Tasks Flashcards
Connection between the Heimlich manoeuvre and the development of human speech
The Heimlich manoeuvre (choking) highlights the unique anatomy of the human larynx and the pharynx that provide both speech and swallowing.
The human larynx allows for a wider range of vocalisation, enabling complex sounds necessary for speech. However, this evolutionary adaptation has a downside: the lowered position of the larynx increases the risk of choking.
What was Babel and why is it used in explanations of language origins?
Babel is often associated with the biblical story in which humanity, united by one language, attempts to build a tower to reach heaven. As punishment, God confuses their language, leading to the creation of multiple languages. While there is no historical evidence of a literal place called Babel, it serves as a metaphor for the complexity and diversity of human languages.
The story reflects themes of unity, diversity, and the challenges of communication, and is often cited in discussions of the origins of language as it raises questions about how languages evolve and diverge from a common source.
What are the arguments for and against a teleological explanation of the origins of human language?
For:
Purpose-Driven Evolution: Proponents of a teleological explanation argue that language developed as a purposeful adaptation that provided humans with distinct advantages in survival, social interaction, and cooperation. This suggests an innate drive towards developing complex communication for specific functions.
Cognitive Development: The emergence of language is seen as an evolutionary response to increasingly complex social structures, enabling more sophisticated collaboration and community-building.
Arguments Against:
Naturalistic Evolution: Critics argue that attributing language development to a purposeful design overlooks the role of random mutations and natural selection. Language may have emerged as a byproduct of other evolutionary adaptations rather than as a goal-driven process.
Lack of Evidence for Intent: There is little empirical evidence to support the notion that language evolved with a specific purpose in mind, as opposed to evolving through gradual changes in cognitive and anatomical features over time.
William Foley’s claim that “language as we understand it was born about 200,000 years ago” is supported by…
Archaeological evidence indicating that this is the period when anatomically modern humans began to show complex cultural behaviours, including art, social structures, and language. This timeframe corresponds with significant developments in the human brain and physical anatomy, such as the structure of the vocal apparatus.
What’s the connection between the innateness hypothesis and Universal Grammar?
The innateness hypothesis suggests that humans are born with a natural ability for language, indicating a genetic basis for linguistic skills. This idea is closely linked to Universal Grammar, a theory by Noam Chomsky that proposes all languages share a fundamental structure.
Together, these concepts imply that language acquisition is supported by innate cognitive abilities, enabling children to learn languages quickly and naturally, regardless of which language they encounter. This points to a biological foundation for developing complex language systems.
Sometimes there’s a reference to “the Clever Hans phenomenon”. Who was this and what is it about?
Clever Hans was a horse in the early 1900s known for supposedly being able to perform arithmetic and answer questions by tapping his hoof. He became famous for his remarkable abilities, but it was later discovered that he was responding to subtle cues from his trainer, not actually understanding the questions.
The “Clever Hans phenomenon” refers to the idea that animals may appear to understand human communication when they are actually reacting to unintentional signals from humans.
What’s meant by “sound symbolism”? How does it relate to arbitrariness?
Sound symbolism is the idea that certain sounds are inherently connected to their meanings. It contrasts with arbitrariness, which suggests there is no natural link between words and their meanings. For example, the sound of a word may evoke a particular image or feeling, indicating that not all linguistic connections are random.
How is “body language” characterised? What kind of signalling is involved in “distance zones”? What about “eye contact” and “eyebrow flashes”?
Body language can be characterised as communicative signals, as it intentionally conveys messages about emotions or intentions.
Distance zones refer to the personal space individuals maintain during interactions and involve informative signals about comfort or intimacy.
Eye contact and eyebrow flashes are also communicative signals, conveying attention, interest, or emotions.
What was the significance of the name given to the chimpanzee in the research conducted by Herbert Terrace?
The name was chosen to reflect human characteristics, emphasising the study’s goal of understanding language abilities similar to humans. The name highlighted the focus on exploring cognitive capacities in apes.
How would you use IPA for these words; although, beauty, bomb, ceiling, charisma, choice
although - /ɔːlˈðoʊ/
beauty - /ˈbjuːti/
bomb - /bɑːm/
ceiling - /ˈsiːlɪŋ/
charisma - /kəˈrɪzmə/
choice - /tʃɔɪs/
Obstruents and sonorants
Obstruents: These include stops, fricatives, and affricates. They are characterised by significant constriction in the vocal tract, creating turbulence or blockage.
Sonorants: These include nasals, liquids, and glides. They have less constriction in the vocal tract and allow the air to flow freely, resulting in a more resonant sound.
What is forensic phonetics?
Forensic phonetics is the usage of phonetic principles and techniques to legal contexts, particularly in analysing and identifying voices in recordings, speaker verification, and dialect analysis in criminal investigations.
Individual sounds are described as segments. What are suprasegmentals?
Suprasegmentals are features of speech that extend beyond individual sounds (segments) and affect larger units of speech, such as syllables, words, or phrases. They include:
Stress: Emphasis placed on certain syllables or words, impacting meaning and intonation.
Intonation: The variation in pitch across phrases, which can convey emotions or grammatical information.
Length: The duration of sounds or syllables, which can affect meaning in some languages (e.g., in Japanese, vowel length can change the meaning of words).
Tone: The use of pitch to distinguish word meaning in tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin Chinese).
A general distinction can be made among languages depending on their basic rhythm, whether they have syllable-timing or stress-timing. How are these two types of rhythm distinguished and which type characterises the pronunciation of English, French and Spanish?
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Syllable-timing:
Each syllable is given approximately equal time duration.
The rhythm tends to be more regular, with less variation in the length of syllables.
Characteristic of languages like French and Spanish. -
Stress-timing:
Rhythm is based on stressed syllables, with varying lengths of unstressed syllables in between.
Stressed syllables occur at regular intervals, leading to a more variable duration for the syllables.
Characteristic of English.
What are “initialisms”?
Initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letters of a series of words, where each letter is pronounced separately. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and USA are initialisms.
