Lecture 1 Chapter 2 Animals and Human Language PDF

The Study of Language Chapter 2 Animals & Human Language Dr. Fatemah Aloraini 1  What is Linguistics?  Linguistics is the scientific study of human natural language.  Linguistics is a scientific discipline with established t...

The Study of Language Chapter 2 Animals & Human Language Dr. Fatemah Aloraini 1  What is Linguistics?  Linguistics is the scientific study of human natural language.  Linguistics is a scientific discipline with established theories, analytic methods, and real-world applications.  The primary object of linguistic study is human language, not language in other extended senses (e.g. body language, computer programminglanguage, etc.). 2  Language *How do languages work? Are there rules? What are these rules?  What do we know when we know a language? Linguistics- Internal Knowledge of Language.  Knowledge of soundsystem  Knowledge of words and their meanings  Knowledge of how to form sentences Knowledge of Language is internal (in the mind) and linguistics is the study of this internal knowledge. 3  Applied linguistics  Sociolinguistics  Language acquisition and learning  Psycholinguistics  Computational Linguistics 5 Language as a form of human communication  Most linguists would probably agree that although many animals are able to communicate, they do not actually have ‘language’ in the sense that humans do.  Birds may sing, cats meow and purr, dogs bark and growl, apes grunt, scream and even chatter, but they are not assumed to be using these sounds in the way we do. ‘Language’ is therefore a major attribute distinguishing us from the rest of the animal kingdom. 6  The properties of human language Unique system of communication has: Informative signals: signals which you have not intentionally sent → body language Communicative signals: signals you use intentionally to communicate something  The Properties of Human Language Does human language have special properties that make it unique and different than any other communication systems found innature? 1. Displacement 2. Arbitrariness 3. Productivity 4. Cultural transmission 5. Duality 6. Reflexivity 8  Properties of human language  Displacement This is the ability to use language to talk about times, places and people other than the ‘here and now’- e.g. last night, at school, I’m flying to Paris next week. It also enables us to talk about things and places whose existence we cannot even be sure of (e.g. angels, fairies, Santa Claus, Superman, heaven, hell). Animal communication is all about the ‘here and now’. 9  Properties of human language  Arbitrariness  This means that there is no “natural” or “iconic” connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. The connection is arbitrary.  For this reason different languages can use different signs to refer to one and the same thing e.g. a dog is chien inFrench.  In animal communication, there is a “natural” connection between the message and the signal used to convey the message. This is because it consists of a fixed and limited set of vocal forms 9  Properties of human language  Productivity  Humans are capable of continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations.  This property is described as productivity (or “creativity” or “open-endedness”) and essentially means that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite.  Animals cannot produce new signals to describe novel experiences. Each signal in the system is fixed as relating to a particular object or occasion- this is called fixed reference.  fixed reference: a property of a communication system whereby each signal is fixed as relating to one particular object or occasion 10  Properties of human language  Cultural transmission  This is the process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next.  Humans are born with some kind of predisposition to acquire language. However, we are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language such as English. We acquire our firstlanguage as children in a culture.  Animal communicative signals are produced instinctively.  An infant born to Korean parents in Korea, but adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in the United States, will speak English. A kitten, given comparable early experiences, will produce meow regardless. Dogs will bark even if they have never heard another dog. 11  Properties of human language  Duality The way we Produce the sound o Duality (or ‘double articulation’) refers to two separate levels or layers of language. o On the one hand, we have a limited number of discrete sounds (e.g. the 44 phonemes in English) which in isolation have no inherent meaning e.g. b, i, or n. o On the other hand, we have a virtually unlimited number of distinct meanings which we can create by combining these sounds in certain ways e.g. bin, or nib. o This duality of levels is, in fact, one of the most economical features of human language because, with a limited set of discrete sounds, we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) which are distinct in meaning. o Animal communicative signals are fixed and cannot be broken into parts- meow is not m+e+o+w 12  Properties of human language Reflexivity Humans are clearly able to reflect on language and its uses. So we can use language to discuss language, as we are doing now. However, dogs could not bark to reflect on barking. This property accounts for the fact that we can use language to think and talk about language itself.  Talking to animals Is language the exclusive property of human beings? Are the communication systems used by other creatures like human linguistic knowledge? Circus animals go Up, Down and Roll over in response to spoken commands. Should we treat these examples as evidence that non- humans can understand human language? Probably not. In the next slides, we are going to discuss different cases of chimpanzees linguistic knowledge, and try to figure out wither they have similar abilities to human or not.  Chimpanzees and Spoken language learning Some researchers devoted their time to teach a chimpanzee how to use human language- not successful ❖ 1930s → Gua- was able to understand 100 words but did not produce any ❖ 1940s → Viki- produced poorly articulated versions of mama, papa, and cup ❖ Result → non-human primates lack a physically structured vocal tract needed to produce sounds Talking to animals: Case 1 by Gardners Washoe and American Sign Language raised like a human child in a comfortable domestic environment Sign language was always used when Washoe was around and she was encouraged to use signs. After 3 and half years → came to use more than 100 words like Airplane, baby, banana through to window, woman and you Combine them to produce sentences like More fruit , open food drink ( to ask for food from the refrigerator )  Talking to animals: Case 2 Sara and plastic shapes She used word symbols Use a set of plastic shapes that represent words to communicate with humans Trained to associate shapes with objects or actions Was capable of producing sentences, by the use of the plastic shapes Mary give chocolate Sarah  Talking to animals: Case 3 Lana and symbols Similar to Sara in case 2, Lana also used symbols. However, they we not plastic shapes, but rather, a set of symbols on a large keyboard linked to a computer. When Lana wanted water, she had to press four symbols to produce the message please machine give water Can animals speak human-like languages using symbol system? NO Although some chimpanzees in the cases we’ve come across were capable of taking part in interaction with humans by using symbols chosen by humans, researchers remain skeptical regarding these linguistic skills. For example, some believe that a symbol for “please” on a computer keyboard could be the equivalent of a button on a vending machine.  The Controversy The psychologist Herbert Terrace argued that chimpanzees simply produce signs in response to the demands of people and tend to repeat signs those people use, yet they are treated (by naïve researchers) as if they are taking part in a “conversation.” Terrace argues → researchers over-interpreted their results Animals are trained to produce a particular behavior in response to a particular sound-stimulus or noise, but does not actually “understand” what the words in the noise mean. In response, the Gardners argued that they were not animal trainers. They showed that in the absence of any human, Washoe could produce correct signs to identify objects in pictures.  Talking to Animals: Case 4 Kanzi The baby chimpanzee Learned the symbols not by being taught but by being exposed to it in an early age. He started to use the symbols with great ease. Kanzi eventually developed a large symbol vocabulary (over 250 forms). By the age of eight, he was reported to be able to demonstrate an understanding of spoken English at a level comparable to a two-and- a-half-year-old human child. There was also evidence that he was using a consistently distinct set of “gentle noises” as words to refer to things such as bananas, grapes and juice.  Conclusion Were Washoe and Kanzi capable of taking part in interaction with humans by using a symbol system chosen by humans and not chimpanzees? The answer is clearly “Yes.” Did Washoe and Kanzi go on to perform linguistically on a level comparable to a human child about to begin pre-school? The answer is just as clearly “No.” WHY! Because humans possess a natural, inborn facility to be creative with symbols; as far as we know, animals do not. And this is what we are going to cover in the next chapters.  Study Questions: Write a paragraph about the following: 1. Comment about one of the properties of human language and how it distinguishes humans from animals. 2. A recent experiment that has been done on animal language, and compare it to human language. 3. Why is reflexivity considered to be a special property of human language? 4. What kind of evidence is used to support the idea that language is culturally transmitted? 5. What is the difference between a communication system with productivity and one with fixed reference? 6. How did the Gardners try to show that Washoe was not simply repeating signs made by interacting humans?