Language

Definition of Language Communicative: transfer of information between individuals Arbitrary: no relationship between the symbols (words) used to represent an object and the object Structured: the pattern of the symbols is meaningful. –Two kinds of patterns to think about Morphological structures (e.g., Latin, Arabic) Syntax e.g., the boy ran from the angry dog the boy ran from the dog angry Generative: The basic units can be used to build a limitless number of meanings. Dynamic: Languages change by word absorption, and grammar rules shift.

Definitions of Language Critical period –Developmental stages –Pattern of cognitive ability Recursive –The dog is chasing its tail –It’s cold outside, isn’t it? Displaced reference: Language can refer to things not present in the here and now The ancient Greeks deduced the size of the Earth, Moon and Sun, and the distances amongst each, using simple geometry.

Taxonomy of Language Phonemes Morphemes Syntax Phonology (e.g., 44 sounds in English) – Sounds, including Consonants Vowels Suprasegmentals – –Pitch, Tone, Cadence of sentences –Prosody, information conveyed through tone Onomatopoeia, –eg. Umph, ouch, –/woof/ in English, /a-wau/ in Arabic

Taxonomy of Language Phonemes –the smallest units of sound that are considered part of the language, –one letter like /t/ will have several variants the are aspirant or percussive (or non-aspirant) which are called allophones. English has 44 phonemes, World average is 31 – 70% of World’s between 20 and 37 –Fewest is 11 (Rotakas, Indo-Pacific L.) – Most is 141 (!Xu, southern Africa) – Minimum number of vowels: 3, eg. Arabic –Some have 24, 13 have more than 16, –most languages have about 5 – English has around 11-12

Taxonomy of Language Morphemes –String phonemes together and you get morphemes, the smallest units of meaning like /dog/ which is one morpheme or /doggy/ which is two. –There are plural morphemes like /s/, /z/, /zez/ or tense morphemes like /t/, /d/. There are irregular patterns for plurals which any native listener would be able to recognize when hearing them for the first time.

Taxonomy of Language Syntax – Word order in sentences – Native speakers know what is not grammatical even if they have never heard the sentence before. – Hierarchical structure –Subject – Object – Verb (Japanese, Maninka) –Subject – Verb – Object (English, Spanish) –Verb – Subject – Object (Jacaltec, Irish) –Verb – Object – Subject (Malagasy, Madag.; Huave, Mx) –Object – Subject – Verb (Xavante) All languages have NVO, prepositions, relative clauses, a way of negating, forming questions, issuing commands, referring to the past and future, and there are universal semantic categories like animate vs human, or male vs female. No such thing as a “primitive language”, all languages can be expanded to include new words, all are equally complex, all languages change over time.

In class Activity Construct a Table in which each of the 25 rows corresponds to a phoneme (sound unit) in the English language. List the consonantal phonemes in the following order (start with # for “none” then) p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, f, th, s, sh, ch, v, z, zh, j, l, r, y, w, hw, h. Each of the 25 columns also corresponds to a phoneme in English (start with V for any vowel, then) p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, f, th, s, sh, ch, v, z, zh, j, l, r, y, w, hw, h. Reminder: These refer to sounds not letters. Now fill in the table with an X to indicate which of the phonemes in the rows may be followed by which of the phonemes in the columns, in order to begin an English syllable. Place an X in each box in the Table that corresponds to a legal syllable onset in standard English.

In class Activity Questions: Which are the privileged / legal phonemes? Why are some combinations of phonemes allowed and others not? How is the structure of spoken language visible in this chart?

Language Acquisition What makes language hard to acquire? –How do you know when one syllabe starts and another ends? Coarticulation: Phonemes overlap in time –Variability in speech signal –No one-to-one correspondence between the acoustic stimuli and the speech sounds we hear How do we recognize sounds in a way so a stable set of phonemes is perceived?

Language Acquisition Vowel formants VowelMain formant region u200 to 400 Hz o400 to 600 Hz a800 to 1200 Hz e400 to 600 and 2200 to 2600 Hz i200 to 400 and 3000 to 3500 Hz

Phoneme Restoration Effect Warren & Warren (1970) –It was found that the *eel was on the axle –It was found that the *eel was on the shoe –It was found that the *eel was on the orange –It was found that the *eel was on the table * was a cough but it was heard as the missing phoneme implied by the context

Word Superiority and Neural Nets

Demonstration Based on Reicher (1969) On the next several slides, a row of six letters will appear. You will then see two letters, one above and one below a letter that appeared Guess which of the two letters actually appeared in the appropriate location

XXXXXX

JBDVLM

XXXXXX ----L- ----B-

XXXXXX

SOKDHR

XXXXXX --R--- --K---

XXXXXX

FATHER

XXXXXX ---H-- ---T--

XXXXXX

CGZIFW

XXXXXX ----G- ----F-

XXXXXX

POSTER

XXXXXX --S--- --R---

XXXXXX

RCHUQV

XXXXXX --U--- --H---

XXXXXX

STRIPE

XXXXXX ----P- ----K-

XXXXXX

CRATES

XXXXXX -----R -----S

end

Word Superiority Effect Letters are more easily recognized in the context of a word than alone Words are also more easily recognized after processing a sentence This demonstrates the importance of the interaction between top-down and bottom-up processing

McGurk Effect Lip movements to one sound “ga” Soundtrack indicates “ba” What do you hear? McGurk & MacDonald (1976) found that people make a comprised sound “da”

Language Acquisition What newborn and very young infants can already do –discriminate human speech from other sounds and prefer to listen to it – discriminate their mother’s voice from that of other adult women – discriminate their language from another language – they listen longer to a story that they have heard read in the womb

Motherese

Stages of Language Acquisition in Infants Cooing – long vowel sounds (ooooooh) or consonant vowel combinations (gaaaaaah) –They are capable of generating any sound found in any language. Babbling – (6-10 m.o.) consonant-vowel combinations and repetitions (dadadada) mo become selective towards sounds in mother tongue, by 18 mo has vocabulary of 50 words 24 mo starts using two word sentences

Babies can discriminate the sounds of all the world’s languages and adults cannot. Both Hindi and English:/ba/vs./da/ 6-8 month-old babies and adults could discriminate. Hindi, not English, easy/Ta/vs./ta/ 6-8 month-old babies could discriminate. Adults could not initially but could after 25 trials of training. Hindi, not English, hard/t h / vs. /d h / 6-8 month-old babies could discriminate. Adults could not, and never learned. Werker et al. Stages of Language Acquisition in Infants

1. Present babies with strings of elements from an artificial grammar: VOT PEL JIC RUD TAM Gomez & Gerken 2. The artificial grammar has rules as to the order of elements PEL can occur: 1st position 2nd position both 2nd and 3rd not at all JIC can occur:after VOT, PEL or TAM but its position depended on whether VOT or TAM was first 3. The babies listen to the strings following these rules for 2 minutes 4. Test with strings of the same sounds but different rules of combination month-old babies listened longer to new strings from the grammar they had heard before than to strings from the other grammars Stages of Language Acquisition in Infants

Errors Made by Infants Overextension / overgeneralization –Doggy means all four legged furry animals daddy means all grown up men who wear beards Overregularization –Fish (pl.) = Fishes; run ~runned; go~goed Competence vs. Knowledge Look at the Fisses It’s not fisses, it’s fish That’s what I said, fisses

Babies start off by being able to produce any sound then they become selective towards mother-tongue phonemes. They are powerful statistical learners As a new cognitive ability comes online, the preceding one shows a temporary deficit Stages of Language Acquisition in Infants

Animals Got Language? Story of Clever Hans Honeybees Songbirds Parrots Vervet Monkeys Dolphins Monkeys & Apes

Hi Honey! I’m Home! Honeybees When a forager bee locates food it returns to the hive and performs a dance. The number of repetitions of the dance communicates the quality of the food. Distance is communicated by the form of the dance. – Round Dance: < 20 ft – Sickle Dance: 20 – 60 ft. – Tail-Wagging Dance: > 60 ft, coded by rate Direction is also communicated in the sickle and tail- wagging dances.

Alex the Parrot Irene Pepperberg has spent 25 years teaching Grey Parrots “meaningful use of English speech”. Model/Rival Training Trainer + Model/Rival + Parrot Trainer presents objects to the model/rival and queries them about it. – Correct: Get the item. – Incorrect: Get corrective feedback. The only reward is the object talked about, but after a correct response the parrot can request something it wants (e.g., a nut).

Alex the Parrot “Alex exhibits cognitive capacities comparable to those of marine mammals,apes, and sometimes 4-year-old children.” Alex correctly labels – 50+ objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities up to 6 He correctly uses –“No.” – “Come here.” – “Wanna go X.” –“Want Y.” He combines labels to correctly identify more than 100 objects in his environment. He surfs the internet

The Great Apes Larynx in nasal cavity in most animals except during vocalizing, when it moves to oral cavity Same true for human infants, but around 3 months moves to throat Lower larynx makes an animal sound larger, it also happens to help vocalization and formant (vowel) production Humans have it permanently low, and it grows even lower in human male adolescents

Great Primate Sarah (Primack, 1971): vocabulary of more than 100 words of various parts of speech. Showed rudimentary linguistic skills. She modeled her trainer and was able to use the instructions she received to construct what appeared to be a rudimentary language of her own. Nim Chimpsky (Terrace, 1981): two-words combination – "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you.“ –Most of the utterances were repetitions of what Nim had seen and didn’t show rudiment of syntactical expression (no preference for the grammatically correct form) –“Nim give banana” or “banana give Nim” or “banana Nim give”

Kanzi the Bonobo Chimp Kanzi is the star of animal language studies today (Savage-Rumbaugh, Shanker & Taylor, 1998). He uses a keyboard language called Yerkish. –Kanzi was not formally introduced to Yerkish. –He sat on his adopted mother’s back while she received lessons in Yerkish. –Mom never learned, but Kanzi started using the keyboard spontaneously. –Since then his “training” has consisted of walks in the woods. –Kanzi understands over 200 symbols.

Kanzi the Bonobo Chimp Kanzi was faced with 310 sentences of various types action-object sentences (e.g. "Would you please carry the straw"), action-object-location sentences (e.g. "Put the tomato in the refrigerator") action-object-recipient sentences (e.g., "Carry the cooler to Penny"). Of the 310 sentences tested, Kanzi got 298 correct. Savage-Rumbaugh concludes…. Kanzi’s sentence comprehension appears to be syntactically based in that he responds differently to the same word depending upon its function in the sentence but..many nouns are pragmatically constrained i.e. “refridgerator in the tomato?” etc.

Kanzi the Bonobo Chimp Seems to understands the importance of word order (I.e. therefore has some limited syntax): PUT JELLY IN MILK versus PUT MILK IN JELLY He seems to understand rudimentary features of sentence structure such as who does what to whom: LIZ IS GOING TO TICKLE KANZI versus YOU TICKLE LIZ

People Growing up Without Language Genie –Kept in isolation from 20 mo –Was discovered in 1970 when she was 13 + –Is it possible to learn language at this late age? –Genie only developed a limited syntax Applesauce buy store Man motorcycle have Feral Children –Djuma, “Wolf Boy” Found living among wolves “Mother dead. Father dead. Brother dead. Sister dead. Mother nice. Father bad.” –The Boy from Aveyron Within a few months Victor could sit in a chair, express his emotions without being violent, and he could even speak a few words, like ‘milk’, and ‘Oh God’, which was something Dr. Itard’s housekeeper, Mme. Guerin, often said. Victor also came to like Mme. Guerin, who fed and cared for him.

Creole and Pigdin Creole languages develop “out of nothing” Speakers of Pigdin use many mother tongues, mixing up words and syntax, usually without articles or prepositions. Their children develop the Creole language, keeping the words, adding prepositions, articles. The Creole vocabulary is reduced, word-order is variable, with little grammatical structure, meaning is context dependent.

How Language Shows ‘Elements’ of Thought Pinker Stuff of Thought, 2007 Study of verbs – Content & Container Locatives –Datives –Causative alternations, transitive and intransitive

How Language Shows ‘Elements’ of Thought Content & Container Locatives Prepositional and Double-Object Datives Causative alternations, transitive and intransitive For each of these verb classes: –Their meaning is synonymous –The alternation can be applied to many verbs –Children apply the pattern in situations they could not have learnt, and adults apply it to new terms –The difference between Monogamous (only one form) and Alternating verbs is due to how the brain “makes” meaning.

Testing Language

Content and Container Locatives The “Gestalt Shift” in Language Container Locatives Hal is loading the wagon with hay Jared sprayed the roses with water Betsy splashed the wall with paint Jeremy rubbed the wood with oil Content Locatives Hal is loading hay into the wagon Jared sprayed water on the roses Betsy splashed paint onto the wall Jeremy rubbed oil into the wood Container Locative The container being changed is the focus of the sentence Content Locative The moving object is the focus of the sentence You can flip many sentences into Container or Content Locatives, and like a Gestalt Illusion it still makes sense (Bi-stable).

Content and Container Locatives Some Flip, Some Don’t But Container Locatives Tex nailed the board with posters Serena coiled the pole with a rope Ellie covered the bed with an afghan Jimmy drenched his jacket with beer Content Locatives Tex nailed the posters on the board Serena coiled the rope around the pole Ellie covered an afghan onto the bed Jimmy drenched beer onto his jacket Red sentences test as odd or incorrect in experiments. White sentences tests as normal or correct Think about how a child would learn the difference, and how an adult can tell the difference for new and novel sentences

Content and Container Locatives: What does the Flip Mean? Changing entities are treated as moving objects –A change-in-state = movement. –The physics of the change-in-state matters. Are they caused or allowed? –Verbs that can alternate: caused Brush, dab, daub, plaster, rub, slather, smear, smudge, spread –Verbs that do not alternate: allowed Dribble, drip, drop, dump, funnel, ladle, pour, siphon, slop, slosh

Content and Container Locatives: What does the Flip Mean? Changing entities are treated as moving objects –A change-in-state = movement. “A state is conceived as a location in space of possible states, and change is equated with movement from one location to another in the state- space.” Pinker, 2007, pg. 47. Bees are swarming in the garden The garden is swarming with bees Juice dripped from the peach The peach dripped with juice – “Its reconstrual gets compacted into a single point, its internal geometry obliterated.” Pinker, 2007, pg 49

Content and Container Locatives: What does the Flip Mean? –Alternation reflects the manner of the change-in- state matters. –Alternating verbs involve a ballistic force in multiple directions Inject, shower, spatter, splash, spray, sprinkle, spritz –Non-alternating verbs involve forceful expelling from inside a volume Emit, excrete, expectorate, expel, exude, secrete, spew, spit, vomit

Datives: Latin to give The “Gestalt Shift” in Language Give a muffin to a moose Lafleur slid the puck to the goalie Danielle brought the cat to her vet Adam told the story to the baby Give a moose a muffin Lafleur slid the goalie the puck Danielle brought her vet the cat Adam told the baby the story Prepositional Dative Contains preposition to Double-Object Dative “Di-transitive” contains two objects, the “indirect” and “direct” objects You can flip Prepositional Datives into Double-Object Datives, and like a Gestalt Illusion it still makes sense (Bi-stable).

Datives Some Flip, Some Don’t But Prepositional Datives Goldie drove her bus to the lake Arnie lifted the box to him The IRS fined a thousand bucks to me Friends, Romans, countrymen: Lend your ears to me! Double-Object Datives Goldie drove the lake her bus Arnie lifted him the box The IRS fined me a thousand bucks Friends, Romans, countrymen: Lend me your ears! Red sentences test as odd or incorrect in experiments. White sentences tests as normal or correct Think about how a child would learn the difference, and how an adult can tell the difference for new and novel sentences

Prepositional and Double-object Datives: What does the Flip Mean? Datives that alternate are ones where causing to give results in causing to have: Annette sent the boarder a package Annette sent the package to the boarder Datives that do not alternate are those where causing to give does not result in causing to have Goldie drove her bus to the lake Goldie drove the lake her bus You cannot cause a lake to possess a bus; you cannot alternate the verb

Prepositional and Double-object Datives: What does the Flip Mean? Physics also counts for Datives –To give all at once alternate, but given over time gradually do not Bash, bat, bounce, bunt, chuck, flick Carry, drag, haul, hoist, lift, lower, pull, push Manner also counts for datives –In communication, verbs about the pragmatics alternate but the manner of asking do not He asked the President a question He asked the question to the President He whispered the question to the President He whispered the President the question

Causatives The “Gestalt Shift” in Language Bobbie boiled the egg Tim bounced the ball Washington marched the soldiers across the field Jack jump-started the car The egg boiled The ball bounced Danielle brought her vet the cat The car was jump-started Causative Transitive A subject causes object to do Causative Intransitive The object is doing its thing You can flip Transitives into Intransitives, and like a Gestalt Illusion it still makes sense (Bi-stable).

Causatives Some Flip, Some Don’t But Transitives She thumped the log He wrecked the car The thunder is crying the baby I came my son home early Intransitives The log thumped The car wrecked The baby is crying My son came home early Red sentences test as odd or incorrect in experiments. White sentences tests as normal or correct Think about how a child would learn the difference, and how an adult can tell the difference for new and novel sentences

Transitives and Intransitives: What does the Flip Mean? Causitives can alternate if the causation is direct The window broke Darren broke the window Darren broke the window by startling the carpenter who was installing it Volitional The contract was signed; Bob signed the contract Mary laughed; Bob laughed Mary

Language Reflects Deep Structure When cause to go  cause to change When cause to go  cause to have Cause to happen vs happen The physics The manner

Errors in Flipping the Frame Can I fill some salt into the bear? I’m going to cover a screen over me Feel your hand to that Look, Mom, I’m gonna pour it with water, my belly. I hitted this into my neck

Eventually, Children Flip the Frame The Mooping Test (A Wug Test) –Create a word mooping (to move a sponge to a purple cloth turning it green) –The verb describes the manner of moving (zigzagging) versus moving which results in the cloth changing colors –In motion condition, children and adults use content-locative (mooping the sponge) –in color changing condition children and adults use container-locative (mooping the cloth)

Language has a structure that shifts depending on whether the emphasis is on –causing-to-change –causing-to-happen –causing-to-have –Language also Makes Metaphors out of Time Space Matter What Do Content and Container Locatives Tell us About Language? Can Animals DO THIS?

Interactive-Activation Model of Word Recognition

Superficial Dyslexia

Neural mechanisms underlying developmental dyslexia: single or multiple? –Phonological representation deficits –General temporal processing deficits –Magnocellular deficits

The Birds and the Monkeys (Insert avarian-primate joke here) Songbirds Male songbirds use their songs to establish a territory. This serves as a warning to other males and as an invitation to prospective mates. In European Robins, the songs can vary in complicated ways, but the only aspect of this variation that “matters” is the alternation between high and low-pitched notes. This communicates how intensely the robin will defend this territory. Vervet Monkeys African Vervet monkeys live in close-knit social groups. They use three distinct “calls” to signal danger. – Snake: Troupe stands on hind legs and scans the ground. – Leopard: Troupe climbs onto smallest branches of nearby trees. – Eagle: Troupe climbs trees but stays close to trunk or dives into dense bushes.

Verbs that allow both locative shifts (e.g., load hay into the wagon, and, load the wagon with hay): Brush, dab, daub, plaster, rub, slather, smear, smudge, spread, swab Verbs that are content-loc. and do not permit a shift (e.g., pour water into the glass, but not, pour the glass with water) : Dribble, drip, drop, dump, funnel, ladle, pour, shake, siphon, slop, slosh, spill Verbs that are container-loc and do not permit a shift (e.g., drench the shirt with wine, but not, drench wine into the shirt) Adorn, pollute, block, bind, interlace, cover, inundate What Do Content and Container Locatives Tell us About Language?

Children Flip the Frame Can I fill some salt into the bear? I’m going to cover a screen over me Feel your hand to that Look, Mom, I’m gonna pour it with water, my belly. I hitted this into my neck The Mooping Test (A Wug Test) –Create a word mooping (to move a sponge to a purple cloth turning it green) –The verb describes the manner of moving (zigzagging) versus moving which results in the cloth changing colors –In motion condition, children and adults use content- locative (mooping the sponge) –in color changing condition children and adults use container-locative (mooping the cloth)

Content and Container Locatives The “Gestalt Shift” in Language Container Locatives Hal is loading the wagon with hay Jared sprayed the roses with water Betsy splashed the wall with paint Jeremy rubbed the wood with oil Content Locatives Hal is loading hay into the wagon Jared sprayed water on the roses Betsy splashed paint onto the wall Jeremy rubbed oil into the wood But Container Locatives Tex nailed the board with posters Serena coiled the pole with a rope Ellie covered the bed with an afghan Jimmy drenched his jacket with beer Content Locatives Tex nailed the posters on the board Serena coiled the rope around the pole Ellie covered an afghan onto the bed Jimmy drenched beer onto his jacket