PSY 369: Psycholinguistics
Language and Communication
What do you think?
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What is language?
What is communication?
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Any means by which two (or more) individuals
exchange information
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Paralinguistic techniques - not involving vocalization
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Non-linguistic communication - that do involve
vocalization
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Hand signals, facial expressions, body language, nods, smiles,
winks, etc.
Grunts, groans, snorts, sighs, whimpers, etc.
Not all produced sounds are intended to convey
messages, so they aren’t communication
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e.g., snoring
Some examples
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Animals - use a variety of methods to
communicate
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Dogs bark
Birds sing
Bees dance
People talk - we use language (as well as other
methods) for communication
Features of Language (Hockett, 1963)
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Arbitrariness
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No resemblance between the language signal
and the thing that it represents
“dog”
“chien”
“hund”
“perro”
Features of Language
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Displacement
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We can communicate about things that are physically
and temporally removed from us
“Did you see what happened in the high bar competition on
Monday? That guy flew threw way over the bar six times,
and then got a really low score.”
Features of Language
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Productivity
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Our use of language is extremely creative.
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We have a limited amount of linguistic elements (e.g.,
sounds and words), but can combine those elements in
novel ways.
“I was tired of cleaning up after
my dog in my backyard so I
taught him to pole vault.”
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Even though you’ve never heard this sentence before
you can understand it effortlessly
Features of Language
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Discretness
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Language signals are distinct
I don’t change my pitch or volume to denote
size of an object
“dog”
“dog”
“dog”
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Features of Language
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Semanticity
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Language signals have meaning
“dog”
- Four legged animal
- Common pet
- Fur
- Chases cats
- Barks
- Etc.
Features of Language
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Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of patterning
Duality of Patterning
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Language signals occur on two levels
Symbols are meaningful,
discrete, and arbitrary
Smaller units that make up the
meaningful units don’t have
meaning
Words and morphemes
“dog”
Phonomes
/d/
/o/ /g/
Animals and language?
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Is language use a uniquely human ability?
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Parrots - can memorize chunks of human speech
Polly wanna cracker
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But are they really producing utterances based on
an underlying meaning?
Animals and language?
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Is language use a uniquely human ability?
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Dogs - can learn to associate “food” or “walk”
with particular behaviors
I believe you
mentioned something
about food
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But is that the same thing as understanding the
meaning of food and walk?
Animals and language?
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Is language use a uniquely human ability?
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Bird use songs to serve territorial and courtship
functions.
Tweet chirp chirp
warble
warble chirp.
Translation: this is my tree
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Can songs be used productively?
Animals and language?
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Is language use a uniquely human ability?
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Bird use songs to serve territorial and courtship
functions.
Chirp chirp warble
warble tweet chirp?
Translation: Is this my tree?
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Can songs be used productively?
Animals and language?
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Is language use a uniquely human ability?
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Honey bees dance to indicate where a source of
nectar is. (von Frisch, 1954)
• Angle of the dance indicates
direction
• Rate of looping indicates
distance
NOVA's bee dance page
Animals and language?
Parrot
Dog
Bird
song
Arbitrariness
Displacement
Productivity
Discreteness
Semanticity
Duality of
patterning
?
?
?
?
?
Bee
dance
Human
Language
What is language?
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A difficult question to answer:
“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and
desires by means of voluntrily produced
symbols.”
Edward Sapir (1921)
What is language?
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A difficult question to answer:
“A language is a set (finite or infinite) of
sentences, each finite in length and constructed
out of a finite set of elements.”
Noam Chomsky (1957)
What is language?
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Some generally agreed upon conclusions
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Symbolic
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Voluntary (or is it?)
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Language use is under our individual control
Language is systematic
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Elements are used to represent something other than itself
There is hierarchical structure that organizes linguistic
elements
Modalities
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Spoken, written, signed (sign language)
Assumed primacy of speech - it came first