinking #Mind

Have you ever wondered what sets human language apart from animal communication? Linguist Charles Hockett proposed 16 design features that characterize human language. These features, collectively known as Hockett's design features, provide a framework for understanding the unique qualities of human language. Let's explore a few key features: Arbitrariness: Words and their meanings have no inherent connection. This means there's no logical reason why the word "dog" represents a canine. Displacement: We can discuss things that aren't present in time or space. This allows us to talk about the past, future, or events happening far away. Productivity: We can create new sentences and ideas endlessly. This is what allows us to express complex thoughts and ideas, and to adapt our language to new situations. Transmission: Language is passed down through generations. This ensures that language evolves and adapts over time. Dualism: Language has distinct auditory and articulatory components. Morphemes: Words are composed of smaller meaningful units. Syntax: Words are combined according to rules to form sentences. Transmissibility: Language can be transmitted from one generation to the next. Replaceability: We can use different words to express the same meaning. Interchangeability: We can both produce and understand language. Specialization: Language is used for a variety of purposes, such as communication, thought, and problem-solving. Discreteness: Language is composed of discrete units, such as sounds and words. #linguistics #language #communication #hockett #designfeatures #humanlanguage

An excellent new paper on LLMs and Human Language Understanding.

“Word onsets play a special role in speech segmentation and word recognition. “In the lexicon, word-initial segments are known to be more informative than later segments for distinguishing the intended word from other words, and listeners exploit this for continuously updating hypotheses regarding word identity and boundaries as the phonetic signal progresses. “The evidence across a worldwide sample of languages suggests that the lengthening of word-initial consonants is a potentially fundamental process structuring human speech.” Identifying word boundaries in continuous speech is an important element of phonemic awareness. This article is a an interesting look at how language may signal these word boundaries! https://lnkd.in/gtyC2hEY

TOC: Functions of Language Vol. 30, No. 3 (2024): Table of Contents ARTICLES On the L1-acquisition of the pragmatics of discourse like Martin Schweinberger pp. 255–286 Definite-like meaning of bare classifiers in Nung Esther Lam pp. 287–319 Cardinal direction judgment based on the integration of spatial reference frames in different languages Qinghong Xu, Ru Ya, Ermiao Zhang, Jie Li, Ruhan Ah & Min Li pp. 320–348 BOOK REVIEWS Guy Dove. 2022. Abstract concepts and the embodied mind: Rethinking grounded cognition Reviewed by Jiayin Li pp. 3

🚨 New upload! 🚨 Language: This effect-first approach to language analysis may help crack that tricky topic sentence or 'point' that students often struggle with. 🐝 Find it here: https://buff.ly/400rgEn #Litdrive #TeamEnglish

When folks use their non-native language to process information, they tend to have fewer false memories 🧠 As much as we tend to trust our own memories, they're fallible. Memories are fairly stable when encoded into our brains initially. However, when we retrieve them we apply new context from our current state of mind that can then get encoded back as though it actually happened. Flashbulb memories are a good example -- vivid memories from major events. Folks tend to recall their experiences differently from how they happened because they've assimilated new emotions or other accounts of the events. We also experience memory fallibility like this in investigative contexts. Particularly, in the way that we view past analysis decisions under the context of new information and expertise. Understanding our own cognitive limitations counts for a lot. Article Source: https://lnkd.in/eGxXvFBk

Translation is an intricate practice that requires a deep understanding of both the source and the target language.

Discussion Map | Language is a complex human phenomenon that provides us with the agency to derive meaning from our human experiences with ourselves and the world around us. https://lnkd.in/dSFJ4AFC