Lecture 15- Language evolution and words 2

Question 1

What do people believe was the first form of language and why?

Answer 1

Sign language, as primate hands are all very similar and so it is believed they evolved first before mechanisms for producing speech

Question 2

Can other animals match form with meaning? If so what is the difference in how human’s do it?

Answer 2

Yes, but humans do so a lot faster at a rate of 8 words a day compared to other animals that average at about 1 word a week

Question 3

What does it mean to match form with meaning?

Answer 3

• Just being able to produce sound is not the same as language. You need to be able to connect the physical form/ sounds with a meaning of some sort
• As a result humans know a lot more words (or matchings)

Question 4

What is the Corballis method?

Answer 4

Describes how humans evolved language…

• Step One: Bipedalism
• Step Two: Pointing
• Step Three: Iconic Gestures (imitating thing in the real world)
• Step Four: Iconic to Arbitrary (more abstract)

Question 5

What are two things that meant we were required to evolve language?

Answer 5

Need driven based on the way we hunt using:
-Displacement= talk about things that are not immediate (moving things away in space and time)
-Social recruitment= work together
This is something that no other primate does

Question 6

What is the code model?

Answer 6

• Person 1 has a meaning associated with a form, and sends the form to Person 2 to get the meaning.
• Called code model as it involves coding and decoding

Question 7

Why does the code model inaccurate in describing how language works?

Answer 7

• A lot more meaning is found then what is said
• The person receiving is not a telephone/machine. Their mind is active and so the best signal now might not be best a moment later. Their mind is full of ideas/ could be occupied

Question 8

What is therefore the best option to transfer information/ meaning from one person to another?

Answer 8

Don’t encode everything instead encode just what is needed for their mind to get to the right place (acts as a prompt). Also helps to have a dynamic model of their mind and to have similar minds.

Question 9

Why does having a similar mind when trying to transfer information/ meaning help?

Answer 9

Helps knowing what kind of information the person has as influences what they are likely to say (can guess)

Question 10

Is thinking in the same way always good?

Answer 10

If always thinking the same thing at the same time no need to communicate. In scavenging people are taking on different roles so needed different minds/ skills.

Question 11

What is the alternative to the coding model called?

Answer 11

Relevance theory

Question 12

How can we define typical human communication?

Answer 12

Via relevance theory it is known as:

• Ostensive-inferential communication
• Ostensive refers to this display that we intend for there to be meaning. We signal that we are conveying a meaning and the other knows that.

Question 13

What does communicative intention mean?

Answer 13

Everyone knows that you are trying to get information across. The intention to inform the audience of one’s informative intention. This awareness is required for normal human communication.

Question 14

What is informative intention? What does it lack?

Answer 14

The intention to inform the hearer of something.

Lacks the other person knowing that you are trying to convey information.

Question 15

Why is Ostensive-inferential communication considered mind reading?

Answer 15

If we know that someone wants us to know something that we are building hypothesis and theories about what’s in the other person’s mind

Question 16

Why is speaking a language always ostensive?

Answer 16

Because the very nature of language is communicative. therefore it is automatically a display unlike actions which can be to inform but not necessarily.

Question 17

What is the key difference in human communication/ language to other primates?

Answer 17

We evolved Ostensive-inferential communication. Primates have informative signals (growls) but not ostensive signals.

Question 18

How do we show that apes lack ostensive quality to their communication?

Answer 18

• Children know difference between communicative pointing and accidental pointing. Apes do not.
• Apes have trouble with pointing and gaze following.
• Getting attention (apes) vs maintaining joint attention to communicate (both attending to same thing so that meaning can be gathered)

Question 19

Why did our brains get so big? What is this reason known as?

Answer 19

Largely due to social reasons

• Large communities
• Coalitions emerge and disappear
• Social hierarchies change, and even change based on task
• Can differ in skills
• Social learning

Question 20

How does the social brain hypothesis work in a loop?

Answer 20

The ones more likely to be socially accepted are more likely to succeed in breeding

Question 21

Other primates work on a…

Answer 21

code model of language, we work on a ostensive model

Question 22

What’s the key difference in how we process language according to our model as opposed to that of other primates?

Answer 22

We:

• Guess what they are thinking about
• Word learning is therefore easier as just have to map to what already predicted
• Therefore, order is meta-psychology then association

Other primates:

• Work in reverse
• Association then meta-psychology