Quiz 1 Language
Pronunciation variations
"I made stewed tiger before a battle"; you just produced three /t/ sounds each one differently; the unaspirated /t/ as in "stewed" is used when /t/ is followed by a vowel, but the /t/ is not the initial position of the word, the aspirated [t] of "tiger" is the [t] we use at the beginning of the word when a vowel follows; the [t] in "battle" is used between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel; not only do people obey these rules regular and unconsciously, but the rules themselves are often quite general; some pronunciation rules seem arbitrary, but many make speech easier; assimilation refers to the process of altering of a sound to make it more like an adjacent sound
What were the two opposing views of functionalism?
Alan Turing and the Turing test (pro-functionalism) and Searles and the Chinese Room Thought Experiment (anti-functionalism)
productivity
Although words and sentences are made up of relatively few basic elements, they can be combined in many novel ways •We can invent new words (e.g., emoji)•Most of what we say and comprehend consists of utterances that are original; yet we are able to easily comprehend•This comprehension is enhanced through rules that govern how we construct sentences — syntax
Can the bees show productivity and why or why not?
Bee's dance shows a limited kind of productivity in that a worker bee can signal a location that has never been signaled before •Related to continuous nature of the dance, rather than a syntax that governs combination of discrete signals
do bees show displacement why or why not?
Bees display a kind of displacement in their communication •Some time elapses between a worker bee's discovery of a field of flowers and the bee's arrival at the hive •Relatively limited
What are the two types of thought experiments
Constructive/destructive
Primary question when we think about phonology
How do we get the communicative power of spoken language out of such a small set of phonemes?
After the experiment on viki, why was the conclusion that she is evidence that apes are not capable of using human language flawed? how can we prove this wrong?
Many concluded that spoken language attempts failed due to differences in vocal tracts •Not evidence that primates were incapable of learning human language; Recent attempts have focused on American Sign Language (ASL) and artificial languages
would the vervet monkeys show duality of patterning and why or why not?
No solid evidence that the vervet monkey's call or any other natural animal communication system shows this characteristic either •Critical for having a language system that is easy to acquire and comprehend
How do philosophy and language go together?
Philosophy helps scientists think about their findings and how they fit with their target theory, and what other alternative interpretations could explain their data; contributes to building our own theories about language, how we speak/process info; challenges us to think about big questions and how language relates to thinks such as consciousness and thought and not isolate them
do vervet monkeys show displacement why or why not?
Vervet monkeys show no displacement •Calls are made in presence of a specific predator
Washoe the chimp
Washoe (a chimp) was trained in ASL from a very early age •She acquired a vocabulary of about 250 signs and displayed rudiments of syntax and productivity•Could produce basic combinations of words like "you me go out hurry"•Used the sign "water bird" to refer to a swan; •Washoe had an adopted son (Loulis) who was able to learn to sign by watching Washoe
Behaviorism
Watson/Skinner; can't see your mind working; can't ever observe it so no point; should only focus on how things actually behave; brought down after Chomsky's harsh criticisms in the 1960s; claimed that any appeal to thought or any internal states did not belong in a theory of intelligent behavior
Sequence Constraints
Which of these pair of letter strings could not be a word? ex: bnuke and bluke; because neither of these strings are words, you could not have made this decision by finding one of the letter strings stored in your memory as a word; instead you use tactic knowledge of sequence of sounds; the phonological rules of English allows fewer than 6 possible combinations of phonemes
Phoneme
a category of different sounds that speakers of a given language perceive to be the same sound
thought experiment
a method to understand intelligent behavior and mental processes by constructing complex scenarios that may be impossible, not realistically feasible or unethical to implement in the real world; Dennett: intuition pumps; can provide a conceptual testing ground for difficult questions that are currently difficult or impossible for us to examine empirically; in the past: these experiments have helped prove important concepts such as gravity
modules
a specialized system for performing certain kinds of mental tasks
What do both the continuity and discontinuity view agree on
agree that development of language was a critical event in human evolution; made possible social cooperation and styles of thinking that profoundly our species ability to manage the environment so we could survive and flourish
basic tools of philosophy
all philosophical methods are build logic and reason; philosophers have been interested in the mind long before cognitive science emerged; do you need to have language to have thought?; the relationship between mind and body (dualism/monism); qualia: the subjective feeling of an experience-very specific feeling you have as an individual in that moment
Hocketts definition of semanticity
any associative relationship between the sign and the thing being represented (the referent)
Kanzi and artificial language
argued that bonobos are capable of approximating language ability of young children •Kanzi was said to have acquired proficiency in communicating by watching his mother's training •Based on pressing keys with symbols that represent concepts •Can sometimes use word order to express meaning
koko the gorilla
began learning sign language in 1972; Koko learned approximately 1,000 signs and was able to generally understand spoken English; also exhibited human like emotions and humor; Claim is that she was smart enough to comprehend so apes are capable of reasoning about the world, loving, and grieving
constructive thought experiment
build up your theory or point; new theory or argument that adds to the previous
how are vowels characterized
by where they are on this quadrangle location
complex systems approach (dynamic)
claim is that behavior, our thoughts, language, etc. don't occur in isolation, instead they are emergent processes-emerge in our environments-brain-body environments interactions; "emergent properties"-properties that are not a simple "linear" product of the individual parts; borrows terminology and foundational principles from thermodynamics
CRUM (Computational-Representational Understanding of Mind)
claim is that our brain works like a computer; process, store info; performing some sort of calculation in our mind; Representation-a placeholder for information (e.g. memory, knowledge) that can be used by the mind for computer like mental processes; often pulls terminology from computers; "accessing" information "storing" memories "computing functions" over infro
artificial intelligence
computer science; using what we know about computers/robots; what they are good/bad at; tells us a lot about human language
vowels and 4 characteristics to think about
considered open sounds because there is no obstruction to the airflow; all are considered to be "voiced"-with a few weird exceptions-1. portion of tongue involved in articulation 2. tongues position relative to palate 3. shape of lips (rounded or unrounded) 4. length of duration
Clark and Chalmers Otto/Inga Thought Experiment
constructive view; want to go to Art Museum; Inga knows how to get there because she stored in memory; Otto has memory problems so she writes down instructions in notebook; Question is are these both memory? Does memory have to be in brain? Clark would argue that memory doesn't have to be in brain-it's about the behavior; doesn't matter how you get there as long as you are able to do the intelligent task; if were not afraid to say that memory is capable of being offloaded to our environment, why should other capabilities be different?
Searles Chines Room Problem
destructive thought experiment; fight over functionalism; anti functionalism; idea that just because you can respond in an intelligent way does not mean you are thinking in the same way that a human is thinking; if you have these people who Speak Chinese and send messages under door to a man who can look up symbols in book and whenever look up certain symbols it tells him exactly what to write back; ultimately will come up with message that he can produce back; people outside of doors perspective assume person inside door is an intelligent speaker of Chines-but person is really just manipulating Chines-doesn't actually understand it; just like the interpreter in the room doesn't understand Chinese, the computer isn't actually thinking or intelligent
Would the bees dance be considered discrete/continuous why or why not?
discrete: bees waggle a circular movement for "near" and a figure eight for "far- continuous: speed of the movement indicates the quantity of the food at the source-they are more arbitrary than they are discrete
Kanzi the bonobo and (teko)
doesn't use sign language; uses lexigrams (symbols) to communicate; learned by watching mother be taught the symbols; Knows the 450 symbols on keyboard but probably knows several thousand
psychology
experiments; what language is doing; how we come up with categories; how we process different types of words; how we process native vs. second language
Would current researchers believe that the bees and monkeys show semanticity and why or why not?
few would credit the bee with having an internal representation of flowers that is called up in memory when another bee waggles a location •However, studies of mental abilities of primates have convinced many researchers that monkeys do havemental representations of concepts that represent more stringent definition
neuroscience
focused on identifying where different aspects of language are happening in the brain; entire brain networks/regions
can the vervet monkeys show productivity and why or why not?
have a discrete system but no means of productivity •Calls have semantic content but they cannot be recombined in novel ways•Huge gap in productivity between language and animal communication is one of main reasons some theorists double whether language evolved from animal call systems
the problem of productivity
how do we produce and infinite capacity for expression out of a finite system of sounds (or gestures) within a limited capacity brain?
The problem of meaning
how do we take these symbols that are arbitrary and combine them to create something that is meaningful?
manner of articulation when talking about consonants
how narrow constriction is, whether air is flowing through nose, and whether tongue is dropped to one side; 5 different manner categories-stop: where it completely cuts of air flow-fricative: airflow is restricted causing friction
debate over modularity
how we process information in the world including language information; some people think language, memory and reasoning are just different expressions of a more general capacity for forming concepts and manipulating information; others argues that we have different mental abilities that operate independently from each other--those theories believe that language is one of several modules within our mental system
What does the continuity hypothesis say about monkey/bee communication?
implies stronger similarity between monkey communication and language than between bee communication and language; the modes of communication are different; bees-movement; monkeys and humans-vocal-we cannot rely on this for stronger human monkey similarity because we do have sign language
What do current researchers define semanticity as
in terms of symbols being associated with internal concepts that represent objects and actions in the world
tactic knowledge
knowledge that we have but don't know why we have it; child seems to know that you form a plural noun by adding -s but could not actually describe the rule; most linguists believe we are born with some of this knowledge, or at least we are specifically equipped biologically to acquire this knowledge from our language experiences; debate about how much we need in order to use language
discreteness
language signals are distinct and discreet; don't vary along a continuum; discrete signal: if I raise my hand to show that I agree with you and otherwise keep my hand down; continuous signal: if I raise my hand higher the more I agree with you: so if I'm talking about a big hippo and a small hippo I do not raise and lower my pitch to convey these size differences
semanticity
language symbols are symbols that convey meaning; when you say the word dog you know you are talking about that thing/symbol
introspectionism
late 1800s through 1920s; an early scientific movement in studying thought associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edwards Titchner; claim: "we can understand the mind and its complex processes by reflecting under rigorous conditions"; careful instructions on how to analyze own thoughts under strict training; difficulty repeating experiments/quantify; describing own thoughts is not very experimental
The Nature of Language
linguistics is interested in the nature of language; what features make language unique; Plato wrestled with many questions regarding the nature of language; where language came from; is it a logical system handed down from the gods or is it an arbitrary form created by people; are we born with it or did we slowly develop it over time?
discontinuity view
linguists take this view of language evolution; language is a late developing ability that is very different from the gesture hominid ancestors; does not maintain the view that language came out of nowhere; acknowledges that important evolutionary changes in communicative/thinking abilities may have taken place over the millenia; however the final recent changes produced an ability (language) that is qualitatively different from communication in other primates
vowels: diphthongs
long complex vowels that start with sound quality of one vowel and end with another; classified as single phonemes but given a double symbol to show quality they start and end with ex: brown, bite, boy
Nativist Hypothesis
many linguists believe that the knowledge that language users must have is so subtle and extensive that at least some of that knowledge must be apart of our genetic inheritance; a great deal of tactic knowledge is required to allow us to use language; children do not inherit particular languages from their parents; but how do children learn languages so easily? do they have certain knowledge built in that assist them in the language acquisition process?E
semantics
meaning at the level of words, phrases and sentences
Would the monkeys calls be considered discrete/continuous why or why not?
monkeys calls are discrete; represent separate animals for each call; this Is similar to human language
modularity and language evolution from the continuity hypothesis
most continuity theorists do not see a sharp division between communication and thinking abilities in humans or other primates; they are less likely to view language as a separate module; they would say that language came about gradually as mental abilities changed and these changes made increasingly sophisticated communication possible
constriction
narrowing of vocal tract
Would the bees show duality of patterning and why or why not?
no because it is only possible in a discrete system because duality of patterning means that each discrete symbol can be broken down into component parts
arbitrariness
no specific resemblance between the symbol and what the symbol represents; dog is a label that has semantic meaning but the word doesn't look like a dog; makes language very different between communicating with pictures
Would the bees dance be considered an arbitrary signal and why or why not?
no the angle of the dance is used to directly show the angle of the food source relative to the sun and the hive
Alan Turing and the Turing Test
not a thought experiment test; test to see if you could fool someone into thinking they were having a conversation with a person when they were really communicating with a computer; if you succeed in fooling someone then computer must have language; someone talking to computer-->don't know if talking to person or computer; if it looks like a(n intelligent) duck, walks like a(n intelligent) duck, and quacks like a(n intelligent duck... it must be intelligent!
anthropology
opposite of linguist; study language in its natural environment; language in culture-south vs. north; how language evolved-animals
duality of patterning
patterns in language signals occur on two levels: we can break all of these signals down to two basic levels-level 1: symbols are meaningful discrete and arbitrary ex: the word desk-level 2: smaller units that make up the meaningful symbols-ex: the letters that make up the word desk-the d in desk does not have meaning on its own but if you combine it with esk it becomes a meaningful symbol; in spoken language you have basic units of sounds phonemes (level 2) that combine to make morphemes-meaningful words (level 1)
Example of diphthong from New England: Cot-caught merger
phonemic merger occurring in some dialects in English; caught/cot, stock/stalk, nod/gnawed-are all pronounced the same in these places; has occurred in most of New England; resisted most strongly in the south, Inland North (Great Lakes), and Northeast Coridore (Baltimore to Philly to NYC Province); hot dog test-test to see if you have it
What are the 5 main forms of knowledge used for language?
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics
modularity and language evolution from the discontinuity hypothesis
pick up on a very sharp division between language and other primate communication and between language and the rest of our mental abilities;
What two outside disciplines do anthropologists look two
primatologists and linguistics
continuity
primatologists take this view of language that language evolved gradually from the system of gestures and calls of the ancestors of modern humans; often assumed that we should be able to see at least some elements of language ability in other existing primates whose early ancestors we share
Hockett
proposed 6 characteristics of human language; looked for the same characteristics among animal communication systems
pragmatics
rules for how literal meaning can be changed by social context
What are the 6 universals that have received the most attention by researchers
semanticity, arbitrariness, discreteness, duality of patterning, productivity, displacement
What are the two types of rules that govern how phonemes are combined?
sequence constraints, pronunciation variations
linguistics
study language in terms of different components of language; "what do you need to know to do it","what does an "a" sound like; take apart features of language figure out what they are; phonemes, syntax, etc.; understanding intelligent behavior and cognition through the use of language; methods: systematic evaluation of language properties; automatic extraction of semantic content; large scale computational analysis-take a computer and try to extract a lot of information from text; a very broad field of study with a centuries long history; wide range of topics such as phonetics--grammar--language acquisition
primatologists
study of biology and behavior of primates; contribute information about communication and thinking in our closest existing animal relatives
destructive thought experiment
tears down someone else theory (I don't think this theory is correct)
What are the two claims of language
that language is an integral part of human nature 2. there are universal aspects of language that serve as the foundations for all language
functionalism
the idea that our mind can be "multiply reliable"; that is thinking doesn't require a brain and can happen regardless of physical substrate; can a creature that doesn't have brain still think?
extended cognition
the idea that our mind doesn't just "live" in our brain but extends out into our environment and even other people (offloading cognition through phone); that is, we strategically use and structure our environment in order to offload some aspects of cognition; famously argued by Clark and Chalmers with the Otto and Inga thought experiment
consonants are characterized by what three things
the place, the manner of articulation, and the voice
Turing test
the problem with understanding the semantics of language is that we cannot discern the meaning of a sentence by just "looking up" each word in a mental dictionary and string meanings together
assimilation
the process of altering a sound to make it more like an adjacent sound: ex: when saying handbag it often sounds like hambag
consonants
the production of a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it usually is--narrowing is called a constriction; constricting air of vocal tract
phonology
the sound pattern of language including basic elements and the rules for their combination
syntax
the structure of sentences and rules for building sentences out of words
morphology
the structure of words and rules for building words out of pieces
Qualia
the subjective feeling of an experience-very specific feeling you have as an individual in that moment
How do bees communicate?
the waggle dance; communicate the location of nectar to the hive with extremely high accuracy •Use a complex set of movements called the waggle dance•Angle of the dance indicates the direction of the food source relative to the position of the sun and the hive•Duration of the dance indicates distance needed to travel to the food source
philosophy
think about the big picture; not easily testable; thought experiments; "what makes a language?","what is a language"; a way of thinking about big questions you cannot answer as you would in other fields such as psychology
What methods of philosophy contribute to the study of language
think about what thought experiments do and what types their are and how they contribute to language
What does traditional philosophy bring to the table in studying language?
thought experiments, analytic thought
would the vervet calls be considered an arbitrary signal why or why not?
vervet calls are more comparable to language utterances; calls are arbitrary but not culturally variable like human language; one call doesn't sound like a snake or sound like a leopard
voicing (voicing/voiceless) when talking about consonants
voicing: whether vocal folds are vibrating; vocal folds can hold them against each other where the air will flow past them and cause them to vibrate-voiceless: no vibration; sounds made without vocal fold vibration -"p" and "b" which one is voiced
Sarah the chimp and artificial language
was taught to name objects by choosing plastic tokens that represented the objects •Taught her to string symbols together into "sentences" •Doubt that she was able to understand syntax and that she was truly learning a language
What do the thought experiments propose? What questions do they raise about the importance or role of language for human development/understanding?
what thought experiments are telling you and how humans develop/think about language
place of articulation when talking about consonants
where the contrition is; 9 different place categories ex: bilabial: where your lower and upper lips touch-velar-when body of tongue approaches or touches the soft palate
according to Hocketts definition of semanticity would the bees and the monkeys have it?
yes
in conclusion what can we say about the honeybees and vervet monkeys language comparisons to humans
•Human language and animal communication do appear to have some features in common •Not clear that communication among monkeys is dramatically closer to language than is the communication of a very distant species (honeybees) •Differences in productivity and displacement among the three systems reveal that the two animal communication systems serve different purposes •Monkey calls are not the same as language because they lack displacement
What do the experiment on the honeybees and vervet monkeys tell us about language evolution and the continuity hypothesis
•Natural animal communication systems have evolved to serve specific functions •This sets them apart from language, which somehow evolved as a system that has tremendous flexibility and generality •Degree of correspondence between primate communication systems and language does not obviously favor a continuity view •If another primate species could learn language then this would provide some support for continuity
viki the chimpanzee
•One of the first experiments in ape language•Raised by human couple like an infant to see if she could learn words•Was also given speech therapy•Was eventually able to generate four words (mama, papa, up, cup)•First interpreted as evidence that apes were not capable of using human language
Nim Chimpski
•Taken as an infant to live with a human family as part of a Columbia University Psychology experiment•Goal: See if Nim could be conditioned to communicate with humans if he was raised like a human child in a human household; later moved to a new facility; concluded that he never really learned language; just imitated his teachers for reward
displacement
•Using language, we can communicate about things that are physically and temporally displaced•We can talk about things that are not physically present •We can talk about the past and future rather than only the present •We can even talk about things that don't exist•This feature of language is important for our understanding of cognition •Language cannot show this unless we have some form of memory system that preserves information from our past
How do vervet monkeys communicate?
•Vervet monkeys display a highly effective vocal communication system •Have specific alarm calls for different predators•Seem to exhibit different strategies for each call •For example, if the monkeys heard the "snake" call, they would engage in a different behavior than if they heard the "leopard" call
