The Faculty of Language

•Insights from Humans

•Insights from Animals

Questions

• Why have only humans developed this ability to communicate vocally?

• Reasons to communicate vocally.

• Do other animals that communicate vocally have a Broca’s area?

• Why do parrot’s sound more human than chimps?

The Evidence

• All humans learn language

• Only humans learn language

• Human languages have common properties– Linguistic Universals

• Humans learn languages the same way.

Communication v Structure

• Do other species clearly communicate?

• Yes! Examples Chimps, Birds,

• The question is how do other species communicate?

• Do they communicate the same way as humans?

• Examine the system of communication.

A Semiotic approach: Chimps v. humans

• Purpose: understanding ourselves

• The representational level – phonemes v. gestures

• The lexical level

• The tactic level – A taxis, parataxis, syntax.

Representational Systems

• Humans• Development of the

Vocal Tract• Cooing• Babbling• Phonological

Development

• Chimps• Vocal Tract more

limited• Cannot produce the

range of human sounds.

• Gardner and Gardner developed Sign Lg.

Initial Phonemic Division

Consonant- Vowel

Labial Consonant- /a/

Syllable Development

duplicated syllables

baba

Dental - Labial

/b/ - /d/

High -s Low Vowels

/a/ - /i/ (or /u/)

baba- dada

baba- bibi

dada- didi

Oral- Nasal

/b/ - /m/

baba -mama

Voiced- Voiceless

/b/- /t/

baba - tata

Front - Back

/i/- /u/

bibi - bubu

Dental - Velar

/d/ v. /g/

dada - gaga

Diversification

baba - babi

mama - mami

Lexical Development

Tactic Stages stages

• What are the tactic stages?

• Ataxis, parataxis, syntax

• Ataxis is the one word stage.

Lexical Signs

HumansBrenda: Car. Car. Car. Car.

( pronounced [ka])Scollon: What?Brenda: Go. Go.Scollon: (Undecipherable.)Brenda: Bus. Bus. Bus. Bus. Bus. Bus.

Bus. Bus. (pronounced [baish])

Scollon: What? Oh, Bicycle? Is that what you said?

Brenda: Not. ([na])Scollon: No?Brenda: Not. Scollon: No. I got it wrong.

• Chimps• Evidence of

Washoe learning 130 Signs.

• What did Washoe Learn?

Parataxis

• Humans• Brenda:

• Tapecorder. Use it. Use it.

• Scollon: Use it for what?

• Brenda: Corder talk. Brenda Talk.

• Let me use the taperecorder to talk into.

Chimps

more apple (12)

more banana(62)

give apple ( 9)

give gum( 4)

brush me (35)

brush Nim (13)

apple more (5)

banana more (5)

apple give (3)

gum give (3)

me brush(9)

Nim brush (4)

Case Relationship

• eat Nim action-agent • eat grape action-object• eat tickle two propositions• food Nim object-beneficiary• food there action place• Nim out agent-action• out shoe action-object• out pants action-object

Case Relations

• These case relationships detected in chimps are very similar to the ones found in the child paratactic stage and in adult syntax.

• So what?

Two Word

Combinations

Three Word

CombinationsPlay me. 375Me Nim. 328Tickle me. 316Eat Nim. 302More eat. 287Me eat. 237Nim eat. 209Finish hug. 187Drink Nim. 143More tickle. 136

Play me. Nim. 81Eat me. Nim. 48Tickle me. Nim. 44Hug me. Nim. 20Me. Nim eat. 21Eat me. Eat. 22Eat Nim. Eat. 46Banana. Eat Nim. 33Grape eat. Nim. 37Yogurt. Nim eat. 20

Nim’s 16 word “sentence”

Properties of the different tactic systems

NA = Not Applicable

One-Word

(Ataxis)

Two-Word

(Parataxis)

Syntax

Sign Structure

Word Order Significant

Parts of Speech

Case Meaning

Fixed Case Meaning

No of words per sentence

Mean Length of Utterance

Utility of Embedding

S-->W

NA

1

NA

NA

1

1

NA

S-->W:W

No

1

Yes?

No

2

2.2

No

S-->W:W

No

1

Yes?

No

2

2.2

No

Syntactic Signs• To be a sign the sentence

must have a signified and a signifier.

• The signified is the (meaning (value) of the sentence.

• The signifier is spelled by parts of speech. Parts of speech are represented by words. Each word in the lexicon must be assigned a part of speech.

Syntactic Signs and Parts of Speech

Syntax v. Parataxis

• There is very little evidence to support the chimp’s ability to produce a sentence.

• But there is good evidence to suggest that chimps can understand syntactic statements.

• Put the shoe in the cup.

• Put the cup in the shoe.

All human languages learn language. Why?

• Two Positions• The empiricist (Skinnerian) is

the older view • The rationalist (Chomskian)

View (since the 50s)• Basic Differences

– Role of mind: active v passive– Intelligence for language:

language specific v. general intelligence.

Context Generalization.

• The principle of context generalization is that children learn the concept of grammatical category on the basis of the word’s position in the sentence. Thus in the first set of examples, children can conclude that the nouns: ball; house; car and doll, all belong to the same category.

I see the ball.

I see the house.

I see the car.

I see the doll.

I see the _____

Criticism of Context Generalizaztion

• John is easy to please.

• John is eager to please.

•It is easy to please John.•*It is eager to please John.

•To please John is easy.•*To please John is eager.

Humans must have an intelligence for language.

• Chomsky argued for language specific intelligence.

• The acquisition of language at an early age.• Chomsky argued for Universal Grammar as a set

of principles that were in some way accessible to the learner.

• Explained several things:– Early age– Language Universals

Where do universals come from?

• Innate ideas.

• Physiological consequences (vocal tract).

• . . .

The question of why are there discrete stages?

Why to children (and chimps) pass through the same stages?

– Skinner: Didn’t address the topic.– Chomsky: Ducked the issue– Piaget: Constructivist View.

There are many interesting questions that can be raised about the development of systems of underlying representations during the period of language acquisition. It is possible that this might be fairly slow. There is, for example, some evidence that children tend to hear much more phonetically than adults. There is no reason to jump to the conclusion that this is simply a matter of training and experience; it may very well have a maturational basis. Furthermore, much of the evidence relevant to the construction of the underlying systems of representation may not be available in the early stages of language acquisition. These are open questions, and it is pointless to speculate about them any further. They deserve careful empirical study not only because of the fundamental importance of the question of "psychological reality" of linguistic constructs, but also for practical reasons; for example, with respect to the problem of the teaching of reading. These further topics, however, lie beyond the scope of this book. Chomsky, The Sound Pattern of English, 1968:50

The Constructivism of Jean Piaget

• Children construct their understanding of the world by adding axioms:

• The principle of the permanence of an object.

• The conservation of solids and liquids.

Can constructivism address the question of tactic stages?

• The stage like development of children is analogous to the stages of tactic development.

• This would mean that each stage involves the construction of a new axiom.

• What axioms could be suggested with ataxis, parataxis and syntax?

Possible axioms

• Ataxis• Principle of the sign (Saussure).• Parataxis:• The linkage of the two signs using a case

like relationship.• Syntax: the development of Parts of Speech.• (There are others (e.g. the representational

sign)

So how does this help us explain the universal sequencing and language

universals?

• Sequencing?

• Universals?

So what?

• Comparing humans and chimps can improve our understanding of the nature of human language.

• These comparisons may get us to rethink overlooked questions (e.g.,what is syntax?).

• They may ask us to look at things differently (e.g., the constructivist view)

Exam QuestionsUsing the adjacent diagram as a guide, offer 5 insights that you have encountered in this class which help you better understand human language.

Please number the points and restrict yourself to a single page. Make sure your name

is on the paper.