This week:

Intro to language changeSyntax

Sign languageLanguage 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

SyntaxSyntax 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 FramesOne 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

AnaphoraAnaphora 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.

• handshape

• palm orientation

• movement

• location

Some minimal pairs in ASL

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWEB/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-sign-language.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

• auditory channel• broadcast transmission/directional reception• rapid fading• interchageability• total feedback• specificity

more design features• 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?