Communication and Language

Characteristics of Human Language

Objective

to give an idea of – what language is • what its elements are • how it works • “where” it is – how language, thought, and action are related – how these topics can be examined

• Language = Human communication with words.

• only human?

• only words?

What is necessary for language

acquisition

?

•

“I assume

encyclopaedic knowledge

, an articulatory and perceptual system in good working order, and with it, the ability to segment the speech stream and assign meanings to the segments.”

»

Perdue 1996, 138

auditory

peripheral

articulatory

Language Faculty biological / physiological elements

available knowledge

central

contextual / world knowledge memory thinking

language instinct

adapted from Klein 1991, 88

?

• Iwrotethisinnormallettersbecauseidont knowifyouarefamiliarwiththephonetical phabet.

Tasks in speech processing

• analytic task: (building up knowledge) – isolate sound units from incoming „noise“ – identify functional elements – identify legitimate syllable patterns – relate sound and meaningful terms – acknowledge formal combinatory features of words – acknowledge the limited number of legitimate syntactical patterns – compute the full meaning of a syntactical construction – situationally acknowledge the reference to objects and events – acknowledge the variability of linguistics patterns • matched by respective synthetic tasks!

Tasks in speech processing

• cognitive and motor tasks – segment and classify sound signals in extremely short time intervals – identify words almost synchronously from the mental lexicon – identify the syntactic structure, compute its meaning, and relate it to contextual and world knowledge – constructing a mental representation of an event – command over suitable production and articulation procedures

Murphy’s Law and Linguistics

• Oronyms – The stuffy nose can lead to problems.

– The stuff he knows can lead to problems.

– Eugene O’Neill won a pullet surprise.

– ? • “mondegreens” – they have slain the Earl of Moray and Lady Mondegreen • …and laid him on the green.

– A girl with colitis goes by.

• A girl with kaleidoscope eyes…

Questions

• Language is only human.

– How could we find evidence for this claim?

• Language is innate. Or: Language is an instinct. – What would be evidence in favour of these claims?

claims about animal languages

• The articulatory system does not allow primates to speak.

• They are, however, able to sign.

• Primates are able to construct simple sentences.

– Examples (taken from Pinker Ch 11): • Me banana you banana me you give • Tickle me Nim play • Primates can react properly to requests as e.g. “Would you please carry the cooler to Penny.”

Counter arguments

• Limited set of constructions • No inflection – Does not show up in written form but in the signing • No development beyond what they are taught.

first language acquisition

• No need to be taught!

• Typical steps: – 2-word utterances at 18 months – Acquiring several words per day – At 24 months the lexicon has grown up to 4x – At 30 months it has grown approx. 6x • At approx. 3;6 children use agreement –s, i.e. inflection • Pre-Schoolers pass the “Wug-Test” – This animal is wug. Now here’s another one. Now there are two ….

Chomskyan arguments for innateness of language

• underdetermination of grammatical input – walking boots v. leather boots • creative aspect of language – Whenever Robert Peston wears dotted ties there‘s bad new for the British economy.

• deficient input – Many utterances (in spoken language) are not grammatical • no negative evidence – no evidence on what is not possible

Further evidence for innateness

• pidgins and creoles – Pidgins: • Languages used in contact situations: slave trade, colonial settings, early overseas trade • Features: very generally, words from dominant language, no inflection, phonology adapted to other languages involved – Creoles: • Pidgin acquired as a first language • Original inflection system developed (often on lexical material of dominant language)

Further evidence for innateness

• Sign Language – Corroborates “pidgin-theory” • Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense (by children from different backgrounds trained in lip reading in school) • Younger children arriving later developed “Idioma de Signos Nicarag üense“ – More fluid, less pantomime, standardised – Deaf children acquire e.g. ASL more completely than their hearing (non-signing) parents

Evidence for a specific Language Faculty

• Speech pathologies – Broca’s aphasics (lesion in the left frontal lobe) – SLI children • Patients suffering from Williams Syndrome • (genetic defect that interferes with body development and results in an average IQ of 50) – Produce elaborated texts, like unusual words