Silvia- Intro To Lang And Processing

Question 1

Universal features of language and why important

Answer 1

Uniquely human, all human groups have it and all are equally expressive (used as excuse for slavery), all easily learned by children. Critical evolutionary step in human evolution (lang separated from animals), used to understand cog processes like thinking, socialisation and culture. Some people lose or don’t develop

Question 2

Features of natural language

Answer 2

Naturally occurring, communication system of arbitrary signs. Used to exchange info not just imitation or noise. For a communication system: shared rules that establish systematic mapping between words and the world.

Question 3

Arbitrary definition

Answer 3

no intrinsic relation between the sign and its reference, not iconic or onomatopoeic (exceptions are cuckoo, sizzle)
Non arbitrary are like road signs

Question 4

Characteristics of lang from hocketts design features of human lang

Answer 4

Disproved was verbal as have sign lang. semanticity: words represent shared meaning. Displacement: talk about things that aren’t present. Discreetness: linguistic units are distinct from each other rather than continuum like colour. Productivity: new words and meanings can be created. Recursive rule found in all Lang’s

Question 5

What is the recursive rule

Answer 5

Allows linguistic objects of the same kind to be nested within other objects of the same kind / rule that can be reapplied to output e.go phrase plus noun. Phrase plus noun plus modifier

Question 6

Parts of language processing: comprehension

Answer 6

1. Recognise sounds and words, map sounds to meanings (damage causes problems recognising) 2. Accessing and retrieving meaning (damage is semantic dementia) 3. Combining words into a message involved stabilising a relationship between words (aphasia)

Question 7

Parts of language processing: production

Answer 7

Fluent speech takes the longest to appear as speaking harder than comprehension. Involves retrieval and fine motor planning. Examples are top of the tongue. (Damage is verbal apraxia)

Question 8

Combining units

Answer 8

Takes place at 2 levels: making words from sounds using limited number of sounds are reusing them. Linked to hocketts duality of patterning where small no. Units that don’t convey meaning alone can be used to create larger meaningful symbols. Syntax is a set of rules on how to combine units in systematic ways so meanings clear

Question 9

Structured patterns and Plato

Answer 9

Specific word and sound orders which are never directly taught. Plato used dialogues written as scenarios where teacher argued w others, argued knowledge can’t be taught only recollected as soul existed prior. Said reason why slave didn’t know pythagorus. Platos gap is ant gap between experience and knowledge e.g. child know lang but not taught-innate?

Question 10

Innate evidenced for communication

Answer 10

Chomsky said humans have knowledge of structures of lang, born W universal grammar which is predisposition to learn some structures not others. Gould and marker show animals have learning bias as rats press for food but not to avoid shock and vice versa, pigeons associate sounds but not colour with danger. Rats are nocturnal so smell more useful than colour

Question 11

Universal languages

Answer 11

Esperanto was meant to be a broad European language that everyone would use and would be regular and predicable. John Wilkins wanted t o create a lang where words represented their meanings e.g. dog was Sita as zi for beats, t for oblong head and a for bigger

Question 12

Evidence of animals communication - vervets

Answer 12

William shatner did experiments with vervet monkeys and found they had diff alarm calls for snacked, eagles and leopards. Play back experiments are when you record calls them play in the wild- shows referential calls not just behavioural reflex. Arbitrary language

Question 13

Evidence-primates

Answer 13

In the 50s there were attempts to teach primates to speak. Vicky the chimp raised alongside a child and did intensive speech therapy and could say 4 words mama,papa cup and up. Didn’t work as diff vocal anatomy

Question 14

Other attempts at teaching lang

Answer 14

Experiments tried to teaches apes to learn sign language - intensive practice and training w modified ASL
Subjects washoe- chip, koko- gorilla, lots of publicity but not clear if the signs were spontaneous

Question 15

Objective measures

Answer 15

Lana taught a range of symbols a bonobo monkey, pushed keys to get things-arbitrary. Man I spontaneously learned by looking at mother: makes tools, plans actions, knows hundreds of words and complex phrases like a 2 year old like apple on the fridge. Used masks or sat behind as to not give cues

Question 16

Non primates

Answer 16

Tells us how much communication evolved separately from humans to give us clues. Dolphins in the wild are sociable, learn from parents, name clicks, creative and cross species cooperation. In captivity able of high cog abilities, categorisation of objects, a sense and presence of objects (displacement), complex like under and through, carry out actions told via sign lang

Question 17

Summary of scientific studies

Answer 17

Some species are better than humans like in navigation, smells and working memory: chimps out perform memorising number placements in order when covered. But animals can’t learn a full blown lang as not spontaneous and don’t use for inter species

Question 18

Brain diffs

Answer 18

Primates have diff brain anatomy to humans- not just brain size, diff brain to body mass ratio e.g. dolphins 0.9% we have 2.1% (the percent of mass brain takes up)
Neural development and plasticity. Mammals born with 90% of brain mass, humans with 28%, means an opportunity to learn and wire connections

Question 19

Other factors

Answer 19

Social communicative urge: babies want to help but chimps don’t- tomasello helping behaviour. Innate cog capacity of joint attention and understanding of others intentions e.g. babies follow pointing to help but chimps don’t. Dogs do but don’t follow indirect pointing (same as 2 not 3 year olds) as they were bred to

Question 20

Bees- Von frisch 1967

Answer 20

Bees communicate direction (by moving up is toward the sun and deviation is relative), distance (longer the dance from initial point the further) and the quality (more vigour) of a nectar source. Diff species have diff dances but innate. Similar to humans (can be combined) but symbolic not arbitrary, only talk about 1 things and less complex

Question 21

Hocketts list of design features linked to vervets

Answer 21

Exhibit features of semanticity, arbitrariness but no displacement as calls only for danger not that there may be something or where there was yesterday, no duality of patterning (call made by combining similar units in diff ways), no productivity (new messages)- no learning, fixed from birth so no cultural transmission

Question 22

Primates better at interpreting

Answer 22

Vervets not born knowing what to do in response to threat. Baboons have hierarchy and when researchers created sound of threat call then scream from a higher up-met with surprise. Monkeys use displacement, to lie and have new combos

Question 23

Method issues

Answer 23

Careful of making big claims as animals may just be associated words and not really understanding them - overattributr human like cognition to simple behaviours,, need to show evidence of understanding, every instance the sing is used and no cues from the researchers. Same test may not be good for animals and children as monkeys beg for food from a masked person but steal food when monkey not looking

Question 24

Evolution

Answer 24

Skills that support lang fall into 2 categories: those that are needed to get lang of the ground but arent spec to language and 2, traits that evolved because they make lang more powerful. Homologous trait- from common ancestry or analogous- species arrived at same solution due to same pressures

Question 25

Social underpinning

Answer 25

Hunans have the capacity for joint attention: awareness between 2 ppl that are both paying attention to the same thing - not found i chimps. Bird song isn’t fixed from birth, practice and have complex structure

Question 26

How speech is produced

Answer 26

Air pushed out of lungs through the folds in the larynx, making it vibrate so air comes through. Sound adjusted by rest of mouth
Human larynx is lower so more room for tongue to move, broad tongue but chimps rest flat in narrow cavity.Chimps can breathe and swallow at the same time -some animals lower larynx in communication.

Question 27

Origin of human language

Answer 27

Humans and primates make vocalisations that come from an affective pathway: sounds have to do w arousal,e motion and motivation e.g. baby cries but humans also make sounds from cog athway
Hyp that earliest forms of human lang were by gestures due to sign lang as chimps communicate via sign and use gestures in the wild

Question 28

Innate modular view

Answer 28

Pinker and Chomsky: lang is an innate instinct, have universal grammar as brain pre wired as many lang operate the same. Have innate lang organ guiding acquisition, separate from other cog abilities. Modular as separate and don’t intertwine with other areas e.g. brocas and we rocked areas

Question 29

Innate view- poverty of stim

Answer 29

e.g. recursive rule (man chasing dog chasing cat..) never explicitly taught and don’t learn from stimulus response conditioning

Question 30

Experience based interactive view

Answer 30

Lang is sa system that interacts w other cog abilities, info in multiple networks. Linguistic input is rich, child must map info and social interaction gives you feedback. Children can extract rules over time e.g. sentence structure as sensitive to regularities. General innate capacity to learn but not lang specific e.g. instinct to communicate

Question 31

Lang and cog impairments

Answer 31

Nativists: if lang modular, find disorders where lang fine but cog not and vice verda. Williams syndrome causes facial characteristics and cardiovascular probs, have low mental age and spatial probs (cog impaired) but intact lang. spec lang impairments exist like distinguishing sounds, understanding and production

Question 32

Criticism of lang and cog impairments

Answer 32

Williams syndrome have impaired lang and delayed lang development. For lang impairments, working memory and sound processing may also be affected , some don’t hear small words

Question 33

Can humans invent lang

Answer 33

Nativists say children should invent lang with little input. Feral children have little lang but too varied so can’t make concs. Use sign language as an example. Home signers have no standardised signs and group based signers have a set of rules

Question 34

Nicaraguan sign language

Answer 34

Older students arrive W home signs, less consistent, no sub units, pigeon lang (limited). Younger conventionalised and regularised rules, more efficient, twice as many signs and more grammatical. Need community and gen progression so not innate. Evidence for sensitive period of learning, hard after puberty. Adult second lang learners have accents and lower grammar the later they moved (native sound categories)

Question 35

Sensitive period for lang learning

Answer 35

Singleton and Newport 2004-Young signers better than parents, fathers the worst. Children better as regularise from inconsistent parental input- overgeneralise rules like foots

Question 36

From reading - diffs between young and older nsl

Answer 36

Young used sequential signs, old holistic. Instead of signing right in front of body, shifts to the side signalled the past or future for old singers , intro new ppl, diff points int ime but younger used it to show actions belonged to the same person e.g. if sign and pay in the same place, done by the same person

Question 37

What is the linguistic code

Answer 37

System of symbols and rules that are agreed upon to convey meanings.

Question 38

How birds similar to humans

Answer 38

If birds isolated during sensitive period, never sing normallly. Isolated birds produce simple, distorted songs, baby birds imitate even if wrong. Second gen create sound closer to normal