PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language and Communication

Announcements Explore your Blackboard Pages Quiz 1 due Tuesday Learning Modules – lots of additional material related to topics in this course Media Library – optional readings, glossary of terms Discussion boards – optional thought questions, get the conversation going

What do you think? What is language?

What is communication? Any means by which two (or more) individuals exchange information Paralinguistic techniques – non-verbal communication Paralinguistic Hand signals, facial expressions, body language, nods, smiles, winks, etc. Also includes things like tone of voice, tempo, volume, etc. Non-linguistic communication - that do involve vocalization Grunts, groans, snorts, sighs, whimpers, etc. Not all produced sounds are intended to convey messages, so they aren’t communication e.g., snoring

Some examples Animals use a variety of methods to communicate Dogs bark Birds sing Bees dance People talk - we use language (as well as other methods) for communication

Features of Language (Hockett, 1960)Hockett Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning Hockett (1960) is available for download in the ‘optional readings’ on Blackboard

Arbitrariness No resemblance between the language signal and the thing that it represents “dog” “perro” “hund” “chien” “labrador” “my pet” “Charles Barkey”

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Displacement We can communicate about things that are physically and temporally removed from us “Did you see what happened in Hillary’s news conference last week? She got really emotional and started to cry.”

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Productivity Our use of language is extremely creative. We have a limited amount of linguistic elements (e.g., sounds and words), but can combine those elements in novel ways. “I was tired of cleaning up after my dog in my backyard so I taught him to pole vault. Even though you’ve never heard this sentence before you can understand it effortlessly

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Discretness Language signals are distinct I don’t change my pitch or volume to denote size of an object “ dog ”

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Semanticity Language signals have meaning “dog” - Four legged animal - Common pet - Fur - Chases cats - Barks - Etc.

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Duality of Patterning Language signals occur on two levels Symbols are meaningful, discrete, and arbitrary Smaller units that make up the meaningful units don’t have meaning “dog” /d//o//g/ Words and morphemes Phonomes

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability? Parrots - can memorize chunks of human speech Polly wanna cracker But are they really producing utterances based on an underlying meaning? Irene Pepperberg’s work with Grey Parrots for interesting counterpoint (videos) Irene Pepperberg’s videos

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability? I believe you mentioned something about food Dogs - can learn to associate “food” or “walk” with particular behaviors But is that the same thing as understanding the meaning of food and walk?

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability? Tweet chirp chirp warble warble chirp. Birds use songs to serve territorial and courtship functions. Can songs be used productively? Translation: this is my tree

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability? Chirp chirp warble warble tweet chirp? Birds use songs to serve territorial and courtship functions. Can songs be used productively? Translation: Is this my tree? Gentner et al (2006)

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability? NOVA's bee dance page Angle of the dance indicates direction Rate of looping indicates distance Honey bees dance to indicate where a source of nectar is. (von Frisch, 1954) Another bee dance video pict Riley et al. (2005)

Animals and language? Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning ParrotDog Bird song Bee dance Human Language ? ? ? ? ?

What is language? A difficult question to answer: “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntrily produced symbols.” Edward SapirEdward Sapir (1921)

What is language? A difficult question to answer: “A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.” Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky (1957)

What is language? A difficult question to answer: Define: language

What is language?language Some generally agreed upon conclusions Symbolic Elements are used to represent something other than itself Voluntary Language use is under our individual control Language is systematic There is hierarchical structure that organizes linguistic elements Modalities Spoken, written, signed (sign language) Assumed primacy of speech - it came first

Reminder Quiz #1 (on chapter 1) is due Tuesday Jan 19 at 2:00 (when class starts)