What is language?

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What is language?

• Langston
• Psycholinguistics
• Lecture 2

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What is language?

• We can define it by its properties. This list is
  pretty common (Hockett, 1966)
• 1. Rapid Fading
• 2. Interchangeability
• 3. Feedback
• 4. Semanticity
• 5. Arbitrariness
• 6. Discreteness
• 7. Displacement

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What is language?

• We can define it by its properties. This list is
  pretty common (Hockett, 1966)
• 8. Productivity
• 9. Cultural transmission
• 10. Duality (of Patterning)
• 11. Prevarication
• 12. Reflexiveness
• 13. Learnability

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What is language?

• If it helps, here's one list of these
• http//www.ling.ohio-state.edu/swinters/371/desig
  nfeatures.html

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What is language?

• Note that it is kind of arbitrary to rule out
  animal communication systems on the basis of this
  list since it was developed to distinguish
  between human language and animal communication.
  (Rx)

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What is language?

• Another thing about this list is that if you look
  around you see people claiming that certain
  features are the ones that matter, but they
  tend to have different lists. (Rx)

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What is language?

• We are going to consider language as
  rule-described (contrasted to rule-governed).
  We'd like to see in the descriptions
• Grammar
• A set of elements
• Rules for combining those elements

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What is language?

• A good grammar
• Simpler is better.
• Should conform to users' intuitions about
  language
• John kicked the ball.
• The ball was kicked by John.
• Rules should apply to many languages.

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What is language?

• We can think of grammars for
• Phonology.
• Morphology.
• Syntax.
• Semantics.
• Pragmatics.

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Grammar Fallacies

• 1. Only some languages have a grammar.
• The ball kicked the boy.
• The boy kicked the ball.

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Grammar Fallacies

• 1. Only some languages have a grammar.
• Warlpiri (Pinker, 2000, p.232)
• This man speared a kangaroo.
• Man this kangaroo speared.
• Man kangaroo speared this.
• Man speared kangaroo this

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Grammar Fallacies

• 2. Some grammars are primitive.
• French versus English
• Le livre, les livres
• The book, the books

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Grammar Fallacies

• 3. People must be taught the grammatical rules of
  language.
• We've addressed this one.

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Grammar Fallacies

• 4. Grammatical rules are logical.
• I don't have nothing.
• Yo no tengo nada.
• Tree trees
• Book books
• Sheep sheeps

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Grammar Fallacies

• 5. Grammars deteriorate with the passage of time.
• We've discussed this, it's more a matter of
  evolution than deterioration, and these concerns
  are not about the fundamentals but the paint.

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Grammar Fallacies

• 6. Grammars differ in unpredictable ways.
• Not Pat is here.
• Pat not is here.
• Pat is not here.
• Pat is here not.
• a and d are very rare.

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Grammar Fallacies

• 6. Grammars differ in unpredictable ways.
• Dogs like bones (SVO).
• Dogs bones like (SOV).
• Like dogs bones (VSO).
• Like bones dogs (VOS).
• Bones like dogs (OVS).
• Bones dogs like (OSV).
• Most a-c, some d and e, none use f for dominant
  form.

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The End