What is language?

1. What is language? Science of Language Rules of language = rules of Natural Science? Rules of language: grammar Find out the characteristics of language from different perspectives

2. Characteristics of language (1) • Language is a symbol • “停”(stop) • but

3. Characteristics of language (2) • Language is a symbol under the basis of sounds • Human beings used sounds as language: 30,000 to 60,000 years ago • Human beings used written words as language: several thousands years ago • Languages without written words still exist • but • Animals?

4. Characteristics of language (3) • Transcendence (超越性) • Time • I met Prof. Chen at the Taipei station yesterday. (我昨天在台北車站遇到陳教授) • Iwill graduate next year. (明年我將要畢業) • Space • A:The resident, who lives on the fifth floor next to the park near the village, raises a lovely Chihuahua.(隔壁村的公園旁的5樓住戶, 養了一隻可愛的吉娃娃) • B:No! The one in the opposite room is more cute.不對, 對面的那隻才可愛呢! • Contradictory terms (矛盾用語) • Rounded quadrilateral (圓的四邊形) • Honest con man (正直的騙子)

5. Characteristics of language (4) • Creativity (創造性) • Train(English), 火車(Chinese), 汽車(Japanese) • Internet, Cyberspace, e-learning, m-learning, … • ‘鵺’: A bird with a monkey face, a fox body, a snake tail, and tiger feet (猴子頭, 狐狸身, 蛇尾, 虎足的怪鳥) • Kappa (河童):

6. Characteristics of language (5) • Infinite (無限性) • 山田太郎的父親以前上班的公司的董事長的妹妹所經營的餐廳的常客中的一人...

7. Characteristics of language (6) • Language is a structured symbol system • Connections between the language elements • Rules for the arrangement of the vowels and consonants • In Japanese, no consonants are allowed to appear consecutively • try  torai, strike sutoraiku • Sentence • The hunter killed a bear. • A bear killed the hunter. (different meaning) • Killed hunter a bear the. (wrong)

8. Sentence Noun phrase Verb phrase Article Noun Noun phrase Verb Article Noun The hunter a bear killed The hunter killed a bear. Tree structure

9. Characteristics of language (7) • The symbols in a language is arbitrary • The relationship between a traffic sign and its meaning • There is not necessarily a certain relationship between a word (or a sound) and a meaning represented by the word • 狗, dog, 犬(Inu) • However, it is limited by • Social constraints • devil

10. What is a language? (An individual language) • Characteristics of language (1) to (7) are represented some characteristics for the “general language” • Individual language: Chinese, English, Japanese, French, .... • Suppose there is a language: AA BB ABBA BAAB BBABBABB .....................................

11. Definition of an individual language (1) • The language is a collection of all words and the grammar • Words: “A”, “B” • Grammar: • 1. The collection M of all the “sentences” of this “language” • 2. “AA” and “BB” belong to the M (the “sentences” of this “language”) • 3. The “sentences” by adding additional As on the left and right sides to the “sentences” in the M also belong to the M. • 4. The “sentences” by adding additional Bson the left and right sides to the “sentences” in the M also belong to the M.

12. Definition of an individual language (2) • A collection of all conversations that use the language as a means of communication • Including the wrong parts • Definition (1) or definition (2)? • As a strict definition, or • As a means of communication?

13. Why do humans have language? • Language acquisition: system • Language acquisition: individual

14. Language acquisition: system • Previous • Language is awarded by the God • Now • Development of vocal organs and brain

15. Development of vocal organs Mouse口, nose鼻, pharynx咽, larynx喉, bronchus支氣管, trachea氣管, lung肺 Why chimpanzee cannot speak  the position of the larynx is different with humans Evolution  Selection  Pay

16. Development of brain • Brain lateralization (腦的一側化) • In charge of the language: left or right brain • But similar phenomenon is found in the brains of monkeys, mice, and birds • The capacity of brain • Human: 1350~1400g (3 times of chimpanzee) • Neural development delay for those who less than 1000g • Ratio to the body weigh: human 1:38, sparrow 1:34, mouse 1:28 • The level of human intelligence depends on the number of brain cells

18. Language acquisition: system • The Selfish Gene (利己基因) (Richard Dawkins, 1976) • The existence of language is to compete with others and survive • Depression (憂鬱症) • Caused by language transcendence • The cost of evolution

19. Language acquisition: individual • Structural linguistics • Individual language acquisition is the process of human beings observe the outside world, classify and find out the rules, and finally become a habit • Imitation • Resist against corrections

20. Resist against corrections • Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? • Child: Yes. • Mother: What did you say she did? • Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • Mother: Did you say she held them tightly? • Child: No, she holded them loosely.

21. Generative grammar (生成文法) • Noam Chomsky • People born with a language faculty (語言機能) • Language faculty is also called “universal grammar” (普遍文法), including multiple “principles” (原理) and “parameters” (變數) • Principles and parameters control what is part of the language, and what is not • Individual’s language acquisition is not from the outside of the brain, while the language faculty exists inside the brain when people born

22. Some terms • 語言機能 (language faculty) • 語言能力 (linguistic competence) • 語言知識 (linguistic knowledge) • 語言運用 (linguistic performance) • 臨界期 (Critical period)

23. Pragmatics (語用論) • Meaning • What does this sentence mean? • “Mr. Wang likes baseball.” • Intention • A: Mr. Lee, you’d better submit that paper later. • B: What do you mean?

24. Common sense and inference • A: Do you want to attend the banquet tonight? • B: I will have a midterm exam tomorrow.

25. Inference • Language: left brain, inference: right brain • Ask the following questions to the one whose right brain is damaged • John is higher than Ben. Ben is higher than Steve. Who is the shortest one among the three?  ? • Hanako took the pen and the notebook to the baseball player. She wrote a manuscript of celebrity views on environmental issues. What does she want to do?  Ask the baseball player’s signature

26. Constructed language • 自然語言(natural language) • 人工語言(constructed language) • The common language of humans International Auxiliary Language (IAL) • Based on the natural language, changed the inflections, simplified the grammar rules • e.g., Esperanto (世界語) in 1887 • Computer languages

27. Esperanto, 1887 • Created by a Polish ophthalmologist Zamenhof • The most widely spoken constructed language in the world • Over one million people speak Esperanto. Some international organizations adopted it as an official language • Linguistic properties • 28 letters, one-sound-one-letter principle(easier than English) • A definite article, singular and plural forms (harder than Japanese) • Only one definite article (easier than French) • All common nouns end in -o (singular) and -oj (plural)e.g., persono, personoj (easier than other European languages) • Adjectives agree with their nouns e.g., inteligentapersono, inteligentajpersonoj(harder than English)

28. Symbolic logic • Everyone loves someone. (ambiguous) For every person x, there is someone whom x loves. There is some person y whom everyone loves, i.e. everyone loves some one specific person