Language I Flashcards
what differentiates communication from language?
communication involves behaviours that convey information between members of a species, such as turn-taking, intonation, gestures, eye gaze control, and touch. Language is a specialised form of communication with symbols (e.g. words) and rules for assembling the symbols (grammar)
What is the significance of protolanguages in evolution?
Protolanguages are considered precursors to complete languages. They represent intermediate stages in the evolution of language, with different types proposed, such as gestural, musical, and lexical protolanguages.
What are the proposed timelines for language evolution?
If it is uniquely human, then it emerged about 100,000 to 200,00 years ago. If not, language could be seen as the result of millions of years of cognitive evolution across animal species. In this case, the question becomes identifying when aspects of language emerged in related species.
How might language have emerged in humans?
Either slowly through Darwinian natural selection (gradualism), or suddenly due to a genetic mutation or brain reorganisation.
What is the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in relation to language evolution?
the increase in creative works in the archaeological record, seen as an indirect proxy for language. Earliest indications of symbolic behaviour come from Homo sapiens, at sites dated roughly 100,000 years.
What is the human capacity for language according to Tecumseh Fitch (2010)?
humans have a unique communication system that allows us to represent and communicate arbitrary novel thoughts in detail.
Humans can easily understand sentences they have never heard, and express thoughts no one ever thought before.
What mechanisms allow for the human capacity for infinite expression in languages?
Recursive syntax or phrase structure grammar.
Rules can be applied more than once in generating sentences, and there’s no limit to recursion to produce more complex sentences.
Who was Nim Chimpsky and what was significant about him, and why was the experiment a failure?
Nim Chimpsky was the subject of a 1960’s experiment aimed to challenge Noam Chomsky’s theories by teaching a chimp sign language. However, despite some apparent successes, Nim’s sign use did not reach the level of infinite expression characteristics of human language.
What are modern theories of how our vocally dominated language system evolved?
either a visual/manual communication system like pantomime or gesture (Arbib, Corballis,
a vocal/auditory (“musical”) communication system (Darwin, Brown),
or vocal/auditory communication system with a shared lexicon but no syntax (“lexical”)
How do gesture-based theories explain language evolution?
manual gestures provided the “scaffolding” for a system of vocal utterances from which protolanguage emerged. These theories emphasise shared neurobiological mechanisms, cerebral lateralisation of function, and the role of mirror neurons.
What distinguishes communicative gestures from non-communicative gestures?
communicative gestures include pantomime and co-speech gestures, used to convey specific information. Non-communicative gestures can express thoughts different from intended communication and are produced even when others are not present, such as when on the phone.
What challenges are associated with the transition from gesture to spoken language?
Gesture-based theories struggle to explain how a fully vocal system evolved from a gesture system. Various hypotheses, such as the need to communicate in the dark or freeing the hands for other tasks, have been proposed, but each has significant counterarguments.
What are the types of communicative gestures?
pantomime
deictic gestures (e.g., pointing)
iconic gestures (e.g, using hands to show size)
emblematic gestures (e.g, thumbs-up)
beats (matching the rhythmic pattern of speech)
metaphorical/lexical gestures (linked to spoken words).
The two neurobiological mechanisms proposed for the gestural evolution of language are cerebral lateralisation and mirror neurons, explain what they mean.
cerebral lateralisation - a correlation between right-hand preference and language lateralised in the left hemisphere.
Mirror neurons are a class of visuomotor neurons that fire when goal-directed actions are observed and executed.
What are the challenges associated with the concept of cerebral lateralisation?
The correlation between hand preference and language dominance is statistical and does not indicate a direct casual association. Moreover, left-handers can have right-hemisphere representation of language, which suggests nothing special about the left hemisphere and language.
Why are mirror neurons important in understanding the shared mechanisms of neurobiology in gestural protolanguage?
As these neurons fire both when goal-directed mouth or hand actions are observed and executed. They might be involved in understanding action meaning and represent a shared primate neurobiological mechanism for a gestural protolanguage.
What are the stages of the transition to spoken language according to Arbib (2005) (the seven stages)?
Arbib proposes seven stages:
1. grasping
2. mirror system for grasping,
3. simple imitation (occurring within our primate ancestors)
4. complex imitation
5. proposing
6. protospeech
7. modern language (resulting in the abilities of modern humans).
However, the selective pressures that promoted the transition from proposing to protospeech remain unknown.
What are the issues with cross-species homologies in gestural protolanguage evolution theories?
Major differences are often obscured or ignored by proponents of gestural protolanguage evolution theories. For example, there are unique neural pathways in monkeys and humans that are not equivalent, making meaningful comparisons difficult.
What are the arguments against the evolution of language from gesture?
Questions arise such as why language did not remain gestural, given that sign language demonstrates the viability of non-vocal language. Furthermore, the evolutionary risk of choking due to the repositioning of the larynx for speech raises doubts.
What is Darwin’s theory of language evolution?
Darwin proposed that language evolved from a musical protolanguage, a system where meanings were attached to various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and instinctive human cries. He considered this evolutionary path from song, not manual gestures.
In musical protolanguage, the output of phonological systems is more varied than syntactic and semantic systems. Explain how phonology relates to meaning and linguistics.
Phonology is an independent generative system and meanings are attached to phonological forms. Bare sounds/phonology have a non-linguistic parrallel in music.
Counter to the shared neurobiological perspective of music and language, what did Rogalsky et al. 2011, find in their study on language systems and music perception?
Music production does not engage the language system, and judgements about music structure are possible even in the presence of sever damage to the language network. Overall, music perceptions does not engage the language structure - there are no neurobiological substrates for music and language.
What are the two neurobiological mechanisms proposed in support of gestural evolution accounts?
Cerebral lateralisation (Corballis) and mirror neurons (Arbib)
What is the correlation between hand preference and language dominance?
The correlation is statistical and does not reflect a direct causal relation
How does musical “protolanguage” differ from language and why?
It differs due to repetition as language generation is biased towards novelty in conveying meaning and informativeness. Musical protolanguage evolutionary theories do not explain co-speech gestures nor signed languages.
