Communication and
Language
Characteristics of
Human Language
Objective
to give an idea of
– what language is
• what its elements are
• how it works
• “where” it is
– how language, thought, and action are related
– how these topics can be examined
• Language = Human communication with
words.
• only human?
• only words?
What is necessary for language
acquisition?
• “I assume encyclopaedic knowledge, an
articulatory and perceptual system in
good working order, and with it, the
ability to segment the speech stream
and assign meanings to the segments.”
» Perdue 1996, 138
Language Faculty
biological /
physiological
elements
articulatory
contextual /
world knowledge
central
peripheral
auditory
available
knowledge
memory
thinking
language
instinct
adapted from Klein 1991, 88
?
• Iwrotethisinnormallettersbecauseidont
knowifyouarefamiliarwiththephonetical
phabet.
Tasks in speech processing
• analytic task: (building up knowledge)
–
–
–
–
–
–
isolate sound units from incoming „noise“
identify functional elements
identify legitimate syllable patterns
relate sound and meaningful terms
acknowledge formal combinatory features of words
acknowledge the limited number of legitimate syntactical
patterns
– compute the full meaning of a syntactical construction
– situationally acknowledge the reference to objects and events
– acknowledge the variability of linguistics patterns
• matched by respective synthetic tasks!
Tasks in speech processing
• cognitive and motor tasks
– segment and classify sound signals in extremely short
time intervals
– identify words almost synchronously from the mental
lexicon
– identify the syntactic structure, compute its meaning,
and relate it to contextual and world knowledge
– constructing a mental representation of an event
– command over suitable production and articulation
procedures
Murphy’s Law and Linguistics
• Oronyms
–
–
–
–
The stuffy nose can lead to problems.
The stuff he knows can lead to problems.
Eugene O’Neill won a pullet surprise.
?
• “mondegreens”
– they have slain the Earl of Moray and Lady
Mondegreen
• …and laid him on the green.
– A girl with colitis goes by.
• A girl with kaleidoscope eyes…
Questions
• Language is only human.
– How could we find evidence for this claim?
• Language is innate. Or: Language is an
instinct.
– What would be evidence in favour of these
claims?
claims about animal languages
• The articulatory system does not allow primates
to speak.
• They are, however, able to sign.
• Primates are able to construct simple sentences.
– Examples (taken from Pinker Ch 11):
• Me banana you banana me you give
• Tickle me Nim play
• Primates can react properly to requests as e.g. “Would you
please carry the cooler to Penny.”
Counter arguments
• Limited set of constructions
• No inflection
– Does not show up in written form but in the
signing
• No development beyond what they are
taught.
first language acquisition
• No need to be taught!
• Typical steps:
–
–
–
–
2-word utterances at 18 months
Acquiring several words per day
At 24 months the lexicon has grown up to 4x
At 30 months it has grown approx. 6x
• At approx. 3;6 children use agreement –s, i.e.
inflection
• Pre-Schoolers pass the “Wug-Test”
– This animal is wug. Now here’s another one. Now
there are two ….
Chomskyan arguments for
innateness of language
• underdetermination of grammatical input
– walking boots v. leather boots
• creative aspect of language
– Whenever Robert Peston wears dotted ties there‘s
bad new for the British economy.
• deficient input
– Many utterances (in spoken language) are not
grammatical
• no negative evidence
– no evidence on what is not possible
Further evidence for innateness
• pidgins and creoles
– Pidgins:
• Languages used in contact situations: slave trade,
colonial settings, early overseas trade
• Features: very generally, words from dominant
language, no inflection, phonology adapted to
other languages involved
– Creoles:
• Pidgin acquired as a first language
• Original inflection system developed (often on
lexical material of dominant language)
Further evidence for innateness
• Sign Language
– Corroborates “pidgin-theory”
• Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense (by children
from different backgrounds trained in lip reading in
school)
• Younger children arriving later developed “Idioma
de Signos Nicaragüense“
– More fluid, less pantomime, standardised
– Deaf children acquire e.g. ASL more
completely than their hearing (non-signing)
parents
Evidence for a specific
Language Faculty
• Speech pathologies
– Broca’s aphasics (lesion in the left frontal
lobe)
– SLI children
• Patients suffering from Williams Syndrome
• (genetic defect that interferes with body
development and results in an average IQ of 50)
– Produce elaborated texts, like unusual words