Linguistics 110 KU Exam #2

What 3 properties do we use to describe vowels? Give example vowels for each property

Well there are actually 4... 1. Height - high, mid, low ex. look at left side of chart to identify 2. Frontness/ Backness - front, central, back ex. look at top of chart to identify 3. Tense/ Lax - tense or lax ex. tense vowels all look like normal letters 4. Rounding - rounded or unrounded ex. rounded vowels are in the top right corner

What is a minimal pair? Give an example in English.

a minimal pair is two words differing in only one phone in the same position. ex. "sip" [sɪp] "zip" [zɪp]

What is the difference between a phoneme and an allophone? Provide an example of allophones in English that are separate phonemes in another language.

a phoneme is a mental representation of distinct sounds where as an allophone is the physical sound. allophones use [ ] and are also predictable.

22. What parts of the vocal tract are used to produce the following sounds? Write the IPA symbols for the sound(s) that match each of the descriptions below. We did (a) for you as an example. a. Bilabial = +V: [b][m][w] -V: [p] b. Labiodental = +V: -V: c. Dental = +V: -V d. Alveolar = +V: -V: e. Palatal = +V: -V: f. Velar = +V: -V: g. Glottal = +V: -V:

a. Bilabial = +V: [b][m][w] -V: [p] b. Labiodental = +V: [v] -V: [f] c. Dental = +V: [∂] -V: [θ] d. Alveolar = +V: [d] [z] [n] [l] [r] -V: [t] [s] e. Palatal = +V: [ʒ] [dʒ] [j] -V: [∫] [tƒ] f. Velar = +V: [g] [ŋ] -V: [k] g. Glottal = +V: -V: [h]

The following questions are about Kanzi the bonobo: a. What symbol system was Kanzi taught? b. Did we see any clear evidence that Kanzi's language is symbolic, rule-governed and creative?

a. Kanzi was taught using a keyboard of symbols (Yerkish which is a lexagram system). She eventually acquired around 250 symbols and was able to recognize the English equivalent and the object. b. no clear evidence that Kanzi had language, she struggled with gramatical words like "and", although she is still the most advanced comprehension science has seen in a primate

The following questions are about Washoe the chimpanzee: a. What language was Washoe taught? b. What was the method used for teaching her this language? c. How many "words" could Washoe produce in her language? d. Was Washoe able to produce multi-sign utterances? Was there clear evidence that these utterances have grammatical structure? e. What are some problems with the Washoe study which make it difficult to draw strong conclusions regarding Washoe's language abilities?

a. asl (american sign language) b. molding (a technique where the apes hand was formed into the word like water, then if she could reproduce that sign next time water was involved in something she was rewarded) c. around 160 signs d. some multi-sign utterances where "give tickle" or "open flower" but a famous example is "water bird" -did Washoe understand and name that swan a waterbird or did he just see the water sign water, then see the bird and sign bird THIS IS NOT EVIDENCE because there was no apparent or clear structure e. one problem was that the trainers didn't know ASL so some grammar problems could be attributed to that, unfortunately there is no unambiguous evidence that Washoe had a rule-based systematic system for language

The following questions are about the chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky: a. Did Herbert Terrace initially expect that Nim would be able to learn human language? b. How was Nim taught? c. What did Terrace conclude from the research with Nim?

a. yes, there was a hopeful outlook especially following the Washoe experiment b. Nim was taught ASL by non-fluent speakers of the language c. Terrace concluded that there was little to no evidence of structure, same as Washoe, as well as most of his utterances were just repeated things that his instructors said (a few were spontaneous though)

What is a phoneme?

abstract mental representation of a distinct sound in a language (this uses / /)

Briefly describe the Gua and Don experiment. Briefly describe the outcome of Gua and Don's language abilities

an infant (Don) and a chimpanzee (Gua) where raised together in the same house and had the exact same experiences and exposure. They both began learning things and expanding there knowledge until Don began to surpass Gua. Gua seemed to hit a block when it came to complex sentences, while don learned them and continued to grow and learn more and more while Gua seemed to have peaked and wasn't able to learn any more.

What are the two types of vocalizations that birds produce? What kind of messages do they transmit?

bird calls and bird songs. bird calls -innate - short sounds emitted during a specific situations bird songs - usually needs to be learned -almost always serve as a territorial function -more complex than calls, longer and use "notes" -some birds only have one song while some have many and other have seemingly infinite (all seem to mean the same thing however)

What types of signals do dolphins use to communicate with each other? What types of messages can they convey?

dolphins primarily use vocalizations but also use things like tail slaps, jaw claps, and breaching, all of those are more physical. -vocalizations are used to communicate danger, communicate to eat fish, and speak about objects in surrounding objects. note: two types of vocalizations one is pure tones (whistles, chirps, screams) and pulsed sounds (rapid clicks in succession with one another) -tail slaps are to grab attention of other dolphins as well as a sign of aggression -jaw claps are an aggressive signal -breaching (jumping out of the water and re-entering) this creates a loud sound upon re-entry and can be used to tell distant dolphins about location or direction of swimming. This one is used for long distance communication

Briefly describe the fiddler crab communication system. What can we conclude when we compare this communication system with human language?

fiddler crabs wave their larger claw in the air to signal they are ready to mate. they step to the side and wave and repeat this basic motion. compared to human language, fiddler crabs have a small number of fixed symbol, no rules, and no creativity. =NO LANGUAGE, JUST COMMUNICATION

What are some characteristics of Alex the parrot's utterances?

he is able to identify things like shape, color, material, and relative size. also he has demonstrated he can count. he can also string words together but this shows no evidence being rule governed

What is elephant rumbling? What is the advantage of using rumbling?

rumbling is a low frequency vocalization that travels through the ground or the air. an advantage to this is that it can travel very large distances very quickly.

What is the main purpose of meerkat calls?

the main purpose is to signal danger. there is 25 different danger calls.

What is one piece of evidence suggesting that bees represent distance by keeping track of how much their visual experience changes while traveling?

when a bee flies over choppy water they report a larger distance than if they were to fly over smooth water

Briefly describe the epaulet-showing communication system of red-winged blackbirds. How does it work? What is communicated? What can we conclude when we compare this communication system with human language?

when a male red-winged blackbird flashes his epaulets it means he's attempting to defend his territory and scare off encroaching birds. epaulets are red patches of feathers located on the birds shoulders. compared to human language this is one fixed symbol, no rules, which means no creativity. =NO LANGUAGE, JUST COMMUNICATION

What 3 properties (regarding food sources) can the dances of bees communicate, and how are they communicated? What can we conclude when we compare this communication system with human language?

when locating a food source... 1. distance from hive -round dance ~ 5 meters away -sickle dance ~ 5-20 meters away -tail-wagging dance ~ 20+ meters away (duration/ tempo marks distance) 2. direction in relation to sun -round dance ~ "it's close so figure it out" -sickle and tail-wagging dance ~ distance encoded within dance 3. quality (quantity) ~ amount of waggles/ intensity marks quality (more intense = better food source = MORE FOOD) note: as the food source dwindles the wags get less intense compared to human language, bee's do have a symbolic system but it is also a closed system. It can communicate an infinite amount of things but not on an infinite amount of topics. This means there are some similarities between human language and the bee dance, but its NOT LANGUAGE

Is language acquisition subject to a critical period during which the child must be exposed to language in order to fully acquire it? Are there other species we discussed that appear to have a critical period for acquiring their communication system?

yes language is subject to the critical period. birds are seen to also be effected by the critical period.

In what ways is birdsong similar to human communication and language development?

- some innately-specified aspects -some interaction with learning/ "environment" - some evidence of "critical period" -bird was separated from singing mother and then returned 60 days later and was never able to learn the song meaning, the critical period of learning was missed

What does it mean to say that human language is "species uniform"?

-language is acquired by all humans (except in extreme circumstances) -all human languages are similar in their basic properties and acquisition profiles -children reach mastery of their native language regardless of difference in the environment

For what reasons (or what functional purposes) do animals communicate?

-mating -danger alerts -warning about encroaching on territory - food distance, direction, and quality -specific objects

What are the five diphthongs in American English? Provide one example word for each diphthong.

1. [aɪ] - buy, eye 2. [aʊ] - doubt, cow 3. [eɪ] - bait, great 4. [oʊ] - boat, home 5. [ɔɪ] - boy, noise

What 3 properties have we been using to compare animal communication and human language?

1. arbitrary, symbolic system 2. creative 3. rule-governed

More Information about Bee Dances

1. it is species uniform and species specific 2. appears to be innate 3. doesn't satisfy the criteria of rules and creativity

What are the three subfields of phonetics given in Yule's textbook?

1.articulatory phonetics 2.acoustic phonetics 3.auditory phonetics located on page 28

What are the three features used to describe consonants?

1.place of articulation 2.manner of articulation 3.voicing (voiced/ voiceless)

What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? Why is IPA used rather than other orthographic (spelling) systems?

IPA is a system developed where every sound has a symbol and this is used because spelling doesn't always correspond to the sound directly.