L&C, WEEK 1 Flashcards
Communication
- is where an organism (aka transmitter) encodes information into a signal > the signal is sent to another organism which is called the receiver, the receiver decodes and understands what the signal is saying and then gives the appropriate response
- Communication does NOT need to be verbal > can be non-verbal too (e.g. pointing
Verbal: spoken/written transmission of a message
- language, but also dialects, language of a group (e.g. African American Vernacular English), constructed languages (e.g. Esperanto)
Non-verbal: non-linguistic aspects of a message
- e.g. body language, gestures, emoticons > Language also has non-verbal elements (e.g. tone, rhythm, stress) > tone can communicate more than just the word does (saying yes confidently vs saying it uneasy)
• Language: is a type of communication > A structured system of symbols (“words”) and the rules (“grammar”) by which they are combined > combining symbols and using the rules to do this to use language to communicate.
When is a language a language?
• Even though a Londoner and Glaswegian may both speak English, the way they speak can be very different thus are they speaking different languages? E.G. Someone from Glasgow speaking English would be difficult to understand as a Londoner
• Or what is the difference between British English and American English? Are they classed as separate languages?
• What is classed as a language is unclear and could be due to political reasoning/motive / e.g. someone from Belgium may say they grew up speaking Dutch whilst others would say they spoke Flemish (no actual difference aside from political reasoning)
• Between 3,000 + 8,000 languages exist but they die out at the rate of 1 every 2 weeks
• European languages (French, German, Spanish) are what are typically thought of when you think of existing languages BUT all European lan only makes up 3% of total languages in the world > not as prevalent as assumed
- Most languages spoken are Chinese, Spanish and English > but if you look at how many people speak English as a first language and not a second, this is only 20% of the world
Aphasia:
Aphasia is when a person has difficulty with their language or speech. It’s usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain (for example, after a stroke).
Lexeme:
a basic lexical unit of a language consisting of one word or several words, the elements of which do not separately convey the meaning of the whole.
What actually is Language?
• Language is a system helping us to communicate thoughts, feelings, info > consists of using arbitrary signs (random words) that refer to things in the world and these have meaning (not onomatopoeia > e.g. BOOM, CRASH)
these arbitrary signs are then combined using syntax (words forming into sentences)
- Limited number of words & rules combine to form unlimited number of expressions > this allows us to go beyond the here and now (we don’t just talk about what is in front of us) > is meant to be used by a group of people because it would not be effective to have a language for each individual person > destroys the purpose of language which is to communicate with others
Language design features (Hockett, 1960)
• Hockett made lan design features to try distinguish between language and communication
• Communication IS NOT language but language is part of communication > all language is communication but not all communication is language
• E.G. animals and organisms all communicate with each other differently, but is the way they communicate language?
• Hockett (1960, and later) made 16 design features to distinguish language from communication > some more essential than others
○ According to Hockett communication system needs all these features in order to be called a “language”
- Somewhat limited because focused on speech mainly + left out things like sign language
Important design features for humans (Hockett, 1960)
- Some/most of these features are shared with other types of non-human communication. Very much directed to speech – e.g. sign language is forgotten.
• Semanticity: words are symbols/signs that express meaning > other animals limited inventories of signals
• Prevarication: we can lie – other animals can deceive but no evidence they can lie as humans do
• Arbitrariness: no intrinsic relation between (most) words and their meaning (but onomatopoeia) > e.g. something very big is described in a short word while something very small is described with a long word
• Displacement: not tied to here & now, can talk about past, future, somewhere else; hypotheticals (if… then…)
• Productivity/Generativity: new language can be generated; we are not stuck with the words we have before, we can use our fine collection to produce an infinite amount of messages - a finite collection of sounds and words allows an infinite number of messages- as long as we obey the rules of the language, any message can be understood by the other language users
• Reflexiveness: we can use language to talk about language > something non-human animals cannot do
Naming things may not be arbitrary > sound symbolism
• Sound symbolism: the way we name something is determined by what it looks like (bouba/kiki effect)
If you show people the shapes below and ask which one is kiki and which is bouba then you see a pattern in responses (95% say sharp ended shape is kiki and soft curvy shape is bouba) > Implication of this and sound symbolism is that naming objects is not as arbitrary as thought (some kind of meaning based on sounds of the word)
Animal Language
- Animals certainly can communicate*
- Bee dance: Novel messages, but only about food
- Dolphins: Can communicate there is something new in the water; No evidence of syntax use (some evidence they can understand human syntax with a lot of training but cannot use it themselves). Can they combine distinctive sounds? Can they say: Tomorrow I’d like to have some herring?
- Songbirds: The way songbirds learn songs overlap with human language acquisition > stages include babbling period, critical period, left-hemisphere specialisation > is this language?
Apes:
• Apes have a very social and very rich communication system > 95% - 98.5% genetic overlap, highly social, IQ is equal to a 3yo
• Researchers have tried to teach apes, chimps and bonobos (Kanzi) the human language > particularly bonobos who are more intelligent + vocal
• Apes have similar brain asymmetries as humans including enlarged Broca’s area > Possibly different function (making complex head movements rather than complex speech sounds)
• Teaching them to speak is near impossible > probably related to the way we differently articulate sounds as apes have different articulatory apparatus (throat) from humans. For humans: perpetual risk of choking as consequence
○ Instead use of sign language or artificial lexigrams (computerised symbols – “Yerkish”)
• Lexigram example > ape will look at it then press a symbol and can hear the word
Research on Kanzi (ape taught english) shows that he was trained to understand human language but could not necessarily vocalise it themselves due to having a different kind of throat to humans (but able to communicate using lexigram)
Chimps
- GUA is a chimp whom Kellog & Kellog (1933) raised in their family with their infant son (“cross-fostering”). Gua learned to understand a few words but never produced any. > they had to stop the experiment after 9 months because their son started behaving more like a chimp
- VIKY was raised by Keith & Kathy Hayes (1952). After 6 years she could understand words and some word combinations. She also learned to articulate a few words (mama, papa, up, cup), but with difficulty and outsiders could barely recognise her speech
- WASHOE taught by Garner & Garner (1969). Caught in the wild at one then brought up as a human child. Taught ASL (American sign language). By 4 years she had acquired 85 signs (e.g., more, eat, listen, gimme, you, me, hurry). She also produced sign combinations such as you-drink, baby-mine. Some sensitivity + evidence to word order & some new combinations (water bird to refer to a duck). However, we don’t know the cases where she made mistakes > may have coincidentally been saying water that day already (like water car, water tree, etc..) Taught signs to her adopted son.
- NIM CHIMPSKY looked at by Terrace et al. (1979). Learned about 125 ASL signs and made sign combinations (e.g. play-me). Longer combinations heavily redundant: e.g. Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you. 40% simple repetitions; rarely signed spontaneously. No novel combinations (unlike children).
The Structure of Language
Fred kicked the ball
- Phonetics = term for the description and classification of speech sounds, particularly how sounds are produced, transmitted and received ( F (Fuh) R ( Ruh) E ( Eh) D (Duh, etc)
- Phonology = is where you have the sound system of the speech sounds used in a particular language.
- Morphology = how words are formed (e.g. kicked involves kick + ed)
- Syntax = refers to sentence structure + how the sentence is built (Fred is subject, ball is object)
- Semantics = meaning of the individual words (What does kick mean, what does ball mean > what does it mean together)
- Pragmatics = language in context > e.g. a window was broken – who kicked the ball? You say Fred kicked the ball (not directly saying Fred broke the window but that is how it is interpreted because he kicked the ball to begin with)
Phonetics
Concerned with describing and classifying the speech sounds that occur in all of the world’s languages.
○ Articulatory: How speech sounds are produced.
○ Auditory: How speech sounds are perceived
○ Acoustic: The physical properties of sounds.
Individual sounds > cat ( cuh, a, tuh) > sounds + letters are not the same thing > e.g. knot (nuh, o , tuh) > 3 sounds but 4 letters > not all sounds are represented by the same letters (e.g. see, sea and ae in caeser)
