Language

1. Language What is language? How do humans process it?

2. What is language? Most people’s first answer is communication. Does being a form of communication uniquely distinguish language?

3. What more is language? • What separates language from other forms of communication? • Symbolism: words are abstract representations of conceps. • Structure: Language is governed by rules, at many different levels • Productivity: From a small number of basic units, an infinite number of utterances can be generated. • Evolution: Language changes over time.

4. Processes of language evolution • Convergence: Members of different language groups interact, blending their languages into a new common language. • Blends: Languages that have one dominent ancestor, but blend charateristics of others. English is a blended language • Mixes: Distinct languages mix to form a new one. Ex: Creole, modern Hawaiian • Divergence: Members of a single language group become geographically and socially isolated, and the languages evolve in different directions: • Japanese vs. Korean

5. A brief history of English • Old English is dated to the mid-5th century and most closely resembles German. • Middle English dates to roughly 1000-1400 and shows obvious blends with Latin and French. • Modern English dates from roughly 1500. • Germanic at its root, Old English Anglo-Saxon (from which Dutch also derives) combines with Celtic and Latin (via French).

11. The sermon of the Wolf to the English, when the Danes were greatly persecuting them, which was in the year 1014 after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ: Beloved men, know that which is true: this world is in haste and it nears the end. And therefore things in this world go ever the longer the worse, and so it must needs be that things quickly worsen, on account of people's sinning from day to day, before the coming of Antichrist. And indeed it will then be awful and grim widely throughout the world. Understand also well that the Devil has now led this nation astray for very many years, and that little loyalty has remained among men, though they spoke well. And too many crimes reigned in the land, and there were never many of men who deliberated about the remedy as eagerly as one should, but daily they piled one evil upon another, and committed injustices and many violations of law all too widely throughout this entire land. Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad AnglosAD 1014 Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, quando Dani maxime persecuti sunt eos quod fuit anno millesimo XIIII ab incarnatione domini nostri Iesu Cristi:~~~ Leofan men gecnawað þæt soð is: ðeos worolde is on ofste & hit nealæcð þam ende. & þy hit is on worolde aa swa leng swa wyrse, & swa hit sceal nyde for folces synnan fram dæge to dæge, ær antecristes tocyme, yfelian swyþe. & huru hit wyrð þænne egeslic & grimlic wide on worolde. Understandað eac georne þæt deofol þas þeode nu fela geara dwelode to swyþe, & þæt lytle getreowþa wæran mid mannum, þeah hy wel spræcan. & unrihta to fela ricsode on lande, & næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote swa georne swa man scolde, ac dæghwamlice man ihte yfel æfter oðrum, & unriht rærde & unlaga manege ealles to wide gynd ealle þas þeode.

13. Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, 10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; 15 And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. When in April the sweet showers fall That pierce March's drought to the root and all And bathed every vein in liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower; 5 When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath, Filled again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run, And many little birds make melody 10 That sleep through all the night with open eye (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage) Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, To distant shrines well known in distant lands. 15 And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury went, The holy blessed martyr there to seek Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak Chaucer - Canterbury Tales14th Century

15. Shakespeare - Henry V, 4.III1595 But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

16. Language Divergence • Depending on who you ask, language developed independently in a couple different areas. • Indo-European • Ural-Altaic • Polynesian • Chinese

17. Where did language come from? • Language appears sometime between 30,000 and 100,000 years ago. Homo sapiens has been around for 2 million years. • Mutation: Some (Pinker, Chomsky) claim language was the result of natural selection. Presumably, there is a competitive advantage in streamlining communication. • Spandrel: Others (Gould) argue that language is simply a useful byproduct of having such a complex brain.