Ling 110 Exam 2
What is the main purpose of meerkat calls?
To warn against predators
Which chimp produced multi‐sign utterances, such as water bird?
Washoe
Phonological
Whether the sounds are different in the mind of the speaker
What are the three subfields of phonetics given in Yule's textbook?
__________
What is a phoneme?
abstract mental representation of a distinctive sound in a language
Which species uses a blending system to encode a high (potentially infinite) number of messages?
bees
Are there other species we discussed that appear to have a critical period for acquiring their communication system?
birds
What are the two types of vocalizations that birds produce? What kind of messages do they transmit?
birds produce songs and calls. Songs largely serve territorial function while calls are short sounds that birds emit in certain situations
What types of signals do dolphins use to communicate with each other? What types of messages can they convey?
breaching and tail slaps
Which species produces a very low frequency vocalization that can travel long distances?
elephants
What did Terrace conclude from the research with Nim?
little evidence for structure, Many of Nim's utterances were repetitions of what the teacher just said (though some were spontaneous), Terrace found the same in his analysis of the Nova program tapes of Washoe
Phonology
mental organization
What was the method used for teaching washoe this language?
molding
Which method of teaching chimps to sign involves shaping their hands to form the signs?
molding
What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? Why is IPA used rather than other orthographic (spelling) systems?
orthographic spelling and the way we pronounce words are different and have a weak connection
What is a minimal pair? Give an example in English.
pairs of words differing in only one segment in the same position. ex. "tip" [tIp] "dip" [dIp]
What is the difference between a phoneme and an allophone? Provide an example of allophones in English that are separate phonemes in another language.
phoneme // is mental representation and an allophone [ ] is the physical sound.
Phones
physical pronunciation(s) of phonemes
The intensity of the waggles of bees' waggling dance encodes _____________________________
quality of food source
What is the name of the low frequency vocalization that elephants produce?
rumbling
What are the five diphthongs in American English? Provide one example word for each diphthong.
sequence of two sounds [aI]- eye, my, sigh [au] - bough, doubt, cow [eI] - bait, eight, great [ou]- boat, home, throw [cI]- boy, noise
What language was Washoe taught?
sign language
What communication system involving symbols on a keyboard was Kanzi taught?
yerkish
What symbol system was Kanzi taught?
yerkish
Is language acquisition subject to a critical period during which the child must be exposed to language in order to fully acquire it?
yes
Was Washoe able to produce multi-sign utterances? Was there clear evidence that these utterances have grammatical structure?
yes, she did do multi sign utterances, grammatical structure was weak and bad
Species uniform
• Language is acquired by all children, 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 differences in environment (compare to our differing mastery of, say, tennis) - by around age 5!
How was Nim taught?
-------
What are some characteristics of Alex the parrot's utterances?
-Has learned many "labels" for things; can identify shape ("four corner" = square), color, material ("paper", "wool", etc.) -Capable of producing a string of words (no evidence for structural complexity) -Has shown impressive counting behavior
What 3 properties do we use to describe vowels? Give example vowels for each property.
-How high/low the tongue is in the mouth -How forward or backward the tongue is in the mouth -Whether the lips are rounded
What does it mean to say that human language is "species uniform"?
-Language is acquired by all children, 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 differences in environment (compare to our differing mastery of, say, tennis) - by around age 5!
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?
-Round dance (food source within 5 meters of hive) -Sickle dance (food source 5-20 meters) -Tail-wagging dance (food source further than 20 meters) - wagging duration/tempo marks distance Compares to human language bc: -Symbolic system (distinct representations for parameters of food source) -As a "blending system" allowing one to encode different magnitudes of these parameters, it could generate a high (theoretically infinite) number of messages
how many sounds appear in human languages
140
How many "words" could Washoe produce in her language?
160
Which animal learned many labels for objects, can identify shape, color, material, and produce a string of words?
Alex the parrot
What is one piece of evidence suggesting that bees represent distance by keeping track of how much their visual experience changes while traveling?
Bees don't seem to encode the distance by how long it takes them to fly to/from the source (foragers who take different flight routes still report similar distances)
In addition to human's acquisition of language, which animal communication system is also subject to a critical period?
Birdsong
Which animal learned more than a thousand words for different objects and was able to deduce the meaning of new words?
Chaser
Briefly describe the Gua and Don experiment. Briefly describe the outcome of Gua and Don's language abilities.
Chimpanzee (9.5 m.o.) and human (10 m.o.) raised together. Don "aped" Gua; Gua initially learned to comprehend words quickly, then Don surpassed him
The angle of the bees' waggling dance in reference to the sun encodes ____________________________
Direction of food source
Which species uses both vocal signals and non‐ vocal signals to communicate, such as "tail slap" and "breaching"?
Dolphins
Aspiration
English word p sometimes produced with a puff of air called an aspiration
Did we see any clear evidence that Kanzi's language is symbolic, rule-governed and creative?
Evidence for the acquisition of an inventory of symbolic representations, Some evidence of the formation of multi-word strings, including some sensitivity to their order, No clear evidence of building symbols
Which species waves their claws to attract the females?
Fiddler crabs
Which chimp was raised together with a human child (Don)?
Gua
What is elephant rumbling? What is the advantage of using rumbling?
Its a low frequency vocalization, cant be heard by humans because of the low frequency and it can travel far distances.
Phonological analysis
Look for minimal pairs
Briefly describe the fiddler crab communication system. What can we conclude when we compare this communication system with human language?
Many different varieties, each species uses its own particular "claw waving" movement to signal to a conspecific, basic movement and posture of the body never change; meaning is always the same. There are major differences between human and crab
What are some problems with the Washoe study which make it difficult to draw strong conclusions regarding Washoe's language abilities?
Many signs were different from the "language" she was learning, Limited records to evaluate claims about her language use, Researchers didn't fully know sign language either
In addition to vervet monkeys and lemurs, which other species has different calls for different predators?
Meerkats
Which chimp was adopted by a research group led by Herbert Terrace and was expected to learn human language?
Nim Chimpsky
Did Herbert Terrace initially expect that Nim Chimsky would be able to learn human language?
No
What are the three features used to describe consonants?
Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation Voicing (Voiced/Voiceless)
Allophones
Predictable phonetic variants of phoneme
Which species uses color as a medium to communicate?
Red‐winged blackbirds
In what ways is birdsong similar to human communication and language development?
Some innately-specified aspects, Some interaction with environment / "learning", Some evidence for "critical period"
