What is language?
'Grammar' means more than the school-type definition:
 'The internal representation of language within a person's
head' (Aitchison, 1992, p.4)
AND
 our model, or guess, as to what that representation is like

PHONOLOGY
Sound
patterns
Grammar

SYNTAX
Word
patterns

SEMANTICS
Meaning
patterns
Nature or Nurture?
Skinner (1957) vs Chomsky (1959)
Skinner: Language is a set of habits built up gradually over a
number of years.
Rats & Pigeons learn complex tasks through reinforcement Language is the same.
Chomsky: Two major criticisms
(1) Rats & pigeons have nothing to do with human language
 What are the controlling variables?
 What about situations where there is no overt reinforcement?
 Brown et al (1968) - children reinforced for truth, not grammar
(2) Claim that Skinner fundamentally misunderstands the nature
of language
Language is blimmin' complicated
Example:
"The alligator has escaped"
can become the question
"Has the alligator escaped?"
What is the rule?
"Petronella has hurt herself"
"The man who has run away shouting was attacked by a wasp"
"Slugs are slimy"
"Petronella has swallowed a safety pin"
Maybe we allocate different parts of a sentence into 'slots'?
Bees
love
honey
I
want
my tea
My brother
has hit
me
(subject - verb - object)
This seems sensible in some examples, but there are problems what if we want to substitute words in (for example) the verb
slot?
Performing fleas
can be
amusing
Playing Tiddlywinks
can be
amusing
Performing fleas
 Performing fleas
 Playing Tiddlywinks
Playing Tiddlywinks
are
amusing
is
amusing
are
amusing
is
amusing
According to Chomsky, these cannot be explained in a 'barpressing' theory.
One possibility may be that language use involves two levels:
 A surface level - words are in the place that they actually occur
 A deep level - words are located in their 'proper' slot
For example,
I put what in petronella's soup
I put a snail in Petronella's soup
The something in the soup always goes after 'put' in the deep
structure.
LANGUAGE HAS A STRUCTURE
Do things other than humans 'have' language?
"verbal behaviour differs in complexity but not in kind
from learned behaviour in animals"
(Fodor et al, 1974)
A taxonomy for defining language:
American Linguist Charles Hockett (1916-)










Auditory-vocal channel
Arbitrariness
Semanticity
Cultural transmission (tradition)
Spontaneous usage
Turn-taking
Duality (double-articulation)
Displacement
Structure-dependence
Creativity
Bee
dance
Stickle
-back
courting
Western
Meadow
Lark
Gibbon
calls
Human
language
Human
music
AC-channel
X
X



A only
Arbitrary
X
if semantic
?

Semantic

X
Partly?


Cult Trans
X?
X?
?
?

Duality
X
?
X

Displace
Limited
?
X

Creative

?
X

X
From: Hockett, 1960, pp. 10-11
X
generally

