1. Language Humans are built to accommodate language
Language has some special properties that shape us as humans
English 306A; Harris

2. We’re mammals Distinctive traits include Lactation
Mammalian “isolation cry”
Neoteny
Middle ear
Larynx
As factual examples we could choose any of the systems whose evolution is documented by the fossil record, a source apparently acceptable to Behe. The three smallest bones in the human body-the malleus, incus, and stapes-carry sound vibrations across the middle ear, from the membrane-like eardrum to the oval window. This five-component system fits Behe's test of irreducible complexity perfectly-if any one of its parts is taken away or modified, hearing would be lost. This is the kind of system that evolution supposedly cannot produce. Unfortunately for "intelligent design," the fossil record elegantly and precisely documents exactly how this system formed. During the evolution of mammals, hones that originally formed the rear portion of the reptilian lower jaw were gradually pushed backwards and reduced in size until they migrated into the middle ear, forming the bony connections that carry vibrations into the inner ears of present-day mammals. A system of perfectly-formed, interlocking components, specified by multiple genes, was gradually refashioned and adapted for another purpose altogether - something that this book claims to be impossible. As the well-informed reader may know, creationist critics of this interpretation of fossils in the reptile to mammal transition once charged that this could not have taken place. What would happen, they joked, to the unfortunate reptile while he was waiting for two of his jaw bones to migrate into the middle ear? The poor creature could neither hear nor eat! As students of evolution may know, Fuzz Crompton of Harvard University brought this laughter to a deafening halt when he unearthed a fossil with a double articulation of the jaw joint-an adaptation that would allow the animal both to eat and hear during the transition, enabling natural selection to favor each of the intermediate stages.
English 306A; Harris

3. We have special larynxes
Functions
Controls airflow
Phonates
English 306A; Harris

4. We have special larynxes
Functions
Controls airflow
Phonates (Glottis)
English 306A; Harris

5. Glottis
Glottis
Air flow
Phonation (voicing)
English 306A; Harris

6. Glottis
Glottis
Air flow
Phonation (voicing)
English 306A; Harris

7. Larynx, tongue, Heimlich
Apes, australopithecus, babies
Tongue rooted in mouth
Larynx behind mouth
Can breathe and swallow at the same time
Adult homo erecti +
Tongue rooted in throat
Larynx in throat
Cannot breathe and swallow at the same time
English 306A; Harris

8. Lower tongue root + larynx =
Consonants and vowels
(big flappy lips help too)
Syllables
Patterns of rhythm and modulation
English 306A; Harris

9. Lower tongue root + larynx =
Speech
English 306A; Harris

10. Oh, and one more thing
English 306A; Harris

11. Oh, and one more thing
A brain
English 306A; Harris

12. Oh, and one more thing Motor cortex Wernicke’s area Broca’s area
Auditory cortex
English 306A; Harris

13. Motor cortex
English 306A; Harris

14. Auditory cortex Tuned to language
Highly sensitive in the 5, ,000 Hz range
Discriminates phoneme boundaries
English 306A; Harris

15. Language areas ‘Conceptual’ ‘Grammatical’ Wernicke’s area Broca’s area
English 306A; Harris

16. Language properties Parity Universality Mutability Tacitness
Displacement
Duality
Productivity (creativity)
English 306A; Harris

17. Parity
All languages are equal.
English 306A; Harris

18. Universality All grammars share some basic properties. Words Sentences
Nouns
Verbs
Sentences
Assertions
Questions
Semantic roles
Agents
Patients
Locations
English 306A; Harris

19.  cool  neat  groovy  far-out  radical  cool 
Mutability
Languages change.
 cool  neat  groovy  far-out  radical  cool 
English 306A; Harris

20. Tacitness A great deal of grammatical knowledge is tacit knowledge.
[p] vs [ph] vs [p¬]
English 306A; Harris

21. Charles Hockett’s ‘Design Features’
Parity
Universality
Mutability
Tacitness
Displacement
Duality
Productivity (creativity)
"The design-features listed below are found in every language on which we have reliable information, and each seems to be lacking in at least one known animal communicative system. They are not all logically independent, and do not necessarily all belong to our defining list for language--a point to be taken up separately..."
1. Mode of communication-vocal-auditory, tacticle-visual, or chemical-olfactory
2. Rapid Fading: Message does not linger in time or space after production.
3. Interchangeability: individuals who use a language can both send and receive any permissible message within that communication system.
4. Feedback: users of a language can perceive what they are transmitting and can make corrections if they make errors.
5. Specialization: the direct-energetic consequences of linguistic signals are usually biologically trivial; only the triggering effects are important.
6. Semanticity: there are associative ties between signal elements and features in the world; in short, some linguistic forms have denotations.
7. Arbitrariness: there is no logical connection between the form of the signal and its meaning.
8. Discreteness: messages in the system are made up of smaller, repeatable parts; the sounds of language (or cheremes of a sign) are perceived categorically, not continuously.
9. Displacement: linguistic messages may refer to things remote in time and space, or both, from the site of the communication.
10. Productivity: users can create and understand completely novel messages.
10.1. In a language, new messages are freely coined by blending, analogizing from, or transforming old ones. This says that every language has grammatical patterning.
10.2. In a language, either new or old elements are freely assigned new semantic loads by circumstances and context. This says that in every language new idioms constantly come into existence.
11. Cultural transmission: the conventions of a language are learned by interacting with more experienced users.
12. Duality (of Patterning): a large number of meaningful elements are made up of a conveniently small number of meaningless but message-differentiating elements.
13. Prevarication: linguistic messages can be false, deceptive, or meaningless.
14. Reflexiveness: In a language, one can communicate about communication.
15. Learnability: A speaker of a language can learn another language.
English 306A; Harris

22. Charles Hockett’s ‘Design Features’
There is...a sense in which [productivity], displacement, and duality...can be regarded as the crucial, or nuclear, or central properties of human language.
"The design-features listed below are found in every language on which we have reliable information, and each seems to be lacking in at least one known animal communicative system. They are not all logically independent, and do not necessarily all belong to our defining list for language--a point to be taken up separately..."
1. Mode of communication-vocal-auditory, tacticle-visual, or chemical-olfactory
2. Rapid Fading: Message does not linger in time or space after production.
3. Interchangeability: individuals who use a language can both send and receive any permissible message within that communication system.
4. Feedback: users of a language can perceive what they are transmitting and can make corrections if they make errors.
5. Specialization: the direct-energetic consequences of linguistic signals are usually biologically trivial; only the triggering effects are important.
6. Semanticity: there are associative ties between signal elements and features in the world; in short, some linguistic forms have denotations.
7. Arbitrariness: there is no logical connection between the form of the signal and its meaning.
8. Discreteness: messages in the system are made up of smaller, repeatable parts; the sounds of language (or cheremes of a sign) are perceived categorically, not continuously.
9. Displacement: linguistic messages may refer to things remote in time and space, or both, from the site of the communication.
10. Productivity: users can create and understand completely novel messages.
10.1. In a language, new messages are freely coined by blending, analogizing from, or transforming old ones. This says that every language has grammatical patterning.
10.2. In a language, either new or old elements are freely assigned new semantic loads by circumstances and context. This says that in every language new idioms constantly come into existence.
11. Cultural transmission: the conventions of a language are learned by interacting with more experienced users.
12. Duality (of Patterning): a large number of meaningful elements are made up of a conveniently small number of meaningless but message-differentiating elements.
13. Prevarication: linguistic messages can be false, deceptive, or meaningless.
14. Reflexiveness: In a language, one can communicate about communication.
15. Learnability: A speaker of a language can learn another language.
English 306A; Harris

23. Displacement
Messages can refer to things remote in time and space, or both, from the site of the communication.
English 306A; Harris

24. Duality of patterning At every level: elements and combinatorics
Sounds combine into syllables and morphemes
Morphemes combine into words
Words combine into phrases and sentences
Sentences combine into turns or paragraphs
Turns combine into conversations
Paragraphs combine into texts
English 306A; Harris

25. Elements + combinatorics =
Productivity (creativity)
New vocables
New words
New sentences
New meanings
English 306A; Harris

26. Elements + combinatorics =
Language
English 306A; Harris

27. Language has special properties
General
Parity
Mutability
Universality
Tacitness
Conceptual
Displacement
Duality of patterning
Elements and combinatorics
Productivity
English 306A; Harris

28. Humans have special properties
Humans are wired for language
Hardwired (anatomical)
Throat, mouth, lips
Ear
Motor, auditory cortex
Language areas
Softwired (conceptual)
Displacement
Duality of patterning
Productivity
English 306A; Harris

29. Any questions? Humans are built to accommodate language
Language has some special properties that shape us as humans
English 306A; Harris