WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES

HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES The issue of continuity

Are humans just a step further in practising an adapted behaviour?

What are the similarities and differences in human and animal communication?

Are they qualitative or quantitave?

- measurable?

- origin?

LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM

- Duality- Patterning- Structural dependence

„But I’m not so think as you drunk I am.” (Sir J.C. Squire, writer)

How many possibilities are there to order the following items in a meaningful way? Boathouse vs. houseboat

A, B, S, T

I, walks, on, long, sometimes, go

Tabs, bats, stab, ??sbat

I sometimes go on long walks. Sometimes, I go on long walks. I go on long walks sometimes. ??On long walks, I go sometimes. ??Go I sometimes on long walks.

Reflexiveness

"As modifiers of nouns, present and past participles of verbs function very much like adjectives. Indeed, they are sometimes regarded as adjectives when they modify nouns.”

LANGUAGE AS A UNIQUE HUMAN CAPACITY

- Genetically coded ability:- Unique cognitive system- Unique vocal system- Wiring- LAD

Where is language in the brain?

Signals

Why are vocal signals easier to use?

Work from a distance: sender and receiver do not have to be close

Work in the dark Receiver does not have to turn toward sender Can be used simultaneously with other

activities

Focus on sound signals

Rapidly fading signal - Special memory - Bears

Total feedback- Talking to yourself

Traditional transmission vs. Genetically coded behaviour

Birds

Species-specific behaviour

LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION

Interaction, negotiation of meaning

Function and intention

Chimps and dolphins

SpecialisationInterchangeability

Peacocks

DisplacementPrevarification

No Past Future Questions Lies

LANGUAGE AS A SOCIAL PRODUCT

- Bonding (phatic communication)- Expressing self, establishing status in

community (e.g. keeping a dialect)- Operating social ties and institutions- Recording and passing on info from

generation to generation (schooling, literature)

- Elisa

What determines the nature of signals?

Higher position on the evolutionary scale?

- Of birds and chimpanzees

Social activity?

- Of cuckoos, bees and ancient hunters

Arbitrary symbols

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather

scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean –

neither more not less.” (L. Carroll: Alice in Wonderland)

Animals: signal meaning

Humans: interpretation is based on consensus

Semanticity, openness

Can you guess the meaning of the following words? Staycation Credit crunch Bossnapping Unfriend Tweetup Jeggings Snollygosters

What is language?

Systematic and generative A set of arbitrary symbols Primarily verbal signals but also visual Conventionalised meanings Used for communication only Operates in a speech community Essentially human Both language and language learning have

universal features