ENGL 270 Ch 2 Animal & Human Language PDF

ENGL 270 – Introduction to Linguistics Chapter 2: Animal & Human Language Things to remember  Linguistics is the scientific study of language- what we know when we know a language.  Main areas: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.  Othe...

ENGL 270 – Introduction to Linguistics Chapter 2: Animal & Human Language Things to remember  Linguistics is the scientific study of language- what we know when we know a language.  Main areas: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.  Other areas: sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, historical linguistics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics. Important questions  Isit possible that a creature may learn to communicate with humans using language?  Does human language have special properties that make it unique and different than any other communication systems found in nature? Communicative & informative signals Signals Informative Signals Communicative Signals (sending signals unintentionally ) (intentionally communicating something) Humans sneeze= have a cold Animals e.g. shifting around= not at ease We have a quiz next e.g. non-matching socks= disorganized week A blackbird producing a loud squawk when a cat appears in the scene strange accent= stranger I’m sorry, I don’t think I can make it to the meeting Properties of human language 1. Displacement Animal communication is designed for the immediate place and time (here and now) Humans can use language to refer to the past, present and future e.g. last night, now, next week We can even talk about things and places whose existence we cannot be sure of. e.g. angels, fairies, Superman, Santa Claus, heaven, hell Properties of human language Displacements: Displacement is the property of human language that allows language users to talk about things not present in the immediate environment. * Animal communication is generally considered to lack this property Properties of human language 2. Arbitrariness (in human language) Generally, there is no ‘natural’ connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. The relation between linguistic forms and the objects they refer to is arbitrary. e.g.: Dog in English and ‫ كلب‬in Arabic. We can’t determine from these words’ shapes that they have a natural and obvious meaning. There are some (onomatopoeic) words in language with sounds that seems to ‘echo’ the sounds of objects or activities (and hence less arbitrary). Properties of human language English examples of onomatopoeic are cuckoo, crash, slurp, squelch, or whirr. Onomatopoeic words are relatively rare in human language. Onomatopoeia: The use of words that sound like the thing they are describing, (e.g. hiss or boom) Properties of human language Arbitrariness (in animal communication) There is a clear connection between the conveyed message and the signal used to convey it. Each variety of animal communication consists of a limited set of vocal or gestural forms. (Many are only used in specific situations or at particular times). Properties of human language 3. Productivity (in humans) Productivity (creativity/ open-endlessness): The potential number of utterances is any human language is infinite. Humans are continually creating new expressions by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations.  Properties of human language Productivity (in animals) The communication systems of other creatures don’t have this flexibility. They have a limited set of signals to choose from (fixed reference). Each signal in the system is fixed in terms of relating to a particular object or occasion. They cannot produce any new signals to describe novel experiences. The honeybee example (p. 65 ad 68) Properties of human language 4. Cultural transmission (in humans)  Humans inherit physical features from their parents but not language.  We acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. Cultural transmission: The process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next.  We are born with a predisposition to acquire language (but not with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language such as English).  We acquire our first language as children in a culture. Properties of human language Cultural transmission (in animals)  Animal are born with a set of specific signals that are produced instinctively.  Human infants, growing up in isolation, produce no ‘instinctive’ language.  Therefore, cultural transmission of a specific language is crucial in the human language acquisition process. Properties of human language 5. Duality (double-articulation) – in humans In speech production: o At a physical level, individual discrete sounds (e.g. n, b,& i) mean nothing separately. o At another level, they take on meaning only when they are combined together in various ways (e.g. bin/ nib) Human language is organized at 2 levels simultaneously: o At one level, we have distinct sounds. o At another level, we have distinct meanings. Duality is one of the most economical features of human language (with a limited set of discrete sounds, we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) that are distinct in meaning). Properties of human language Duality (double-articulation) – in animals o Animals’ communicative signals are fixed and cannot be broken down into separate parts e.g: woof is not w + oo + f meow is not m + e + ow Talking to animals  Can animals understand our language?  Under the impression that animals follow what is being said ( e.g.: horses, pets, circus animals)  Is this evidence that non-humans can understand human language?  The standard explanation is that the animal produces a particular behavior in response to a particular sound stimulus or ‘noise’, but doesn’t actually understand what the noise means.  Can animals of one species learn to produce the signals of another species? No. (e.g.: horse – cows/ puppy- baby) (p. 71) Chimpanzees and language Some researchers devoted their time to teach a chimpanzee how to use human language: not successful Luella & Winthrop Kellogg – 1930s: o raised an infant chimpanzee (Gua) with their baby son. o Gua was able to understand 100 words but did not "say” any of them. Catherine & Keith Hayes – 1940s: raised the chimpanzee (Viki) in their own home as a human child. spent 5 years attempting to get her to ‘say’ English words by trying to shape her mouth as she produces sounds. Eventually, she managed to produce poorly articulated versions of mama, papa, and cup. This was a remarkable achievement: it has become clear that non-humans don’t actually have a physically structures vocal tract which is suitable for articulating the sounds used in speech. Apes & gorillas, like chimpanzees, communicate with a wide range of vocal calls (but they just can’t make human speech sounds). Beatrix & Allen Gardner:  raised a female chimpanzee called Washoe as a human child.  taught her to use American Sign Language (ASL), (a language learned by many deaf children as their natural first language.)  Sign language was always used when she’s around and she was encouraged to use signs.  In a period of three and a half years, she came to use signs for more than a 100 words. (e.g. baby, banana, window, woman, you, etc.).  She was able to combine forms to produce sentences (e.g. gimme tickle, more fruit, open food drink).  She invented some forms (e.g. water bird = swan). The controversy  Can animals speak human-like languages?  Can animals perform linguistically on a level comparable to a human child at the same age? No. There are two ways of thinking about “using language”: In one way, both the behavior of a two-year-old child interacting with a caregiver, and behavior of chimpanzees interacting with humans are examples of “using language”. However, the human child has the capacity to develop a complex system of sounds and structures, plus computational procedures, that will allow the child to produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances. No other creature has been observed “using language” in this sense. Thus, language is uniquely human. Homework: p. 80 / Q. 1, 2, & 5