Ch 3 - origins of language and animal language

Question 1

What is the bow-wow theory of where language came from

Answer 1

The first words were onomatopoeic and language evolved from mimicry

Question 2

What’s the side-effect theory (what’s the alternative argument?)

Answer 2

side effect theory: Language developed as a side effect of the evolution of something else such as brain size or intelligence

Alternative: Language developed as a beneficial adaptation shaped by natural selection

Question 3

What are three arguments for the side effect theory and against the natural selection theory?

Answer 3

1. Not enough time for something as complex as language to have developed since we diverged from primates
2. Grammar can’t exist in an intermediate form
3. There is no obvious evolutionary advantage of grammar so evolution wouldn’t have selected for it

Question 4

Which thoery of language has largely won? WHy?

Answer 4

Darwinian natural selection
> because it is the only mechanism understood for how language developped.
> Because the 3 opposing arguments can be disproved
1. there HAS been sufficient time
2. it evolved to communicate existing cognitive representations
3. grammar based system does provide an advantage (animals you can eat vs. animals that can eat you)

Question 5

what evolutionary changes have allowed language to develop

Answer 5

• human brain increased in size and complexity, broca’s area 2 mil yrs ago
• shape of skull and articulatory aparatus have changed shape to allow speech (60 000 yrs ago)

Question 6

the evolution of language comes at what cost

Answer 6

its easier for us to choke (means advantage of language must outweigh the risk)

Question 7

Whats a protolanguage? examples from textbook?

Answer 7

An intermediate form spoken by homoerectus (1.6 mil yrs) with vocal labels attached to concepts but no syntax

examples:

1. primates taught sign
2. very young children
3. children deprived of linguitic input
4. pidgin languages

Question 8

What pressure selected for language?

Answer 8

The social set up of humans

Question 9

What gene is involved with important aspects of language? How do we know

Answer 9

FOXP2 gene - (in animals) coordinates comlex movements adn in humans, damage to gene leads to difficulty aquiring language

Question 10

how di the FOXP2 gene develop?

Answer 10

through a mutation within the last 100 000 years leading to greater development of broca’s area and inhanced ability to coordinate complex sequences of movement

Question 11

what did the mutation to the FOXP2 gene cause?

Answer 11

It caused language to become fully autonomous (hands free/no gestures)

Question 12

What branch of the genus homo may have carried the FOXP2 gene? why is this controversial?

Answer 12

Neanderthals (extinct 30 000 yrs ago) and had some form of language
Controversial b/c this could be the result of interbreeding with homo sapiens

Question 13

What is the argument for language having evolved from gestures? Give evidence for this proposal.

Answer 13

Paget argues language developed from gestures to expend repertoire, while Corballis argued evolution of language freed the hands for tool making - and that language arose from primate gestures not calls

Evidence: imaging studies showing that great ape brains are specialized similar to humans. Chimps/gorillas show L/R asymmetry (enlarged broadmann’s area 44 on L - associated with gestures and corresponds to Broca’s area in humans)

Question 14

What role did mirror neurons play in the evolution of language from gestures?

Answer 14

play a role in imitating gestures and fire either when performing or watching an action.
- the mirror neuron system for grasping allowed for imitation which allowed for manual signs to develop, and manual gestures (rather than vocal communication) drove evolution

Question 15

how did right hand preference develop in humans?

Answer 15

as the gesture based language evolved, vocalizations became incorporated, leading to the specialization and lateralization of the language and gesture system and finally right hand preference in humans

Question 16

What was deacon’s interactive proposal of how language developed? what brain structure was growing, and what became important as a result of this?

Answer 16

Language and the brain co-evolved in an interactive way converging on a solution for cognitive and sensorimotor problems
- The frontal cortex grew causing symbolic processing to become more important and linguistics skills became necessary to manage symbol processing, which lead to the development of a speech apparatus to implement said skills

Question 17

What are the four reason to study whether animals have language?

Answer 17

1. provides a focus for the term language
2. answers the extent to which language might be innate in humans and have a genetic basis
3. Tells us which social and cognitive processes are necessary for language to develop
4. It’s of intellectual interest to adults and children

Question 18

define communication. What’s the difference between inofrmative and communicative signals? example

Answer 18

Communication: transmission of a signal that conveys information often such that the sender benefits from the response
Communicative signal - has element of design/intentionality (telling u im sick) while informative sgnal does not (coughin will infrm you im sick but its not communication)

Question 19

How do ants communicate?

Answer 19

chemical messengers called pheromones

Question 20

How do honey bees comunicate?

Answer 20

waggle dance

- figure eight whose direction represents honey’s direction relative to sun and speed of waggle tells distance

Question 21

How do the vervet monkey’s communicate?

Answer 21

Have specific calls for snake, eagle and leopard each eliciting a different response from other vervets

Question 22

How does primate communication seem to have an element of creativity?

Answer 22

They communicate about stiuli for which they do not yet posess signal

Question 23

List Hockett’s 16 design features

Answer 23

1. Vocal auditory channel (producer speaks receiver hears)
2. Broadcast transmission (goes in all direction but is localized by hearer)
3. Rapid fading
4. interchangeability (both recievers and transmitters)
5. Complete feedback (You hear everything u say)
6. Specialization (energy doesn’t affect meaning)
7. Semnticity ( relates to world)
8. Arbitrariness (symbols are abstract)
9. Discretness( Made of discrete units)
10. Displacement (refer to remote things in time/space)
11. openness (can invite new messages)
12. Tadition (can be taught/learned)
13. Duality of patterning ( only combos of otherwise meaningless units are meaningful)
14. Pervarication (ability to lie)
15. Reflectiveness (can communicate about language)
16. Learnability ( we can learn another language)

Question 24

Which of Hockett’s design features are most important?

Answer 24

Those related to the fact that language is about meaning and allows communication about anything
(semanticity, arbitrariness, displacement, openness, tradition, duality of patterning, prevarication and reflectiveness)

Question 25

What are the five properties of syntax that no animal system possesses?

Answer 25

1. it’s a discrete combinatorial system (units don’t blend they retain their identity)
2. sentences depend on ordering syntactic categories
3. Sentences are built around verbs
4. can distinguish b/w content and function words
5. recursion (infinite # of sentences from a finite set of words)

Question 26

what is the main feature that distinguishes human language from animal communication systems?

Answer 26

we can talk about anything - making infinite new ideas based on finite number of words and rules (the difference is NOT one of degree)

Question 27

what are the two views on teaching animals human language?

Answer 27

1. they have the ability but haven’t needed to

2. only humans posess the ability to use language

Question 28

Who was Rico? what did he reveal about early word learning in children

Answer 28

Border collie that knew 200 words, and when given a novel name would assume it belonged to a novel object not the another name for one he already knew
- This same strategy is used by children learning new words, and may reveal that general (rather than language specific) learning mechanisms explain early word leaning in children

Question 29

Who was Alex? what was he able to do, and how was he limited?

Answer 29

Parrot with a 80 word vocab. COuld classify objects by color/what their made of. Understood same/different and count count to 6. He could combinesyntactic cateogries correctly

Limitations: understood few verbs and function words

Question 30

what was taught to dolphins? what were the limitations?

Answer 30

2 artificial languages (one gestural one acoustic)

- however didn’t assess production and their syntactic ability was limited plus couldn’t use function words

Question 31

what are the two essential features of language?

Answer 31

1. associating a finite number of words with meanings or concepts
2. using finite number of rules to combine these words into infinite sentences

Question 32

The fact that apes have similar cognitive abilities shows a decoupling of linguistic and cognitive abilities that has what 3 important implications?

Answer 32

1. for basic cognitive tasks language isnt essential
2. some non-cognitive prerequisites to language
3. cognitive limitations alone don’t account for failure of apes to learn language

Question 33

what is the fundamental limitation of teaching chimps to speak?

Answer 33

thier vocal tracts are not suited to producing speech

Question 34

What was the female chimp WASHOE taught?

Answer 34

American Sign language (ASL)

• made over generalization errors
• could create novel signs (water bird for duck)
• Could answer Wh questions
• And could distinguish difference in word order ( I tickle you vs. you tickle me)

Question 35

Do chimps spontaneously learn language from parents?

Answer 35

Washoe’s son Loulis was seen spontaneously aquiring and being taught ASL - but is this really a language?

Question 36

What was chimp Sarah taught? What could she do, what were her limitations?

Answer 36

Premackese - manipulation of small plastic symbols

• she could produce simple lexical concepts
• syntactically complex sentences
• had some metalinguitic awareness

Limitation: no evidence she was grouping to form proper syntactic units

Question 37

WHat did Nim Chimpsky learn? what were his limitations?

Answer 37

learned ASL

• longer utterences based on repetition
• rarely signed spontaneously

Question 38

What was yerkish (taught to chimps)

Answer 38

a computer controlled display of symbols according to an invented syntax called yurkish

Question 39

which of hocketts design features did it seem chimps possesed? which was controversial?

Answer 39

discreteness, displacement, reflectiveness, openness

Controversial: Semanticity (did these signs have meaning to the apes?)

Question 40

WHat the methodological criticisms of teaching chimps language?

Answer 40

1. ASL is not truly symbolic
2. ASl differnt from spoken language b/c it omits a and the
   trainers over-interpreted gestures
3. There was limited reporting of context and repetition in whihc utterence occur
4. creative signing was rare
5. No evidence of real understanding

Question 41

What are the 5 differences b/w how chimps learn and how children learn language

Answer 41

1. chimps are tied to here and now
2. chimps have lack of syntactic structure and word orders inconsistent
3. little comprehension of syntactic relations
4. unlike children chimps can’t reject ill formed sentences and rarely ask questions
5. chimps dont spontaneously use symbols referentially

Question 42

Who was the best case of language aquisition in apes? why? What could he do, what were his limitations?
Why was he better than the rest?

Answer 42

Kanzi ( pygmy chimp)

• spontaneous aquisition from observing mother
• 80% of output was spontaneous
• sensitive to word order

Limitations:

• aquisition much slower than of children
• no function words
• no use of morphology
• no modification for number

Better: because he was exposed very early

Question 43

In summary, have chimps learned language in the same way as humans?

Answer 43

chimps can learn some symbols/ names of objects and simple syntactic rules on how to combine them. BUT they cannot acquire a human like syntax, grammar or a sophisticated representation of meaning like humans.

at bes they have learned a PROTOLANGUAGE

Question 44

What feature does the extreme claim say is the only uniquely human component of language? whats the problem with this claim?

Answer 44

Recursion

• there are many other features of language that are unique to humans
• the FOX P2 gene is unique to humans and essential for language
• The Piraha language of amazon doesn’t have recursion

Question 45

What’s chomsky’s claim about whether langauge is unique to humans?

Answer 45

human language is a special faculty independent of other cognitive processes

• it has a specific biological basis (only in humans)
• Humans posess a Language aquisition device that allows us to pass the threshold of protolangauge