Ottenheimer Chapter 8
How (and When) is Language Possible?
How is Language Possible?
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There is little agreement on how and when language first emerged. Three main reasons are:
1. One reason is that there is little agreement as to what it means to have language.
2. There is also disagreement on whether humans ‘learn’ language or ‘acquire’ it.
3. Disagreement on whether language emerged all at once or evolved.
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Early experiments
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It is hard to design an ethical experiment that uses human children to pinpoint the ways they learn/acquire language
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The experiment of Psammetichus ([Sam-mE-ta-chus], ancient Egypt) is famous for isolating 2 children to learn about the
origins of language.
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According to this tale when these two children were exposed to humans they uttered ‘becos’ which is Phrygian for
bread (Phrygians were located in what is modern Turkey).
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Psammetichus concluded this was the most ancient of languages.
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Some suggest these rulers also performed language deprivation experiments: 13rh c. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II,
14th c. King James V of Scotland, and 16th c. Akbar, Mogul emperor of India.
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In the 1900s, William H. Thorpe, a bird ethologist isolated songbirds.
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He named the experiments after an 18th century child thought to be “feral”: Kaspar Hauser.
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The purpose of the Kaspar Hauser experiments was to determine which aspects of bird calls were innate.
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Keep in mind: Language itself does not fossilize.
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All we have are indirect evidences of language.
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We are limited to the research tools of observation, analysis, and speculation.
Theories about Language Beginnings 1
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Language origins were particularly popular in Europe during the 1700s and 1800s.
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Philosophical and linguists proposed all kinds of ideas as to how language began.
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Suggestion 1: One suggestion was that language began as people imitated animal communication (bow wow!)
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Animal sounds across cultures differ and are not always
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Here are some examples.
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Suggestion 2: Another suggestion was that emotions such as those when you stub your toe (ouch) prompted language
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Suggestion 3: Others suggested they imitated the natural sounds of the objects around them (onomatopoeia)
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Suggestion 4: Finally, some suggested that humans created social contracts whereby the persons all agree on what to
call things
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Each of these theories (she should have called them hypotheses) was speculative.
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By 1866 Linguistic Society of Paris bans discussions in that they were ‘tired’ of the talk that lead nowhere.
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It remained this way until the second half of the 1900s when linguistic anthropologists reopened the discussion.
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By the 1900s had 100 years of data collected from which to create new ideas
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The questions became more interdisciplinary
Theories about Language Beginnings 2
Two Approaches: Innateness versus Evolution
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Ultimately, two approaches emerged
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Theoretical linguistics approach from the discussion
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Language too complicated to have evolved over time
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Language developed all at once and is innate feature in humans
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Children born with universal grammar. (Language Acquisition Device; LAD); only need to acquire specifics
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Linguistic anthropologists approach
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Language too complicated to have developed all at once
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Language probably evolved slowly along with culture
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Children born with ability to learn language. Learning takes place in speech communities.
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A Four-Field Approach
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It is in the arena of language origins that the 4 fields of anthropology really need to work together.
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Physical (biological) anthropology helps us
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Learn how language emerged , what to look for in the fossil record and what can primate studies teach us?
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An example is the discovery of the FOXP2 gene
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Archaeology gives us access to the evidence for first use of culture (remember culture  language)
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Cultural anthropology and linguistics are needed to understand how language became possible.
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How is language different from communication?
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How do children learn language in different cultures?
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What is it about being a member of a speech community that helps to shed light on the beginnings of language?
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Theories about Language Beginnings 3
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Defining Language
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Communication is defined in different ways
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As the sending of signals OR
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As both sending and receiving of signals OR
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Sending, receiving and responding is communication according to some researchers.
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Communication is often limited as to what it can send.
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Vervet monkeys send alarms to avoid snake or eagle or leopard (closed systems).
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Humans communicate when a baby screams in pain (parents stop and care for the infant).
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Language is not as limited as other forms of communication in what it can transmit, and language seems unlimited.
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As vervet monkeys have 3 alarm calls, their responses also number 3.
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Humans can use language for many purposes besides for alarm calling. Humans can say “I could eat a horse”, and be handed
a peanut butter sandwich.
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In spite of what might seem clear, defining the difference between communication and language has been the topic of
speculation and argument among scholars.
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Some focus on the social nature of language and negate the need for a ‘real’ social interaction.
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Others focus on the presence of complex grammar and argue other animals do not have these complexities.
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Yet others insist that the differences are associated with humans’ ability to lie, have conversations, fabricate elaborate
scenarios, play linguistic games & that animals do not do this.
Hockett’s Design Features of Language 1
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Hockett’s design features
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Distinguishing communication from language. Hockett’s design features
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Hockett said we share 9 with other animals
1. Vocal/auditory channel: Sender, medium and receiver
2. Broadcast transmission/directional reception: Message is blasted into the environment
3. Rapid fading: Also called transitoriness.
4. Interchangeability: Speaker can receive, receiver can send
5. Total feedback: Can hear yourself speak.
6. Specialization: The design feature that refers to the idea that language is for transmitting information.
7. Semanticity: Specific sound signals can be directly linked to specific meanings.
8. Arbitrariness: No necessary or causal connection between a signal and its meaning
9. Discreteness: the units of communication are separable into units that can not be mistaken for each other ([b] & [p] in
English).
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Four design features are unique to human language (according to Hockett):
10. Displacement: The idea that you can talk about things that are not present (in time and/or place) or even about things
that do not exist (purple people eaters)
11. Productivity: The feature wherein one can create brand-new utterances never heard before.
12. Traditional transmission: Means that language is learned in social groups. Even though we are innately capable of
language, the learning takes place in social settings.
13. Duality of patterning: The idea that the sounds of language combine to create different kinds of units at another level.
Think phonemes and morphemes.
Hockett’s Design Features of Language 2
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Hockett’s design features (continued)
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Over time other scholars added new features to the list:
14. Prevarication: False messages are possible.
15. Learnibility: Learn a second language
16. Reflexiveness: refers to the capacity of language to communicate about itself (self-awareness and self-monitoring)
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Since the time of Hockett there was been new research in primate communication, children’s language, neurology, and
human evolution.
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Design features and the emergence of language
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According to Hockett, duality of patterning was likely the last feature to emerge in human language.
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He saw it as critical to separating human language from primate communication.
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Hockett saw the first 9 features as both present in other primates today and in the fossil past.
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Early pre-language communication systems were likely made of a dozen or so alarms, each used in a specific situation.
How then did productivity, displacement, traditional transmission and duality of patterning emerge in human
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According to Ottenheimer, though, productivity, displacement, traditional transmission and duality of patterning remain the
most important features.
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Hockett’s Design Features of Language 3
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Design features and the emergence of language
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Hockett explained that productivity likely came about as a result of blending, what Hockett suggested as the basis of
productivity:
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Step 1A: Combining existing calls into new ones establishes productivity. Starting from closed calls (limited, specific):
A + B = A + B [danger + food = danger + food].
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Step 1B: Moving to blended calls (prelanguage): A + B = AB [danger + food = dangerous food] or [breakfast + lunch =
brunch].
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Step 2: If blending creates productivity, then productivity (making new calls) can lead to displacement (the not making
of new calls).
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Suppose one found food or danger.
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One can choose not to communicate this.
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Step 3: The presence of productivity and displacement sets the scene for traditional transmission.
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Children and others have to be taught.
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Now one can ‘talk’ about potential dangers without first encountering them.
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Step 4: How duality of patterning emerged is the hardest piece of the puzzle.
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Suppose that 2 calls each had 2 distinct parts, then perhaps the blending process acted on them.
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Suppose that when you blend breakfast and lunch together you realize that br- is a discrete unit?
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This lets you recombine.
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A + B + C = ABC, CBA, BAC, ACB [/kæts, ækts, skæt, tæks, æskt/].
Primate Communication
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First attempts were to teach verbal language, but the physical ability was not there.
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Alexander Graham Bell tried to teach his dog language by massaging its throat as it growled.
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1940s: Work with Viki, the chimp, progressed to her making [p] and [k] sounds.
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More recently sign languages have been used to teach or the use of plastic tokens (lexigrams) were tried. Experiments:
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Beatrice and Robert Gardner worked with a chimpanzee called Washoe and others followed.
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Penny Paterson worked with a gorilla named Koko.
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Others worked with orangutans and bonobos (Kanzi seems to be the most gifted).
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Here are some websites if you are interested in reading more: Koko OR Orangutan Foundation OR Language Research
Center.
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There have been some very interesting findings:
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Washoe learned 150 signs.
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Koko learned 500 and merged the signs for water and bird when she saw a duck on a pond (productivity.)
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Some primates seem to use language to refer to items that are not there (displacement).
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Washoe taught some signs to adopted offspring (traditional transmission).
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Kanzi taught himself to read lexigrams without active learning and after teaching began, he learned over 1000 signs. He can
even understand a few spoken words.
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There have even been cases of inter-animal communication.
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Chimps named Sherman and Austin used plastic lexigrams to communicate.
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So much so one would tell the other which tool to use to open a box so they could share the treats inside.
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What this tells us about language?
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Duality of patterning is uniquely human.
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What it tells us about language origins:
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Pre-language abilities of humans and other primates probably similar.
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Very likely that in proto-humans there was some ‘breakthrough’ for duality of patterning.
Children and Language
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Human children seem to learn languages fairly easily and most continue to expand abilities throughout adulthood.
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Three-day-old infants can recognize parents’ sounds.
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By 3-4 months they are cooing, laughing and playing with different -sounding cries. According to Purves et al. (2001), et al.:
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Babies can distinguish the different phones at 4 months.
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By 6 months they react more strongly to those in own language (based on what is called the suckling method.
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At around 5-6 months they are playing with sounds such as consonants, vowels, and intonation patterns (babbling).
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Around the end of the end of 1st year they begin using recognizable spoken words
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Midway through the next year a naming “explosion” occurs.
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At 2 years they use simple 2-3 word sentences.
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After that they begin to experiment and add displacement, negatives, questions, clauses and so forth.
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Research on children learning American Sign Language may challenge this proposed pattern.
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Joseph Garcia noted that hearing children will gesture with parents earlier than they will speak.
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He also found that by the 8-9 month that these children were effectively using signs if they were exposed in the 6-7 month
range to consistent use of sign language.
Linda Acredola and Susan Goodwyn also looked at this issue (more later).
Example of Ottenheimer’s child signing for banana.
According to Purves et al. (2001),,deaf children engage in significantly more manual babbling.
Theories about Language in Children 1
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There have been various theories proposed as to how children develop their language skills, ranging from completely by nature to
those completely by nurture.
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Here are the 4 theories outlined in the book:
1. Innatist theories
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Children are born with the ability for language.
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A theory that children's brains function as language acquisition devices, allowing them to compare specific languages with
a genetically built-in "core grammar" and helping them to acquire specific languages rapidly.
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Language hard-wired in brain.
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Children are biologically able to compare the specifics of a language with the core grammar (the universal set of rules).
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Language acquisition device (LAD) helps w adjustments.
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Behaviorist theories
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A theory that children need to hear language from others around them (stimulus) and to receive praise (positive
feedback) from parents and/or caretakers in order to develop their linguistic abilities.
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Stimulus and reward as they practice.
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Doesn’t explain why children use “mouses” and “sheeps”, when the modelers do not use these plural forms.
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While deprivation of language from a child would be unethical, when one is identified (due to abuse)
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The suggestion is that there is a critical period within which we need to learn language. Debated.
Theories about Language in Children 2
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Theories (continued)
3. Cognitivist theories
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The idea that children's linguistic abilities follow their intellectual abilities.
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Concepts come first, then the words follow.
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First comes the concept of quantity, then words (more, less).
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First comes the concept of permanence, then the words (gone, all gone).
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First comes the concept of success, then the words (uh-oh).
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Research suggests simultaneity, that linguistic concepts appear at the same time as intellectual concepts. In some cases,
word use actually comes first.
4. The theory theory (aka the active construction of a grammar theory)
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Children observe the world around them and build theories about their experiences.
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In this sense, theories are children’s ideas about grammar of the language that they learn as they analyze what they hear.
The idea that language is the result of a complex set of theories that children create about the linguistic stimuli.
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Also, researchers have determined that at about 18 months there is the ‘aha!’ moment when children realize that
language that is an important source of information about the world around them.
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This concept meshes well with the process that linguistic anthropologists do in the field: Build linguistic abilities,
extend them and modify the theories.
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Robbins Burling suggests that figuring out language is when you figure out that someone else’s utterance might actually
represent something and so you try to reply.
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The example of Nicaraguan Sign Language adds an interesting discussion.
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As languages are differently constructed, the order in which children build their theories may differ.
Ethnographies of Language Learning
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Ochs and Schieffelin emphasize that language and culture learning are interconnected.
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Language learned in social settings so that learning language requires one also learns the socially acceptable ways of using
language
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They stress ethnographic field studies of children, as the task of learning language can be markedly different in different
cultures
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For instance, active encouragement by adults may or may not occur in a particular culture.
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Americans use baby talk (parentese).
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Parentese is characterized as being repetitive, slower, higher pitched and vowel exaggeration.
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Dewar (2008) suggests that the benefits include helping the infant to distinguish:
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Separate speech sounds.
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Separate words in the sound stream
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Separate clauses in the sound stream.
The Kaluli (PNG) wait for the first signs of adult speech and then encourage children to perfect their attempts.
Ideas about language learning can be unconsciously transmitted and learned.
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Bilingualism vs. monolingualism.
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In the U.S., most children grow up in a monolingual environment and learn to think that learning another language is
hard.
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Children that grow up in multilingual families understand that language competence is doable.
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Can adults learn more languages?
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Adult impatience.
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Class work vs. fieldwork.
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WHEN Is Language Possible? 1
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How language began is strongly connected to when language was possible. Most of the research on this question has focused on
two key areas: the human brain & the human vocal apparatus.
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Language and the brain
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Whether the brain is hardwired with a universal core grammar or just set up to facilitate learning/using language, it is the
brain that makes language possible.
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Much of we have learned, to date, has been the result of individuals with various kinds of impairments.
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New technologies have meant new ways to study the brain are now available. The physical capacity for language focuses
on the human brain and the vocal apparatus.
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Ultimately the capacity for language is in the brain. The research on the next page is an overview of contemporary
understanding of the physical structures of language.
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The archaeological data on vocal tracts is less extensive and the fossil record interpretations vary.
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Physical structures of the brain
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The brain has > 1 trillion cells, 100 billion are neurons (nerve cells) that are associated with memory, intelligence, creativity,
emotion, consciousness and language.
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These neurons are located in the cortex of the brain.
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This is the convoluted surface of the brain, is two millimeters thick, has a surface area 1.5 square yards
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The oldest part of the cortex is linked skills such as long-term memory and emotions.
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The neocortex, the younger and larger part of the cortex, is divided into the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes
(sections).
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These lobes are separated by very deep folds (called sulci)
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These account for about 80% of human brain, only about 60% of a New World monkey’s brain.
WHEN Is Language Possible? 2
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Physical structures of the brain
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The brain is divided into two cerebral hemispheres, connected by corpus callosum.
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Each hemisphere controls the side opposite. They also control many other functions.
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Left side (association, calculation, analysis, & language).
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While more complex, in general, 99% of right-handed people and 66% of left-handed people, language can be mapped to
the left side.
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The left hemisphere controls rhythmic perception, mathematics, time and order of event judgments.
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Right side (touch, space, music, contexts for using language).
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Right side is better with patterns, recognizing faces, and helping out with spatial orientation.
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Signing, even though seemingly a visual or spatial skill, is controlled by the left brain.
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Language areas of the brain
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In 2003, a comprehensive computerized map of the human brain was completed.
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While there is uniqueness to each brain, in general, there are several areas that are related to language and two most important
are Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas.
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Broca’s area
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Named for Paul Broca who determined that the front part of the left hemisphere is a language area.
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We know this area is associated with the clarity of speech, and for the coordinating of facial, tongue, palate, and larynx
movement.
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So damage means words are hard to pronounce words.
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Trouble with some function words (e.g.; of, and, but).
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Correct word order may be difficult and sometimes with complex syntactic structures.
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Overall, they tend to be able to understand what is being said to them.
WHEN Is Language Possible? 3
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Language areas of the brain
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Wernicke’s area
Carl Wernicke noted a different set of language difficulties in other patients, where there was damage to the temporal region
of the left hemisphere.
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They could pronounce words correctly. Sentences are garbled, and they have trouble understanding spoken language.
Other considerations
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There appears to be more right-brain-left brain communication around language then just these two language area.
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Also, the brain appears to ‘learn’ over time and becomes more specialized in response to the environment.
Language areas of the brain
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Wernicke’s area
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Carl Wernicke noted a different set of language difficulties in other patients, where there was damage to the temporal
region of the left hemisphere.
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They could pronounce words correctly. Sentences are garbled, and they have trouble understanding spoken language.
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Other considerations
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There appears to be more right-brain-left brain communication around language then just these two language area.
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Also, the brain appears to ‘learn’ over time and becomes more specialized in response to the environment.
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WHEN Is Language Possible? 4
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Language areas of the brain (continued).
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New research on the arcuate fasiculus (the structure in the brain that connects Broca’s and Wernicke’s
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According to Riling and his group (who compared the arcuate fasiculus in humans, rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees), there
is more than size of regions involved in language.
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In humans the trajectory of the arcuate fasiculus extended past the normal pattern of the other primate species and so it looks that
humans evolved to include a network that connects the areas in such a way to supplement our greater language abilities.
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Language and the human vocal apparatus
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Which came first?
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It is possible that both spoken and gestural language developed at roughly the same time
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Or one could have developed before the other.
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While other primates can learn sign language, spoken language is difficult.
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A Philip Lieberman showed, this is due to a difference in the human vocal tract.
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In humans, the larynx (where vocal cords are located) is lowered.
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This causes the lengthening of the pharynx.
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So there is more space for tongue, increased vowel resonance results.
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This means there is differentiation of vowels: [i] [a] [u]
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These vowels are not as easy for Neanderthals. Here is a recent suggestion of how Neanderthals may have sounded
WHEN Is Language Possible? 5
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Language and the human vocal apparatus (continued)
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Human infants born with high larynx and can breathe while suckling
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Begins to lower at three months & reaches adult location by 3-4 years
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Except in adult males: further descent at adolescence.
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This new configuration has advantages and disadvantages.
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Humans can breathe, talk and swallow at the same time.
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This means we can choke.
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But, unlike other primates and infants, we are not limited in our range of vowels and consonants.
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Even though the supralaryngeal vocal tract does not fossilize. Lieberman and others were able to reconstruct the shape, using
parts of the body that do fossilize as clues.
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The basicranium (base of the skull) and the lower jaw.
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A more curved basicranium indicates a lower larynx.
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What is in the fossil record?
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Australopithecines seem to have a more modern apes.
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Homo habilis fossil data does not have any basicrania recovered.
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Homo erectus (more recent) show some curving.
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At Broken Hill, Zambia (125,000 years ago) nearly human and at Qafzeh VI/Skhul V in Israel (100,000 years ago) fully modern.
Putting It All Together
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Using all four fields of anthropology
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From biological anthropology we learn that language was possible by 2 million years ago, based on the brain structure of
Homo habilis.
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We learn that language areas of the brain appear in response to the presence of linguistic signals.
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From contemporary sign language studies we learn that gestural and spoken languages are controlled by same areas of
brain.
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From linguistic and cultural anthropology we know culture and language are intimately intertwined.
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This is true both for how learned and how used.
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Children learn language as a part of a speech community.
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Archaeology helps us find the origins of culture.
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Right-handedness in early tool-making suggests dominance of left brain for language was present at about 2.5 million
years ago among early H. habilis.
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Fire at 1.6 million years ago at Koobi Fora, Kenya.
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More and more complex tools as we move forward in time.
Purring it all together.
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Signed language possible 2 million years ago in H. habilis; early spoken language possible 125,000 years ago, H. sapiens.
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Real language by 70,000 years ago is supportable.
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Recent infant signing suggests that the mental ability for language is the bigger issue than if gestural or spoken language was
first.
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When was the first speech community?
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One suggestion is that as children mimic calls of parents, a token emerged (something that stands in for meaning of
something else).
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