Ch. 1 - Animal Communication And Human Language Flashcards
Who are ethologists?
Scientists who study animal behavior
Communication
Behavior intended to influence another organism
Communication is usually studied with conspecifics. What are conspecifics?
Members of the same species
The Four F’s of Animal Communication
Food, Foe, Friend, FUCK (Find a mate)
Austrian ethnologist Karl von Frishc (1967) performed an experiment with honeybees in which he
Systematically changed locations of nectar sources and found that waggle dance conveys direction and distance information
The dance that is performed on a vertical surface of honeycombs displayed direction and distance. How?
The angle from vertical indicated angle from the sun, and the length of waggle correlates with distance from hive.
Alarm Calls
Warn conspecifics about approaching predators
Vervet Monkeys have three alarm calls:
“Eagle,” “Leopard,” “Snake”
Zuberbuhler, Cheney, & Seyfarth (1999) tested Diana monkey alarm calls. What was the baseline, test, and control?
Baseline: Played eagle cry, monkeys responded with eagle call; played eagle cry again, monkeys did not respond
Test: played eagle call, monkeys responded with eagle call; played eagle cry, monkeys did not respond
Control: played leopard call, monkeys responded with leopard call; played eagle cry, monkeys responded with eagle call
Dominance Hierarchy is the
Social system in which each member knows who ranks above and who ranks below
Examples of vocalizations in mother-infant bonding include
Rap pups emitting ultrasound when they fall from the nest
Human infants crying out for their mother
Social Grooming involves
Things like picking fleas and dirt from fur of conspecifics.
It builds friendships and is considered a form of communication because it influences other’s behavior
Males advertise their ____________ ____________ to attract mates. Examples?
Genetic prowess
Peacock feathers, bullfrog croaking, birdsong, firefly lights
Females also advertise ____________ _____________. Examples?
Sexual interest
Mating rituals, pheromones (scents)
General features of animal communication systems
- Limited range of expressions
- Holophrases
- Little ability to combine symbols to express novel ideas
- ALWAYS about here and now
Example of the limited range of expressions (general features of animal communication):
Velvets communicate about three different predators and nothing else
Example of holophrases (general features of animal communication):
Vocalizations or gestures refer to entire situations, not specific objects or events
Example of little ability to combine symbols to express novel ideas (general features of animal communication)
Bee dance combines direction and distance information, but nothing else
Example of ALWAYS about the here in now (general features of animal communication)
“Leopard” here and now, not “leopard” yesterday by the river
Laughter (1) evolved from ____________ ____________ of rough-and-tumble play, (2) means _____________ intent in both chimpanzees and humans, and (3) has typical features of a _________________ system.
Labored breathing; playful; communication
Laughter and language involves the same __________ _____________, so you can’t do both at the same time.
Vocal apparatus
Language communicates most of the content in an ________________.
Interaction
Laughter signals interest in _______________ the interaction.
Continuing
Sign languages are full-fledged languages ________________ of spoken languages.
Independent
What is primacy of speech referring to?
Virtually all language use is in the spoken mode
Three important features of language:
- Rules
- Structure
- Arbitrary Symbols
Animal communication systems may have some, but not ALL of these characteristics
1) Rules (3 important features of language)
Components are combined according to rules
2) Structure (3 important features of language)
Components are combined within a structure
3) Arbitrary Symbols (3 important features of language)
Words are symbols bearing no resemblance to what they refer to
(Ex. Nothing about the word “dog” resembles a dog)
Duality of Patterning is
A structuring process that:
1) takes units at a lower level
2) combines them according to rules
3) to form new units at a higher level
A small set of simple elements such as ____________ __________ can be combined to form more complex structures and gives language virtually limitless _______________.
Speech sounds; expressibility
What are the five elements of the pyramid scheme?
1) Phonemes
2) Phonology
3) Morphemes
4) Morphology
5) Words
1) What are phonemes?
Meaningless speech sounds, fundamental building blocks of language
2) What is phonology?
Rules for combining phonemes to form morphemes
3) What are morphemes?
Basic units of meaning (root words, suffixes, prefixes)
4) What is morphology?
Rules for combining morphemes to form words
5) What are words?
Minimal stand-alone units of language
What are the four elements of sentences and discourse?
1) Syntax
2) Working memory
3) Chunking
4) Discourse
1) What is syntax? (Sentences and discourse)
A set of rules for ordering words into phrases and sentences
2) What is rocking memory? (Sentences and discourse)
Short-term memory for whatever we are currently thinking about; it is limited to about seven items and is too small to process most sentences as a whole
3) What is chunking? (Sentences and discourse)
Grouping meaningless items into more meaningful units to increase working memory capacity
Phrases serve as chunks, allowing for sentences that exceed working memory capacity
4) What is discourse? (Sentences and discourse)
A sequence of sentences ordered according to rules
Conversations, narratives
What is displacement?
The ability to refer to things and events beyond the “here and now”
Animal communication systems generally lack _________________.
Displacement
Structure complexity of language allows for communication about…
1) events in other locations (down by the river)
2) events at other times (yesterday or tomorrow)
3) hypothetical events (if I were you…)
What is recursion?
The process of extending a pattern by placing it inside itself and is common in nature (DNA structures, petal arrangements)
Example of recursion in syntax
S —-> S + S
I saw the dog… that chased the cat… that caught the mouse… that ate the cheese
What is the centrality of syntax?
The view that the ability to organize words into phrases and sentences according to recursive rules is the distinguishing feature of language
In regard to recursion, Noam Chomsky proposed that
Recursion is key to understanding evolution of language
A single mutation transformed the pre-human brain into a recursive thinking machine
What is the hopeful monster hypothesis?
The idea that a single mutation can lead to the rapid transition of a species
What is the continuity debate?
Did human language evolve gradually or rapidly?
Who is the KE family?
extended family living in London with genetic language disorder
What is Specific Learning Impairment (SLI)?
language disorder not attributable to brain damage or hearing loss
The FOXP2 gene plays a role in __________ development and has wide-ranging influences on __________ development, not specific to language.
brain; embryonic
KE family members with normal language have normal versions of the ___________ gene, those with SLI have the defective version
FOXP2
Continuity theories believe in the
-steady transition from animal communication to -human language
as a rule, evolution is continuous, not abrupt
Discontinuity theories believe in
-the sudden transition from animal communication to human language
-no living species has intermediate communication ability
What is a Pidgin?
-Simple language of a few hundred words and very basic grammar
-Emerge naturally when speakers of different languages need to communicate
What is a Creole?
-Full-fledged language based on a pidgin
-Children of pidgin speakers flesh it out as a full language
-Transition takes only one generation
What is a Protolanguage?
-Hypothetical, pidgin-like language spoken by ancestral humans
In regard to Protolanguage, Bickerton (1990) proposed…
-pre-Homo erectus humans used animal communication
-Homo erectus humans used protolanguage
-Homo sapiens used full language
Examples of protolanguage as continuity theory
-Chimps in the wild do not use pidgin, but can be taught pidgin in the lab
-Humans transition from pidgin to creole in one generation
What are the 4 social theories of language?
1) Mother tongue hypothesis
2) Singing Neanderthal hypothesis
3) Social grooming hypothesis
4) Social theories
What is the 1) Mother tongue hypothesis? (social theories of language)
Language evolved from maternal vocalizations that took on meaning over generations
What is (2) the Singing Neanderthal hypothesis? (social theories of language)
Both music and language evolved from the vocalizations of pre-human social interactions
What is the (3) Social grooming hypothesis? (social theories of language)
Gossip for humans serves same purpose of social network building that grooming does for chimps
What do (4) social theories do? (social theories of language)
-emphasize social aspects of language use rather than specifics of language evolution
-challenge the traditional view of language as thought transmission
The 5 characteristics that all Pidgins have in common with examples
1) Simple phonology (them, there –> dem, dere/ business –> pidgin)
2) No morphology (one man, two man/ go today, go yesterday)
3) Limited vocabulary (mostly content words like nouns and verbs, few function words (the, a, is, of)
4) Limited Syntax (short sentences, reliance on context for determining syntactic roles)
5) Effortful to produce (Nobody speaks pidgin as a native language)
Kellogg & Kellog (1933) raised a chimp (Gua) infant along with their own infant, but Gua failed to…
learn any words by 18 months, unlike a human infant
Hayes & Hayes (1952) raised a chimp (Vicki) infant as a human, but only learned…
four words after 3 years
What is a vocal tract?
system of air passages (throat, mouth, nose) where speech is produced
The chimpanzee vocal tract does not allow for ___________ of speech
articulation
Patterson (1978) trained a gorilla (Koko) in American Sign Language (ASL), and she had…
an active vocabulary of about 100 words, and she made novel combinations
Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues (1998) trained bonobo monkey (Kanzi) to communicate with visual symbols called lexigrams, and his spoken English comprehension was comparable to that of a…
two year old human
Baby talk development at 0-12 months
vocalization, babbling, gradually becoming language like
Baby talk development at 12-18 months
few dozen words, used as holophrases
Baby talk development at 18-24 months
-beginning of vocabulary spurt (word leaning at rapid pace)
-two word utterances (pivot constructions), pidgin-like structure
Baby talk development at 24-48 months
vocabulary and syntax develop, approaching adult language models
Child language development suggests a trajectory like language evolution by starting with __________, to __________, to ___________.
Holophrases, pidgin, syntax
What is Aphasia?
language deficit due to brain injury
Broca’s aphasia is characterized by…
-disjointed, ungrammatical speech
-effortful language production
-using pidgin-like, mostly content words, few function words
-affecting spoken, written, and signed language
What is Broca’s area?
Brain region (left frontal lobe) that plays a role in speech production, organizing language into hierarchal structures
