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This week:
Intro to language change
Syntax
Sign language
Language and human evolution
Assignment #1
• Due a week from Thursday (9/20)
• 2 pages
• Focuses on language change
• Use the handout (back of assignment)
Change over time
Languages change over time, and every
system is affected.
Our handout on language change covers
some common types of language change,
focusing on how new words (neologisms)
are introduced into a language
Vocabulary change
• Vocabulary is the most dynamic area of
language change.
• There are many different ways that new
words can enter a language.
Handout on Neologisms
Neologisms are new terms that enter a language.
A lot of vocabulary on language change is located
in the handout (also on the website)
Assignment #1 (due next Thursday) asks you to
think about recent neologisms in American
English.
Assignment 1
Think about how new words get into your
everyday speech.
Look for examples of coinage, semantic
shift, blending, etc.
Be creative!
Why/How do new words appear?
• Language contact (burka, hula, cojones)
• Need to name a newly introduced item or
idea (CD, blog, ground zero)
• Create differences between social groups/
create identity among members of a group
More intro to linguistics
• Syntax
• Sign languages
Syntax
Syntax refers to the structure of sentences and the
relationship of parts of sentences or clauses to
one another. Our knowledge of structure allows
us to make guesses as to meaning.
Examples:
I’d like a splunk.
He looked so splunk that my jaw dropped.
See how splunkly the baby walks!
John splunks really well. Splunk John,
splunk!
Splunk! That hurt.
Substitution Frames
One way to approach language structure is to
focus on what linguistic elements are
interchangeable (Ottenheimer pg. 72)
By substituting words in the sentence below, we
can come up with some basic categories.
The cat sat in the brown basket.
The/a cat/rat/baby sat/nibbled/cried in/on/near
the/a brown/big/woven basket/table/rock.
Cross-linguistic differences
• As Ottenheimer points out, a thorough
analysis of substitution frames in other
languages is the first step to
understanding cross-linguistic grammatical
differences.
• Some languages make structural
distinctions that English does not, and vice
versa. Many of these are obligatory, or
necessary to the structure of the language
Grammatical Categories
• Substitution frames can help us understand what
grammatical categories a language has and how
these fit together to make sentences
• In week 5, we’ll talk more about obligatory
categories (pg. 77), which are distinctions a
language requires you to make in speaking.
• Example, in English we MUST indicate whether
a noun is singular or plural (although sometimes
the singular and plural forms are the same, e.g.
sheep).
– Potatoes make me sick. Potato makes me sick.
Shinzwani possessives
• shangu - singular, inanimate
• zangu - plural, inanimate
• wangu - singular, body
• yangu - plural, body
Anaphora
Anaphora means referring back to something that
has already been said. There are many kinds of
anaphoric expressions.
“My sister bought a house with a beautiful garden
and so did my brother.”
I saw a huge gorilla with a banana in his hand
running down the street, and then he stopped.
You saw that movie, didn’t you?
You’re going to the party, aren’t you?
More anaphora
You saw that movie, didn’t you?
She was crossing the street when it bit her.
What is the meaning of “it” here?
What’s wrong with this sentence?
I saw Bob and it saw me too.
Word Order
Ottenheimer pg. 78-79
Languages vary in terms of basic order of word types in a
sentence. The most common are:
SOV= Subject/Object/Verb (Japanese, Quechua, Turkish)
SVO = Subject/Verb/Object (English, Swahili, Thai)
VSO= Verb/Subject/Object (Classical Arabic, Tagalog, Welsh)
Effects of Word Order
Some trends can be seen in how the word order of
a language affects other aspects of the
grammar. Ottenheimer gives an example:
Languages with the verb before the object tend to
have prepositions (come before the noun),
languages with the object before the verb tend
to have postpositions (like prepositions, but
come after the noun).
Complex structures
Cow kills farmer with ax.
Fruit flies like a banana.
What are the two meanings here, and how
do they have different structures (how are
the words related to each other in a
different way)?
So what’s the point?
Every language has basic rules that allow
people within that language group to
communicate. When you break those
rules, communication can break down.
These rules are at every level of language,
from sounds, to structure, to how to
indicate to someone that you want to
speak. All of this is grammar.
But…
Don’t forget that under this definition of
grammar , we can use different sets of
rules for different “dialects” or “situations”!
Example: is the following morphological
ending –ing or in?
Swimming
Swimmin
Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
• descriptive grammars describe language
as used by the people who speak it
• prescriptive grammars are designed to
serve as models of “proper” language
Also…
As Ottenheimer points out several times in the
textbook, ALL language requires
interpretation.
The sons raise meat.
The sun’s rays meet.
It is hard to confine rules of interpretation to
the “circle” around language (Agar,
Language Shock). Interpretation combines
rules of linguistic structure with social rules
that govern appropriate behavior and help us
to understand the probable motivations of
other people.
Sign (manual) languages
• Ottenheimer, pp. 135-140
• Manual languages are languages in which
the hands, upper body and face are used
instead of the vocal tract to produce
language
Example: ASL
• American Sign Language is an example of
a manual language.
• ASL is a “real” language with distinct
phonological, morphological and syntactic
systems
• Sign languages vary and often are not
mutually intelligible, just like spoken
languages
Film excerpt
Excerpt on ASL from “The Ragin’ Cajun”
Pay attention to the difference between
“signed English” and “ASL”
Note that the signers in this video have
Usher’s syndrome, a genetic condition in
which children are born deaf, and lose
their sight as they get older.
“Phonology” of manual languages
Like sounds in the English phonological
system, signs also vary in “minimal pairs,”
but instead of being based on place and
manner of articulation in the mouth, like
(bit vs. pit) key differences are based on
place and manner of articulation of the
various “hand shapes.”
Primes
Component elements of signs are called
primes.
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handshape
palm orientation
movement
location
Some minimal pairs in ASL
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWE
B/browser.htm
grandfather/grandmother
apple/onion
Sign Languages and the Brain
• Studies show that babies who learn sign
languages from birth reach the same milestones
as hearing children with the same timing.
• For example, deaf babies will “babble” with their
hands at the same time that hearing babies
babble with their vocal tract.
• Also, when people are signing, they use the
same language centers of their brains as people
processing spoken language.
Nicaraguan Sign Language
http://www.columbia.edu/~as1038/L02-signlanguage.html
Unique example of the generation of a new
language by children in a community
setting.
Language Origins
and Non-Verbal
Communication
Non-verbal behavior
• proxemics – study of how people perceive
and use space
• kinesics – study of body movements, facial
expressions and gestures
• paralanguage (paralinguistic cues) – voice
cues that contribute to meaning, but are
not words (e.g .loudness, pitch, voice
quality)
Proxemics
• Ottenheimer pp. 125-129
• Space and body position are part of
communication
• Norms/meanings vary across culture
- How “full” is a full bus, subway car or elevator?
- When and what kind of touching is appropriate
between which kinds of people?
Status and space
• ideas of personal space vary across
culture
• meaning of gaze, touching, and
proximity/distance will also vary across
cultures
• Important social distinctions, such as
gender, power and status differences will
often be reflected in proxemics
Kinesics
• Ottenheimer pp. 129-142
• Study of body movements, facial expressions
and gestures
• A kineme is a minimal and/or meaningful unit of
visual expression
• Kinesics can supplement or replace verbal
communications
Kinds of kinemes
• emblems – thumbs up; wave; head shake
• illustrators – “mimicking” actions
• affect displays - frown; eyebrow lift, jaw drop
• regulators – turning to or pointing at the next
speaker.
• adaptors – sighing, looking at watch
Gaze (eye contact/movement)
• Gaze is extremely important for regulating
interaction and communicating cultural
information such as interest, respect and
conversational intensity
• Like most kinesics, the rules for gaze vary
across cultures
Paralinguistic cues
• loudness
• intonation
• voice cues (whispering, creaky voice)
• pitch
• speed
Language Origins
• Ottenheimer, Chapter 8
• A four-field question
• Balancing what is “hard-wired” with what is
learned as part of being raised in a
particular culture
What is language?
A communication system “plus”
The “plus” is:
• Infinite creativity
• Ability to discuss unreal and hypothetical things
as well as real and immediate things
• Language is a means of play, not just of
communication
Design features of language
Ottenheimer, pg. 177-182
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auditory channel
broadcast transmission/directional reception
rapid fading
interchageability
total feedback
specificity
more design features
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semanticity
arbitrariness
discreteness
displacement
productivity
traditional transmission
Duality of patterning
• units at one level can be combined to form units
at another level
• sounds form words, words form sentences
• at every level, there are patterns for how
sounds/words go together, but the sounds can
be combined into many different words, and
words can be combined to create infinite
sentences.
Language and Human Brains
• Certain areas of the brain are specifically
designed for language; damage to these
areas affects language ability
• Language is part of brain development – if
a child does not learn language at a young
age, language development is impaired
• Deaf people who regain hearing later in
life often can not “hear” language, i.e.
process it correctly
Lateralization
Each hemisphere of the brain is oriented towards
key tasks. The left hemisphere does a lot of
“language” work, while the right hemisphere
handles visual and spatial tasks.
Two language centers of the brain are located in
the left hemisphere:
• Broca’s area – coordination of movements of the
vocal apparatus
• Wernicke’s area – word meaning and
conversation
Fossil evidence for language
evolution
• Skull fossils can indicate the size, shape and complexity
of some brain structures necessary for human language.
• Shape of basicranium (skull base) can indicate the
position of the larynx (higher or lower) – a lower larynx is
necessary to produce the range of sounds in human
speech.
• Due to the cognitive, physical and social complexity of
language, we can’t know for sure when language
evolved, or what aspects of language truly evolved first.
However the fossil record can give clues as to when
different aspects of language became possible.
What about those monkeys?
• Ape sign language studies
• Methodological critiques
• Linguistic critiques
A difference of scale or kind?
A basic question about how human
language is different from other forms of
animal communication is whether the
difference is one of scale or one of kind.
- a difference of scale would mean that
human language is just a more elaborate
form of animal communication
- a difference of kind would mean that
human language is something completely
different and unique to human beings.
What’s at stake?
• Primate language researchers want
recognition of ape intelligence and
capacity for language learning
• Linguists want to maintain that human
brain structures are fundamentally
different from those of apes – “syntax”
separates us from the apes.
Linguistic Anthropologists
• Why does language = intelligence?
• What does it really mean to “have language”?
• How are apes using language?
• Are “lexigrams” (signs that represent words)
“language”?
Why is language human?
• Design features of language are
incorporated into all aspects of human
social life
• Language is to some degree part of our
brain structure
• Apes learn language to the level of a 3-4
year old. Humans learn language to the
level of an adult human.
What do you think?
• How can each of the four fields contribute
to our understanding of human language?
• Are linguists correct to “draw a line”
between human language and other forms
of animal communication?