Language
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What is language: a symbolic rule-based
system of communication shared by a
community
Question: can one person have language?
Language
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Our spoken written or
gestured words and
the way we combine
them to communicate
meaning.
This communication is a form of
language!!!
Elelments of Language
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Phonology - basic phonemes (sounds)
Phoneme :smallest unit of speech or sound
Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.
There are 43 sounds in the English Language
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Morphology - rules for word formation
Morpheme: smallest meaningful unit of language
walk, walk-ed, learn, un-learn
Syntax - rules for combining words to form phrases and
sentences

The small boy rode a large bike, or, Bike large rode boy
small?
Semantics
The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a
language. (The study of meaning or extracting
meaning from words)
Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
Crash can mean auto accident, a drop in the Stock
Market, to attend a party without being invited,
ocean waves hitting the shore or the sound of a
cymbals being struck together.
Semantics
The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules.
They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.
Grammar

A system of
rules in a
language that
enables us to
communicate
and understand
others.
Properties of language
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1. Arbitrariness: fundamental units of language have
arbitrary relationship to what they represent e.g. dog =
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2. Generativity = from a set of finite fundamental units,
infinite meaning is possible (you can make up any
sentence, and we will understand you)
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3. Generational transmission: passed on from one
generation to the next
Properties of language
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4. Displacement: can communicate about
ideas not in the here and now
5. Semanticity: meaningfulness drives all
communication
Language Acquisition
Stages that we learn
language…
Babbling Stage- 2 to
12 months
2.
Holophrastic Stage
(one word stage)
3.
Telegraphic Speech
Stage- 2 to 3 years
*After the telegraphic stage
we get overgeneralization.
Development is complete,
but vocabulary is limited.
1.
Social Learning Theory
B.F. Skinner from the
Behaviorist School. His
theory is called Operant
conditioning.
• Baby may imitate a
parent.
• If they are reinforced
they keep saying the
word.
• If they are punished,
they stop saying the
word.
Chomsky’s Theory (nativist theory)
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We learn language too quickly for
it to be through reinforcement and
punishment.
Inborn universal language
acquisition device
Did not totally discount Skinner
Theory does fit common
language aquistion for all
groups of people
Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity
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The idea that
language determines
the way we think.
The Hopi tribe has
no past tense in
their language, so
Whorf says they
rarely think of the
past.
Studies in Animal Language
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A number of species have been studies:
dolphins, parrots, whales, etc
Most studies have involved nonhuman apes:
Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos
Why: close relatives of humans, big brains,
highly social
History of Ape language studies
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Cross-fostering: raising an ape as a human
baby
1950’s Keith and Cathy Hayes: Viki project,
teaching a chimpanzee to speak. Big
disaster.
Beatrix and Alan Gardner: Washoe project,
teaching an ape sign language
History of Ape language studies
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Francine Patterson and
Koko: A gorilla learns sign
language
Herb Terrace and Nim
Chimpsky
History of Ape language studies
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Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and the bonobo
Kanzi
Koko
A sad Koko gets a visit from Robin Williams to cheer her up.
Koko hears of Robin Williams’ Death