Based on Ch. 8 of The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker The Tower of Babel Prof. Julia Nee Based on Ch. 8 of The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

Are languages more similar or more different? Martin Joos: “languages could differ from each other without limit and in unpredictable ways” Noam Chomsky: a Martian scientist would conclude that earthlings, aside from their mutually unintelligible vocabularies, speak the same language Thoughts?

Are these similarities or differences? Isolating languages vs. Agglutinating languages Isolating: Use fixed words to mark the players in a sentence. The dog bit the man. The man bit the dog. Agglutinating: Add affixes to mark the players in a sentence. Person.marker+base+aspect-mood.marker (Mixe) Fixed word order vs. flexible word order

Word Order What are the possible orders for Subject – Object – Verb? SVO and SOV account for the majority of languages A few are VSO Less than 1% OVS OSV? The fact that there are six possibilities, but only two are common and one may not even exist  is there some underlying mental grammar?

Theories explaining language universals There is a “language gene” (the capacity to learn language is a part of our brain) Language originated only once Language developed out of a general learning strategy in our brain

Are we genetically wired for language learning? What if language originated only once? All existing languages come from the original source Similarities come from that original language Counter-arguments: Creolization New signed languages Creolization: two languages come into contact  speakers develop a pidgin, then a creole (2 generations); follows language universals, even if those universals are not present in either of the original languages

Creolization When speakers of different languages are forced to communicate, they develop “pidgins” Pidgin: strings of words borrowed from the component languages; variable in word order; little or no standard grammar Hawaiian sugar plantations called for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Philippinos, and Puerto Rican workers THERE ARE NO NATIVE SPEAKERS OF A PIDGIN

Creolization Ex: Me capé buy, me check make. He bought my coffee; he made me out a check. I bought coffee; I made out a check When the second generation of speakers is exposed to the pidgin, they regularize it into a language, with a standard grammar Da firs japani came ran away from japan come. The first Japanese who arrived ran away from Japan to here. Complete grammar; use English verbs as auxiliaries, prepositions, case markers etc. FLESH THIS OUT

Signed Languages Naturally occurring languages that are found wherever there is a community of deaf people Signed Languages are not necessarily related to one another Nicaraguan Sign Language 1979: Establishment of the first school for the deaf in Nicaragua Brought together deaf students from around the country never before exposed to sign language Due to the Sandinista government Trained children in lip reading and speech Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjtioIFuNf8 (7mins)

Signed Languages First students brought their own systems of gesture or homesign Combined to form a pidgin – Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense Younger deaf students were exposed to the pidgin Created a creole – Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense http://www.columbia.edu/~as1038/pdf/Senghas1995a.pdf Full study

Signed Languages ISN was more complex and had fixed grammatical structures Greater number of verbs with a greater number of arguments Greater number of inflections per verb Greater agreement on each verb New students learn the more complex system

Are we genetically wired for language learning? What if language originated only once? Creolization New signed languages What if language universals reflect universals of problem solving and thought? Why would it be easier to conceptualize things one way or another? Rules are arbitrary in an information sense, but not in a grammatical sense START HERE ON TUESDAY Mice-eater vs. *rats-eater

Language Acquisition Hypothesis that there is a “critical period” in language acquisition (before age 7) Our general problem solving skills increase with age, but our language learning skills decrease with age Children are excellent at figuring out language rules subconsciously; adults are terrible at figuring them out consciously

Critical Period in Language Acquisition Need to be exposed to language input during the critical period before about 7 years old in order to develop language Evidence for a critical period: Immigrants Children in captivity Deaf children of hearing parents Immigrants: Living in the US at least 10 years Shown sentences with grammatical errors: The farmer bought two pig. The little boy is speak to a policeman. Immigrants arriving between 3-7 = American-born individuals 8-15 = worse 17-39 = worst of all Deaf children of hearing parents Never as good at signed languages as those exposed in early childhood Children in captivity Genie: discovered at age 13 (1970) in an LA suburb; kept without interaction with other humans  no language input; could only say “Mike paint. Applesauce buy store. I like elephant eat peanut.” Isabelle: discovered at age 6.5 from her grandfather’s house where she lived with her mute mother  learned to speak normally “Why does the paste come out if one upsets the jar? Do you go to Miss Mason’s school at the university?” IF WE’RE SWIMMING IN TIME AFTER DAY 1, GET THESE STUDIES FOR THE STUDENTS TO PRESENT THEMSELVES!

Immigrants Studied immigrants living in the US at least 10 years Shown sentences: The farmer bought two pig. The little boy is speak to a policeman. Immigrants arriving between 3-7 performed the same as US-born individuals 8-15 performed worse 17-39 performed worst

“Wild Children” Genie Isabelle Mike paint. Applesauce buy store. I like elephant eat peanut. Isabelle Why does the paste come out if one upsets the jar? Do you go to Miss Mason’s school at the university? Genie: discovered at age 13 (1970) in an LA suburb; kept without interaction with other humans no language input; could only say “Mike paint. Applesauce buy store. I like elephant eat peanut.” Isabelle: discovered at age 6.5 from her grandfather’s house where she lived with her mute mother  learned to speak normally “Why does the paste come out if one upsets the jar? Do you go to Miss Mason’s school at the university?”

Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Deprived of language input if they are not exposed to a signed language Develop gesture or homesign When exposed to signed languages, they can learn, but if they are too old when they’re first exposed, they never gain fluency

Specific Language Impairment Inability to inflect (plural, tense) The boy eat three cookie. Yesterday the girl pet a dog. Could not pass the “wug” test Sass  sasss Wug  wugness Zat  zackle Given intensive speech and language therapy, but it didn’t solve the problem

Specific Language Impairment Classic example of dominant gene: Those who have the disease have a 50% chance of passing it on If you’re not impaired, your children are not impaired Could the children have learned it? Not likely  same environment (even the third generation twins)

Aphasia Damage to Broca’s area  Broca’s aphasia Understand what is said but have difficulties speaking (slow, ungrammatical) Me…build-ing…chairs, no, no, cab-in-nets. One saw…then, cutting wood…working… Damage to Wernicke’s area  Wernicke’s aphasia Fluent speech, but doesn’t make sense [“What kind of work have you done?”] “We, the kids, all of us, and I, we were working for a long time in the…you know…it’s the kind of space< I mean place rear to the spedwan…” Me…build-ing…chairs, no, no, cab-in-nets. One saw…then, cutting wood…working…

Aphasia and ASL Speakers of ASL are affected the same way by aphasia! Can use their hands for purposes other than signing Can pantomime Shows that ASL actions are organized differently in the brain than other actions

Teaching Language to Apes Allen and Beatrice Gardner taught a chimp named “Washoe” a version of sign language Francine Patter raised gorillas “Koko” and “Michael” with signs Herbert Terrance worked with the chimp “Nim Chimpsky” Equivalent of 3 year old English Humans usually improve on this; even in cases where they’re exposed to incomplete language (pidgin) they add complexity

Teaching Language to Apes Basic signed communication Taught explicitly Apply signs to larger categories Produce new strings of signs Equivalent of 3 year old English Humans usually improve on this; even in cases where they’re exposed to incomplete language (pidgin) they add complexity One learned the word for “drinking straw” and applied it to all tubes Water bird = swan; cookie rock = stale roll

Teaching Language to Apes Apes’ use of signs suggests: They have concepts that are structured similarly to ours They can attach concepts to external symbols (signs) Do they have a mental grammar? Have basic word order (“Roger tickle Lucy” vs. “Lucy tickle Roger”) Very redundant (“give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you”) As the utterances get longer, they don’t get more complex (unlike child speech development): play me, me Nim, tickly me, eat Nim  play me Nim, eat me Nim, eat Nim eat, tickly me Nim  eat drink eat drink, eat Nim eat Nim

Teaching Language to Apes Don’t acquire vocabulary the same way as human children Ape language learning more similar to learning a written language system like Chinese Acquisition of signs may be the result of general learning strategies; language learning is different Human children learn about 10 words a day to get up to 10,000 words by age 5

Teaching Language to Apes Can apes communicate? Can they acquire grammar? Is their communication like the human use of language?

Why is this significant for comparative linguistics? Look for similarities and differences that are significant Some linguistic traits are common, so they may have arisen by chance Traits that are more unique are more reliable for comparing related languages If we are genetically wired for language, all languages are likely to have SOMETHING in common End here Tuesday???

Why do languages change? Freeman Dyson: “it is nature’s way to make it possible for us to evolve rapidly” by creating isolated ethnic groups in which undiluted biological and cultural evolution can proceed swiftly But linguistic evolution does not have foresight

Why do languages change? “The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel…we find in distinct languages striking homologies due to community of descent, and analogies due to a similar process of formation…Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groups under groups; and they can be classed either naturally, according to descent, or artificially by other characters. Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, and lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A language, like a species, when extinct, never…reappears.” -Darwin

Factors in Language Change Related languages are the result of evolution from a common language or proto-language Languages change through: Variation: linguistic innovation Heredity: ability to learn Isolation: migration or social barriers

Learning in Language Evolution Why do we need to learn languages? Why isn’t the language innate? Communicative – we need to share our code with our communicative partners Generation to generation, there are changes  learning language rather than having innate language allows us to adapt Takes a lot of hard wiring to have a genetic component for EVERY linguistic element

Variation in Language Evolution Borrowing Coining new words Reanalysis: listener interprets language differently from the speaker “naranja”  “norange”  “a norange”  “an orange”  “those oranges” “hammer-did”  “hammered” Syntactic Changes: optional things become obligatory “Give him a book” and “give a book him” Reanalysis  we are constantly looking for rules, so sometimes we find rules where there are none!

Separation The majority of the language is preserved each generation Colin Renfrew: Indo-European spread as farmers began cultivating more and more territory

Separation FLESH OUT THE SPREAD OF INDO-EUROPEAN

Separation

Hittite Was spoken in present-day Turkey Date back to 16th or 17th century BC!

Tocharian Discovered in 1900 in China Two distinct dialects Texts that were found are incomplete

Indo-Iranian Indic Iranian

Indic Oldest is Sanskrit, specifically the Vedic language of the Vedas Panini wrote grammar in 4th century BC Sanskrit used (like Latin) long after it was no longer spoken Developed into languages of modern India (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarathi, Sinahlese, Romani) Originated in Punjab, then spread to the south Veda = knowledge; oldest hindu religious texts Dravidian languages (UNRELATED) are the farthest south

Iranian Avestan – language used in the “Bible” of teachings of Zarathustra Old Persian – language of King Darius of the Persian empire

Balto-Slavic Slavic Baltic Old Church Slavonic – oldest from c. 865 AD First use of Cyrillic alphabet East Slavic – Russian, Ukrainian South Slavic – Bulgarian, Macedonian, BCS West Slavic – Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Sorbian Baltic Lithuanian and Latvian Old Prussian (now extinct)

Celtic Originally from Central Europe Became extinct on the continent Only “Insular Celtic” survived Celtic Welsh Cornish Breton

Italic Latin Italian Spanish Catalan Portuguese French Romanian Occitan Extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula (Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan, South Picene)

Germanic South of Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Germany East Germanic (Gothic)  extinct North Germanic (Scandinavian languages) West Germanic (English, Frisian, Dutch, German) Angles and Saxons went to England, where they spoke “Old English” Frisian is the closest relative of English because Angles, Saxons, and Frisians were a community in NW Germany before the migration to England

Conclusions Languages of the world have profound similarities despite surface differences. This leads us to believe that we have an underlying “language instinct” that is hard-wired into our brains. Language evolves in a way that is similar to species evolution: innovation, heredity, and isolation contribute to new language traits.

Language Universals Joseph Greenberg’s survey of 30 languages Types of Universals Absolute – there are no exceptions to the rule Statistical – one pattern is more likely than another Implicational – if X, then Y What are some of the “Language Universals” that we know? What type are they? No languages form questions by reversing the order of words within a sentence Subjects tend to precede objects Verbs and objects tend to be adjacent If SOV, then question words at end and postpositions; if SVO, then question words at beginning and prepositions

Gullah English-based creole English = “target language” (language of prestige which speakers wished to acquire) African languages = “substrate languages” (languages of speakers that served as a grammatical “base”) About 4,000 words taken from the Sierra Leonian language Krio