Lecture 2 - Biological Contexts Flashcards
Evolution
African Gray Parrot
Dogs: respond to pointing (human social cues)
human language is by far
the most complex communication system that we know of
Brain Structure
are there specialized brain mechanisms that compute language and nothing else or is it lateralized? - ongoing debate
Bees
waggle dance: communication system used to indicate to other bees where nectar is
- toy version of actual journey (not arbitrary)
- limited in communicative scope
exhibits displacement: refers to something that is not present
what do animals want to communicate?
this with survival value: feeding, fucking, fighting, fleeing
human language
Productive - can recomibine to make new
Symbolic - words stand for other things
- and symbols are mostly arbitrary
Can exhibit displacement
- can talk about something temporally remote or physically absent
displacement
talking about something temporally remote or physically absent
what if…. what would you do if…
things that could happen or things that could never happen
Productive Language
always learning new words
able to combine into totally new sentences and totally new meanings
“there was a baby dragon sitting on my front porch”
Symbolic Language
not a reaction to a situation - but instead words standing for other things
are mostly arbitrary
African Grey Parrots
Alex
recognized many colors, shapes, numbers of objects
need a lot of social interaction!!!! (just like humans)
Border collies
Rico
200 German words
can recognize a number of objects
very interactive trainer
does mutual exclusivity: associates a new word with a new object
Bonobos
Kanzi
500+ words (lexigrams)
understands word order
somewhat like small children - stops there
Humans NOT learning language
Children raised without language
- deaf children of hearing parents
