What Psycholinguistic Idea is Ready for Retirement?
The 2014 question posed by edge.org to eminent thinkers was "what scientific idea is ready for retirement?"
In Psych 457 this term, we will consider what ideas about language, the psychology of its use, or attitudes about language might fit this definition:
Background
We began by reading several responses to the question by psychologists and linguists:
- Universal Grammar, Benjamin K. Bergen
- closely related to Instinct and Innate, Daniel L. Everett
- Language Conditioning Worldviews, John McWhorter
- Brain Modules, Patricia S. Churchland
- closely related to Left-Brain/Right-Brain, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore; and Left Brain/Right Brain, Stephen M. Kosslyn!
- Animal Mindlessness, Kate Jeffery
- closely related to Human Evolutionary Exceptionalism, Michael McCullough
- Another idea ripe for retirement: Dear Pedants: Your fave grammar rule is probably fake