Language

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Language

• What is language?
• How do humans process it?

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What is language?

• Most peoples first answer is communication.

Does being a form of communication uniquely
distinguish language?
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What more is language?

• What separates language from other forms of
  communication?
• Symbolism words are abstract representations of
  conceps.
• Structure Language is governed by rules, at many
  different levels
• Productivity From a small number of basic units,
  an infinite number of utterances can be
  generated.
• Evolution Language changes over time.

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Processes of language evolution

• Convergence Members of different language groups
  interact, blending their languages into a new
  common language.
• Blends Languages that have one dominent
  ancestor, but blend charateristics of others.
  English is a blended language
• Mixes Distinct languages mix to form a new one.
  Ex Creole, modern Hawaiian
• Divergence Members of a single language group
  become geographically and socially isolated, and
  the languages evolve in different directions
• Japanese vs. Korean

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A brief history of English

• Old English is dated to the mid-5th century and
  most closely resembles German.
• Middle English dates to roughly 1000-1400 and
  shows obvious blends with Latin and French.
• Modern English dates from roughly 1500.
• Germanic at its root, Old English Anglo-Saxon
  (from which Dutch also derives) combines with
  Celtic and Latin (via French).

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Wulfstans Sermo Lupi ad AnglosAD 1014

• The sermon of the Wolf to the English, when the
  Danes were greatly persecuting them, which was in
  the year 1014 after the Incarnation of our Lord
  Jesus Christ
• Beloved men, know that which is true this world
  is in haste and it nears the end. And therefore
  things in this world go ever the longer the
  worse, and so it must needs be that things
  quickly worsen, on account of people's sinning
  from day to day, before the coming of Antichrist.
  And indeed it will then be awful and grim widely
  throughout the world. Understand also well that
  the Devil has now led this nation astray for very
  many years, and that little loyalty has remained
  among men, though they spoke well. And too many
  crimes reigned in the land, and there were never
  many of men who deliberated about the remedy as
  eagerly as one should, but daily they piled one
  evil upon another, and committed injustices and
  many violations of law all too widely throughout
  this entire land.

Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, quando Dani maxime
persecuti sunt eos quod fuit anno millesimo XIIII
ab incarnatione domini nostri Iesu
Cristi Leofan men gecnawað þæt soð is ðeos
worolde is on ofste hit nealæcð þam ende. þy
hit is on worolde aa swa leng swa wyrse, swa
hit sceal nyde for folces synnan fram dæge to
dæge, ær antecristes tocyme, yfelian swyþe.
huru hit wyrð þænne egeslic grimlic wide on
worolde. Understandað eac georne þæt deofol þas
þeode nu fela geara dwelode to swyþe, þæt lytle
getreowþa wæran mid mannum, þeah hy wel spræcan.
unrihta to fela ricsode on lande, næs a fela
manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote swa georne swa man
scolde, ac dæghwamlice man ihte yfel æfter oðrum,
unriht rærde unlaga manege ealles to wide
gynd ealle þas þeode.
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Chaucer - Canterbury Tales14th Century

• When in April the sweet showers fall
• That pierce March's drought to the root and all
• And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
• To generate therein and sire the flower
• 5 When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath,
• Filled again, in every holt and heath,
• The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun
• His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
• And many little birds make melody
• 10 That sleep through all the night with open eye
• (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)
• Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,
• And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
• To distant shrines well known in distant lands.
• 15 And specially from every shire's end
• Of England they to Canterbury went,
• The holy blessed martyr there to seek
• Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak

• Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
• The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
• And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
• Of which vertu engendred is the flour
• 5 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
• Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
• The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
• Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
• And smale foweles maken melodye,
• 10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
• (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages)
• Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
• And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
• To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes
• 15 And specially from every shires ende
• Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
• The hooly blisful martir for to seke
• That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

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Shakespeare - Henry V, 4.III1595

• But he'll remember with advantages
• What feats he did that day then shall our names.
• Familiar in his mouth as household words
• Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
• Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
• Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
• This story shall the good man teach his son
• And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
• From this day to the ending of the world,
• But we in it shall be remember'd
• We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
• For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
• Shall be my brother be he ne'er so vile,
• This day shall gentle his condition
• And gentlemen in England now a-bed
• Shall think themselves accursed they were not
  here,
• And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
• That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

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Language Divergence

• Depending on who you ask, language developed
  independently in a couple different areas.
• Indo-European
• Ural-Altaic
• Polynesian
• Chinese

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Where did language come from?

• Language appears sometime between 30,000 and
  100,000 years ago. Homo sapiens has been around
  for 2 million years.
• Mutation Some (Pinker, Chomsky) claim language
  was the result of natural selection. Presumably,
  there is a competitive advantage in streamlining
  communication.
• Spandrel Others (Gould) argue that language is
  simply a useful byproduct of having such a
  complex brain.