Language

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Language

• 1. Humans accommodations for language 2. Some
  characteristics of language

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Mammals

• Distinctive traits include
• Lactation
• Mammalian isolation cry
• Neoteny
• Middle ear
• Larynx

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Larynx

• Functions
• Controls airflow
• Phonates

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Glottis

• Glottis
• Air flow
• Phonation

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Glottis

• Glottis
• Air flow
• Phonation

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Larynx, tongue, Heimlich

• Apes, australopithecus, babies
• Tongue rooted in mouth
• Larynx behind mouth
• Can breathe and swallow at the same time

• Adult homo erecti
• Tongue rooted in throat
• Larynx in throat
• Cannot breathe and swallow at the same time

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Lower tongue root larynx

• Consonants and vowels
• (big flappy lips help too)
• Syllables
• Patterns of rhythm and modulation

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Lower tongue root larynx
Speech
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Oh, and one more thing
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Oh, and one more thing
A brain
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Oh, and one more thing
A brain
Motor cortex
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Oh, and one more thing
A brain
Motor cortex
Auditory cortex
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Oh, and one more thing
A brain
Motor cortex
Auditory cortex
Language areas
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Oh, and one more thing
Motor cortex
Wernickes area(Language)
Brocas area(Language)
Auditory cortex
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Auditory cortex

• Tuned to language
• Highly sensitive in the 5,000 - 20,000 Hz range
• Discriminates phoneme boundaries

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Motor cortex
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Language properties

• Parity
• Universality
• Mutability
• Tacitness
• Displacement
• Duality
• Productivity (creativity)

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Parity
All languages are equal.
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Universality

• All grammars share some basic properties.
• Words
• Nouns
• Verbs
• Sentences
• Assertions
• Questions
• Semantic roles
• Agents
• Patients
• Locations

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Mutability
Languages change. ? cool ? neat ? groovy ?
far-out ? radical ? cool ?
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Tacitness
A great deal of grammatical knowledge is tacit
knowledge. p vs ph vs p
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Charles Hocketts Design Features

• There is...a sense in which productivity,
  displacement, and duality...can be regarded as
  the crucial, or nuclear, or central properties of
  human language.

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Displacement

• Messages can refer to things remote in time and
  space, or both, from the site of the
  communication.

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Duality of patterning

• At every level elements and combinatorics
• Sounds combine into syllables and morphemes
• Morphemes combine into words
• Words combine into phrases and sentences
• Sentences combine into turns or paragraphs
• Turns combine into conversations
• Paragraphs combine into texts

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Elements combinatorics

• Productivity (creativity)
• New vocables
• New words
• New sentences
• New meanings

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Elements combinatorics
Language
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Wired for language

• Humans are specially built for language
• Anatomically
• Throat, mouth, lips
• Ear
• Motor, auditory cortex
• Language areas
• Conceptually
• Displacement
• Duality of patterning
• Productivity

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Language has special properties

• General
• Parity
• Mutability
• Universality
• Tacitness
• Conceptual
• Displacement
• Duality of patterning
• Elements and combinatorics
• Productivity

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Any questions?

• General
• Parity
• Mutability
• Universality
• Tacitness
• Conceptual
• Displacement
• Duality of patterning
• Elements and combinatorics
• Productivity