Final Flashcards
What is the Epigenome?
The system of regulatory genes. The proteins that activate regulatory genes come from outside the cells and arise in the body due to environmental influences that organism are exposed to (nutrition, sun, etc.)
What is epigenetics?
Is the story of (workings of) the epigenome
Genotype
Each person’s specific instance of the human genome, contains what is specific to an individuals DNA
Phenotype
The actual organism that results from the expression of the genotype
Relate epigenetics to nature/nurture issue
The epigenome allows nurture to influence nature
Relate genetic and environmental determinisms to nature/nurture
Genetics determinisms represents nature and environmental determinisms represent nurture. Not one or the other both nature and nurture are influential
Understand what Adoption studies show about the genetic contribution to traits
Same environment, different genes, adopted children and non-blood related siblings
Understand what Family studies show about the genetic contributions to traits
Closer relatives are genetically more alike than more distant relatives: studies of traits that run in the families
SLI
Specific Language Impairment: A language defect that has no apparent explanation at all
FoxP2 on Chromosome 7
FOXP2 is a gene that regulates the activity of other genes, having an effect on the development of many organs, such as lungs, but also including brain systems important for speech and language
Specific Language Elevation
Extraordinary language skills in normal polyglots
In people with mental problems - Williams’ syndrome/language savants
The notion of the homunculus
Correspondences between the part of the brain that moves a specific body part
Somatosensory Cortex:
The gyrus after the central sulcus
Non-instrumental techniques
Dichotic listening experiments
Penfield and Jaspers…
Figured out the map of the brain called the homunculus
Dichotic Listening Studies
A psychological test commonly used to investigate selective attention within the auditory system
Split brain Patient
Left brain controls the language, right brain can ID word/picture and write with left hand
What are the two major types of Aphasia?
Broca’s and Wernicke’s
Broca’s Aphasia
- Articulation impaired
- Slow, telegraphic speech
Wernicke’s Aphasia
- Auditory comprehensions impaired
- Fluent sounding though meaningless
Plasticity
How fixed is the relation between regions and functions? regions can take on other functions in addition to the ‘default function’
What is ethology?
The study of animal behavior
Name some ways animals communicate with each other
- Electricity
- Suface waves
- Magnetic fields
What are some various functions of animal communication?
- Domain delimitation/territory
- Food
- Mates
- Social Rank
- Warnings/alarm calls/distress
What is intraspecies communication
Communication between the same species
What is interspecies communication?
Communication between members of different species (Ex. man & dog)
A way to define the notion of communication focus on the aspect of ‘intention’
Produce a form (of communication) with the intention to influence behavior of another creature
Two examples of animal communication systems
- The honeybee dance
2. Vervet monkeys alarm call
Explain the 3 step process of the honeybee dance
- Direction of waggle: direction to fly in reference with the sun
- Duration of the waggle: distance away from the hive
- Excitement of waggle: Quality of the food source
What are the results obtained from the study of the parrot Alex
When asked questions in the context of specific tests, he gave the correct answer approximately 80% of the time
How do human words differ from vervet calls
Properties of human language are claimed to not occur anywhere else
How is human language different from animal communication systems
- Independence from ‘here and now’ (displacement)
- Large inventory of meaningful units
- Internal structure of the form (i.e. phonemes, syllables): phonology
- External structure of basic units
- Syntax
What is Chomsky’s view for animal communication?
We still have animal communication but human language is different altogether because it is an instrument of thought. It did not evolve from animal communication.
What was the main conclusion from Herbert Terrace’s research with Nim?
Nim could not do syntax
What does work with Kanzi show?
chimps can learn a keyboard language
What were experiments with European Starlings suppose to show
Can starlings learn recursive patterns
What are the general conclusions from studies about teaching language-like system to various kinds of animals?
- They can learn vocabulary and have amazing cognitive abilities
- Animals miss the communicative incentive, the desire to externalize their inner mental life and cannot deal with internal and external hierarchical structure
The notion of Language Change
Fact: All languages change over time
What are the characteristics of language change
Systematic and Unpredictable
Why is language change systematic?
It affects aspects of language in a regular way
Why is language change unpredictable?
Because we cannot predict when or in which language a certain change will happen
What are the three motivations for why language change can occur?
- Ease of articulation
- Ease of perception
- Ease of learnability
How can external factors cause language change?
Other languages can influence each other (in class he used fashion as a comparison, changing of style)
Explain why language change does not make languages as a whole better or worse.
The motivations for change can work against each other which, causes a restraint.
What is an example of language change in the lexicon and relatedness?
Words disappearing and new words (often loan words) entering the lexicon.
What is the Splitting Model?
The hunter gatherer life style
1. Bands/Tribes split up
2. Languages change
Result: different languages arise that that stem from a common source
How was the discovery was made that many languages are related
Sir William Jones discovered Indo-European languages by using cognates and comparative reconstruction
What are language families?
Groups of related languages
Relating bee dance and human language
Bee dance has infinite number of patterns and humans have recursion
At which time did the Homo sapiens people who populated the world (outside Africa) leave Africa?
1.9 million years ago
When was agriculture and domestication of animals ‘invented’?
12,000 years ago
Name a well known language family
- A well-known family is Indo-European
- It contains several daughters, such as Germanic, Italic (‘Latin’), etc.
What is a cognate?
Words that two languages have in common or that correspond with one another
Explain the notion of Comparative Reconstruction
The reconstruction of proto-languages based on comparing their daughter languages
proto-world langauge leads to?
Monogenesis
What is monogenesis?
All languages spoken today decent from one language
What is a Superfamily
The bigger language families
Lumpers
Try to show that all languages derive from one common ancestor
Splitters
More conservative in grouping language and language families
What is the argument for innateness from language changes?
Languages stay within the universal design that is shared by all languages because the Universal Design is built into the brain based on genetic specifications
What is the basic problem for understanding the evolution of language?
The absence of direct evidence
The big bang theory of the human mind and whats wrong with it
- The birth of the human mind emerged around 40,000 years ago, a gradual increase in artifacts around that time
- Wrong: there is a lot of archeological evidence for human artifacts from much earlier, going back to the African period. And language is much older
What makes up the semiotic triangle?
Concept, form, and referent
The semiotic triangle for animals
Forms and concepts are disconnected
The semiotic triangle for humans
Referent and form are disconnected
The big cut leading to the disconnected mind refers to?
the disconnect in referent and form
What are the two problems with the one-word stage?
- Each word must be remembered as a holistic form
2. We need a long list of words
What solved the problems of the one-word stage?
Phonology solved problem 1 – Helps you memorize words more quickly
Syntax solves problem 2 – If syntax did not evolve we would have to memorize an infinite amount of sentences.
How does Bickerton’s ‘proto-language’ or ‘pre-language’ fits in?
After the one word stage and before phonology
What is intonation
Different sentence melodies
Understand what twin studies show about the genetic contribution to traits
Same genes, different environment; monozygotic twins reared apart
Methods to show brain activity: blood flow
PET and fMRI
Methods to show brain activity: electricity
EEG, ERP, and MEG
Birdsong has ‘phonological structure’
Bird song has recursion can change their forms
