Language

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Language

• Language and other systems of communication
• Psycholinguistics
• Language and Thought

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• Language specific to our species?
• Communication systems in other species
• Bees, Birds Apes

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Communication in bees
"Each bee on her return is followed by three or
four companions . . . how they do it has not yet
been observed" Aristotle, Historia Animalium,
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• Bees dance symbolization of the direction and
  distance of flowers from the hive
• dancing around (round dance)
• tail wagging dance
• No learning...
• A very limited repertoir
• Bees do not have in their language expression
  up. There are no flowers in the sky
• von Frisch, 1954

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Birds

• Singing
• Young birds learn from adult birds
• Dialects within species
• Learning has a critical period
• Babbling phase (pre-singing)
• Brain control left hemisphere
• What matters is the phrase, not separate sounds

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• But
• Only male birds sing
• Specific function of singing
• Singing about here and now

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Apes

• A common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees 6
  mln years ago. Beginings of hemispheric assymetry
• Rich vocalization system in their natural
  environment
• Vervet monkeys Different vocalization to warn
  others of snake, hawk or lampart
• Raised by humans
• Taught human speech (Vicky, 1933)
• Taught a form of sign language (Washoe, Koko, Nim
  Chimpsky, Kanzi)

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• give orange me give eat orange me eat orange
  give me eat orange give me you
• - Nim Chimpsky
• No clear structure (grammar)
• No teaching/learning parent -gt children
• Instrumental use of signs
• Monkeys are capable of naming but they do not
  want to no naming instinct (Aitchison)

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• Aitchison, 2002 Naming is for primates what
  swinging in the trees is for humans. People
  sometimes do this, but most often most of them
  does not feel like doing it.

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Human natural language

• Language characteristics according to Hockett
• Duality of patterning a large number of
  meaningful elements are made up of a conveniently
  small number of meaningless but
  message-differentiating elements (phonemes ?
  words)
• Productivity users can create and understand
  completely novel messages
• Arbitrariness there is no logical connection
  between the form of the signal and its meaning

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• Interchangeability of hearer/speaker roles
• Weak specialization a flexible connection
  between a sign and reaction
• Displacement linguistic messages may refer to
  things remote in time and space
• Cultural transmission the conventions of a
  language are learned by interacting with more
  experienced users.
• Chomsky hierarchy possible transformations
  depend on a hierarchical structure

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Theories of language origin

• The Society does not accept papers on either the
  origin of language or the invention of a
  universal language.
• founding statutes of the Linguistic Society
  of Paris, 1866
• Protolanguage bow-wow theory, Oh! theory and
  yo-he-ho! (sea chanteys) theory
• Grammar rabbit out of a hat, snail on the
  wall,bonfire
• Cognitive bases of language evolution

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Modern psycholinguistics

• First theories of language functioning
• Wilhelm Wundt
• Expression of an idea in a sequential sentence
• Language external phenomena (expressions)
  internal (cognitive processes)
• Language and memory.
• Francis Skinner (behaviorism)
• Language motor habits of the larynx evoked by
  stimuli (Watson)
• Language acquisition can be explained by
  principles of conditioning. 1957 Verbal
  Behavior.
• Theory of language does not need a concept of
  mind.

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• A Lecture on Having a Poem
• Define
• And thus expunge
• The ought
• The should
• Truths to be sought
• In Does and Doesnt
• B.F. Skinner, For Ivor Richards

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• To have a poem is like to have a baby there
  is no act of creation, even though something new
  is born. A poet, like a mother, is just a place
  in which the remnants of the past gather in
  specific combinations.
• The problem of language and meaning is a
  Waterloo of contemporary behaviorism
• Osgood, 1955

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Psychology and linguistics

• 1950s. and 60s. Linguistic theories enter the
  domain of psychology
• Noam Chomsky, 1959
• a critique of the Skinners Verbal Behavior
• Linguistic behavior is governed by (innate) rules
  represented in the mind.
• Poverty of the stimulus argument
• Lack of corrective feedback
• Productivity (creativity) of language.

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The task of a linguist is to describe linguistic
knowledge

• Mental representation of the rules of production
  and understanding of sentences (linguistic
  competence )
• Eg. Chomsky, 50s.-60s. Theory of
  trasformational-generative grammar
• Phrase structure rules
• S ? NP VP
• VP ? V (NP) (S)
• NP ? (Adj) NP (S)
• NP ? (Adj) N
• Explained generativity of language
  (recursiveness).

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• Surface and deep structure. Transformation rules
  transform simple sentences into questions,
  negations, passives etc.
• E.g.
• John kicked the ball -gt The ball was kicked by
  John
• Psycholinguists task checking the psychological
  reality of constructs proposed by linguists

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Derivational Theory of Complexity

• The greater the number of transformations between
  deep and surface structure the longer the time
  needed to understand a sentence.
• Miller i McKean64 measured time of passive and
  negative transformations
• Negative (0.4s)
• Passive (0.8s)
• Passive negative sum of times needed to make a
  negative and a passive (1.2s) ?
• Slobin69 congruence of a sentence with a
  picture
• Passive faster than negative ?
• Time depended on the truth value of a sentence

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1970s. Enthusiasm weakens

• Unclear results increasing number of rules
  (learning problem) difficulty does not
  necessarily lead to a longer time neither the
  number of transformations (parallel processing).
• Linguistics fast changes complexity of theories
• Grammarians are more interested in what could be
  said than in what people actually say, which
  irritates psychologists, and psychologists insist
  on supplementing intuition with objective
  evidence, which irritates linguists
• George Miller, 1990

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Psychology interest in different aspects of
language

• Interest in performance
• E.g. do performance factors influence the
  structure of a language?
• Interest in understanding/content processing
• Semantics (lexicon, connected to knowledge
  representation, concepts)
• Extralinguistic factors inference, knowledge
  (schemata, scripts)
• Pragmatics functions of language, social
  context of linguistic expressions
• Levels which are not influenced by the changes
  in syntactic theories.

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New role for psychology in linguistic theory

• Investigating the forces giving rise to symbols
  and their structures
• Investigating cognitive processes constrained by
  language
• In communication (understanding as a dynamical
  pattern formation)
• In development (concept formation)
• In evolution
• The interrelation of the three time-scales
• A new look at the linguistic relativity

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Language and thought

• Linguistic relativity hypothesis (Sapir-Whorf)
• Perception of reality and our picture of the
  world depend (among other factors) on the
  structure of the language we speak

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• Every language is a vast pattern-system,
  different form others, in which are culturally
  ordained the forms and categories by which the
  personality not only communicates, but also
  analyzes nature, notices or neglects types of
  relationship and phenomena, channels his
  reasoning, and builds the house of his
  consciousness.
• We dissect nature along lines laid down by our
  native language
• B.L. Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality

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Levels of linguistic influence on cognition

• WORDS
• GRAMMATICAL STRUCTRES
• NARRATION (topics the role of language in a
  culture)

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WORDS

• COLOR NAMES (e.g., Dani mili i mola)
• Whorfian hypothesis (Dani should perceive
  (categorize) and remember colours differently.)
• First studies confirmed the thesis (Conklin,
  1955
• Heider (Rosch) Dani are able to learn and
  recognize colors as well as westerners e.g.,
  better memory for basic (focal) colors there are
  universal color categories based on perceptual
  division of color space

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• Berlin and Kay (1969) comparison of basic color
  terms in 20 languages.
• Conclusion there are universals in the semantics
  of color.
• Evolutionary sequence for the development of
  color lexicons black, white, red, green, yellow,
  blue, brown, purple, pink, orange gray.

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• BUT
• Color codability and communicability correlates
  with recognition (Brown Lenneberg, 1954)
• Using color names influences categorization (Kay
  Kempton, 1984)
• Recent studies on color categorization in Berinmo
  (Davidoff, Davies, Roberson, 1999)
• Evidence from brain damage (Roberson et al. 1999)

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Color codability correlates with color recognition

• Brown Lenneberg, 1954
• Codability measures as
• Number of syllables in a name
• Number of words in a name
• Time necessary for color naming
• Consistency among and within people
• Correlation grows with time between presentation
  and recognition

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Using color names influences categorization (Kay
Kempton, 1984)
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• Procedure 1 Three colors presented
• Question which two of the three colors presented
  are most similar?
• Americans overestimated the distance between blue
  and green
• Tarahumara equal distance
• Procedure 2 Three colors presented, but only two
  could be seen at the same time
• Question Which difference is bigger 1-2 in
  greenness or 2-3 in blueness
• No difference between Americans and Tarahumara!

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• Recent studies on color memory and
  categorization Davidoff, Davis Roberson, 1999
  A study of Berinmo of Papua New Guinea
• given the array of 160 Munsell chips categorized
  them into 5 categories
• No blue/green distinction but nol/wor
  distinction, absent from English language.

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Colour categories in a stone-age tribe, Davidoff,
Davis, Roberson NATURE VOL 398 18 MARCH 1999
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• Categorical effects across blue-green boundary
  and nol-wor boundary.
• Similarity judgments
• Memory task showing a color, 30 seconds
  interval, selecting the same color from a pair of
  similar alternatives.
• English subjects advantage for cross-category
  blue-green decisions but not for nol-wor
  decisions, Berinmo just the opposite.
• CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION OCCURS BUT ONLY FOR
  SPEAKERS OF THE LANGUAGE THAT MARKS THE
  CATEGORICAL DISTINCTION.

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• Learning a new category if there are natural
  distictions it should be easier for categories
  existing in other language. It was not (neither
  for English nor for Berinmo).
• Perceptual categories cannot be based on
  observation (Davidoff Roberson)
• Sorites paradox
• In order to avoid paradox a non-perceptual
  mechanism to form categories is needed language
• Patients with language impairments caused by
  brain damage behave as if Sorites paradox was a
  reality. Perceptual categorization (including
  color) is very difficult
• Patient L.E.W. similarity judgements based on
  pairwise concrete association both in color and
  in facial expression recognition

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Conclusion

• color naming across cultures is not just a matter
  of linguistic convention (focal colors)
• but the cross-language differences in color
  naming cause corresponding differences in color
  cognition (categorization and memory)

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• Spatial relations
• Relative reference system (right, left) western
  culture
• Absolute reference system (North, South) eg.,
  Tenejapan in Mexico

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Grammatical structures

• Verb aspect (Whorf Hopi)
• Grammatical gender (Boroditsky Spanish and
  German)
• Structure of language and the rate of development
  of cognitive abilities (Gopnik, Choi, Baumberger
  Korean)
• Object-oriented and process-oriented cultures
  (noun vs verb) (Neisser, Geography of Thought)
• Verb syntax and event perception (Boroditsky
  Indonesian and English)

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• The elephant ate the peanuts.
• Information included in verb syntax
• English tense
• Polish tense, gender (past), completing the
  activity/not
• Turkish witnessed/not
• Indonesian null

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Perception of events similarity in speakers of
English vs Indonesian
Boroditsky, L., Ham, W. Ramscar, M. (2002).
What is universal about event perception?
Comparing English and Indonesian speakers.
Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the
Cognitive Science Society. Fairfax, VA
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• Better memory for temporal features in English
  speakers
• Or for bilingual speakers tested in English!

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CONCLUSIONS

• Linguistic classification influences similarity
  perception, memory. Effects can be blocked.
• Two stages of experience?
• Neurophysiological, universal, prelinguistic
• Linguistic, different in different cultures
• Whorf language shapes the habits of thinking.
• The strength of linguistic influence depends on
  the role that language plays in culture.

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M. Cole, Liberia, interview with a Kpelle tribal
leader (testing syllogistic reasoning)

• At one time spider went to a feast. He was told
  to answer this question before he could eat any
  of the food. The question is Spider and black
  deer always eat together. Spider is eating. Is
  black deer eating?
• KTL Were they in the bush?
• MC Yes.
• KTL Were they eating together?
• MC Spider and black deer always eat together.
  Spider is eating. Is black deer eating?
• KTL But I was not there. How can I answer such
  a question?

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• MC Cant you answer it? Even if you were not
  there, you can answer it (repeats the question).
• KTL Oh, oh, black deer is eating.
• MC What is your reason for saying that black
  deer is eating?
• KTL The reason is that black deer always walks
  about all day eating leaves in the bush. Then he
  rests for a while and gets up to eat again.

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USA Black English

• Communication as creation of community
• Forms
• Calling and answer
• Rappin
• Dozens battle with words

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Differences in cognition correlate with
differences in linguistic structures

• Linguistic differences are
• Flags which mark areas of possible cognitive
  differences
• Windows through which one can observe
  modifiable elements of cognition
• Studies lead to better cross-cultural
  understanding
• Linguistic Engineering?

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Competence vs performance

• The gardener run away.
• The gardener the lady married run away.
• The gardener the lady the lord loved married run
  away.
• The gardener the lady the lord the farmer bit
  loved married run away.

The gardener the lady the lord the farmer the dog
hated bit loved married run away.