I introduce some of the main historical perspectives on language science in this lecture. While editing it, I realized I was saying “Skinnerian” to describe “Chomskyan” or “Universal Grammarian” ideas for a while. I definitely want you to know that Skinnerians believe in strict behaviorism while Universal Grammarians believe in an innate language ability. When I’m talking about Universal Grammar, innateness, or a Language Acquisition Device, I mean Chomskyans. Even if I accidentally said Skinnerians.

Look at these infographics and illusions to have some background for the audio lecture before you listen. Come back to them after and think about what you've learned. To listen to the lecture, you can play the mp3 on the next page or use either of the podcast feeds in the announcements.

Parts of Speech (Links to an external site.) - This is a Russian parts of speech infographic I found for IT professionals. In the right hand column, there are some grammatical mistakes that you can almost hear in a Russian accent.

Pop Culture Parts of Speech (Links to an external site.) - This is a fun infographic that's a little more in depth for lingophiles and a little more nerdy for the cinephiles. Also, you can buy it as a print.

Adelson's Checkershadow Illusion. (Links to an external site.)

The (similar) Cornsweet Illusion. (Links to an external site.)

MadLibs!