W5 Language Flashcards
Language
Set of spoken, written or signed words. We can combine them to communicate meaning. Requires understanding of syntax (grammar).
Hockett’s design features of language
1- Vocal auditory channel
2- Broadcast transmission adn directional reception
3-Rapid fading transitoriness
4-Interchangeability
5-Total feedback
6-Specfialization
7-Semanticity
8-Arbitrariness
9-Discreteness
10-Displacement
11- Productivity
12- Traditional transmission
13- Duality of patterning
Hockett 1- Vocal auditory channel
= All human languages are usually transmitted through Vocal auditory channel. Why is voice the best evolutionary choice for us to communicate? Frees up your hands. Don’t have to be able to see people to communicate. Carries greats distances.
2- Broadcast transmission adn directional reception
= When I’m speaking, sounds are produced in all directions, but the perceiver can localise the source of the speech, attribute the sound to a being.
3-Rapid fading transitoriness
= Speech disappears when I stop talking, the sounds cease to exist, therefore the language attributed to those sounds ceases to exist, same for sign language.
4-Interchangeability
Competent users of the language can repeat any message that they hear – can understand their own messages
5-Total feedback
the speaker hears everything that they say online tracking of our messages.
6- Specialization
Sounds we produce are designed to convey meaning; they are not biological outcome of another activity. Example – Dog after a run, panting behaviour – communicates they are tired, hot, thirsty, BUT this is not the purpose of the behaviour – cooling.
7- Semanticity
= the ties between the word and it’s meaning are definite. Sounds denote specific messages. Exceptions = Homophones = Aisle+ Isle, Site + Sight, Leek = Leak, Sauce + Source.
8-Arbitrariness
Words are arbitrary and decided by agreement. Whales are huge but the world is relatively small. Microorganisms are tiny but the word is relatively large. The words themselves are not representative, a chair is a chair, a goose is a goose.
9-Discreteness
Linguistic representations can be broken down into small discrete units, which combine with each other in other rule-governed ways. Examples: (dog/dogs = Adding ‘s’ to the word denotes plurality. Perceived categorically, not continuously, we can’t denote a greater quantity of dogs by how loudly or long we pronounce the S.
10-Displacement
Can talk about things that aren’t immediately in our vicinity – other countries, cities, times, places, people, things that don’t exist or never existed, or never will exist, hopes, dreams etc.
11- Productivity
Language is not stagnant – it changes! We develop new and novel words with new meanings.
12- Traditional transmission
= Language is acquired through social groups, teaching through social interaction – ongoing process.
13-Duality of patterning
= Speech can be analyzed on two levels:
1. Made up of meaningless element, a limited inventory of sounds or phonemes.
2. As made up of meaningful elements, virtually limitless inventory of words or morphemes.
Communication Systems- dolphins
highly intelligent, dolphins very social, play, use tools and teach behaviours to their young. Use a range of high-pitched whistles and clicks. Used for location but their communicative purpose it little understood (Frankel, 1998). No evidence that they, combine sounds, have grammatical rule, no displacement ect. (Harley, 2010)
Huamn communication systems
Body language, verbal language = unique to humans (spoke, written, signed)
Language enables us to communicate thoughts and concepts to other people.
Speaking, understanding, reading and writing are the end results of very complex and intricate processes.
Language requires us
- Link words to meanings (form-> semantics). - Understand rules that subtly alter the meaning of a phrase (syntax). - Be aware that specific combinations of sounds carry meaning (morphology). - Use language to convey meaning via the way we choose to speak (pragmatics)
