LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

Professor Barbara Landau (landau@cogsci.jhu.edu)

Office: 241 Krieger Hall Phone: 410-516-5255

Fall 2004

Thursdays, Fridays, 10:30-12

T.A.: Sara Finley

What is the relationship between language and thought? This question has historically been important in discussions within linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Although it fell out of favor in mainstream psychology and linguistics for many years, it has recently resurfaced as a major set of issues to be addressed by empirical study. The purpose of the seminar is to try to determine what formulations of the question are theoretically important and how scientific study can be brought to bear on answering these questions.

The class will be led in seminar style, and I expect a high degree of participation from all people enrolled in it. We will be reading a variety of articles from the literatures in philosophy, psychology, and linguistics. A number of the papers come from a recent volume:

Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2003) Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

All articles will be on e-reserve at the library and in the Cognitive Science reading room.

Requirements of the course:

In addition to class participation, each person will co-lead 1-2 classes. This will involve developing a handout that states the key set of questions addressed by the papers for the day as well as a very brief summary of the logical and empirical data that can be brought to bear on these. Handouts are meant to stimulate discussion, not to provide substitutes for reading. To this end, you must put your handout on 1 page. Class discussion will focus on these questions. There will also be three written take-home exams, roughly one per month (last one during the finals period.) At least two of these will require essays on a set of questions (with some options) that require integration of material read and class discussions. The third may be based on a small-group project that examines cross-linguistic differences in the lexicon. We will discuss the organization of this project within the first few weeks.

Statement on ethics in this course

The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful. Ethical violations including cheating on exams, papers and handouts, plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition.

Report any violations you witness to the instructor. You may consult the Associate Dean of Student Affairs and/or the Chairman of the Ethics Board beforehand. See the guide on "Academic Ethics for Undergraduates" and the Ethics Board Web site (http://ethics.jhu.edu) for more information.

Readings

Sept. 2, 3 Introduction to the Issues

Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2003) Whither Whorf? Introduction to Language in mind., p. 3-14.

Whorf, B.L. (1956) Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. J.B. Carroll (Ed.), Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Read the following selection:

Language, mind, and reality (1941)

Sept. 9, 10: Foundations I: Sapir and Whorf on language and thought

Sapir, E. (1921) Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. Ch X, Language, race, and culture, p. 207-220.

Whorf, B.L. (1956) Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. J.B. Carroll (Ed.), Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Read the following selections:

¨ The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language (1939)

¨ An American Indian model of the universe (1950)

Kay, P. & Kempton, W. (1984) What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? American Anthropologist, 86 (1), 65-79.

Sept. 16, 17: Foundations II: Language just reflects thought

Sept. 16 : No class, Rosh Hashanah

Fodor, J.A. (1981) The present status of the innateness controversy. In Representations. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. pp. 257-316