Preserving Language Diversity: Lessons from Amazonia Simon D. Levy Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA Simon D. Levy Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA First W&L/Petrobras Conference on the Environment, Economy, and Sustainable Development 22 June 2007 First W&L/Petrobras Conference on the Environment, Economy, and Sustainable Development 22 June 2007

Outline I.Biodiversity II.Language Diversity III.The case of Pirahã IV.Conclusions

I. Biodiversity

Rainforest Biodiversity Greatest plant biodiversity is in rainforests: 170,000 of the world's 250,000 known plant species. “We are trying to do biology knowing perhaps only a tenth, or one hundredth, of our species” – Terry Gosliner, National Geographic

Biodiversity and Pharmacology

II. Language Diversity: Sound and Sense

Language: A Window on the Mind Reflects / affects how we think about the world Amazing variety of ways of saying the “same thing” Counter-intuitive constraints not derivable (?) from more general principles

Fallacies & Pitfalls “Eskimo has over 100 words for snow.” “Primitive” languages

Sound

Sense: Gender English: (1) Masculine (2) Feminine Dyirbal (Dixon 1979): (1) Animate objects, men (2) Women, water, fire, violence (3) Edible fruit and vegetables (4) Miscellaneous

Sense: Counting Quantity!KungWarlmanpa 1 r|e'ejinta 2 tsãjirrama 3 n!eni 4

Counting Quantity!KungWarlmanpaPortugueseEnglishFrench 1 r|e'ejintaum / pimeiroone / firstun / premier 2 tsãjirramadois / segundotwo / seconddeux / deuxième 3 n!enitrês / terceirothree / third trois / troisième 4 quatro / quartofour / fourth quatre / quatrième

Sense: Activity (Fillmore 1968) Agent Object Agent Object He ran away. She hit him. He felt sick.

Activity A O A O English him he

Activity A O O A Chinook

Activity A O O A (c.f. Spanish Me gusta, English Methinks) Dakota

Activity A O O A Takelma

So What Is Universal? (Human vs. Animal Language) Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch, (2002): Recursion - the ability to combine words without limit: I enjoyed the Piatam conference. I told Jim that I enjoyed the Piatam conference. Laurence knew that I told Jim that I enjoyed the Piatam conference. etc. I.e., every human language is infinite.

III. The Case of Pirahã

South American Languages

300 languages: 20 families, 12 isolates

Pirahã

The Pirahã People Remnant of Mura tribe (late 1700’s) hunter-gatherers living along the Maici River Trade and reproduce w/outsiders, but no interest in outsider language or culture

Pirahã Language & Culture (Everett 1979 … 2005)

Sound System But rich “suprasegmental” inventory (sung speech: )

Lexicon & Grammar No color terms No counting words No recursion: I enjoyed the Piatam conference. I told Jim. Laurence knew it. Huge controversy –A finite human language? –Culture influencing (determining?) language: “Immediacy of Experience Principle”

IV. Conclusions

Threats to Glossodiversity “Of the more than 6,000 languages currently being spoken, fewer than half are likely to survive the [21 st ] century” – Douglas Whalen, Endangered Language Fund Appears to correlate with biodiversity (Manne 2003) The languages most likely to give us new insights are the ones that are most endangered.

Each language in this sense, while sharing cognitive and communicative principles in common with all other languages spoken by Homo sapiens, is unique. This is why it is such a tragedy when a language dies — we don't just lose a grammar. We lose an entire way of thinking and talking about the world; we lose a set of solutions to the problems that beset us all as humans. - D. L. Everett

Links RECURSION AND HUMAN THOUGHT: WHY THE PIRAHÃ DON'T HAVE NUMBERS: A Talk With Daniel L. Everett Endangered Language Fund: