Lecture 13- Being human, language makes us different

Question 1

How much of the genotype do humans and chimpanzees share?

Answer 1

Depending upon the analysis, humans and chimpanzees share around 97% of their genotype

Question 2

What are the distance trees between chimpanzees and humans in terms of blood, liver and brain?

Answer 2

blood: 1.0; liver: 1.3; brain: 5.5
- numbers refer to the ratio of changes common to Pan and homo
- Distance trees representing the relative extent of expression changes among three primates and three tissues, using cDNA arrays

Question 3

What are the types of communication among some animals?

Answer 3

-Mammals — body odour indicates sexual receptivity or facilitates individual
recognition
-Birds — vocalisations indicates territory, suitability as a mate, or need for food
-Bees — body movements indicate location and direction of food (dance ‘language’)
-Ants — chemical signals recruit nest-mates to food sources and territory defence, and identify foes

Question 4

Do animals have language?

Answer 4

• communication typically in the form of signals that have very similar meanings
• in mammals, vocal signals are usually linked to an emotional state
• these signals are involuntary

Question 5

What are some characteristics of human language?

Answer 5

• communication is voluntary (not linked to emotional state)
• uses symbols (not icons) to stand for things about which we want to (they don’t
communicate
• language has generativity (the ability to construct complex messages)
• allows us to communicate ideas and concepts about the past, the
present and the future

Question 6

What is recursion?

Answer 6

-Recursion: a key feature of language
-The ability to tack clauses onto clauses, or embed clauses within clauses
-This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt
that lay at the house that Jack built. This is the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built This is the cat
that ate the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built

Question 7

How is evolution of language diversity?

Answer 7

-language evolves
-ma is common among many
Root words:
• mama and papa
• kaka (‘older brother’) • aqwa (water)
• tik (finger)
• pal (two)

Question 8

What is language and theory of mind?

Answer 8

Ability to understand the minds of others and to know what others see, or feel, or know
Note that this is recursive:
“I might not only know that you like me, but I might know that you know that I know that you like me”

Question 9

What are the routes to spoken language in humans?

Answer 9

1) spoken language evolved from a gestural language (from Hand to Mouth)
2) spoken language evolved from conventional primate vocal communication by an elaboration of the same kinds of sound patterns

Question 10

How do primates communicate?

Answer 10

• little point trying to get great apes to talk
— Kanzi can understand human speech, but cannot produce it
• great apes communicate very well visually by using and interpreting gestures
— intentional communication with artificial symbols
— closest approximation to human language

Question 11

What are the mirror neurons?

Answer 11

• The monkey observes the food being grasped by a human hand - responding in the same way when it grasps the food
• The monkey observes the food being grasped by a tool - and doesn’t respond
• Response inhibition occurs when the monkey grasps (C) and observes grasping (B), but is not elicited by movement alone
• so monkeys can respond to gestures that have iconic meaning
• suggests that monkey can respond similarly to seeing a gesture as if they were doing it themselves, maybe an elementary Theory of mind, empathy

Question 12

What are facial expressions like in chimpanzees?

Answer 12

-same as with the hand, can ellicit laughter

Question 13

What are the selection pressures favouring speech?

Answer 13

• it is arbitrary; words cannot be iconic and offer scope for creating symbols that distinguish between objects or actions that look alike
• facilitates communication in the dark
• commands attention
• frees the hands to do other things
• allows signaller and receiver to communicate while looking at
something else
-instead of the gestures the speech is better! learn this

Question 14

What is the gestural theory of language evolution?

Answer 14

• vocal communication in great apes is involuntary
• great apes are capable of voluntary communication using gestures • language requires ‘mapping’, where sender and receiver must share
understanding — mirror-neurons may provide the neural mechanism for such a process in gestures; their presence in monkeys suggest an phylogenetically old common ancestor
• signed language in humans as sophisticated as vocal language
• articulate speech requires extensive changes to the vocal tract and
cortical control of vocalisation and breathing, perhaps not complete until 50,000 years ago

Question 15

How did the language evolve?

Answer 15

• having language and then developing the vocal tract changes (50 000)
• not a direct grunt to language but more likely gestural to vocal language