miércoles, 22 de junio de 2016

Something interesting about the culture of species

Sperm Whales' 

Language Reveals 

Hints of Culture

These deep-diving whales off the Galápagos have their own dialects,
a sign that they have a culture
.

First Language Acquisition



How come we acquire language, the most difficult thing in our life, at the age of five and
without any effort?

I strongly agree with Chomsky’s theory of innateness. Its main argument is that children are
creative with the language, so they do not learn it by imitation. Besides, Chomsky argues that
there must be a natural order to acquire the language in all human beings. Even though
language is a complex system, a child does not need to be formally taught to acquire it. Of
course it does not exist a way to prove how this “Black Box” works  because there is
 no technology to study the process that happens inside the mind; but the
theory has been proved by observing children acquiring their first Language.
Furthermore, it is very interesting to understand the arguments why Chomsky maintains the
existence of the Universal Grammar. We do not need extensive Input, just a few of it to trigger the
process because the things that are missing from the Input are added by the UG. As a result,
there can be many possible responses to only one stimulus (stimulus free). In other words,
Chomsky’s theory suggests:

The poverty of the stimulus argument:
  • Children hear only a finite number of sentences.
  • They are able to abstract the rules of a language.
  • They produce an infinite number of sentences without any formal training.

In my opinion, this is the most engaging part of the Chapter because it explains Chomsky’s
theory in a deeper way. And it is interesting how Chomsky’s and Plato’s theories are
contrasted. Personally, I agree with Plato’s theory about previous lives, and I believe
Chomsky’s “black box” is part of our consciousness. Nowadays, scientists study memory
beyond death and the consciousness is being studied as an independent part of the brain, as if
it was part of the soul. However, I am aware that this is a very personal belief without any solid
scientific source.

To conclude, I think that there is no theory that can refuse Chomsky’s. Even though
there is no evidence on how U.G. works inside the brain, there are no doubts about all the
facts that have been studied about how humans acquire the language.

domingo, 12 de junio de 2016

Macrofunction and Microfunction


Tasks
Macrofunction
Microfunction
Grammar
Watch a video about “Travel around the World” and ask your partner for interesting places to visit. Then tell your partner which of the places you visited were the best .

Exchanging goods and services

Asking for and giving directions

Wh- questions
Yes/no questions