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Psych399 > 2 - Origins of human language > Flashcards

2 - Origins of human language Flashcards

1
Q

Describe the nativist and antinativist views

A

nativist - genes provide the general capacity, as well as certain structural elements (UBG)
Anti-nativist - language is not an innate instinct but a result of our unique cognitive abilities

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2
Q

define the ‘language as tool’ view

A

language is an incredibly useful tool for solving a large set of problems, mostly concerning effective information transmission

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3
Q

Three elements of the honeybee dance language

A
  1. Direction - simulates the direction of the food source based on the way they move
  2. Distance - the longer the honeybee moves along the direction in their dance before retracing, the further away the source is
  3. Quality - the vigour of the dance indicates how copious the source is
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4
Q

Is the honey bee dance universal among variants?

A

No, there are some specific differences that are not learned if we replace bees from one hive with those of another.

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5
Q

How is the honeybee dance similar to our language?

A
  1. symbolic representation - body movements or words both stand for things ‘in the world’
  2. Variability - small numbers of communicative elements can be combined into more complex ‘thoughts’
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6
Q

what does the honeybee language tell us about nativist views?

A

It is in principle possible for the information required to produce complex languages to be encoded in our DNA

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7
Q

What are the major differences between the honeybee language and our own?

A
  1. Rigidity - their symbols are closely tied representationally to the information being communicated. (more like drawing maps in this sense)
  2. Specificity - bees can only speak about one thing (food source) whereas we can in theory speak about anything
  3. lack of complexity - our language is just so much more complex than that of bees
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8
Q

List Hockett’s 16 design features of human language

A
  1. Vocal-auditory channel
  2. Broadcast transmission and directional reception
  3. Rapid fading
  4. interchangeability
  5. Total feedback
  6. specialization
  7. Semanticity
  8. Arbitrariness
  9. Discreteness
  10. Displacement
  11. Productivity
  12. Traditional transmission
  13. duality of patterning
  14. Prevarication
  15. Reflexiveness
  16. Learnability
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9
Q

Define Vocal-auditory channel. is this design feature still accepted?

A

Human language is produced in the vocal tract and transmitted as sound. Sound is perceived through the auditory channel
No, sign languages break this rule

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10
Q

Define Broadcast transmission and directional reception.

A

Language can be heard from any direction, but is always perceived as coming from one specific one.

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11
Q

Define Rapid fading

A

Sounds produced by speech fade rapidly

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12
Q

Define interchangeability

A

Users of language can send and receive the same message.

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13
Q

Define Total feedback

A

Senders can hear and interpret the message that they have sent through language

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14
Q

Define specialization

A

The production of phonemes and words have no purpose other than communication

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15
Q

Define Semanticity

A

Fixed semantics (words mean things or concepts, these relationships tend not to change)

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16
Q

Define Arbitrariness

A

Words have no intrinsic association with the objects they designate

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17
Q

Define Discreteness

A

Units of language are separate and distinct from one another - not a continuous whole

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18
Q

Define Displacement

A

Language can be used to communicate about objects that are not in time or space (modality, hypothetical objects, etc)

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19
Q

Define Productivity

A

Language can in principle be used to communicate infinite sentences - things that are never said before, and can still be understood

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20
Q

Define Traditional Transmission

A

Languages need to be learned by exposure to other users of a language - precise details are not available through genetics alone

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21
Q

Define Prevarication

A

Language can be used to make false statements

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22
Q

Define Reflexivness

A

language can be used to refer to itself

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23
Q

Define learnability

A

Humans can learn to use more than one language

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24
Q

Define duality of patterning

A

Meaningful words are made of combining a small number of phonemes into various sequences, same goes with sentences out of words.

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25
Q

Which of Hockett’s design features do vervet monkeys exhibit in their calls?

A
  1. Semanticity - specific sounds are fixed to certain meanings (leopard, eagle, snake)
  2. Arbitrariness - calls do not in any way represent the animals they designate
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26
Q

What are the most notable design features that are lacking from vervet monkeys calls? (4)

A
  1. Displacement, calls are only used to refer to predators that are known to exist in time/space
  2. duality of patterning - not layered complexity derived from simple phonemes
  3. Productivity - no new communications arise from the use of their calls
  4. Learnability - alarm calls are fixed at birth and dont change (no cultural transmission), although they do have to learn to identify the right kind of animals
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27
Q

What does the lack of learnability in vervet indicate for the nativist hypothesis?
How do nativists respond?

A

The genetic ground of language must be much more fluid than in other species because of the differences between languages that can be learned.
They argue that there are common structural ingredients in the genetics, but not specific features

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28
Q

Do apes and vervet show greater capacity for learning to interpret or produce calls?
Which capacity is greater in a fully developed ape/vervet (ie, prod. or int.

A

Interpret, they come ready to make sounds at the animals, but they need to learn how to react when calls are made.
Once developped, they are more capable of interpretation (can learn the calls of other species and even their predators), but are fixed to the three calls they can utter.

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29
Q

What types of studies do tool theorists argue are more representative of apes capacity for language?

A

Those which rear apes alongside humans to expose them to the cultural transmission we are exposed to.

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30
Q

What are the effects of humans rearing apes on their capacity for language? (6)

A

they greatly improve…

  1. Master hundreds of arbitrary symbols/words
  2. spontaneously use these symbols to communicate a variety of functions
  3. Demonstrate displacement
  4. Demonstrate prevarication
  5. some degree of productivity (finger-bracelet for ‘ring’)
  6. syntax seems to not be random (verbs and nouns are used in definite orders)
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31
Q

Productivity vs interpretation of human-reared apes (2)

A

int&raquo_space; prod,

  1. because they can’t control vocalization
  2. even in sign/artificial languages, they can interpret much more complexity than they can produce
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32
Q

Does an animals use of a symbol indicate an understanding of the concept it conveys, or a learned behavioural associattion?
what evidence do we need to make this conclusion?
Along these lines, do apes understand the meaning of symbols?

A

Not always, need to ask more specific questions (what evidence to we need to make this conclusion, how do we rule out other explanations?)

  • need to show evidence of understanding, for instance picking it out the object in complex situations
  • need to show evidence of production in wide varieties of situations
  • need to observe all the uses of the sign, and see if it is consistently used in a meaningful manner.
  • yes, they are believed to.
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33
Q

What does the ability of apes to make use of more design features when reared by humans indicate? What does information in this area give us access to?

A

When the capacity for these features may have evolved, as other types of monkeys can’t use them, so we can look at our most recent common ancestors
- whether they evolved specifically to allow for language.

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34
Q

Are all the aspects of language necessarily adapted for the use of language?

A

No, thin of the piano analogy (just cuz we can use our fingers to play piano doesn’t mean they evolved for this purpose).

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35
Q

What does the evidence that apes are capable of demonstrating more design features but DONT in their natural environment indicate.
What view does this challenge?

A

Either that certain cognitive skills are required to truly master and make proper use of language, or that the apes ability to make use of these design features did not evolve for the purpose of language.
The nativist view

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36
Q

What are the two categories that nativists might argue language capacities are divided into?

A
  1. Necessary for, but not specific to, language

2. Those that evolved explicitly to increase the power/efficiency of language

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37
Q

Can we claim that language is an all-or-nothing phenomenon?

A

No, there seems to involve a large swath of cognitive skills that may or may not individually be specific to language, and may have different evolutionary trajectories.

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38
Q

What is a crucial difference between the interpretive abilities of humans and chimps?

A

The understanding of ‘intention to communicate,’ which allows us to make more inferences about the meaning of gestures and words than apes (they cannot grasp pointing)

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39
Q

What is a major difference between the understanding capabilities in humans and primates? give 2 examples

A

The understanding of the social world, such as the intention to communicate and the compulsion to altruistic communication

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40
Q

What do some researchers argue is the grounds of a rich communication system?

A

Advanced social cognition

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41
Q

What is a leading theory in why primates cannot cooperate in the same way that humans can?

A

They do not have sufficient motivation, we are naturally more altruistic and concerned with notions of fairness and justice, and we are always engaged in a social world.

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42
Q

What is a general similarity between language, money, law and governments?

A

They require individuals to buy into and believe artificial systems which exist only because of this mutual acceptance.

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43
Q

What is a second leading theory (not motivational) about why primates cannot cooperate in the same way humans can?
What is an example of such a feature?

A

They lack cognitive systems required to get these kinds of complex social coordination off the ground.
- Joint attention (the ability to understand that two individuals are paying attention to the same thing)

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44
Q

What are the differences in joint attention between apes and humans?

A

Humans can fully grasp joint attention, whereas apes are only capable of understanding that another ape knows something, but there is no reflexivitty here (Ape A knows Ape B knows Ape A did something)

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45
Q

When do human babies exhibit signs of joint attention?

A

Towards the end of their first year by pointing unambiguously at objects.
Earlier, they can respond appropriately when their attention is directed towards something

46
Q

What are the two types of pointing exhibited by humans, and which predicts vocabulary? which type do apes do more of?

A

Declarative - pointing to comment on an object
Imperative - Pointing to direct an action
Only declarative is associated with vocabulary at 30 months
Apes do mostly imperative

47
Q

What does more recent research indicate about apes capacity for social cognition?
What does this indicate?

A

It is much greater than was initially assumed, chimps can represent mental states
We cannot be sure how much of our complex ability for social cognition is biological and how much is social

48
Q

What are the general benefits of duality of patterning?

A

Never exhaust our ability to create new sounds when we require the addition of new units (words) and also up to sentences (syntax), which allows for great degrees of relatively simple and efficient complexity.
-efficiently in this context means no need to understand millions of individual units to communicate complex ideas, but one stable syntax.

49
Q

What does the addition of a syntax confer on a language?

A

We remove the need to learn and memorize individual words for complex ideas, and also allow for productivity

50
Q

What are certain consequences of the introduction of a syntax?

A

Human children need to be capable of intuiting the syntax of their language without explicit teaching, same goes for specific word ‘morphology’ (fats vs fads is not taught to be s and z, but is understood to be so)

51
Q

What does recursive mean, what does it allow for?

A

Nesting related linguistic clauses within one another, allows for more abstract conversations, allows for the introduction of an infinite area of meanings.
- essentially stacking layers of abstraction within a sentence to produce sentences like ‘the lost toy was found in the high area of the mountain beneath the star in the third …”

52
Q

What is ‘Plato’s problem’ and why did Chomsky think it was an issue in language development?

A

The gap between experience of language and the Childs knowledge of its structure - which to Chomsky indicated that it was innate.

  • because children make surprisingly good guesses about complex syntax without ‘sufficient’ exposure to the language to justify these leaps.
  • This leads him to argue that a they must have some knowledge of the underlying structure that is present a priori
53
Q

What is the kind of a priori knowledge of syntax that Chomsky advocated for?
- what are his main justifications? (2)

A

The Universal Basic Grammar, which assumes that humans innately possess knowledge of the kinds of available syntax structures.

  • there are some syntax combinations that are in theory possible, yet do not occure
  • all the evidence for Plato’s problem
54
Q

What were the notable features of Wilkins ‘ideal language’

A
  • no ambiguity
  • ## clear semantics at the most basic level (letter compositionally)
55
Q

what is the main design feature that is absent from Wilkins ideal language?

A

-Duality of patterning (meaningful words combined out of meaningless units)

56
Q

Why do natural languages not seem to occur in the way Wilkins ideal language did?

A
  • Perhaps (untested) it is due to the unlearn ability of this structure due to the innate UBG that predisposes us to structure language to include duality of patterning.
57
Q

What are some of the hurdles that we must overcome to prove what exists in the universal basic grammar?

A

Need to prove…

  • Innateness
  • uniqueness (only human)
  • uniqueness of function (FOR language)
58
Q

What are the five main criticisms of the Universal basic grammar?

A
  1. Underestimates the ammount of exposure children get to language, and underestimated their capacity to reverse engineer this information
  2. Some knowledge that was thought to be purely linguistic has now been shown to be applicable to more areas of cognition
  3. Some knowledge that was thought to be linguistic has been found in other animals that are not capable of learning languages.
  4. Languages look less similar to one another than the UBG would suppose (there are certain ‘outliers’)
  5. increase in explanatory sophistication pertaining to why linguistic patterns arise as a function of the utility in solving certain communicative problems.
59
Q

What is a nativist response to the criticism that languages look less similar to one another than their UBG would hypothesize?

A
  • Potentially come instead without rules but strong constraints on the way language should form, that can be overridden with sufficient effort
60
Q

why are humans almost unique in their capacity for manipulating their vocal output?

A

Out control over many aspects of our mouths, lips and tongue, as well asa vocal folds, plus the lowness of the human larynx which gives more space for the tongue to move about

61
Q

are children capable of properly manipulating their vocal areas at birth?

A

No, they need to practice through babbling, and some sounds come more naturally than others

62
Q

What is a main difference between humans and primates in their ability to replicate experienced vocal intonations?

A

Humans are capable of producing any vocal phonemes was long as they re exposed to them, whereas apes are genetically wired to produce those of their species

63
Q

what are two main functions of human babbling?

A
  1. to learn how to manipulate vocal tracts and mouths t make sounds
  2. imitative function - babbling sounds more like the language they’re exposed to, and is universal between signed and spoken languages
64
Q

what do parrots suggest about the necessity of a certain type of vocal tract?

A

There isn’t one so much was the need to be able to control articulation

65
Q

what are some species with fairly sophisticated vocal learning abilities

A

parrots, dolphins, seals, elephants, bats

66
Q

What are the two proposed cognitive language pathways, and how do they differ?

A

Affective pathway - vocalizations arise from states of arousal, emotion and motivation; this sound production is innate
Cognitive pathway - Controlled and malleable sound production that requires extensive learning and practice

67
Q

What are two of the most prominent features that show sign language qualifies as a language?

A

Duality of patterning and recursion, although they are in general only distinct in terms of their medium

68
Q

what are the three pieces of evidence researchers claim demonstrate that the first human languages were gestural?

A
  1. Great apes have very little control over their vocal abilities, but can learn to communicate much better through gesture
  2. Apes do use gestures when they communicate spontaneously with each other in the wild, and they tend to be much more flexible than their vocalizations, and more culturally determined
  3. tracing communicative behaviours through the primates indicates that a gestures may make aa more plausible candidate - apes dont use alarm calls which makes it less likely thats the ground, and monkeys dont use gestures in the same way apes and humans do, which indicates its a newly evolved system
69
Q

what are the similarities between human language and songbirds language? (2)

A
  1. not rigidly fixed at birth, require learning, go through a babbling stage
  2. complex structural elements, notes combined into syllables and so on
70
Q

what are some differences between human language and birdsong?

A
  1. no evidence the complex structure of songbird notes have any meaning, only show sexiness etc
71
Q

what is the evidence for the statement ‘Humans are less dependent on cultural transmission than we thought’ in terms of language development?

A

Children seem to have the capacity to invent languages (basic framework with nearly all properties researchers consider evidential of language)
- most evidence is found in sign language situations

72
Q

define homesign

are these languages systematically meaningful

A

personal communication system initiated by aa deaf person to communicate through gestures with others.
when used by the deaf child, yes, but not when used by other hearing people

73
Q

What are some important elements of homesign (5)

A
  1. signs have rigid referential functions
  2. can be combined systematically to convey complex ideas
  3. have signs for rational and modal terms
  4. some evidence of recursion
  5. reflexivity, self reference, etc
74
Q

what is required to turn homesign systems into full fledged languages?
How did this seem to occur?

A

a linguistic community, as in the case of nicaraguan sign language (children invented a language within their group)
- each kid came with their own homsign, then they negotiated a shared standard system to use with eachother

75
Q

What was the difference between the Nicaraguan sign language after children entered its community?

A

They began to make it more efficient and powerful, and more consistent

76
Q

What were some specific changes observed in the nicargauaguan sign language community when children entered? (2)

A
  1. began to dismiss holistic symbols for sequential ones
  2. spacial location began to be used for specific grammatical purposes by shifting away from the body (showed that the subject of a sentence involved in 2 activities was different if they moved from neutral to non-neutral)
77
Q

Define Linguistic code, what is its function?

A

system of symbols and combinatory rules that are agreed upon by linguistic users to convey specific meanings. Reduces the amount of necessary contextual information

78
Q

what are the 2 components necessary to progress homesign to language?

A
  1. community of speakers using the system

2. generational progression due to the sensitive language period

79
Q

what do the studies on isolate song birds demonstrate?

A

they are also capable of producing something akin to homesing, a much more simplified system that is similar in may ways to the real deal.
- if baby birds hear isolate songs, they learn and improve them, much like children in sign language

80
Q

What is the only clear conclusion about the development of human language?

A

it is the result of the complex interaction between some degree of genetic predisposition and cultural inheretance

81
Q

what are the ways that genetic abnormalities can prove or disprove the nativist/non-nativist argument?

A
  1. if genetic abnormalities that result in general cognitive deficits are equally disastrous to language, it suggests it is a result of our cognitive prowess
  2. if there are genetic abnormalities that target specifically all the other cognitive systems, or language, then it may be some specifically evolved module
82
Q

why do some researchers take Bellugi’s studies on WMS individuals to be proof concerning the distinct language module?

A

They have high degrees of cognitive deficits, yet have fairly adult sounding language

83
Q

what are some methodological problems with Bellugi’s study on WMS individuals, and what does fixing this problem show us?

A

they compare those with deficits only with others with different deficits, rather than with those of a similar mental age
- when matched with those of a similar mental age, they perform only as expected.

84
Q

In general, what are the three reasons for the misleading conclusion that WMS individuals have preserved linguistic modules?

A
  1. Compared too down syndrome, they outperform bc those w downsyndrome greatly underperform
  2. WMS individuals have great language ability when compared with their spacial and numerical abilities
  3. their use of rare words (without always understanding their meaning) gives the impression of linguistic complexity
85
Q

What do WMS studies when compared with those of equal mental Aage demonstrate?

A

not that there is some biological language module, but that there may be some seperation between linguistic, numerical and spacial cognition systems

86
Q

What is specific language impairment (SLI)? what are some common symptoms?

A

a disorder in which children fail to develop language normally, despite an absence of any genetic etiology or other cognitive impairments
- disorders at all levels of language, including syntax

87
Q

Does SLI have a hereditary component?

A

yes, definitively

88
Q

what does SLI suggest in terms of language and cognition?

A

That certain aspects of language structure behaviour as modules that are independent of other cognitive functions and have a direct basis in genetics

89
Q

What is the Domain Specific Perspective to SLI

A

linguistic deficit strikes at mechanisms that are particular to language.

90
Q

what are some problems with the domain specific perspective to SLI

A
  1. dissociation between language and cognitive functions is not perfectly mapped out - they do have certain other cognitive deficits like decreased memory span, articulatory systems and motor control
91
Q

What is the domain general perspective to SLI

A

SLI is a cognitive problem thats not specific to language, but harms language abilities more than others because it just so happens to disrupt the general cognitive mechanisms required for language

92
Q

What are some problems/criticisms of the domain general perspective?

A
  1. The presence of non-linguistic cognitive deficits does not imply that they cause the language deficits
    - must show that they are clearly related in terms of severity of the cognitive deficits and severity of the language defs
93
Q

Should we consider SLI to be one illness?

A

No, its clearly many as theres a lot of variability, no single genetic link, which lead to DSM V to call it ‘Language Disorder”{

94
Q

What is the overall conclusion of SLI research?

A

There is no clear cut genetic link between cognitive functions and language functions

95
Q

What is the new method of studying whether or not our ancestors had access to language?

A

Discovering genes that are linked with linguistic ability and testing to see if they possessed them

96
Q

what is an example of a gene that is highly associated with language? what is it associated with? (5)

A

FOXP2, located on chromosome 7 had massive speech deficits with unintelligible speech and grammatical difficulties, was well as lower IQs, problems with facial movements, trouble forming non-linguistic sounds

97
Q

Is FOXP2 found in other animals?

A

yes, although it is a different variant found in humans

98
Q

how is the human version of FOXP2 different than that of other primates/animals? is this version found in any other species?

A

There are two genetic differences that are thought to play a role in language
there are no living species that possess it in this form, although neaderthaals did! Doesn’t mean they could speak tho

99
Q

Which conceptual tools are useful in analyzing the way that languages tend to morph over time?

A

Biological tools, specific in terms of natural selection

100
Q

what are the two mechanisms we borrow from biology in explaining how languages evolve

A
  1. Genetic drift - mutations spread randomly due to luck
  2. Directional selection - mutations that area adaptive and serve to better the utility of the organism/language in some way
101
Q

what are the criteria that seem to indicate a more successful language variant?

A
  1. Needs to be communicatively useful - able to convey the proper information efficiently both from the speakers and listeners perspective
  2. New learners need to be able to learn the language properly - those that can’t be learned will not be passed down.
102
Q

how are generational changes assumed to alter languages?

A

by children deciding which conventions abide best by the need for communicative utility, and learnability

103
Q

what is the cultural transmission view of language change. contrast it with the nativist view

A
  • Languages change overtime to adapt to the human mind with all its constraints and limitations.
  • The nativist view holds that the mind has changed to the forms and structures of language
104
Q

What are some important implications of the cultural transmission view of language change

A

Bc of the importance of languages usefulness and learnability, languages may be coaxed into different shapes depending on the type of community that uses it

  • smaller communities can rely on less systematic and more contextual information that makes learning easier from childhood (as compared between ABSL nd NSL)
  • Again with ABSL and NSL, one group is exposed from birth while the latter enters as a child
105
Q

What are some differences noticed in languages with high rates of second language learners?

A
  1. rely on word order to signal the difference between subjects, direct and indirect objects and otherwise, instead of using case markers
  2. load less information into individual units than other languages
106
Q

must cultural transmission and UBG be incompatible?

A

Nope, there could be some core predispositions that are then built upon through adaptations

107
Q

what method of studying language invention has been really useful

A

‘language games,’ which ask generations of participants to communicate to one another in a new language

108
Q

what was an interesting finding from the first language game study.
what does this suggest about language development?

A

symbols became increasingly arbitrary - less information was loaded into their relationship with objects, becoming less efficient
- repeated use of a sign allows it to become less iconographic and more arbitrary

109
Q

do individuals tend to re use symbols to convey information that has similar semantic content in language games?
hw does this mirror the development of sign languages?

A

yes, for instance the use of a quickly drawn chair always represents ‘school’
- they are breaking down complex terms into smaller, less iconographic units to be able to combine them to convey broader ideas

110
Q

what is the greatest opportunity that presents itself from lab controlled studies of language invention?
what is an example of this in use? (name study)
what are the implications of this on the languages ability?

A

allows us to tweak certain elements that might control for the introduction of biases to determine if they are fixed or not
- In the Kirby and colleagues study, people included semantic features with particular syllables and introduced a predictable syntax, only if they wereasked to distinguish between two stimuli.
- if they were not asked to distinguish between two stimuli, they would maintain a single syllable string that could define any object in a certain action.
it made the language easier to learn, but less expressive

Psych399 (2 decks)

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