Paste your essay in here…
Introduction
Noam Chomsky was one of the main modern Cognitions and linguists who’s well known in psychology. Cognitive is a branch of psychology which deals with the mental processes such as perception, thinking, learning, as well memory. Cognition is when your gaining knowledge and comprehending the information you have learned. The working assumptions for cognitive are Perception and Psychophysics, memory, problem-solving, language, voluntarism, structuralism, functionalism.
Language is a way of communication humans use to interact with one another. Language consists of words, speech, as well body language, all which is used in language and as well a form of it. Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language, also known as language acquisition. Language would be more classical then operant because classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, a response which is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone. Which language is pairing and exposing the verbal stimulus.
Chomsky emphasized language as (finite or infinite) when making sentences with structure. “Noam Chomsky started the foundations for 20th century and modern day linguistics, explaining the philosophy of language. Noam Chomsky theories, ideas, books, and work was a primary source people referred to whom had questions about language and its innateness. Chomsky was one of the main cognitions to address the importance of language, and the point of view of its philosophy” (Derra, 2008).
Chomsky emphasized rationalism such as other cognitions and linguist or philosophers. Their objectives were to find the universal structure of languages with its similarities as well their differences. Chomsky also believes language capacity differ from person to person due to genetics, which Chomsky refers language as an organ. Language does not have to meet any requirements or standards; language is more of adaptation. Language is effected by each individual differently such as inherited genes, biologically, and the person environment (Derra, 2008).
Children around the world develop and aquire, as well use language differently due to their environment. Children are more likely to learn language and process it faster than adults (Harman, 2001).
Philosophers
First Philosopher that contributed ideas is Renee Descartes. Descartes laws or principles were Mind and Body Dualism, his theories on how the mind and body were separate. In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes also believed the existence of God as well the difference between a human soul and body. Descartes theories he also discussed was soul and rationality, innate understanding (from God), reaction against his philosophy led to empiricism and rationalism.
Descartes had three main points he made about language. “First, the priority of language over thought is evoked during Descartes' discussion of language as a sign that humans, unlike animals, possess thought. Individuals may have immediate access to their own nature as thinking beings, but their only assurance that other bodies possess thought as well is deduced from the observation that these bodies are able to communicate thoughts through language. "Speech is the unique sign and the only sure mark of thought hidden and enclosed in the body”. Second, the arbitrary relation between the signified and the signifier in the linguistic sign is mentioned in Le Monde to illustrate the dissimilarity between our sensations and the objects that produce them. Finally, the ideal of a universal language where each word would represent a single idea, first mentioned in a 1629 letter to Mersenne, is proposed as a means of eliminating equivocal meanings that lead to false judgments.”( Carr, T. M.,1990)
Descartes explains how language interferes with thought and communication as one of the main causes of error, as well discussing how language causes lack of attention in children while growing up. Descartes believes thought isn’t dependent on language and there both independently different. Descartes believes speech comes naturally to communicate with one another showing its independence from thought, but he also believes it tends to interfere a person’s thinking process. ( Carr, T. M.,1990).
Second Philosopher that contributed ideas was Aristotle. Aristotle emphasized these laws: Laws of Association which explains the process of learning and remembering information. The Law of Contiguity when we associate things that is closer in time as well space. The Law of Similarity states when the similarity is strong between two things, one thought will often trigger the other. The Law of Contrast is when the thought of one thing is likely to trigger the thought of its direct opposite. Descartes principles he discussed were rationalization, remembering and recalling, emotions and memory.
“It is therefore no accident that Plato and Aristotle recognized the importance of the use of language as the decisive distinguishing feature between man and beast, and raised questions concerning the meaning and the proper use of words, as well as their combinations to form sentences. Aristotle in his logical investigations not only analyses the structure of propositions and the types of oppositions between them, but also includes quantifiers and modal terms. But since in the main the interest of the great philosophers of the classical age (and their followers) focused on questions of proper definition, on the avoidance of ambiguities, and on the structure of basic affirmations and negations, their investigations of linguistic phenomena remained within narrow limits. If the interest in language as a whole increased significantly in the schools of the Hellenistic age this is due to several distinct factors” (Frede, D., & Inwood, B.,2005).
Third Philosopher is David Hume who also contributed ideas Empiricists (British that influenced Structuralism) concepts as association of memories, laws of causation, mind and self-concept.
“In a 1742 essay, David Hume characterized the conflict between specialized and public languages as a split between the “learned” and the “conversable” worlds. Hume puts these two categories at opposite poles of the field of private communication about public matters. Each world, or sphere of reference, describes a set of writers and a kind of audience belonging to each. These categories had a particular resonance in the mid-eighteenth century, which sought to define a general reading audience against a learned one and a world of rational social exchange against a world of solitary study”. (Valenza, R.,2009).
Experimentalists
The first experimentalists that contributed ideas is Noam Chomsky. Noam Chomsky was a modern cognition who emphasized theories on language. He discussed the importance and significance of words and grammar and as well the way it was structure to form speech. Noam Chomsky laws and principles covered Language (generative grammar), reaction to Skinner, grammar innate, as well concept of language (pidgin to Creole). Noam Chomsky was one of the most influencers of the 20th century for Cognitions, Philosophers, and linguists.
The second experimentalists that contributed ideas is B.F Skinner. B.F Skinner is one of the most influential Behaviorist that emphasized behaviorism and operant conditioning. He believed the best way to understand behavior was to observe the reasons of actions and the consequences of those actions. B.F Skinner was influenced by Thorndike’s “law of effect”. Skinner emphasized operant responses towards behaviors, which were rein forcers, punishers, as well neutral operant. The rein forcers, and punishers were either negative or positive which were used for specific actions to receive a specific behavior afterwards.
“B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957) is analyzed in the context of early language learning. In the book, Skinner did not emphasize the foundations for language learning in infants and young children. His principles and concepts are integrated with current knowledge of caregiver-infant interactions. Several major elements of his functional analysis are described as well as relevant verbal operant. These are correlated with terms and concepts used in classical and contemporary research in child language”. (McLaughlin, S. F. ,2010)
B.F Skinner explained language development in contrast of Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device(LAD). Chomsky believed language acquisition was basically an innate instrument in the mind to determine the child’s rate of learning and processing language, basically showing language capacity. B.F Skinner also explains Verbal behavior, caregiver-infant interaction, language learning, antecedents, consequences, selective reinforcement, functional analysis, contingency shaped behavior, and verbal operant. (McLaughlin, S. F., 2010)
B.F Skinner explained in Verbal Behavior “The complexities of language do not exist prior to or independent of human behavior; instead the complexities of language behavior reflect our capacity to respond verbally to the complex and subtle intricacies inherent in human experiences and interactions”. (McLaughlin, S. F. ,2010)
The third experimentalists that contributed ideas was Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov was well known psychologist who emphasized most of his works and theories on classical conditioning. Ivan Pavlov was also known for being one of the founding fathers of physiology. Pavlov discussed the what is well known as the condition reflex till today. Pavlov explains how classical conditioning helps humans understanding there learning process and behavior towards things.
“Pavlov’s explanation of this is that. . . the cell excited by the conditioned stimulus is inhibited or comes to an inhibited state with repeated concentration on the part of the unconditioned stimulus—and the conditioned stimulus in this way meets in its cell a permanent state of inhibition”. (Guthrie, E. R.,1934)
Pavlov shows how conditioning is used in elementary schools on young children, by repetitive classical conditioning techniques to condition children to behave or create a conditioned reflex through stimulus.
Zeitgeist
Noam Chomsky during the 1950s-1960s figured out a revolutionary theory, that since birth we all had innate knowledge on grammar, which is connected to the main purpose or objective for language acquisition. During this time period was the start and acceptance of language acquisition theory emphasized by Noam Chomsky. During that time as well before, language was not credited or was the spotlight or focus of attention for its true uniqueness until the beginnings of the 1950s where linguists such as Noam Chomsky revolutionized the theory and study of linguistics. Noam Chomsky showed their more to language then speech and its use to communicate with others, Chomsky showed otherwise by explaining the cognitive side of language with its capacity. In those times the conditions were scarce of resources and knowledge about language until linguists like Noam Chomsky himself came along and brought light to language value. This theory helps students, children, linguist, psychologists, philosophers, cognitions, and etc. This theory of Chomsky showed the importance of language and value it has in society as well in psychology. Also showing language is more than communication. This theory is accepted in modern day due to the fact it gave philosophers/linguist a blueprint on how the mind, and genetics play a role in the learning process of language since birth through childhood and then adulthood. It emphasized the rate of learning capacity a person had and when it was the best time to learn language.
Context of Application
Language is important in today’s world such as workplace, schools and mental health facilities. Language is mostly about communicating with one another. Communication is exchanging information to one another either speech, signs, or electronically and without it is hard for someone to receive your message correctly or even at all. Workplaces emphasizes on communication from the hiring stage to see if you have good communication skills to working on the job and producing those skills with employees and clients or customers. Workplace consist of as well collaboration and you cannot work as a team without great communication, which ties in with language acquisition on how to perform proper grammar and speech for the understanding of others and yourself. Also workplaces like to hire bilingual employees due to a lot of clients or customers who are foreign and speak different languages. Schools emphasize language and communication by having classes such as English, Speech, having presentations, and mandatory language credits to take, showing learning more than one language is a plus and would help in the long run whether its work, school, social life, or just having knowledge of other cultures then your own. Language and communication is big in mental health facilities because you need employees who have great patience and communication skills to produce progress with mental health patients to get their objective for the day done and take care of them.
In Conclusion, Chomsky whole theory of Language was challenged by past behaviorists, focusing more on the rational point of view then their empiricism view on the study of language. Chomsky believes innateness of grammar is with us since birth and it comes naturally, as well believes it helps humans minds obtain and process language to eventually master it by putting structure together for grammar and speech. He also believes elements of language are either finite or infinite when it comes to the universal grammar that is used worldwide. Chomsky was one of the most influential linguists to understand the true value of language and its complexities.