Go Higher Arts Introduction To Language

Go Higher Arts Introduction to Language Mary E. Clinton School of English

Aims of this Lecture The aim of this lecture is to examine the following questions:• How do the forms of communication used by animals differ from human language? • Can animals be taught to use languages that are analogous to or the same as human language?

Learning Outcomes • After studying this lecture you should be able to: • describe in general terms animal communication using the Hockett descriptors • Demonstrate abstract concepts to real life applications

Pearce (1987, p252) cites a definition of animal communication by Slater (1983), Animal communication is "the transmission of a signal from one animal to another such that the sender benefits, on average, from the response of the recipient“. This loose definition permits the inclusion of many types of behaviour and allows "communication" to be applied to a very large range of animals, including some very simple animals.

Natural Animal Communication Natural animal communication can include:• Chemical signals (used by some very simple creatures, including protozoa) • Smell (related to chemical signals, eg. pheromones attract, skunk secretions repel) • Touch • Movement • Posture (eg. dogs, geese) • Facial gestures (eg. dogs snarling) • Visual signals (eg. feathers) • Sound (eg. very many vertebrate and invertebrate calls)

Such signals have evolved to:• attract (especially mates) • repel (especially competitors or enemies) • signal aggression or submission • advertise species • warn of predators • communicate about the environment or the availability of food

Such signals may be:instinctive, that is genetically programmed

or learnt from others

Some linguists (eg Chomsky, 1957, Macphail, 1982, both cited in Pearce, 1987) have argued that language is a unique human behaviour and that animal communication falls short of human language in a number of important ways.

Chomsky (1957) claims that humans possess an innate universal grammar that is not possessed by other species. This can be readily demonstrated, he claims, by the universality of language in human society and by the similarity of their grammars. No natural non-human system of communication shares this common grammar.

Grammar - a definition 1a The study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence. 1b A study of what is to be preferred and what avoided in inflections and syntax. 2a The characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language 2b A system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language 3a A grammar textbook 3b Speech or writing evaluated according to its conformity to grammatical rules ( Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary)

Grammar A set of Rules or patterns that a language conforms to. Not to be confused with rules for written grammar, aka Standard English.

Macphail (1982, cited by Pearce, 1987) made the claim that "humans acquire language (and non-humans do not) not because humans are (quantitatively) more intelligent, but because humans possess some species-specific mechanism (or mechanisms) which is a prerequisite of language-acquisition".

Priscilla Dunstan, Theory of baby talk.

Teaching Language to Apes (and other animals) • Why try to teach a human-like language to another species?

• What kind of language should we teach these animals?

What do we test for? Animal communication systems generally lack one or (usually) more of the following features:» Semanticity » Arbitrariness » Discreteness » Displacement » Productivity

Projects with Apes •

Gardner and Gardner (1969) Chimpanzee (Washoe) American sign language Premack and Premack (1972) Chimpanzee (Sarah and others) Plastic symbols Rumbaugh and Savage-Rumbaugh Chimpanzee (Sherman and Austin) Symbols on a keyboard

Patterson (1978) Gorilla (Koko) Sign language Terrace et al (1979) Chimpanzee (Nim Chimpsky) Symbols Savage-Rumbaugh Bonobo Chimpanzee (Kanzi, Panbanisha) Understanding spoken language Symbols on a keyboard

Projects with Birds • Projects with birds usually involve parrots or the Indian Hill Mynah. These birds are selected for their ability to mimic human speech. The African Grey Parrot and the Indian Hill Mynah are generally considered to be the birds with the greatest ability to mimic human speech patterns but a number of other species (mainly parrots such as the budgerigar) can be trained to "speak". • Pepperberg African Grey Parrot (Alex) Spoken "language"

Projects with Cetaceans • Herman, Richards and Wolz (1984) Dolphins (Akeakamai and Phoenix) Gestures (Akeakamai) Sounds (Phoenix)

Hockett Revised and Revisited • “The design-features listed below are found in every language on which we have reliable information, and each seems to be lacking in at least one known animal communicative system. They are not all logically independent, and do not necessarily all belong to our defining list for language--a point to be taken up separately...” From Charles Hockett (1966), "The Problem of Universals in Language”

1.Mode of communication-vocal-auditory, tacticle-visual, or chemical-olfactory [dual systems; sender and receiver].

Shannon and Weaver's (1949): A Mathematical Model of Communication. Urbana, IL This model original model consisted of five elements: 1.An information source, which produces a message. 2.A transmitter, which encodes the message into signals 3.A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission 4.A receiver, which 'decodes' (reconstructs) the message from the signal. 5.A destination, where the message arrives. A sixth element, noise is a dysfunctional factor: any interference with the message travelling along the channel (such as 'static' on the telephone or radio) which may lead to the signal received being different from that sent.

2. Rapid Fading

3. Interchangeability

4. Feedback: We can correct ourselves. Consciousness.

5. Specialization

A hands free form of communication

6. Semanticity Connection to outside objects

7. Arbitrariness: there is no logical connection between the form of the signal and its meaning.

8. Discreteness

Think Derren Brown

9. Displacement: linguistic messages may refer to things remote in time and space, or both, from the site of the communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=LxmbjLoUnhk&feature=channel_page

10. Productivity: users can create and understand completely novel messages.

10.1. In a language, new messages are freely coined by blending, analogizing from, or transforming old ones. This says that every language has grammatical patterning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg

von Frisch

• von Frisch, who along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz, founded ethology, the scientific study of animal behaviour, in the 1960s. • The three of them shared the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physiology for their work.

10.2 Neologisms Plus-size

Affluenza Cyberspace Soccer mom

junk-food vegetarian (1977?) no meat in soda or potato chips Occupational Slumming: Taking a job beneath one's skills or education level as a means of retreat from adult responsibilities and/or avoiding possible failure in one's true occupation.

Conspicuous Minimalism: The nonownership of goods flaunted as a token of moral and intellectual superiority.

11. Cultural transmission

Barnlund, Dean C (1975): 'Communication Styles in Two Cultures: Japan and the United States'. In A Kendon, R M Harris & M R Key (Eds.): Organization of Behavior in Face-toFace Interaction. The Hague: Mouton

12. Duality (of Patterning):

13. Prevarication: linguistic messages can be false, deceptive, or meaningless.

14. Reflexiveness: In a language, one can communicate about communication.

15. Learnability: A speaker of a language can learn another language.

Recap • Language is innate to humans • Some animal forms of communication show sentientness • Languages have rules, grammars.