<p><strong>What is the nature of the relationship between language and thought</strong>? Or, put another way, does language constrain, influence, or merely express thought? Sometimes known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the idea that we might be limited in what we can <em>think</em> by the languages we speak has provided fertile ground for scientists and philosophers, not to mention authors of science fiction. Whether and how language influences thought has been one of the most controversial questions of modern linguistics. And it remains unresolved to this day, as new evidence continues to amass from experimental work in the cognitive sciences.</p>
<p>This course is an introduction to the debate: we will examine the various positions advanced over the years, the evidence used in their arguments, and, in the end, what is at stake for our conception of ourselves as rational beings.</p>
<p>Our grand tour will take us through:</p>
<ul>
<li>The linguistics of the movie <em>Arrival</em></li>
<li>Orwell and Newspeak</li>
<li>Borges and the "Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge"</li>
<li>The "22 words for snow" meme</li>
<li>Cross-cultural differences in categorizing time and space</li>
<li>Colour naming universals</li>
<li>The gender of bridges</li>
<li>The Pirahã controversy</li>
</ul>
<p>This course is structured around reading key texts in the evolution of the debate. Since this is a profoundly interdisciplinary debate, the works we will be reading and discussing come not only from linguistics, but also anthropology, psychology, and cognitive science.</p>
<p>The readings have been chosen at a level where they are accessible to an educated lay audience. Any more technical details necessary to understand the material will be fully explained in class.</p>
<h2>Course Goals</h2>
<p>By the end of this course, you'll have a thorough understanding of the debate over the relationship between language and thought.</p>
<p>You'll learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>the main positions that have been taken in the debate and the best arguments for each</li>
<li>the historical development of the debate and its relationship to larger intellectual trends</li>
<li>what is at stake for our understanding of human nature</li>
<li>what is at stake for society at large</li>
</ul>
<h2>Structure</h2>
<p>The course will meet once a week on Zoom for two hours. This is a seminar-style course, which means that, each time we meet, we will review and discuss the week's topic, using a selected reading as a jumping-off point.</p>
<p>There will be one reading assignment every week, which should not take more than 2–3 hours to complete. It is important to complete the reading before class so that we can all be on the same page for the discussion.</p>
<h2>Syllabus / Schedule</h2>
<h3>Week 1: Language, thought, and why it matters</h3>
<p><strong>What is the nature of the relationship between language and thought?</strong> This question has been the subject of heated scientific debate for almost a century. By the end of this class, you will understand the most common positions taken in this debate, what sorts of evidence has been used to argue for these positions, and the implications of these positions not only for our understanding of language but of human nature and society as well.</p>
<h3>Week 2: Whorf and the anthroplogical tradition</h3>
<p>The so-called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis did not emerge from a vacuum. It comes out of a larger anthropological tradition. In this class, we'll trace the genealogy of the concept of linguistic relativity from Humboldt, through Boas, and finally to Sapir and Whorf. We'll also look at what Whorf actually believed – does it match the pop-science version of the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis"? Along the way, we'll see where the "22 words for snow" meme comes from and examine what a Hopi physics might have looked like.</p>
<h3>Week 3: The universalist consensus and the cognitive revolution</h3>
<p>In the middle of the century, the intellectual tide turned with the "cognitive revolution". Thanks to the work of Noam Chomsky, linguistics played a central role in this revolution. The cognitive revolution brought along with it the idea that minds are fundamentally alike by virtue of their innate cognitive capacities, and the language and thought debate shifted in a decidedly anti-Whorfian direction. For many of these scholars, language was merely a way to express thought, which operated in its own language, called "The Language of Thought" or "Mentalese". This class we'll examine the arguments for and against this position.</p>
<h3>Week 4: Neo-Whorfianism and the re-emergence of the debate</h3>
<p>In the 1980s and 1990s, the universalist consensus came to an end and a new form of linguistic relativity came back onto the intellectual scene. This "Neo-Whorfianism" was fuelled by new experimental work and new linguistic theories. In this class, we'll look at this work through the lens of the experimental study of colour naming and perception, which has seen much of the fiercest debate between universalists and relativists.</p>
<h3>Week 5: The Pirahã affair</h3>
<p>No discussion of the relationship between language and thought would be complete without a discussion of the most famous language used to argue against the universalist position: Pirahã. The Pirahã language has been argued to lack many features thought universal to language: e.g. numbers, colour terms, and embedded sentences. But is the story so simple? This week we examine the case for and against Pirahã exceptionality, and discuss what it tells us about the relationship between language and thought.</p>
<h3>Week 6: The contemporary dimensions of the debate</h3>
<p>This week, we finish our class by surveying the current landscape of the language and thought debate. Experimental research into the effect of language on thought is an active area. What are the major positions you'll find argued for in the literature of the last 20 years? What evidence are these positions based on? We'll look at several major studies to give you a flavour of what's going on now, focusing on two topics: space and gender.</p>
<h2>Who Should Sign Up</h2>
<p>No academic background is required. The readings are all aimed at non-specialists.</p>
<p>If you're interested in the nature of language or the human mind, this course is for you.</p>


Language and Thought

<p>This course is a hands-on introduction to making constructed languages (or <strong>conlangs</strong>) as a creative pursuit, taught by a linguist and experienced conlanger. In this course, you'll learn some basic concepts from linguistics, but you'll learn it all by doing. By the end of the course, you'll not only have created a language of your own, but you'll also have the ability to repeat the process and create whole worlds full of languages.</p>
<h2>Syllabus</h2>
<h3>Week 1: Introduction</h3>
<p>What is a language and what does it mean to construct a language? In this session you’ll learn enough of the basics of linguistics to figure out what we need to do to make our first conlang. We’ll use this knowledge to break the task into chunks and set up a logical progression which will guide the rest of the course. Finally I’ll send you away with a mission to find a spark of inspiration for your first language that will guide you throughout the process.</p>
<h3>Week 2: The Sounds of Your Language</h3>
<p>What gives a language its unique sound? In this session, you’ll learn how to classify different types of sounds and use that information to create a palette of sounds for your language to draw on. Then you’ll learn how to combine these sounds to make words according to a unique blueprint that you’ll develop for your language.</p>
<h3>Week 3: From Words to Sentences</h3>
<p>This session is about going from your language’s first words to your language’s first sentences. To do this, we’ll learn the different strategies languages use to package meaning into words. Then we’ll learn about the different ways languages express relationships between words. This will give us the tools to start making sentences.</p>
<h3>Week 4: Filling in the Grammatical Gaps</h3>
<p>In this session, we expand the grammar we created in the previous class to do the things a language needs to express beyond the simple sentence. By the end of this class you'll be able to write a grammar capable of telling a story.</p>
<h3>Week 5: Delightful Complications</h3>
<p>This week we will take your nicely laid-out rules and start adding complications and exceptions. We'll look at how irregularity in language is the most regular process of all. We'll also examine how words change their form and meaning over time and see how we can express aspects of the culture and history of the language's speakers through the language.</p>
<h3>Week 6: Show and Tell</h3>
<p>This week we'll share the results of the translations and get feedback on how the languages have turned out. Most importantly, we'll get a chance to try out speaking each others' languages! We'll end with some suggestions on how to develop the languages from this starting point.</p>
<h2>Artifacts</h2>
<p>By the end of the course, you will have created a set of core reference material for a new language:</p>
<ul>
<li>A short guide to your language, including information on spelling, pronunciation, as well as how to form words and sentences.</li>
<li>A small dictionary for your language</li>
<li>A translation of a short fable (&#x3C; 100 words in English)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Who is this course for?</h2>
<p>This course is for you if you:</p>
<ul>
<li>Have a creative project you'd like to make a realistic language for (e.g. authors, game designers, worldbuilders).</li>
<li>Want to learn to conlang as a creative pursuit.</li>
<li>Are curious about linguistics and want to learn it in a fun and creative way.</li>
</ul>
<p>But it's probably not for you if you...</p>
<ul>
<li>Are an experienced conlanger (this will be too basic for you).</li>
<li>Are most interested in making a planned language for international communication (i.e. an auxlang) or to explore a logical idea (i.e. a logical language). This course focuses on naturalistic conlangs.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Requirements</h2>
<ul>
<li>No linguistics background is assumed.</li>
<li>You'll need a Google account to participate in shared Google Docs/Sheets.</li>
</ul>


Language Construction for Beginners

<p>Learning a second language is something that many people attempt but few accomplish. Despite the wide variety of books, apps, and courses promising fluency with little effort ("in only 15 minutes a day"), most language learners do not achieve their goals. But there is lots of research studying how language learning works and how to do it effectively. Unfortunately, few language learners are aware of it.</p>
<p>This course aims to remedy that situation, offering an accessible and applicable introduction to the science and practice of language learning. You'll learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>How to select materials (textbooks, tutors, courses, apps) for language learning (and which kinds to avoid!)</li>
<li>How to use language learning materials effectively</li>
<li>How to manage motivation throughout the language learning process</li>
<li>How your needs change as you move through the stages of language ability from beginner to intermediate to advanced</li>
<li>How to learn multiple languages at once (and whether you should do so)</li>
<li>How a little knowledge of how language works can save you a lot of time</li>
</ul>
<p>In short, this course provides you with a toolkit of knowledge, techniques, and mindsets you can use over your lifetime as a language learner. Over the four weeks you’ll design your own personalized <strong>language learning roadmap</strong>, outlining a realistic plan for your next year of learning.</p>
<h2>Syllabus</h2>
<h3>Week 1: Introduction</h3>
<p>In this class, we'll introduce ourselves and the languages we're learning. This class will have a lot of discussion, focusing on the question: <strong>Why do so many language learning resolutions fail?</strong> We'll talk about why we learn languages, how we've tried doing so in the past, and the frustrations we've faced. We'll make explicit the limiting assumptions we bring to our language learning practice and consider how well supported they are. We'll take an inventory of our language learning practice as it is today and use it as a starting point to build a new one.</p>
<h3>Week 2: A Scientific Approach to Learning Languages</h3>
<p>This class introduces the results of the last few decades of research in second language acquisition. We now know a lot about how language learning works. And it turns out that it's not much like the way most people go about learning languages. We're going to bust language learning myths, and replace these myths with science-backed knowledge. For example, we'll learn why <strong>the best apps for language learning aren't language-learning apps at all</strong>. We'll use this knowledge to examine and revise the techniques and resources we're using in our current language learning practice.</p>
<h3>Week 3: A Little Theory Goes a Long Way</h3>
<p>Linguistic theory is not necessary to the language learner: but it can be incredibly helpful and time-saving to know a few fundamental concepts from linguistics, especially when learning languages that work in ways very different from English. To this end, we'll employ some useful concepts from linguistics to make our language learning lives easier, including the reason <strong>why Japanese might be the perfect preparation for learning Turkish</strong>. We'll also talk about the challenges presented by the specific languages you're learning and how to incorporate <em>a little</em> linguistic training into your language learning roadmap.</p>
<h3>Week 4: From Theory to Practice</h3>
<p>This class is all about taking what we've learned over the previous sessions and applying it to our own language learning practice. We will learn practical techniques for working within the constraints of our all-too-human psychology: techniques for maintaining motivation, fighting burnout, and keeping our love for language learning alive. We will also look at how to handle:</p>
<ul>
<li>learning dead languages</li>
<li>learning less-commonly taught languages, and</li>
<li>learning multiple languages at the same time (including the age-old question <strong>how to learn Spanish and French at the same time without mixing them up?</strong>)</li>
</ul>
<p>We'll end by looking at our new language learning roadmaps: how our approach to language learning has changed over the past month, and where we can go from here.</p>
<h2>Who is this course for?</h2>
<p>This course is for anyone actively learning a language (any language, at any level) or considering doing so in the near future. No theoretical background in linguistics or language acquisition is assumed.</p>
<p>However, if you are an experienced polyglot with a track record of successful language learning, this course is probably not for you (too basic!).</p>
<h2>Requirements</h2>
<ul>
<li>No linguistics background is assumed.</li>
</ul>


Colin Gorrie

Language and Thought

Courses

Language and Thought

Language Construction for Beginners

Meta-Skills for Language Learning

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