Transcript What is language? - University of Miskolc

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
DEFINITIONS
HUMAN AND ANIMAL
LANGUAGES
Different definitions for different
purposes
Language
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as a system
as a universal human capacity
as a means of communication
as a social phenomenon
HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES
The issue of continuity
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Are humans just a step further in practising an
adapted behaviour?
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What are the similarities and differences in human
and animal communication?
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Are they qualitative or quantitave?
- measurable?
- origin?
Animal communication
Through sounds, smells,
visual signals and touching:
- of birds, bees, ants,
bears and dogs
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Mixed signals
Species-specific (cats and dogs)
Why are vocal signals easier
to use?
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Work from a distance: sender and receiver do
not have to be close
Work in the dark
Receiver does not have to turn toward sender
Can be used simultaneously with other
activities
What determines the nature of
signals?
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Higher position on the evolutionary scale?
- Of birds and chimpanzees
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Social activity?
- Of cuckoos, bees and ancient hunters
Differences (Hocket)
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Use of sound signals
- vocal auditory channel
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Rapidly fading signal
- special types of memory
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Total feedback
- hearing our voice
- talking to ourselves
- difficult for the deaf
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Interchangeabilty
- male crickets chirp
- working bees dance
- male pheasants’ mating dance
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Specialisation
- only for communication
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Openness,
creativity
- animal communication:limited set of signs,
triggered by a stimulus
- human language constantly changes, new items
are added, is freely applied
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Arbitrariness
- animals: often connection between signal
and meaning
- humans: no connection, interpretation is
based on consensus
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a
rather scornful tone, “it means just what I
choose it to mean – neither more not less.”
(Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland)
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Discreteness
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Duality
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Patterning
- bats, stabs but NOT sbat
- boathouse vs. Houseboat
- Jack kissed Mary. Vs. Mary kissed Jack
but NOT Kissed Jack Mary
“But I’m not so think as you drunk I am.”
(Sir J.C. Squire, writer)
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Functionality, intention
- cause, purpose consideration
- dolphins, Washoe and Sara
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Displacement
“Bees are not as busy as we think they are. They just
can’t buzz any slower.” (F.M. Hubbard, American humorist)
NO
- past
- future
- questions
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Prevarification
- lies
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Reflexiveness
- talking about language
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Traditional transmission
- genetically imprinted behaviour vs.
socioculturally transmitted
What is language?
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Systematic and generative
A set of arbitrary symbols
Primarily verbal signals but also visual
Conventionalised meanings
Used for communication only
Operates in a speech community
Essentially human
Both language and language learning have
universal features