1036: 4P

Linguistic Diversity Introduction

What is a language?

Human Language vs. A language (French: Langage vs. Langue)

Human language (French Langage )= the communication system characteristic of the human species as compared to the communication system of other animal species.

A language (French langue ) = the historically developed system of signs that the members of a social group use to communicate with each other.

• ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE =ORIGIN OF HUMANS • Language is one of the defining abilities of our

species: all humans have the same ability to acquire and use a language.

• It is not an invention like wheel, not a discovery like fire, but an evolutionary development

NATURAL SELECTION

• How does having language increase one s chances of survival? – Organization of thoughts - increased complexity of

actions. – Making and using tools. – Social interaction - planning strategies, forming

alliances. Division of labor. Complex hunting and food gathering.

OTHER ANIMALS VS HUMANS

• OTHER ANIMALS – COMMUNICATION – NOT COMPLEX LANGUAGE

• HUMANS – COMPLEX LANGUAGE – THREE DESIGN FEATURES:

Displaced reference Duality of patterning(=Language as a discrete combinatorial system) Recursivity

Displaced reference Humans seem to be the only ones that are able to talk about things that are not here and not now, but are somewhere else, existed in the past or will exist in the future. This ability is referred to as displaced reference.

Animal signals, in contrast, are always directly associated with a specific function present in this contextual here and now .

Animals may have object permanence, i.e., they may be aware that objects continue to exist, also when no sensory information about them is available, but are unable to refer to them if not in the present.

DISPLACED REFERENCE AND THE HUMAN SYMBOLIC/SEMIOTIC FUNCTION

Displaced reference—the ability to refer to information that is spatially and temporally displaced from the location of the speaker and the listener—is an essential feature of human language.

It is associated with the symbolic/semiotic capacity characterizing human thought.

Symbolic/semiotic capacity=the capacity to use a given signal to stand-—in a conventional and arbitrary association—for something that may be absent from the contextual here and now of the signal production/recognition.

An enhanced working memory capacity and symbolic capacity

The essence of symbolic representation is the ability to 'hold in mind' some representation that is not what is currently 'held in view'—the semiotic capacity by which something can stand for something else that is contextually absent.

It is hypothesized that modern humans' larger working-memory capacity was a necessary precondition for symbolic thought.

Working-memory capacity as the active maintenance of information (to hold in view') consonant with a representation or goal (to hold in mind') and the ability to block them both from distractors or interference.

Kane & Engle's 2002, Russell 1996, Coolidge and Wynn 2005.

INTELLIGENCE, WORKING MEMORY AND TOOL- MAKING: THE EMERGENCE OF HUMAN SYMBOLIC CAPACITY.

One of the fundamental differences between animals, and specifically primates and humans, in addition to language, is a vastly enhanced ability in problem solving, i.e. intelligence.

Intelligence, as Newell and Simon (1972) observe, is the ability to attain goals in face of obstacles by assessing the current situation to see how it differs from the goal, and applying a set of operations that reduce the difference. Human beings, by definition, are intelligent.

• This enhanced ability in problem solving has been associated with an enhanced working memory (see Baddeley (1993, 2000, 2001)), which in humans appears to be located in the premotor cortex and in particular in Broca s area (Awh et al., 1996).

An enhanced working memory capacity and symbolic capacity

The beginnings of human composite tool-making, about 300,000 years ago, reflected an increase in cognitive capacity: composite tool-making requires the planning and coordination of multiple segregated tasks, i.e. problem solving.

These coordinated planning behaviors coevolved with a frontal lobe processing center that mediates the human ability to keep primary goals in mind while evaluating secondary goals, which are essential aspects of planning and reasoning. This processing center may be associated with an enhanced working memory capability.

Ambrose (2001)

Language as a discrete combinatorial system

All languages are "discrete combinatorial systems" : a finite number of discrete elements are sampled, combined, and permuted to create larger structures with properties that are quite distinct from those of their elements.

For example, basic elements such as words can be combined recursively (see next slide) into an infinite number of different larger structures such as sentences.

Other such systems are rare, but they do exist: the genetic code of DNA.

Other complex systems are blending systems: paint mixing, cooking, sound, light, weather etc. In blending systems the properties of the combination lie between the properties of its elements, and the properties are lost in the average or mixture.

Language as a recursive system 3 Lisa insists that Bart claims that Mr. Burns bribed Mayor Quimby.

4 Homer’s been saying that Lisa insists that Bart claims that Mr. Burns bribed Mayor Quimby.

Language as a recursive system:

Mr. Burns bribed Mayor Quimby.

Bart claims that Mr. Burns bribed Mayor Quimby.

Recursion is the repeated use of a rule to create new expressions

Language is creative Language use demonstrates the mind’s creative capacity

We can understand utterances we have never heard

The combinatorial and recursive capacities of language allow the generation of an infinite number of sentences

This generative capacity is found only in human languages