Transcript Quick Write - The Bases Produced Home Page

Communication and Language,
Part 1: The Birds and the Bees
September 12, 2012
Heads up!
• Two readings (for next week) have been posted to the
course website.
1. For next Monday: Steven Pinker on “The Language
Mavens”, from his book, “The Language Instinct”.
2. For next Wednesday: Ray Jackendoff on “Knowledge
of Language”.
Quick Write #1
• In this class, we have native speakers of:
English
57
Turkish
2
Punjabi
4
“Chinese”
1
Vietnamese 4
Dinka
1
Spanish
3
Farsi
1
Arabic
3
Filipino
1
Cantonese
2
Igbo
1
Japanese
2
Mandarin
1
Russian
2
Silozi
1
Teochew
2
Tagalog
1
Four people grew up
learning two
languages at once!
Quick Write #1
• And people have studied the following non-native
languages:
French
39
Arabic
1
Latin
English
27
“Chinese”
1
Spanish
13
Dutch
1
Jamaican Creole
1
German
4
Hungarian
1
“Pidjin”
1
Japanese
4
Ilocano
1
Tagalog
1
Cantonese
3
Italian
1
Vietnamese 1
Mandarin
3
Japanese
1
Hindi
2
Korean
1
1
Quick Write #1
• 67 people know two languages
• 26 people know three languages
• 9 people know four languages
• 4 people know five languages
• 1 person knows eight languages!
• Note: a linguist is not necessarily a polyglot!
Quick Write #1
Igpay Atinlay
• Do you know any other language games?
• How about: fo’ shizzle?
In Our Last Episode
• Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
• Linguists have learned that language is:
1. Biological
2. Complex
3. Creative
•
What else do we know about language?
Linguists know (part 4):
• Language is social.
• Language can be arbitrary.
• Every language varies according to region, speaker
identity, and situation.
• Language can define communities.
• Language can shape identity.
Linguists know (part 5):
• Every language undergoes change.
• Languages are, in fact, changing all the time.
• Ex: the great vowel shift
• Present-day: the Great Lakes vowel shift
• and a Canadian vowel shift!
• Languages evolve in reliable ways.
• Languages can be related to one another.
• Languages can die.
• New languages can be born.
This Course Explores...
• The complex nature of human language from both
biological and social perspectives.
• What is “knowledge of language”?
• How is language used for communication?
• How do we know that language is uniquely human?
• How does human language differ from other animals’
systems of communication?
• How can language be creative?
• What are the universal properties of language?
The Structures of Language
• The majority of this class will be devoted to learning how
to analyze and understand the structures of language.
• Word structure: Morphology
• What are the units of meaning in language?
• How are words formed in language?
• Sound structure #1: Phonetics
• What sounds are used in speech?
• How do we make those sounds? (with our lips, jaws,
tongues, vocal folds, etc.)
• What’s the best way to write down what a person
has actually said?
The Structures of Language
• Sound structure #2: Phonology
• How are sounds related to one another in language?
• What distinguishes one sound from another?
• What rules do languages use to put sounds together
into words?
• Sentence structure: Syntax
• How does language combine words into sentences?
• How do sentences relate to one another?
• How do the rules of word order differ from one
language to another?
The Structures of Language
• Meaning structure: Semantics
• How do words relate to/represent the world?
• How do we know what words mean?
• How do we know what a sentence means?
• Conversation structure: Pragmatics
• What “maxims” do people follow in conversations?
• How can they violate those maxims?
• How do we get meaning out of context?
• What do people “read into” what you say?
What’s the big idea?
• Language is biological.
• Language is a unique property of the human species.
• All people have language.
• It’s part of our genetic endowment.
• We’re neurologically specialized for it.
• No other species of animal has language.
• But: dogs bark, cats purr, pigs oink, crows caw…
• How is that not language?
Language vs. Communication
• Human beings can use language for communication.
• Animals communicate with each other without using
language.
• Point: it’s not the ability to communicate that makes
humans unique, it’s the ability to use language.
• “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot
tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.”
--Bertrand Russell
More Deep Thoughts
“It is not the want of organs that [prevents animals from
making] known their thoughts...for it is evident that magpies
and parrots are able to utter words just like ourselves, and
yet they cannot speak as we do, that is, so as to give
evidence that they think of what they say...
On the other hand, men who, being born deaf and dumb,
are in the same degree, or even more than the brutes,
destitute of the organs which serve the others for talking,
are in the habit of themselves inventing certain signs by
which they make themselves understood.”
--René Descartes (1637)
Questions
1. What’s the difference between language and
communication?
2. How do we know that animals don’t have language?
3. Can animals acquire language if we try to teach it to
them?
“Design Features” of Language
• Defined by the linguist Charles Hockett (1916-2000)
From a 1966 article:
“The design features listed
below are found in every
language on which we have
reliable information, and each
seems to be lacking in at
least one known animal
communicative system.”
“Design Features” of Language
• All communication systems have the following features:
1. A mode of communication (a medium)
• Audio-visual for most humans
• Visual-spatial for sign language users
• Chemical-olfactory for some plants and animals
• Electric current for telephones, computers, etc.
2. Semanticity
• Communication signals have meaning
“Design Features” of Language
• Some communication systems have the following
features:
3. Interchangeability
• Participants can be transmitters and receivers.
4. Cultural Transmission
• System gets passed along through interaction with
users of the system.
• “Tradition”
• IMPORTANT: People are not genetically pre-disposed to
learn a particular language.
Cultural Transmission in Birds
The Ortolan Bunting (found in
Germany) exhibits various
regional song dialects.
http://www.bavarianbirds.de/ortolan/ortolan.htm
“Design Features” of Language
5. Arbitrariness
– No logical relationship between signals
(signs) and what they represent (their
meaning)
Sign
“tree”
“Baum”
“arbre”
Meaning
Iconicity
• Arbitrary signs may be contrasted with iconic signs
• …which bear some resemblance to whatever it is
that they signify.
• Examples:
• Note: sign languages tend to be highly iconic
• although they can display abritrariness, too.