PSYC 134. Seminar in Language and Theory of Mind

(Cross-listed as LING 134)
We learn and use language in social contexts. This means that we have to keep track of the perspectives, beliefs, and intentions of the people with whom we communicate in order to speak and comprehend appropriately. The seminar will investigate the psychological underpinnings of these abilities and their linguistic consequences. Questions to be addressed include: How do children acquire the social reasoning skills necessary for using and learning language? How does language come to have meaning by virtue of its conversational context? How do speakers and hearers use the context to understand language in real time? What parts of the brain are responsible for this ability and what can this tell us? What are the linguistic abilities of populations with differences in social reasoning (such as in autism)? We will examine a variety of phenomena in exploring these questions such as reading between the lines, word learning, perspective taking, politeness, metaphors, and irony.
This course may not be taken as pass/fail.
Prerequisite: PSYC 034. Psychology of Language, PSYC 033. Cognitive Psychology, or COGS 001. Introduction to Cognitive Science , or permission of the instructor.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for COGS.
Spring 2026. Grodner.
Catalog chapter: Psychology
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/psychology

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