LIN 201

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LIN 201

• Fall 2006
• Lecture 12 (cont.)
• Lingua francas Pidgin and Creole languages

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Agenda

• 4. Lingua francas pidgin and creole languages

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Lingua franca

• A lingua franca is a language that is used by
  common agreement for the purposes of commercial
  or social interaction among groups of people who
  speak different native languages.

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Pidgin languages (1)

• 1. Origin Two social groups dont share a
  language need to communicate mix their
  languages to create a pidgin. One group usually
  more powerful than the other.

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Pidgin languages (2)

• Lexicon limited in size. Usually taken from
  language of more powerful group.
• grass belong face beard
• lamp belong Jesus sun

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Pidgin languages (3)

• Syntax simple but systematic. Usually simplified
  form of the syntax of the language of the less
  powerful group. No movements, no sentences
  within sentences few verb and noun endings.

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Pidgin languages (4)

• Acquisition Always a second language acquired
  primarily by adults.
• Social attitudes Attitudes toward pidgins are
  generally negative. Social discrimination.

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Pidgins (5) -- example

• Tok Pisin (New Guinea)
• Now onefella master belong company, him
  he-catch-im me, me cook belong him again. Now a
  boss at the company, he caught me and I became
  his cook again.

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Creole languages (1)

• Origin Result of children acquiring a pidgin as
  their first language.
• Lexicon More extensive than a pidgin.
• Syntax Richer devices than a pidgin.

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Creole languages (2)

• Acquisition By children as a first language.
• Social attitudes Generally negative.

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Critical age/period

• Claim There is a critical period for the
  acquisition of language.
• Evidence (3) Pidgin languages are simpler than
  creole languages.

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Agenda

• 5. Evidence for the Critical Period Hypothesis --
  final summary.

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Critical/Sensitive period(s)

• Claim There is a critical period (/are
  sensitive periods) for the acquisition of
  language.
• Evidence
• 1. Wild children.
• 2. Child vs adult second language acquisition.
• 3. Pidgins vs creoles.

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LIN 201

• Fall 2006
• Lecture XIII (13)
• American Sign Language (ASL)

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Agenda

• 1. General background on ASL.
• 2. Is ASL a true language?
• 3. Knowledge of ASL -- Lexicon.
• 4. Knowledge of ASL -- Rules.
• 5. ASL and the Brain.
• 6. Acquisition of ASL.
• 7. Innateness and ASL.
• 8. Critical Period and ASL.
• 9. Overall conclusions for ASL as a true
  language.
• 10. Language and speech.
• 11. Videotape.

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Agenda

• 1. General background on ASL.

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American Sign Language

• American Sign Language (ASL) is a manual/visual
  system of communication used by deaf people in
  North America.

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Spoken vs Signed lgs (1)

• Spoken languages
• Production oral (mouth).
• Perception auditory (ears).
• Medium sound.

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Spoken vs Signed lgs (2)

• Signed languages
• Production gestural (hands).
• Perception visual (eyes).
• Medium visual space.

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The signing space
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American Sign Language (ASL) -- Background

• 1. There is no universal sign language of the
  deaf.
• 2. ASL is an independent language not based on
  English.
• 3. ASL is not pantomime.

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Agenda

• 2. Is ASL a true language?

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Sign languages of the deaf (1)

• Claim The sign languages of the deaf have all of
  the major properties of language and, therefore
  are full-fledged languages in our sense.

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Properties of language (1)

• Knowledge
• lexicon list of form-meaning items arbitrary
  relation between form and meaning (guessability,
  differences across languages).
• rules creativity, limits to creativity, infinite
  language and finite mind.
• Use Stimulus-free.
• Brain
• Representation in Brocas and Wernickes areas.
• Autonomous from other functions.

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Properties of language (2)

• Acquisition.
• No effective instruction.
• Reinforcement not effective.
• Etc.
• Major aspects are innate.
• Speed of acquisition, complexity of system.
• Etc.
• Critical period for acquisition.

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Sign languages of the deaf (2)

• Evidence to be used
• 1. Knowledge Lex, Rules.
• 2. Representation in the brain.
• 3. Acquisition.
• 4. Innateness of principles.
• 5. Critical Period.

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Agenda

• 3. Knowledge of ASL -- Lexicon.

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Lexicon -- ASLForm Meaning
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Lexicon -- Indian SLForm Meaning
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ASL Lexicon

• Popular assumption Signs are highly imitative
  (iconic).

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Arbitrary vs imitative (iconic) signs

• For an imitative (iconic) word/sign, the form
  physically resembles the meaning.
• For an arbitrary word/sign, no physical
  resemblance.

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Degrees of arbitrariness (1) girl
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Degrees of arbitrariness (2) girl
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Degrees of arbitrariness (3) egg
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Tests for Arb vs Im

• Imitative words/signs tend to be the same across
  lgs arbitrary ones not.
• Imitative words/signs tend to be guessable
  arbitrary ones not.

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Arbitrariness -- forms different across languages
(signs for tree)
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Arbitrariness -- guessability some
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Arbtrrnss (5) guessability
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Arbitrariness of ASL Sum

• Differences across languages -- some clear
  differences (tree).
• Guessability -- low guessability.

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Agenda

• 4. Knowledge of ASL -- rules

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Rules -- verb endings (1) -- Morphology
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Rules -- verb endings (2) -- Morphology
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Rules -- verb endings (3) -- Morphology

• continually
• repeatedly

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Rules -- syntax and inflections (1) The dog bit
the cat.
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Rules -- syntax and inflections (2) The cat bit
the dog.
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ASL knowledge -- Sum

• Lexicon
• Form-meaning relationship arbitrary and iconic
  (imitative).
• Rules
• Morphology
• Syntax

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Agenda

• 5. ASL and the brain.

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Hemisphere processing

• Left Logical, Analytic, Speech and Language,
  Calculation.
• Right Intuition, General spatial processing,
  Relational, Visualization, Art and Music.

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ASL and the brain -- two competing claims

• Claim 1 If ASL is a visual/spatial system, then
  it must be represented in the right hemisphere.
• Claim 2 Since ASL is a language, it is
  represented in the left hemisphere the
  processing of ASL in the brain is independent of
  general spatial processing.

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Claim 1 (ASL in the right hemisphere)

• If Claim 1 is a better claim than Claim 2, then
  we expect brain damage in the right hemisphere to
  disrupt both
• spatial perception in general and
• the use of ASL.

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Right-hemisphere damage

• Patient
• Sarah M. (SM)

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Right-hemisphere damage Sarah M.
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Right hemisphere damage -- general spatial task
(2)(Instruction Arrange the blocks to match the
model)
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Claim 1 (ASL is in the right hemisphere)(1)

• Results for Claim 1
• Is general spatial perception in Sarah M.
  disrupted with damage to the right hemisphere?
  YES.
• Is the use of ASL in Sarah M. disrupted with
  damage to the right hemisphere?

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Cookie Theft picture
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Sarah M.s signing

• English translation It makes me think of
  Niagara Falls. The water is overflowing from the
  sink. Accidentally, the boy almost slipped on
  the stool..

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Claim 1 (ASL is in the right hemisphere)(2)

• Results for Claim 1
• Is general spatial perception in Sarah M.
  disrupted with damage to the right hemisphere?
  YES.
• Is the use of ASL in Sarah M. disrupted with
  damage to the right hemisphere? NO.

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ASL and the brain -- two competing claims (repeat)

• Claim 1 Since ASL is a visual/spatial system,
  it is represented in the right hemisphere. (So
  far the evidence goes against Claim 1.)
• Claim 2 Since ASL is a language, it is
  represented in the left hemisphere.

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Claim 2 (ASL is in the left hemisphere)(1)

• Results for Claim 2
• Is general spatial perception disrupted with
  damage to the left hemisphere?
• Is the use of ASL disrupted with damage to the
  left hemisphere?

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ASL and left hemisphere damage

• Two patients
• Gail D. (GD)
• Karen L. (KL)

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Left hemisphere damage Gail D. (GD)
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Left hemisphere damage Karen L. (KL)
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Left-hemisphere damage -- general spatial tasks
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Claim 2 (ASL is in the left hemisphere)(2)

• Results for Claim 2
• Is general spatial perception in these two
  patients disrupted with damage to the left
  hemisphere? NO.
• Is the use of ASL disrupted with damage to the
  left hemisphere?

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Left hemisphere damage Gail D. (GD)
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Cookie Theft picture
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Cookie Theft -- Gail D. (1)

• Examiner Whats that? pointing to the picture
• Gail D. THREE.
• E Who is that? pointing to woman in the
  picture
• GD MOTHER.

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Cookie Theft -- Gail D. (2)

• E Who is that? pointing to the boy
• GD BROTHER. BROTHER

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Left hemisphere damage Karen L.
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Story -- Karen L. (English translation) (1)

• ...She unspecified could be with the two of us
  easily. They unspecified, many have moved out
  of this area from different places. And Im
  still looking for someone.

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Claim 2 (ASL is in the left hemisphere)(3)

• Results for Claim 2
• Is general spatial perception in these two
  patients disrupted with damage to the left
  hemisphere? NO.
• Is the use of ASL in these two patients disrupted
  with damage to the left hemisphere? YES.

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ASL and the brain -- General Conclusion

• ASL is represented in the brain in the same way
  that spoken language is (not in the way that
  general spatial processing is represented) -- in
  the left hemisphere -- specifically in Brocas
  and Wernickes areas hence, it shares this
  specific property with spoken language.

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Agenda

• 6. Acquisition of ASL.

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ASL Acquisition

• Distinguish between
• Acquisition in children of signing parents. (10
  of cases)
• Acquisition in children of non-signing parents.
  (90 of cases)

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Acq from signing parents

• Babbling.
• One-sign stage.
• Two-sign stage.
• Telegraphic stage.
• Negation.

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Acquisition from signing parents -- negation

• Stage I
• No Subject Verb.
• Stage II
• Subject no Verb.
• Stage III
• Subject not Verb. ( adult form)

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Acq from non-signing parents

• Home sign
• Parents Unstructured
• Children Relatively highly structured and
  enriched.

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Agenda

• 7. Innateness in ASL.

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Topicalization (FR, p. 161)

• English and ASL --
• Sam Spade insulted the fat mans henchman.
• The fat mans henchman, Sam Spade insulted.
• Henchman, Sam Spade insulted the fat mans.

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Agenda

• 8. Critical period for ASL.

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ASL -- Critical Period

• Children who acquire ASL after 12 years of age
• master lexicon and word order.
• fail to master morphological complexity
  (functional elements).
• Resembles post-pubertal acquisition in other
  cases.

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Agenda

• 9. Overall conclusion for ASL
• Since ASL shares all of the major properties of
  language as we have developed them, it is a
  true language.

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Agenda

• 10. Language and speech.

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Language and speech

• ASL and other sign languages of the deaf) are
  true languages but are not spoken, so we must
  distinguish between language and speech.
• Language An internalized, abstract system of
  rules and principles represented in the brain.
• Speech The external, physical aspect of
  linguistic events for spoken languages.

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Agenda

• 11. Videotape excerpts from Language
  questions on pp. 89-90 of the Course Reader.