PSY 369: Psycholinguistics

Language and Communication

What do you think? What is language?

What is communication? Any means by which two (or more) individuals

exchange information Paralinguistic techniques - not involving vocalization

Hand signals, facial expressions, body language, nods, smiles, winks, etc.

Non-linguistic communication - that do involve vocalization

Grunts, groans, snorts, sighs, whimpers, etc. Not all produced sounds are intended to convey

messages, so they aren’t communication e.g., snoring

Some examples Animals - use a variety of methods to

communicate Dogs bark Birds sing Bees dance People talk - we use language (as well as other

methods) for communication

Features of Language (Hockett, 1963)

Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Arbitrariness No resemblance between the language signal

and the thing that it represents

“dog”

“perro”

“hund”

“chien”

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Displacement 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 Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Productivity Our use of language is extremely creative.

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.”

Even though you’ve never heard this sentence before you can understand it effortlessly

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Discretness Language signals are distinct

I don’t change my pitch or volume to denote size of an object

“dog” “dog” “dog”

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Semanticity Language signals have meaning

“dog”

- Four legged animal- Common pet- Fur- Chases cats- Barks- Etc.

Features of Language Arbitrariness Displacement Productivity Discreteness Semanticity Duality of patterning

Duality of Patterning Language signals occur on two levels

Symbols are meaningful, discrete, and arbitrary

Smaller units that make up the meaningful units don’t have meaning

“dog”

/d/ /o/ /g/

Words and morphemes

Phonomes

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability?

Parrots - can memorize chunks of human speech

Polly wanna cracker

But are they really producing utterances based on an underlying meaning?

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability?

I believe you mentioned something

about food

Dogs - can learn to associate “food” or “walk” with particular behaviors

But is that the same thing as understanding the meaning of food and walk?

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability?

Tweet chirp chirp warble

warble chirp.

Bird use songs to serve territorial and courtship functions.

Can songs be used productively?

Translation: this is my tree

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability?

Chirp chirp warble warble tweet chirp?

Bird use songs to serve territorial and courtship functions.

Can songs be used productively?

Translation: Is this my tree?

Animals and language? Is language use a uniquely human ability?

NOVA's bee dance page

• Angle of the dance indicates direction• Rate of looping indicates distance

Honey bees dance to indicate where a source of nectar is. (von Frisch, 1954)

Animals and language?

Arbitrariness

Displacement

Productivity

Discreteness

Semanticity Duality of patterning

Parrot DogBirdsong

Bee dance

Human Language

?????

What is language? 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? 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? Some generally agreed upon conclusions

Symbolic Elements are used to represent something other than itself

Voluntary (or is it?) Language use is under our individual control

Language is systematic There is hierarchical structure that organizes linguistic

elements Modalities

Spoken, written, signed (sign language) Assumed primacy of speech - it came first