
Theories
 Defining language

Design Features


Primates
Acquisition of Language

Speech Sounds


When is language possible?…
How is language possible?….

 Theoretical linguistics:

Still speculative

Language- evolved at once

Language- 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.

Sending
Receiving
Language Communication
Yes
Yes
Responding
Socially learned
Yes
Yes
Complex grammar Yes
Lies, games, etc.
Yes
Yes
Possible
Possible
No
No
No

 Hockett’ s Design Features of language


1960s
Defining what is unique to humans

Thirteen features

Four are unique to human language.

Not Unique to Humans
 Vocal/auditory channel
 Broadcast transmission / directional reception



Rapid fading
Interchangeability
Total feedback




Specialization
Semanticity
Arbitrariness
Discreteness.
Unique to Humans:
(according to Hockett)
10.
Displacement
11.
Productivity
12.
Traditional transmission
13.
Duality of patterning
/ k + æ + t + s /.

 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




Experiments :

Chimpanzees


Gorillas
Orangutans
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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Development of linguistic ability is linked to maturation of cognitive processes
Sounds as abstract and arbitrary can be used to stand for objects and ideas
Chomsky (p.247):

“speaker’s ability to produce & understand instantly new sentences that are not similar to those previously heard… It seems plain that language acquisition is based on the child’s discovery of what from a formal point of view is a deep & abstract theory- a generative grammar of his/her language”
Jean Piaget & Lev Vygotsky’s theories

Individual cognition & social needs as driving force for 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 & speak single words (Holophrastic)
15 months – naming “explosion”
2 years – simple sentences, displacement
 Then – negatives, questions, clauses.



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Innatist theories

Language hard-wired in brain
Behaviorist theories

Stimulus and reward
Cognitivist theories

Concepts come first
The theory theory

Children observe and build theories

Different languages - different theories?



Cognitive development and experiential maturation stimulate children to expand their linguistic abilities
Two important themes:
1.
2.
Development awareness that organization w/in sentences is significant
Transferring learning from one context to others by processes of analogy & rule generalization.




Connected to HOW
Involves research into brain…
And vocal tract…
 And origins of culture….


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 into lobes




Frontal
Temporal
Parietal
Occipital.

• Two cerebral hemispheres
• Connected by corpus callosum
 Left hemisphere
 association


 calculation analysis language
 Right hemisphere
 touch


 space music contexts for language use.



Broca’s area



Clarity of speech
Function words
Some word order
Wernicke’s area


Understanding words
Producing sentences.

 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 three months

Reaches adult location by 3-4 years

Except in adult males: further descent at adolescence.








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.


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.





 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.