Design features of language

1. Design features of language LING 200 Winter 2009 Jan. 7

2. Plan for today • Questions about language • Hockett’s proposed design features • Properties of some animal communication systems

3. The big question(s) • Is language unique to humans? • Is it fundamentally different from animal communication? • (What is language anyway?)

4. Getting at the big question • Charles Hockett (1960) “The Origin of Speech.” Scientific American 203: 88-96. • Smaller questions • What are properties of human language? • Which are shared by other communication systems? • Caveat • In Hockett’s day, not much known about ASL

5. Hockett’s proposal • Design features characterize language, distinguish it from other communication systems • System must have all 9 features to be language

6. 9 features • Mode of communication • Semanticity • Pragmatic function • Interchangeability • Cultural transmission • Arbitrariness • Discreteness • Displacement • Productivity Common to all(?) communication systems Not found in all communication systems

7. Interchangeability • = A user can both transmit and receive messages • Not all communication display this flexibility • silkworm moths: only females secrete chemicals • whistling moths: males make territorial sounds

8. Cultural transmission • Nature (innate) (vs. nurture--learned) • = At least some aspect of a communication system is learned from other users • A Cambodian child with an American parent will learn English, not Khmer • Animal communication systems vary • Fireflies and cowbirds: entirely innate • Finches: can learn to make some calls if raised in isolation; but don’t learn full system

9. Arbitrariness • (vs. iconic) • Does the form of a sign/call/signal resemble what it refers to? • Sign languages may seem relatively iconic… KNOW BLACK CANADA

10. Arbitrariness in some animal communication systems • baring teeth • Vervet monkeys • http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/media/vervetcalls.html • Distinct arbitrary calls for snakes, leopards, eagles

11. Discreteness • (sometimes called duality of patterning) • System decomposable into smaller, recombinable parts • a, p, r, t combine to form trap, part, rapt • Doesn’t seem to be found in most animal communication systems • But bee dances http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/danceswagg.html (the waggle dance, a.k.a. the sickle dance) • pattern, direction can be combined for different meanings

12. Displacement • Not limited to the here and now • Last night, 10 million years ago… • Bees: limited displacement • round dance: relatively close • sickle dance: intermediate distance • tail-wagging dance: relatively far

13. Productivity • Unlimited potential to express novel ideas • Elements of system are fixed or infinite? • “Intonational phenomena in Sahaptin identified to date can be described exclusively with nuclear pitch accents.” • Bees • Vertical sugar water experiment

14. Chimp (and other primate) studies • 20th century hypothesis: Maybe chimps (and other primates) don’t use human language because of lack of opportunity to learn it. • Chimp vocal tracts not suited to speech, but sign language okay

15. Chimps’ accomplishments • Can learn to associate referents with arbitrary signs • Can learn to use signs spontaneously • Can learn to use signs creatively • Washoe (at CWU): 'water bird' (for swan) • Can invent totally new signs • Washoe: a new sign for 'bibs' • Can come up with creative solutions to problems • Kanzi: When friend Austin the chimp was moved out of compound, Kanzi got lonely, typed 'Austin TV' to request videotape of Austin.

16. Chimps’ main limitation • Syntax • length: 2-3 sign utterances • inconsistent word order • See also http://www.gorilla.org/world/talk_aol.html • Noam Chomsky (“I told you so”) • It is hardly likely that some species has this capacity but has never thought to use it until instructed by humans…the evidence suggests that the most rudimentary features of human language are far beyond the capacity of otherwise intelligent apes, just as the capacity to fly or the homing instinct of pigeons lie beyond the capacity of humans.

17. Summary and preview • Human language seems to be qualitatively different from animal communication systems • Human vocal tract even seems designed for speech

18. Question • Good site on onomatopoeia in different languages (but no sound files ) • (onomatopoeia: vocabulary that imitates sound) • http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/dabbott/animal.html • What does this tell us about arbitrariness in spoken languages?