Language and Thought

1. Language and Thought Lecture 2 Whorf Categorical Perception Statistics

2. Introduction to Linguistic Relativity Benjamin Whorf Yale: Research Fellowships Lecturer First Paper Nahuatl Aztec Fire Prevention Engineer 1941 Died at 44. Born Winthrop, MA 1897 1907 1917 1927 1937 1947 MIT Chem. E. Interest in Linguistics 1956 Yale E. Sapir Fieldwork Arizona – Modern Nahuatl

3. Whorf (1956, p. 213): The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented as a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds – and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. Whorfian Hypothesis(Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

4. Terminologies • Linguistic Determinism (strong) • Linguistic Relativity (weak)

5. Whorf as a fire prevention engineer • Observation: Many fires are started because of terrible language. • E.g. carelessness around “Empty” gasoline drums. Language  Thought/Behavior. “Empty”  ok to flick cigarette butt Thought  Language/Behavior. Empty-looking  “Empty”  ok to flick cigarette butt

6. Whorf’s argument • Argument • Languages vary in their conceptual repertoire. • Thought is dependent on language. • Thus, speakers of different languages think differently. • Evidence? • Languages vary! FIX: Need separate measure of thought!

7. Suppose it is true that Eskimos make fine discriminations of snow, and Americans do not. Eskimos have more words for snow than Americans Now what’s the cause & effect? Eskimos make fine snow discriminations BECAUSE they have lots of snow words. OR Eskimos learn to make fine snow discriminations AND SO they have lots of snow words. Another problem? Now how do you tease things apart???

8. Dissociating language and circumstance • Move Americans to Vail or Aspen ‘sugar’ ‘granule’ ‘powder’ • Move Eskimos to Bermuda

9. Experiments in various domains Some examples: • Color • Object • Space • Time • Number • Theory of Mind

10. Subject Population Speakers of another language. Aphasics: patients who suffered brain damage leading to language problems. Animals who do not speak a language. Infants who have not learned language. People who grew up without learning language.

11. Color

12. Moustache ON Face Telephone ON Wall AN? IM? Cup ONSaucer AUF? Lady ONTV UM? IM? Ring ONPole Spatial Prepositions

13. Spatial Frames of Reference Figure Reference Object • “Where is the girl?” • The girl is south of the umbrella. • The girl is at the tilted side of the umbrella. • The girl is to the left of the umbrella.

14. Reorientation “Left of the blue wall”

15. Number Piraha: “one-two-many” counting system.

16. Theory of Mind

18. What is categorical Perception?

19. Example of Categorical Perception Frequency (Hz) Time (msec) What is Categorical Perception? ba da ga

20. Vocal Tract: Vocal Fold  Lips (Modeled as a tube) Lips Vocal Fold Speaking Average Man - Length = 17.4cm

21. Vocal Tract Model L = 17.4cm Vocal Tract = 17.4 cm Speed of sound = 34800 cm/sec F1 500Hz λ = 4L Speed = Distance/Time = Wavelength x Frequency Freq = Speed/Wavelength F2 1500Hz λ = 4L/3 F3 λ = 4L/5 2500Hz

22. Speaking c d a b on top of his deck Vocal folds Lips c d b a

23. Vocal Tract oo ee oh eh ah http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/vocal_vowels/vocal_vowels.html

24. Spectrogram frequency Time -------------- 

25. Pattern Playback Machine http://www.haskins.yale.edu/featured/patplay.html

26. Spectrogram • Steady State • Transitional State

27. Methods for Testing Categorical Perception • Identification • Randomly play the audio clips and asked to identify the phoneme • Discrimination • Randomly play pairs and asked to make Same-different Judgment • Same pairs • Different pairs

28. Identification • Identification • Randomly play the audio clips and asked to identify the phoneme • If there is CP, what should the graph look like? • X-axis stimuli arranged in a continuum with very small incremental difference between the stimuli • Y-axis % Identification as the tested category

29. Identification(idealized results) 100 80 60 % Identification as Category X 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stimulus #

30. Frequency (Hz) Time (msec) What is Categorical Perception? ba da ga

31. 100 90 80 70 % Identification 60 ba 50 da ga 40 30 20 10 0 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Stimulus ID Categorical Perception(Idealized Data)

32. Methods for Testing Categorical Perception • Identification • Randomly play the audio clips and asked to identify the phoneme • Discrimination • Randomly play pairs and asked to make Same-different Judgment • Same pairs • Different pairs

33. Discrimination Study • Last example of ba/da/ga varied transitional state (up, down of F2). • In this example, Varying Voice Onset Time.

34. Voice Onset Time (VOT) • VOT: time between consonant release and vocal cord vibration [b] [p] • So what is the difference in VOT between VOICELESS [b] and VOICED [p]? • SHORT VOT  voiced • LONG VOT  voiced

35. Short VOT = ? Long VOT = ? Which one is /di/ and which one is /ti/? Voice Onset Time (VOT) di ti

36. Discrimination Study Same/Different? 0ms 60ms Same/Different? Why is this pair difficult? 0ms 10ms (i) Acoustically similar? (ii) Same Category? Same/Different? 40ms 40ms

37. Discrimination A More Systematic Test Same/Different D D 0ms 60ms 0ms 20ms D T 20ms 40ms Same/Different 0ms 10ms T T 40ms 60ms Same/Different Within-Category Discrimination is Hard 40ms 40ms

38. Categorical Perception(Idealized Discrimination Data) 100 80 60 % Correct Discrimination 40 20 0 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 Pairs by VOT

39. Question 1 • Is speech perception innate? • Do newborns have categorical perception? • If CP requires exposure to language (e.g., knowledge of minimal pairs in one’s language), then NO. • If CP is innate, then YES. • How do we test newborns?

40. High Amplitude Sucking Procedure • Infant given a pacifier that measures sucking rate • Habituation – Infant sucks to hear sound (e.g. ba) until bored. • Test – Play sound (e.g., ba or pa). Is there dishabituation? • Infants will suck to hear sound if the sound is no longer boring. http://psych.rice.edu/mmtbn/language/sPerception/video/sucking_h.mov http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1620 (2:50 min. into videoclip)

41. 60 80 20 40 0 Stimuli for Eimas et. al’s Study • BA vs. PA • Vary Voice Onset Time (VOT): time btw consonant release and vocal cord vibration BA PA VOT in milliseconds

42. Predictions BA1 = VOT 20ms; BA2 = VOT 0ms; PA = VOT 40ms

43. dishab no no Results for Eimas et. al’s Study MEAN NUMBER OF SUCKING RESPONSE

44. Question 1 Answer Q1: Is Speech Perception Innate? • Many other studies since tested: • Infants (Neonates) on other contrasts. • Consensus: Yes to Innate Q. • Infants do not discriminate all physically equal acoustic difference; they show heightened sensitivity to those that are important for language. • BUT… there is language-specific fine-tuning…

45. Provisional Conclusions • Speech Perception makes use of some auditory mechanisms which evolved prior to language • These abilities are innate

46. Language Specific Fine Tuning Becoming a Native Listener • Languages differ in their inventories of phonemes. • What develops or changes in our speech perception abilities?

47. Japanese vs. English(Miyawaki et al. 1975) RA AMERICANS LA

48. Hindi (spoken in India) unvoiced unaspirated retroflex vs. dental stop Dental Stop – tip of tongue touching back of front teeth Retroflex Stop – tongue curled so tip is behind alveolar ridge (English /t/ is typically somewhere between the two)

49. Can you hear the difference? dental Hindi retroflex

50. Salish (Native North American language): glotalized voiceless stops Uvular – tongue is raised against the velum Velar – tongue is raised behind the velum (they are actually ejectives - ejective is produced by obstructing the airflow by raising the back of the tongue against or behind the velum)