1 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay LIN1300 What is language? Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay 1

2 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Thursday, September 13  Previously › Syllabus › Introduction  Langage – langue – parole  The study of language  Today › Human language 2

3 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Recap Langage-Langue-Parole  Which concept (langage, langue or parole) would you associate with the following statements? › Individual variation in the use of a system › Innate › Acquired › Specific code/system used by a linguistic community › Psychological ability › Use of Japanese by a speaker of that language 3

4 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay › Individual variation in the use of a system  parole › Innate  langage › Acquired  langue › Specific code/system used by a linguistic community  langue › Psychological ability  langage › Use of Japanese by a speaker of that language  parole 4

5 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Properties of Human Language  What is human communication about?  What is unique about human language? › Differences and similarities with other types of communication in different species 5

6 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Properties of Human Language  Association form-meaning › signifier-signified  Variety of functions  Displacement  Productivity and creativity  Complexity  Cultural transmission  Duality (of patterning) 6

7 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay ž Human language – Linguistic signs  Association signified – signifier › 7 Associating form and meaning

8 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay ž Referential calls – Association btw “call” - “meaning”  Acoustic differences (in duration and rhythm) signal differences in meaning › E.g.  dominant male vs. isolated (looking for mother)  Warning of danger  different calls for different predators  reactions (e.g. snake vs. eagle)  Food  different types, quality, quantity 8 Associating form and meaning communication in non-human primates

9 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Studies › Recordings of various calls are played › Same reaction as for authentic calls › Even if no real danger, food, etc. › › Reaction is not due to them having seen the actual danger/food  Ability to associate call and meaning  Conclusion › Other primates are able to produce and categorise different signals (calls) based on meaning 9 Associating form and meaning communication in non-human primates

10 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Humans › Communication and socialisation, entertainment, etc.  Non-human primates › To cause a reaction › Instrumental (≠ declarative/statement)  E.g. do not communicate to say:  “There is no predator”, “the predators is leaving”, “what happened to you? I didn’t see you yesterday”, etc. 10 Variety of functions

11 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Context and time of reference › Humans  No limit  Present, past, future and hypothetical events  Any close, far, fictive context, phenomenon, concept, etc. › Non-human primates  Referential limits  Here and now only 11Displacement

12 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Displacement  Exception: honeybees › Able to communicate location of nectar through dance  12

13 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Productivity and creativity  Humans › Large number of units of meaning (words, morphemes) › Infinite number of potential combinations  Infinite number of units of meaning which can be combined in an infinite number of ways to form new meanings  Non-human primates › Fixed reference  Finite inventory of signals  E.g. around 36 calls for chimpanzees  No new signals are created to form new meanings  Signals cannot be combined to form new meanings 13

14 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Complexity  Humans › Internal structure in the system  Morpho-syntax  Contains elements with a purely grammatical function  Non-human primates › No structure in the system › No elements that have a grammatical function 14

15 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Cultural transmission  Humans › Language is learned from the environment › Not born with an instinctive language  Exposure is essential for acquisition  E.g. Children not exposed to language in first years of life  Animals › Born with a set of signals that are produced instinctively  Programmed in their genes  E.g. Bird songs 15

16 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Duality of patterning  The speech stream can be divided into units which carry meaning (words/morphemes) which can be divided into units (sounds) which themselves do not carry meaning  Unique to human language › E.g. “cat” = k + a + t  Animals › E.g. “woof” is not w + oo + f  *oowf *foow 16

17 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Human language is unique › Other modes of communication do not have the same properties nor do they have the same level of complexity  Is it possible for other species to learn human language? 17 Human language for other species?

18 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Teaching chimpanzees to use human language  Chimpanzees raised like human babies › First attempts using speech sounds failed  Vocal tract not shaped for human speech sounds 18

19 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  American Sign Language (ASL) › 19 Teaching chimpanzees to use human language

20 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  American Sign Language (ASL) › Nim Chimpsky  Vocabulary › Around a dozen signs, mostly related to food and eating › No innovation in the use of words  vs. children: from general to specific 20 Teaching chimpanzees to use human language

21 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay  Production of about 20,000 utterances  Production of 2 word+ utterances › Juxtapositions of signs without structure (no syntax) › Same signs repeated in same utterance › Mostly requests for object/action  E.g. banana-eat; eat-eat; banana-eat-eat-Nim-banana  Lack of linguistic curiosity and innovation › Only learns what is taught to him 21 Teaching chimpanzees to use human language

22 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay HumansChimpanzees Vocabulary  Association signifier- signified  words  Innovations  Association signifier- signified  Small number of words  No innovation Grammatical aptitude -Structure of language learned  No structure in utterances 22  Can chimpanzees learn to communicate by using a system developed by humans? Yes  Does it compare to the acquisition of language by humans? No Acquisition of language Humans vs. Chimpanzees

23 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Language acquisition  If human language is unique to our specie, do we have a genetic predisposition for language? Are we born with a brain that is ‘wired’ for language acquisition?  What kind of evidence could we use to answer this question? 23

24 Course taught by Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay Next class  Human language (continued)  No reading 24