1112020 Language What is language Hockets defining features

11/1/2020 • Language » What is language? ◊ Hocket’s defining features ◊ Five levels of analysis ◊ Whorf’s hypothesis » Speech perception ◊ Acoustic Phonetics ◊ Articulatory Phonetics ◊ Top-down processes Study Questions. • Compare and contrast animal communication with human language. Use Hockett’s defining features to underscore the distinction. • Compare and contrast acoustic and articulatory phonetics

Language • Language vs. communication » Continuity theory (Aitchison, 1983) ◊ Human language is a sophisticated calling system not fundamentally different from animal cries and calls – Mating and other ritualized displays

Language • Language vs. communication » Continuity theory (Aitchison, 1983) – Bee hive communication

Language • Language vs. communication » Continuity theory (Aitchison, 1983) – Ververt monkeys “chutter” -> cobra; “rraup” -> eagle; “chirp” -> lion

Language • Language vs. communication » Continuity theory (Aitchison, 1983) – Parrots

Language • Language vs. communication » Problems with continuity theory ◊ Apparent specifity – Ververt Monkeys “chirps” for eagles as well as lions • Intensity of threat or symbollic representation – Intentionality • Often difficult to infer the intentions of animal communication • E. g. , Whale songs

Language • Some definitions » Language ◊ A shared symbolic system for communication. » Linguistics ◊ Concerned with the characteristics, functions and structure of language. » Psycholinguistics ◊ Concerned with language as it is learned and used by people.

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » (Defining) features or characteristics that are common to all known languages. » Less essential design features ◊ Vocal-auditory channel – Written language developed later than spoken – ASL much later again – Essential to the evolution of language ◊ Broadcast transmission / directional reception – Transmission is public – Source can be localized by receiver

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » Less essential design features ◊ Transitoriness – The message fades rapidly • Must be received when transmitted • Stored by receiver ◊ Interchangeability – We are “trans-receivers” • Both receivers and transmitters • Cf. Mating rituals in birds

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » Less essential design features ◊ Total feedback – Speaker receives information the same time as the receiver – Allows for moment to moment adjustment ◊ Specialization – Language sounds are specialized to convey meaning – Nonlinguistic sounds may communicate meaning. . . E. g. , A growling dog but language was designed to convey linguistic meaning.

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » Essential design features ◊ Semanticity – Linguistic utterances convey meaning by use of the symbols used to form the utterance ◊ Arbitrariness – The connection between the symbol and the concept is arbitrary – We have few ‘true’ onomatopoeia. English: bow wow bang ribbet Arabic: haw bom -----Mandarin: wang peng gua Korean: meong ----gaegol Spanish: guau pum croac

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » Essential design features ◊ Discreteness – Small separable set of basic sounds (phonemes) combine to form language ◊ Duality of Patterning – Process of building an infinite set of meaningful words from a small set of phonemic building blocks

Language • Hockett’s linguistic universals » Essential design features ◊ Displacement – “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” – We take about things are not in the here and now – Displacement and bee hive communication ◊ Productivity – If we were bees, we would make up a new word – “palimony”, “blindsight”, “mindsight”, “Twonies” ◊ Traditional transmission – Most elements of language are passed from generation to generation – “feral” children Francois Truffaut’s Wild Child (1970)

Language • Five levels of analysis » Grammar: The complete set of rules that produce acceptable sentences and not produce unacceptable sentences ◊ Three levels – Phonology Sounds of language – Semantic or lexical Meaning – Syntax Word order and grammaticity – Semantics vs. syntax The gorpy wug was miggled by the mimsy gibber.

Language • Five levels of analysis » Two other levels (Miller, 1973) George Miller ◊ Conceptual – Analysis with reference to preexisting knowledge ◊ Belief – One’s own belief of the speaker “Mary and John saw the mountains while they were flying to Vancouver”

Language • A critical distinction Noam Chomsky » Competence: Internalized knowledge of language that fully fluent speakers have » Performance: The actual language behaviour that a speaker generates ◊ Our speaking performance is not always a good indicator of language competency ◊ Disfluencies: irregularities/ errors in speech – Lapses in memory (er…. ummm…. . er) – Distractions ◊ Linguistic intuitions – Which sounds better? I need a long, hot bath I need a hot, long bath

Language • Whorf’s hypothesis » Linguistic Relativity hypothesis: You language shapes you thoughts ◊ Language controls thought and perception » The Hopi as a timeless people » Heider (1971, 1972) ◊ Focal colours ◊ Dani Language (New Guinea) – Two words for colours: Mola (bright) & Mili (dark, cool) – Recognition memory influenced by focality » Weak vs. Strong L-R

Language • Whorf’s hypothesis » “Eskimo words for snow” (100, 200, or is it 400? !? )

Language • Whorf’s hypothesis » “Eskimo words for snow” (100, 200, or is it 400? !? ) ◊ Martin (1986) ◊ Franz Boas (1911; discussing independent vs. derived forms) – 4 ‘Eskimo’ words for snow Aput - snow on the ground; Qana - falling snow; piqsirpoq - drifting snow; qimuqsuq - snowdrift. – English words for water Liquid, lake, river, pond, sea, ocean, dew, brook, etc. > these could have been formed from the ‘root’ water > ‘Eskimos’ formed all snow related words from 4 ‘roots’

Language • Whorf’s hypothesis » “Eskimo words for snow” (100, 200, or is it 400? !? ) ◊ Whorf (1940 s) “We have the same word for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed hard like ice, slushy snow, wind-driven flying snow- whatever the situation may be. To an Eskimo, this allinclusive word would be almost unthinkable; he would say that falling snow, slushy snow, and so on, are sensuously and operationally different, different things to contend with; he uses different wards for them and for other kinds of snow. ” (Whorf 1940) – 7 words for snow (what about sleet, slush, hail, blizzard, etc. ? )

Language • Whorf’s hypothesis » “Eskimo words for snow” (100, 200, or is it 400? !? ) ◊ Brown (1958): Three words for snow – Only looked at the figures in Whorf’s paper! ◊ Eastman's (1975) Aspects of Language and Culture – Cites Brown: "Eskimo languages have many words for snow” (Mentions six lines later that the number was 3) ◊ Lanford Wilson's 1978 play “The Fifth of July” – 50 words for snow ◊ New York Times editorial (1984) : 100+ words for snow ◊ The Science Times (1988) – "The Eskimos have about four dozen words to describe snow and ice” ◊ Cleveland weather forecast: 200 words for snow

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Language • Phonology: The rules underlying production and comprehension of speech. • Phonetics: The nature of linguistic sounds. » Articulatory phonetics: Placement of the mouth, tongue, lips, etc. used to produce particular sounds. » Acoustic phonetics: Physical characteristics of speech sounds. ◊ The Speech Spectrograph

Language • Some Basics Compression » Qualitative and quantitive elements of sensory stimuli High Low

Language • The Speech spectrograph

Language • Acoustic Phonetics » Phoneme: The smallest unit of speech that if changed would change the meaning of a word. E. g. , “Pit” ----> /b/+/I/+/t/ = “bit” /p/ + /I/ + /t/ /i/ /p/+/i/+/t/ = “peat” /g/ /b/+/I/+/g/ = “pig”

Language i I e æ u U o c a e sip s zip z rip r s should z pleasure c chop j gyro yip y k kale g gale h hail h sing V p pull b bull m man w will f fill v vet q thigh o thy t tie d die n near l lear Vowels ' Consonants i heed hid bait head boot put boat bought hot sofa many

Language • Articulatory Phonetics » Three ways in which consonants differ. 1. Place of articulation – – – – Bilabial --> /p/ Labiodental --> /f/ Dental --> /Q/ Alveolar --> /z/ Palatal --> /ˆz/ Velar --> /k/ Glottal --> /h/

Language • Articulatory Phonetics » Three ways in which consonants differ. 2. Manner of articulation – – – Stops --> /b/ Fricatives --> /s/ Africatives --> /j/ Nasals --> /m/ Lateral --> /L/ Semivowels --> /r/ 3. Voicing ◊ Vibration of vocal chords

Language • Articulatory Phonetics » Voicing

Language • Articulatory Phonetics » Is speech special? ◊ Specialized neural mechanisms for perceiving speech. – Categorical perception Voice onset-time and distinguishing /d/ from /t/

Language • Articulatory Phonetics » Vowels ◊ Positioning and part of tongue – Height High (/i/ beet) Med (/e/ bait) Low (/a/ pot) – Part Front (/I/ bit) Central (but) Back (/o/ boat)

Language • The search for invariants » Distinctive features ◊ Chomsky & Halle (1968) – The Sound Pattern of English 5 groups of features ◊ Miller & Nicely ◊ Articulatory features » Problems with a simple bottom-up approach ◊ There are no periods of silence between phonemes

Language • The search for invariants » Phonemic information is presented in parallel ◊ Coarticulation ◊ E. g. Cf. /M/ in “Tim” vs. “/M/ in “mad” » We perceive them as the same, but they are different » We perceive the same sound differently according to the context ◊ E. g. : Writer vs. Rider ◊ E. g. : Insert a silence between /s/ and /i/ --> “ski” Insert a silence between /s/ and /u/ --> “spew”

Language • Top down processes » Phonemic restoration effect (Warren, 1970) ◊ Their respective legi*latures ◊ Found a *eel on the axle ◊ Found a *eel on the shoe

Language • Perceiving conversational speech » Two main problems: 1. There are no physical boundaries between words – Anna Mary candy lights since imp pulp lay thing 2. Speech is sloppy – -> Misheard Lyrics – -> This was the best buy vs. She is a bad girl

Language • Perceiving conversational speech » Two main problems:

Language What are you doing ?

Language Whad’ya doin’?

Language • Top-down processes and speech perception » Phonemic perception ◊ The Mc. Gurk Effect

Language • Top-down processes and speech perception » Sentence comprenension ◊ Miller & Isard (1963) – Participants shadow sentences: Grammatic: Bears steal honey from the hive. Semantically incorrect: Bears shoot honey on the highways. Ungrammatic: Across bears eyes honey the bill.

Language • Top-down processes and speech perception ◊ Miller & Isard (1963) – Participants shadow sentences: Grammatic: Bears steal honey from the hive. Semantically incorrect: Bears shoot honey on the highways. Ungrammatic: Across bears eyes honey the bill. – Results Gram. Nonsem. Nongram. No noise 89% 79% 56% Mod. Noise 63% 22% 3%