Language

Question 1

Why is language important?

Answer 1

“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

Question 2

What occurs in the oral tradition of the people of Mali?

Answer 2

The infant is a Kuntu (thing) and only becomes a Muntu (person) when they begin to speak

Question 3

What do the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea believe?

Answer 3

The infant belongs to the world of animals and spirits until she utters her first word.

Question 4

What is language?

Answer 4

A communication system sharing functions with the signalling systems of other species

Question 5

What are animal communication systems used for?

Answer 5

Attract mates, threaten competitors and warn close kin

Question 6

What do cricket mating songs do?

Answer 6

Male crickets emit species-specific mating songs to attract females. Breeding experiments show that hybrid males produce hybrid songs.

Question 7

What are the 3 different calls in response to predators?

Answer 7

Find photo - lecture 7

Question 7

What is a red deer threat display?

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

What is tradition in relation to Hockett’s design features?

Answer 8

Animal -> e.g. cricket song tend to wired in
Human languages transmitted across generations through learning

Question 9

What is displacement in relation to hockett’s design features?

Answer 9

Animal -> e.g. vervet alarm calls, tend to be stimulus bound
Humans can talk about objects and events remote in time and space

Question 10

What is duality of patterning in relation of hockey’s design features?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What is opennesss in relation to hockett’s design features?

Answer 11

Animal languages are closed systems. Human languages are open systems in which new words can be invented

Question 12

What are the differences between animal signals and human utterances?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is the meaning of a sentence determined by?

Answer 13

The meaning of its parts and the way they are combined

Question 14

What are rules around words?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is infinite generativity?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What did Chomsky say about language and evolution?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What is Corballis say about the evolution of language?

Answer 17

Language evolved to free the hands from having to make communicative gesture and allow us to use tools and communicate at the same time

Question 18

What do Pinker and Bloom say about the evolution of language?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is pidgin?

Answer 19

Simple language for communication between groups without a common language

Question 20

What occurred in the nicaraguan sign language experiment?

Answer 20

Deaf children brought together in speaking school - children invented sign language with syntactic agreement

Question 21

How does language work?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What is phonology?

Answer 22

Refers to the speech sounds of a language. Phonemes are sounds that signal differences in meaning

Question 24

What is free variation?

Answer 24

The t in hot can be aspirator or not without signalling a change in meaning

Question 25

What is contextual variation?

Answer 25

the k in key is articulated towards the back of the mouth and the k in cool towards the front

Question 26

What is morphology?

Answer 26

Refers to the meaningful forms of a language - forms associated with units of meanings

Question 27

What does inflectional morphology do?

Answer 27

Does not change the synaptic category or meaning of the word

Question 28

What is derivational morphology?

Answer 28

Can change its syntactic category or meaning

Question 29

What is syntax?

Answer 29

Refers to the rules that control how words are ordered - rules of syntax operate on constituents not words

Question 30

What are pragmatics?

Answer 30

Refers to how we use language to do things in the world

Question 30

What are the rules for conversation?

Answer 30

Quantity, quality, relation and manners