Module 2

Question 1

when did language originate?

Answer 1

between 50,000 years ago and 1-4 million years ago

Question 2

Continuous

Answer 2

theories suggest that language developed gradually from an animal-like communication system to human language over the last few million years

Question 3

Discontinuous

Answer 3

theories suggest that language developed abruptly around 100,000 years ago
- based on physical and cultural evidence

Question 4

Some theories

Answer 4

• The Divine source
• The natural sound source
• The social interaction source
• The physical adaptation source
• The tool-making source
• The genetic source

Question 5

The divine source

Answer 5

-Many cultures and religions suggest a divine source for languages
~a divine being gave humans language
~Whether or not this is the case, many scholars wonder if there was one original language that all modern languages descend from
~ Was there and “original” of “first” language? What was it?
- Over 2,500 years ago, Egyptian Pharoah Psammetichus conducted an experiment with two newborn babies
~ Babies were isolated from language
~ Lived with each other and a mute caregiver who was also a shepherd
- Eventually, children were reported to have uttered an Phrygian word: bekos
~ Is Phrygian the original language?
- King James IV of Scotland (1500s) conducted a similar experiment, but children began speaking Hebrew
~ Is Hebrew the original language?
- More recent studies do not confirm these findings
~ rather, children who have no language exposure often grow up with no language at all
- Is there a way to accurately (and ethically) determine the ‘original’ language, or confirm the divine source?

Question 6

Linguistic Reconstruction

Answer 6

• At a certain point, we can only guess
  ~ We’re not really sure there was a proto-Indo-European language
  *The languages is reconstrued based on what we know abour related languages
• We have no evidence of anybody actually speaking proto-Indo-European
  ** And proto-Indo-European is only one reconstruted ‘proto-language’ - there’s no clear evidence that all languages came from only one language
• When reconstructing, we get stuck around 5,000 BC, which is when humans started to develop writing systems
  ~ That’s where linguistics evidence begins…
• But we know that humans have had language for much longer
  ~ It is widely accepted that writing must have developed sometime after spoken or signed language
• Even if we make an educated guess about what was the first language was like, it’s still not clear how or why it developed in the first place

Question 7

The natural sound source

Answer 7

• Humans made a connection between a sound and the thing making that sound
  ~animals sounds could be used to refer to that animal, rushing water sounds could be used to refer to water

Question 8

Onomatopeia

Answer 8

• Is a common languages around the world

- Doesn’t explain the origin of words referring to soundless objects or abstract concepts

Question 9

The social interaction source

Answer 9

• Languages originated in the sound involved in physical effort
  ~Early languages may have been comprsied of meaningful grunts. groans, and hums of people involved in physical activity together
  ~there is archaeological evidence that humans have been living cooperatively for over 4 million years
• This theory is appealing as it places languages in a social context, and language is definitely social in nature
• Still leaves many questions unanswered
  ~Which sound came first?
  ~How did grunts and hums turn into full-fledged language?
  ~Why are there so many different languages that are so different form each other?

Question 10

The physical adaptation source

Answer 10

• It is fact that humans possess physical features which make the production of articulate speech possible
  ~Very few creatures are physically capable of expressing human speech sounds
  *Some types of birds can mimic human sounds
• What physical features are relevant for speech?
• Human teeth and lips
  ~teeth are upright, not slanted like other primate
• for sounds like ‘f’ and ‘v”
  ~ Lips have more intricate musculature and increased flexibility
• for sounds like ‘p’, ‘b’, and ‘m’
• Human mouth and tongue
  ~ human mouth is relatively small-can be opened and closed rapidly
  ~ short, thick, muscular tongue used to shape a variety of sounds in the oral cavity
• Humans have a uniquely L-shaped vocal tract
• Humans can close off airway through the nose
• Larynx and Pharynx
  ~Larynx= ‘voice box,’ anatomical structure which contains vocal folds
  ~When humans evolved to walk upright, larynx shifted to a lower position than found in other primates
  ~ This created a longer cavity called the pharynx which acts as a resonator and allows of increased range of sounds
• Advantages
  ~non-nasal sounds
  ~larger vowel space
  *A, I, and U
  ~ Distinctive sounds means
• speech is easier to perceive
  *We can talk faster
• Disadvantages
  ~Risk of choking
  ~Risk of impacted teeth
  ~Poorer chewing
  ~Risks only worth taking if the benefits are grater
• Think of it from an evolutionary prespective… the lowering of the larynx and elongation of the pharynx must have had great evolutionary benefits to outweigh the increased risk of choking to death
• Was language a factor in this change?

Question 11

The tool-making source

Answer 11

• evidence suggest that up to 2 million years ago, humans had developed preferential right-handedness and had begun using tools
• The parts of the brain associated with tool-making and language are very close together
• The processed are similar
  ~ to make a tool
• one must take one object (rock, wood, etc) and combine it with one or multiple other objects in a specific way to create the desired tool ( must attach stone to wooden stick for rudimentary hammer)
  ~to make a word
• one must take one sound and combine it with other sounds to make a meaningful word.. must also combine words with other words to make meaningful phrases
• did the development of tool-making skill influence the development of language?

Question 12

The genetic source

Answer 12

• Human beings seem to be born with a special, innate capacity for language
  ~Are we genetically hardwired to produce language?
• would need to isolate a “language gene” to prove this hypothesis definitively
  ~How would we explain cases of people who are isolated and fail to develop language skills

Question 13

Communication

Answer 13

• communication involves emitting intenrional, meaningful signals ot other creatures
  ~Signals can be auditory, visual, olfactory, etc
• Most, if not all, living creatures have communication systems of varying complexity
  ~All creatures communicate meaningful messages

Question 14

Six defining characteristics of human language

Answer 14

• Reflexivity
• Displacement
• Arbitrariness
• Productivity
• Cultural transmissions
• Duality

Question 15

Reflexivity

Answer 15

-Humans are able to reflect on language and its uses
- We can use language to think and talk about language itself
~”I think the word ‘squabble’ is more appropriate than the word ‘fight’ in this sentence.”
~ “He speaks with a Southern accent.”
~”Language is a complex system of signals and meanings.”

Question 16

Displacement

Answer 16

-Humans can talk about things outside of the here and now
-Humans can talk about
~The past and the future
~Abstract concepts
~Things and events not present or ongoing in the immediate environment
*“Lola went to the store yesterday.”
*“Geometry is a difficult subject for me.”
*“Every third Wednesday we go to the park.”

Question 17

Arbitrariness

Answer 17

-The relationship between words and the objects/ides\as they refer to is typically arbitrary
~The form of a word is not logically related to its meaning

Question 18

Productivity

Answer 18

-Humans can continually create new words and expressions to describe new objects and situations
~Humans can also understand new words and sentences they’ve never heard before
- The potential number of utterances in the language is limited only by the linguistic creativity of the speakers
~”The purple duck waddled across the spaghetti and kicked the meatball off the table.”
- Some linguists suggest a certain type of productivity is most specific to human language: recursion
- Recursion: Embedding a structure within a structure of the same kind
~”I saw the bird by the tree by the lake by the mountain by the cost by the ocean…”
* Could go on infinitely, in theory

Question 19

Cultural Transmission

Answer 19

-Humans are not born with the instinctive ability to produce utterances in specific languages
-The language a person learns is transmitted as part of the culture in which he/she grows up
~The language you learn is the language you are exposed to
*A person with English heritage is not going to learn English if they are adopted by French speakers in a French-speaking country- they will learn French

Question 20

Duality

Answer 20

• Human language involves complex messages that are built up out of smaller parts
  -A sentence is composed of smaller parts (words)
• Words are composed of smaller parts (sounds)
  ~Individual sounds often don’t have meaning on their own, but we can combine them in different ways to mean different things
• For instance ‘bin’ can be broken down into three sounds
  ~ ‘b,’ ‘i,’ ‘n’
  ~Those same sounds can be formed into another word, ‘nib’
• So, human language is organized at two levels simultaneously
  ~Level 1: Sound
  *You have to know which sounds are used in your language, and what order they can go in
  ~Level 2: Meaning
  *You have to know what different combinations of sounds mean

Question 21

Animal relexivity

Answer 21

• It doesn’t seem that animals communicate with each other ABOUT their communication systems
  ~Dogs don’t seem to tell other dogs that they’re barking wrong
  ~Pigs don’t seem to have conversations about pig dialects
  -As far as we can tell!

Question 22

Animal Displacement

Answer 22

-Animal communication seems to be confined to the here and now
-What about bees?
~The bees leave the hive, find nectar, then come back to the hive and communicate the nectar’s location to the rest of the bees
* Is that displacement?
* Yes, but very limited displacement compared to human language
*The returning bee has to have just been to the nectar source… cannot communicate a location visited days, weeks, or months ago
*Some types of birds, like crows, seem to be able to remember and communicate past experiences

Question 23

Animal Arbitrariness

Answer 23

-Animal communication is often iconic, rather than arbitrary
~There is a distinct connection between the message and the signal used to covey it
Is the bee dance iconic or arbitrary?
**It’s iconic-
**The duration of the movement represents the distance to the source
**Long waggle= far flower, short waggle= near flower
***The angle of the waggle represents the direction of the source relative to the sun
-Another type of iconic signal would be when an animal makes itself seem larger to warn or threaten
~For instance, dogs growl or bark in a lower pitch when they are being aggressive or defensive
*Larger creatures tend to make lower sounds- they are making themselves seem larger/ more dangerous
~A dogs’ fur also stands up when it feels threatened, as a way to make it seem larger to whatever it perceives as a treat
~But many animals signals are arbitrary as well- or at least its hard to make the iconic connection

Question 24

Animal productivity

Answer 24

-Animals have finite communication systems
~The set of signals used in animals communication is limited
~There are specific signals used in specific situations
~Even if a species has a wide range of communicative sounds, the number of sounds and the way they are used is limited
*For instance, cicadas have four signals to choose from, vervet monkeys have 36 distinct calls
-Animals don’t seem to be able to produce new signals for new situations
~Bees cannot communicate nectar sources which are above them (Vertical distance)
*They can only communicate nectar sources horizontally
-Lemurs have calls that communicate danger depending on the predator (Snakes and Eagles)
~Cannot create new danger signals for unknown predators

Question 25

Animal Cultural Transmission

Answer 25

• Most animal’s communication systems are instinctive
  ~Cats everywhere make the same sounds to mean the same things
  ~If you isolate a cat from other cats, it will still make cat sounds
  ~Can you think of any animals that have cultural transmissions?
  *Song Birds

Question 26

Animal Duality

Answer 26

-Animals communication systems seem to lack duality
~Signals stand alone, they are not necessarily comprised of smaller parts
*Signals and meaning have a one-to-one relationship
-In Animal communication systems, signals cannot be broken down into smaller parts
~Dogs say ‘woof,’ but doesn’t seem to be composed of w-oo-f
*If there were duality, ‘woof’ might mean one thing, and ‘foow’ might mean something else, and ‘oowf’ might mean something else

Question 27

Do animals understand human languages?

Answer 27

-In most caes, probably not…
~Animals can and do produce particular behaviors in response to particular sound (or gesture) stimuli
*Dogs can be trained to follow many commands
**To gain something positive (a treat or affection)
**To avoid something negative (punishment)
**The dog learns to associate a certain combination of sounds (words) or a gesture with a certain desire action

Question 28

Chimpanzee communication

Answer 28

-In the wild, chimpanzees use gesture and vocal signals to communicate, but not with the same complexity as human language

Question 29

Chimpanzees and language

Answer 29

-Gua and Viki
~Raised as if they were human children
~Gua learned to understand around 100 words, never produced any
~Viki produced only a few words, and not well
*Non-human primates don’t have a vocal tract capable of making most human sounds
- Scientists worked with Washoe to learn sign language
~Learned to produce signs for over a hundred words-understood even more
~Was able to combine words into basic sentences (More fruit)
~Even seemed to invent some signs (Water+Bird= swan)
-Sarah and Lana
~Learned to use plastic shapes to communicate
~Were rewarded for choosing the right shapes… did they really learn language, or were they trained to recognize the right shape?

Question 30

Apes and language

Answer 30

-Kanzi (a bonobo)
~Scientists tried to teach Kanzi’s adopted mother, Matata, a symbol language (like Sarah and Lana)
~Without being trained, Kanzi picked up the system and developed a large vocabulary
~Kanzi also gained an understanding of spoken Engliah at the level of a 2.5 year old human
~He even could vocalize some English words (with a distinct accent-high-pitched and distorted)
~He also picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the gorilla
- The cases of Kanzi and Washoe seem to suggest that chimpanzees are able to use human language to a certain degree
~Washoe also used the signs she knew with her offspring
- However, chimpanzees (and bonobos and gorillas) are not able to reach the same language proficiency as humans
*Can communicate on the same level as a two-year old child
- They also have to be taught language- they do not produce human-like language spontaneously
- Do ape capabilities represent a ‘primitive’ form of human language?
~Supporting a ‘continuous’ view of language origins
*What apes can do with language now is similar to what out human ancestors could do a million years ago?
-Or do the limitations of apes communication exhibited in studies suggest that human language is unique and distinct from all animal communication, including apes?
~Supporting a ‘discontinuous’ view of language origins

Question 31

Problems with Chimp studies

Answer 31

• Language Modality- Chimp vocal tract can’t produce speech, so chimps need a different way to PRODUCE
• Language Model- if we show children only partial models of language, they don’t do very well either- models need to be native users
• Age of acquisition- if we don’t expose children to language until adolescence, they don’t learn much either

Question 32

Animals and Language

Answer 32

• As far as we cal tell, no other animals have developed the capacity or produce complex, extended, volitional, abstract discourse containing infinite numbers of words and utterances
• While animals can interact in limited ways with humans, they don’t seem to use such complex language among themselves