語言學概論(二) Introduction to Linguistics (2) (HSFL10033)

# 語言學概論(二) Introduction to Linguistics (2) (HSFL10033) :::info Disclaimer: These notes are not used for commercial purposes, and are only to serve as a personal study guide. The contents of these notes are compiled and rearranged from various sources. ::: Course Overview: > This course provides an introduction to fundamental concepts in modern linguistics, with emphasis on linguistic analysis. Lectures and review sections will further develop selected topics of importance. Classroom work will emphasize the development of the ability to apply linguistic principles to the analysis of data drawn from a variety of languages. Grading: * Weekly Pop Quiz: 20% (12 in total, only the top 10 will be counted, 2% each) * Exam #1: 25% * Exam #2: 25% * Exam #3: 30% Lesson Plan: * Human language & animal communiation * First Language Acquisition * Morphology * Syntax ## Human Language & Animal Communication ### The Design Features of Human Language Charles Hockett proposed: #### Semanticity Words have meanings. #### Arbitrariness There is no logical connection between the signal and the thing it refers to. #### Discreteness Messages are made up of smaller, repeatable parts. :::spoiler Birdsongs with discreteness (and to some degree, double articulation) The discrete pieces of birdsong can be combined in different ways to indicate distinct meanings. ::: #### Productivity Language users can understand and create never-before-heard utterances. E.g., *Colorless green sleep furiously.* #### Displacement The language user can talk about things that are not present (referring to both time and location) :::spoiler Honeybees having displacement * By performing a dance, honeybess are able to point out far away flowers to be pollinated. ::: #### Double articulation Speech can be organized and analyzed at two levels/layers simultaneously. ::: warning **What is "double articulation"?** At one level, we have distinct sounds, and at another level, we have distinct meanings. * As made up of *meaningless elements*; i.e., a limited inventory of sounds phomenes * We can pronounce individual sounds, yet none of these discrete sounds has any inherent meaning. * As made up of *meaningful elements*; i.e., a virtually limitless inventory of words or morphemes. So at one level, we have distinct sounds, and at another, we have distinct meanings. Thus, double articulation is an economical design that gives language expressive power. ==Spoken languages are composed of a limited set of meaningless sounds that are combined to form meaningful words.== ::: ### Apes Learning Language #### The African Vervet Monkey The communication system of the African vervet monkey (or as we know it): * In this system, there are three types of predators, and there is a distinct call for each: * loud bark → a leopard * coughing sound → an eagle * chutter sound → a snake * Then, the vervet's packmates are able to respond appropriately to the calls if without seeing the predator itself There seems to be semanticity and arbitrariness in this communication system, but it lacks discreteness, displacement, productivity, and double articulation. #### Can Apes Learn Human Language? We must make it clear that "spoken language" is not the correct approach in answering this problem. * Non-human primates lack the same vocal apparatus as humans, so they must be taught language by another means which language is produced. :::spoiler Why? We take chimpanzees for example. This is due to the larynx lowering of an adult human compared to a chimpanzee. The chimp's anatomy, which is very similar to a three-month-old human child, does not allow it to produce the variety of vowels sounds used by adult humans. ::: #### Three Case Studies: Washoe, Nim Chimpsky, and Kanzi 1. The chimpanzee Washoewas raised akin a human child and was communicated to in signs from ASL (1960s) * Washoe mastered around 200 signs and understood even more. * Washoe was even thought to have produced her own creative combinations of signs on her own. 2. Herbert Terrace taught Nim Chimpky 125 signs and argued that Nim had mastered the fundamentals of grammatical structure (1970s) * However, after reviewing Nim's signs, he said that all those claims about ape language were nothing but wishful thinking, and that they did not use language to express opinions. * Terrace saw that Nim almost never produced signs spontaneously, and that his signs were repetitions of his trainers' * Terrace later dismissed his stance on Nim acquiring language, concluding that the study, as well as other similar studies, were flawed. 3. Kanzi the bonobo (which is a smaller cousin of the chimpanzee) * Kanzee uses lexigrams selected from a screen, which is less ambiguous than hand-signing. * Kanzi knows hundreds of lexigrams, and uses them correctly 9 out of 10 times. * However, he rarely combines lexigrams to convey new ideas (which showcases a lack of productivity). * When people combine words simply, he is able to create and follow the new command. #### Four Major Differences Between Apes' Signs and Human Language 1. Phonology * The exact forms of the chimps' signs vary from time to time. * The errors are not patterned and random, and this does not change even over development. → ==Chimps lack sign phonology.== 2. Morphology * The chimps do not seem to understand basic word stems, or *morphemes*. 3. Syntax * Apes cannot construct patterned sequences with more than three words. 4. Semantics * Apes are able to associate words with concrete objects, but have little capacity with words for abstract sense. * Chimps use signs/labels that seem to rely heavily on a global notion of association. #### Whether animals have humanlike communication systems is a question separate from whether animals can learn language * Animals have been taught to manipulate symbols and manual signs. * Experiments that measure language learning in non-human species are difficult to design and hard to observe. ## First Language Acquisition * Children are able to master the complexities of human language in just a few short years. * Linguistic environment contributes to language acquisition. ### The Study of Language Acquisition * Development of linguistic skills involve the acquisition of a grammar. :::spoiler Acquisition of a Grammar Understanding grammar is the ability to understand and produce an infinite number of novel sentences, which cannot be achieved by simply memorizing a fixed inventory of words. ::: * On the theory of "induction from experience": 1. The facts are too complex. 2. The input is too sparse. 3. The mastery is too rapid. 4. The errors are too infrequent. #### Methods in studying language acquisition There are two approaches: ==naturalistic== and ==experimental==. ##### The Naturalistic Approach: Diary Study & Regular Taping Sessions For example: > Adam: Read book. > Mom: Papa bear. > Mom: Yes. > Adam: Bunny Rabbit. > Mom: Did you see bunny rabbit? > Adam: Bunny rabbit rabbit running. > Mom: Bunny rabbit running? * The naturalistic approach is **longitudinal** (over a long period of time) * Pros: 1. able to witness how the process unfolds * Cons: 1. Some sentence structures rarely occur in the children's everyday speech 2. Speech samples capture only a small portion of their utterances at any given point in development ##### The Experimental Approach This approach is specially designed to to elicit a child's linguistic competence and performance. * The child's performance is used to a hypothesis about the type of grammatical system used by the child. * It is cross-sectional—which enables us to study and compare different children at a particular stage of development #### Types of Experimental Studies These types of experiments test children's production or comprehension skills. 1. A typical production task: Ask the puppet if the dog is smiling. 1. The advantage of production tasks: * It allows researchers to collect specific data pertaining to particular phenomena or structures. 2. The downsides of production tasks: * Some structures are hard to elicit. * Children's comprehension is better than production, to production tasks would usually underestimate their linguistic knowledge. * Performance might be affected by extraneous factors, e.g., inattention, shyness, or a failure to understand what is expected of them. 2. A typical comprehension task: Judgement of truth statements—The *Is every ball on a box?* experiment ### What makes language acquisition possible?