1. HOW AND WHEN IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE? Chapter 8

2.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8

3. INTRODUCTION  Pig Latin:  Happy = appyh + ay = appyhay  Awesome = Awesome +way = Awesomeway  Who uses pig latin? What age group?  This is a helpful way for children to explore their language and become better at their language

4. HOW IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE?  There is little agreement on this  1. There is no ethical way to experiment on how children learn language  2. Language did not preserve itself in the fossil record

5. THEORIES ABOUT LANGUAGE BEGINNINGS  In the 1700s and 1800s there were tons of theories, including that language began:  By imitating animal calls  By expressing pain  By working together  These are all speculative and cannot be tested  Need to look at biology, culture, and the fossil record

6. TWO APPROACHES  Innateness Vs Evolution

7. TWO APPROACHES  Innateness:  Language is specific human ability  Once, developed, it is part of the brain  Universal grammar  Children really just acquire language  Who does this sound like?

8. TWO APPROACHES  Chomsky  Prescriptivist

9. TWO APPROACHES  Evolution:  Linguistic anthropologists do not agree with innateness  Language is completely intertwined with culture  You have to study context in order to understand language  Who does this sound like?

10. TWO APPROACHES  Hymes  Descriptivist "There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar will be useless"?

11. DEFINING LANGUAGE  How is language different from communication?  Communication is sending and receiving signals  Humans and animals  Limited information  Example: Vervet monkeys have different calls for a leopard, an eagle, or a snake  Language is transmitting a limitless amount of information in a variety of ways

12. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  Charles Hockett (1916-2000) created the design features of language, which are 13 ways human language can be distinguished from animal communication.  We will discuss the first 9, which can also be used by animals, and then discuss the last 4, which are more unique to humans  These all also apply to sign language

13. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  1. vocal-auditory channel  Main transmission is spoken  Orality  2. broadcast transmission and directional reception  Sounds are sent out in all directions but you can tell where they come from  3. rapid fading  Signals don’t last long  Once you hear them your brain almost immediately forgets them

14. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  4. Interchangeability  Speaker can send and receive the same signal  5. total feedback  Speakers can hear themselves talk and monitor what they say  6. Specialization  Language sounds are specialized for communication  We don’t really make any sounds that do not communicate information

15. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  7. Semanticity  Specific sound signals have specific meanings  Different sounds provoke different reactions  8. Arbitrariness  There is no necessary or causal connection between a signal and its meaning  A signal can refer to anything  9. Discreteness  Units used for communication can be separated into distinct parts

16. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  The last 4 features are thought to be unique to humans, but there are some primate examples that contradict this

17. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  10. Displacement  You can talk about things not present, or things that don’t exist  I have spoken ASL with chimps that can do this  11. Productivity  Allows you to produce new types of language (sounds, words, phrases)  Poetry, song lyrics  Washoe the chimp (“sour banana,” “water bird,” “sweet drink”)

18. DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE  12. Transitional transmission  Language is learned in social groups  Appropriateness is also learned in social settings  Washoe taught Loulis ASL  13. Duality of patterning  Discrete units of one level can be combined to create things at another level  The sounds for k, a, t, and s can create cat, act, tack, cast, task, etc.  OK, this one is only human

19. HANDOUT  Read over the handout on the design features and create one example for each category

20. PRIMATES!!!  Some researchers say that primates can’t really learn language, but I disagree  Apes cannot speak because of anatomical limitations  But they can learn human languages

21. PRIMATES!!!  Washoe (chimp) knew ASL  Koko (gorilla) knows ASL  Kanzi (bonobo) knows spoken English and lexigrams (picture words)  Kanzi learned English from being in social setting with humans More on this in a bit

22. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE  At 3 days old, can distinguish mother’s voice  At three months, coo and laugh  At six months make vowel and consonant sounds  At one year, name things  At 18 months, make sentences

23. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE  How do they learn?  Three theories:  Innatist  Behaviorist  Theory Theory

24. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE  Innatist:  Language is hardwired into brain  Core or universal grammar  What linguist would agree with this?

25. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE  Behaviorist:  Children must hear language from others to understand how to use it  They must receive guidance  There is a critical age by which language must be learned

26. HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE  Theory Theory:  AKA Active Construction of Grammar Theory  Children observe and interact with their environment to learn language  It is about understanding language in context  What linguist would agree with this?  This is similar to how anthropologists learn language in the field

27.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE  Minute 24

28. WHEN IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE  Looking at the Brain:  There are over 1 trillion cells in the brain and 100 billion are neurons in the cortex  This is the oldest part of the brain  Controls memory and emotions  The younger part of the brain is the neocortex  Contains frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes  Controls language

29. WHEN IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE

31.  The brain is divided into a right and left hemisphere  Each controls the opposite side of the body  Two areas of importance:  Broca’s Area  Wernicke’s Area

32. WHEN IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE  Broca’s Area:  In frontal region of left hemisphere  Affects clarity of speech  Someone with damage would understand what is said to them but not be able to say things back clearly

33. WHEN IS LANGUAGE POSSIBLE  Wenicke’s Area :  Temporal lobe of left hemisphere  People with damage have difficulty understanding spoken language  They can pronounce words clearly but cannot put them in the correct order

34. EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE  Human and non-human primate line split 10-13 million years ago (mya)  Chimpanzees and humans split 5 million years ago  During human evolution, we began walking bipedally (on two legs) millions of years before we had big brains or language  Language did not evolve until about 2 mya

36. EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE  A group of human ancestors called the Australopithecines are the first to have a brain that is shaped somewhat human-like  Example: “Lucy”  However, we did not see tool use and possible communication until Homo habilis

37. LUCY (3 MYA)

38. HOMO HABILIS (2 MYA)

39. EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE  We can tell if fossil ancestors spoke because of looking at development of Broca’s area and the position of the larynx (where voice box is)

41. EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE  Human ancestors, the Neanderthals, had language very similar to our own  They had huge brains (1700cc compared to human’s 1400cc)  The position of their hyoid bone (where voice box is) is in same place as in humans

42. EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE  Any ancestor that made complex weapons and tools, and who hunted would need vocal communication

43.  Video clips:  Steven Pinker “Language as a Window into the Brain”  Minute 24  “Neanderthals: Human Extinction”  Minute 31-35