Language Flashcards
Why is language important?
“When we study human language we are approaching what some might call the ‘human essence’, the distinctive qualities of mind that are, as far as we know, unique to man’ - Chomsky
What occurs in the oral tradition of the people of Mali?
The infant is a Kuntu (thing) and only becomes a Muntu (person) when they begin to speak
What do the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea believe?
The infant belongs to the world of animals and spirits until she utters her first word.
What is language?
A communication system sharing functions with the signalling systems of other species
What are animal communication systems used for?
Attract mates, threaten competitors and warn close kin
What do cricket mating songs do?
Male crickets emit species-specific mating songs to attract females. Breeding experiments show that hybrid males produce hybrid songs.
What are the 3 different calls in response to predators?
Find photo - lecture 7
What is a red deer threat display?
Red deer resolve conflict by roaring at each other and the deepest roar wins because it reflects the size of the chest and predicts the outcome of a fight.
What is tradition in relation to Hockett’s design features?
Animal -> e.g. cricket song tend to wired in
Human languages transmitted across generations through learning
What is displacement in relation to hockett’s design features?
Animal -> e.g. vervet alarm calls, tend to be stimulus bound
Humans can talk about objects and events remote in time and space
What is duality of patterning in relation of hockey’s design features?
Animal languages consist of a fixed set of meaningful sounds. Human languages consist of a fixed set of meaningless sounds that can be combined to express a potentially infinite number of meanings
What is opennesss in relation to hockett’s design features?
Animal languages are closed systems. Human languages are open systems in which new words can be invented
What are the differences between animal signals and human utterances?
Animal signals tend to be used to manipulate the behaviour of other animals. When human produce utterances, they don’t just have an effect on other peoples behaviour, they also call up ideas in other peoples minds
What is the meaning of a sentence determined by?
The meaning of its parts and the way they are combined
What are rules around words?
Specify how words may combine to express more complicated meanings. Rules do not depend on meaning and possible to generate utterances that are perfectly understandable but not grammatical
What is infinite generativity?
At any point in an English sentence, there are on average 10 words that could be produced next - every sentence can be made longer by embedding it with another sentence
What did Chomsky say about language and evolution?
Since the possession of a complex grammar does not confer any obvious selective advantage, language must have evolved as a by product of the increase in overall brain size
What is Corballis say about the evolution of language?
Language evolved to free the hands from having to make communicative gesture and allow us to use tools and communicate at the same time
What do Pinker and Bloom say about the evolution of language?
Language evolved as a system for communicating complex cognitive representations more clearly and efficiently. Once you are able to have complicated thoughts, the possession of a complex grammar is of huge adaptive significance
What is pidgin?
Simple language for communication between groups without a common language
What occurred in the nicaraguan sign language experiment?
Deaf children brought together in speaking school - children invented sign language with syntactic agreement
How does language work?
To express any idea, we need a system that allows us to build words out of sequences of meaningless sounds and sentences out of sequences of words
What is phonology?
Refers to the speech sounds of a language. Phonemes are sounds that signal differences in meaning
What is free variation?
The t in hot can be aspirator or not without signalling a change in meaning
What is contextual variation?
the k in key is articulated towards the back of the mouth and the k in cool towards the front
What is morphology?
Refers to the meaningful forms of a language - forms associated with units of meanings
What does inflectional morphology do?
Does not change the synaptic category or meaning of the word
What is derivational morphology?
Can change its syntactic category or meaning
What is syntax?
Refers to the rules that control how words are ordered - rules of syntax operate on constituents not words
What are pragmatics?
Refers to how we use language to do things in the world
What are the rules for conversation?
Quantity, quality, relation and manners
