The Anthropology of Language: An
Introduction to Linguistic
Anthropology
Chapter 8
How and When is Language Possible?
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How is Language Possible?
• Theories…
• Defining language…
• Primates…
• Humans…
• When is language possible?…
• How is language possible?….
2

Theories About Beginnings
• Early speculative theories
– philosophical
• 1700s: gestures, social contracts
• 1800s: imitations, emotions, natural sounds, group work
– Bow wow, ouch, ding dong, yo-he-ho
– 1866 Linguistic Society of Paris bans discussions
• Contemporary data-based theories
– anthropological, holistic
• using all four subfields of anthropology
3

Contemporary Theories
• Theoretical linguistics:
– Still speculative
• Language too complicated to have evolved over time
• Language developed all at once and is innate feature in humans
• Children born with universal grammar
– Only need to acquire specifics
• Linguistic anthropology:
– Uses all four fields of anthropology
• Language too complicated to have developed all at once
• Language probably evolved slowly along with culture
• Children born with ability to learn language
– Learning takes place in social situations
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Defining Language
Sending
Receiving
Language Communication
Yes
Yes
Responding
Socially learned
Yes
Yes
Complex grammar Yes
Lies, games, etc.
Yes
Yes
Possible
Possible
No
No
No
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Defining Language
• Hockett’s Design Features of language
– 1960s
– Defining what is unique to humans
– Thirteen features
• Four are unique to human language
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Design Features of Language
Not Unique to Humans
• Vocal/auditory channel
• Broadcast transmission / directional reception
• Rapid fading
• Interchangeability
• Total feedback
• Specialization
• Semanticity
• Arbitrariness
• Discreteness
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Design Features of Language
Unique to Humans
(according to Hockett)
• Displacement
• Productivity
• Traditional transmission
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And the most significant
• Duality of patterning
– Discrete units at one level can be combined to create different kinds of units at a different level
• / k, æ, t, s /  kæts, skæt, tæks, tæsk
– Critical, according to Hockett, in distinguishing between human language and other forms of communication
– Thought by Hockett to be the last to emerge in the evolution of language
9

Design Features and the Emergence of
Human Language
• The idea of blending
– Combining calls to establish productivity
– Starting from closed calls (limited, specific)
• A + B = A + B
– danger + food = danger + food
– Moving to blended calls (prelanguage)
• A + B = AB
– danger + food = dangerous food
– breakfast + lunch = brunch
– Making duality of patterning possible
• Isolation of units for recombining
– A + B + C = ABC, CBA, BAC, ACB
– /kæts, ækts, skæt, tæks, æskt/
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Primate Communication
• Experiments:
– Chimpanzees
– Gorillas
– Bonobos (video)
• What this tells us about language
– Duality of patterning is uniquely human
• What it tells us about language origins
– Pre-language abilities of humans and other primates probably similar
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Children and Language
• 3 days – recognizing parents’ sounds
• 3 months – cooing, playing with intonation
• 6 months – babbling, playing with sounds
– 9 months – beginning signs
• 1 year – recognizable spoken words
• 15 months – naming “explosion”
• 2 years – simple sentences, displacement
• Then – negatives, questions, clauses
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Theories about Language in Children
• Innatist theories
– Language hard-wired in brain
• Language acquisition device helps w adjustments
• Behaviorist theories
– Stimulus and reward
• Doesn’t explain “mouses”
• Cognitivist theories
– Concepts come first
• Research suggests simultaneity
• The theory theory
– Children observe and build theories
• Different languages - different theories?
– Korean vs. English, verbs vs. nouns
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Anthropological Observations
• Ochs and Schieffelin
• Stress ethnographic field studies of children
• Language learned in social settings.
– Encouragement by adults is not universal
– Baby talk is not universal
• Becoming part of a speech community
– Learning how and when to use language
• Ideas about language learning
– Bilingualism vs. monolingualism
– Can adults learn more languages?
• Adult impatience
• Classwork vs. fieldwork
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WHEN is Language Possible?
• Connected to HOW
• Involves research into brain…
• And vocal tract…
• And origins of culture….
15

Physical requirements for (Human)
Language
• Brain architecture
– Lateralization – language on left (mostly)
– Broca’s area – production of words
– Wernicke’s area – production of sentences
• Homo habilis as first brain with Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
• Basic human language perhaps 1.8-2 million years old
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The Human Brain
• Cortex
– The convoluted surface of the brain
– Two millimeters thick
– Surface area 1.5 square yards
– Contains 100 million neurons
• Oldest part of cortex
– Controls long term memory
– And emotion
• Newer part of cortex
– “Neocortex”
– Controls language
– 80% of human brain
– Divided (by sulci) into lobes
• Frontal
• Temporal
• Parietal
• Occipital
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Lateralization & Language
• Two cerebral hemispheres
• Connected by corpus callosum
• Left hemisphere
– association
– calculation
– analysis
– language
• Right hemisphere
– touch
– space
– music
– contexts for language use
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Language Areas of the Brain
• Broca’s area
– Clarity of speech
– Function words
– Some word order
• Wernicke’s area
– Understanding words
– Producing sentences
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The Fossil Record
• Koobi Fora, Kenya
– Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas present
• In Homo habilis 1.8-2 mya
• But not in Australopithecus 1.26-1.8 mya:
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The Human Vocal Tract
• Lowering of the larynx
– Where vocal cords are located
• Lengthening of the pharynx
– More space for tongue
– Increased vowel resonance
• Differentiation of vowels: [i] [a] [u]
• Human infants born with high larynx
– Begins to lower at 3 months
– Reaches adult location by 3–4 years
• Except in adult males: further descent at adolescence
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Evidence from the fossil record
• Evidence from basicranium
– Where muscles attach
– More curved = lower larynx
• Australopithecus (1.5 mya) not curved
• Homo habilis (2 mya) no data
• Homo erectus (1.6 mya) some curve
• Early Homo sapiens (400,000 ya) definite curve
• Homo sapiens sapiens (125,000 ya) ditto
• Neanderthal (130,000 ya) no curve.
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Origins of Culture
• Associating language with complex tools
– evolution of tool design provides clues
• complexity of Upper Paleolithic tools
– requires description (vs imitation)
• Associating language with cultural complexity
– art, music, ritual, cooperative hunting/childcare
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The Fossil Record
• Australopithecus (1.5 mya) first stone tools
• Homo habilis (2 mya) control of fire
• Homo erectus (1.6 mya) organized hunting?
• Early Homo sapiens (400,000 ya) shelters, burials
• Homo sapiens sapiens (125,000 ya) knitting, basketweaving
• Neanderthal (130,000 ya) burials, music.
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Putting it all Together
• Using all four fields of anthropology:
– Culture (tools) possible 2.5 mya, early H. habilis
– Signed language possible 2mya, H. habilis
– Spoken language possible 125,000 ya, H. sapiens.
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HOW Is Language Possible?
• How do you open a closed call/sign system?
– Through blending (Hockett)
• Situations requiring communicating two ideas [dangerous food]
– Through play? (Ottenheimer)
• Mimicking, pretending, discovering symbolism
• How do you discover/use duality of patterning?
– Through identifying discrete recombinable units
• Also through play?
– Playing with symbols
– Playing with language
» Shintiri, other Pig Latins
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Thought as you leave
• If you had to convince a visitor from another planet that you were sentient, how would you go about it?
• Do you think that an alien would recognize human language as a key element of what it is to be human? Why/why not?
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Next:
• Change and Choice
– Read:
• Textbook Chapter 9
• Workbook/Reader:
– Hill (pp. 173-193)
– Prepare to do:
• Writing/Discussion Exercises (W/R p. 195-200)
• Practice with Languages (W/R pp. 201-204)
• Language Creating (W/R p. 211)
• Conversation partnering (W/R p. 212)
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