WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

1
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

• HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES

2
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?

3
LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM

• Duality
• Patterning
• Structural dependence
• But Im not so think as you drunk I am.
• (Sir J.C. Squire, writer)

4
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.

5
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.

6
LANGUAGE AS A UNIQUE HUMAN CAPACITY

• Genetically coded ability
• Unique cognitive system
• Unique vocal system
• Wiring
• LAD

7
Where is language in the brain?
8
Signals
9
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

10
Focus on sound signals
Rapidly fading signal - Special memory - Bears
Total feedback - Talking to yourself
11
Traditional transmission vs. Genetically coded
behaviour

• Birds

12
Species-specific behaviour
13
LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION

• Interaction, negotiation of meaning

14
Function and intention

• Chimps and dolphins

15
SpecialisationInterchangeability

• Peacocks

16
DisplacementPrevarification

• No
• Past
• Future
• Questions
• Lies

17
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

18
What determines the nature of signals?

• Higher position on the evolutionary scale?
• - Of birds and chimpanzees
• Social activity?
• - Of cuckoos, bees and ancient hunters

19
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

20
Semanticity, openness

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

21
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