High Science

The crew enters Kat's realm of speech and language science. Language is broken down to the point where the hosts all end up just making noises and trying to figure out what the hell is actually going on. The discussion of speech and language is embedded in developmental psychology. From fetuses to adults, the crew discusses how we develop and perceive speech and language. It is difficult to talk about these topics without also discussing how speech and language critically determine our identity as a species. Topics Discussed: The sounds of language The five components of language Phonology – sounds and sound systems – how can we combine certain sounds? It's okay for "ks" to be at the end of a word “breaks”, not at the beginning Morphology – how to we combine units of meaning – conjugation Semantics – meaning, lexicon Syntax – how we combine words You can put the same words in a different order to create different meanings Pragmatics – rules for the social use of language, communicat