Language and LinguisticsLanguage originsPowerPoint PresentationSlide 4Slide 5Slide 6Speech and handednessHypoglossal canalHyoid boneWashoe and other chimpsGeneralizing signsSlide 12Comparative linguistics and language originsBerlin and Kay’s studyBrown and Witkowski’s studySlide 16Complexity of the lexiconPidgins and creolesSlide 19Bickerton’s studySlide 21Language complexity and evolutionChildren’s language acquisitionSlide 24Structure of languageSlide 26Chomsky’s observationTransformational-generative grammarFour parts of grammarWriting is not the same as languageEnglish phonologySlide 32Slide 33Slide 34Slide 35Voiced stopsAllophonesSlide 38AffricatesDialect allophonesSlide 41Slide 42The ten vowels of EnglishSlide 44The Kissinger effectMorphologyPast tense and plural nouns in EnglishSociolinguisticsGendered speech in JapaneseSlide 50Sociolinguistics – dialectsSapir-Whorf hypothesis: language and thoughtSlide 53Slide 54Slide 55Historical linguisticsLexicostatisticsSlide 58Slide 591066 and all thatWhen did we get these words?Indo-European languagesGermanicItalicSlide 65Slide 66Slide 67The vanishing languagesA few facts about vanishing languagesThe case of NavahoWhat’s the problem?Language diversity and survivalThe language disappearance experimentWhat’s being done?WritingSlide 76Slide 77Hebrew and ArabicSlide 79Slide 80The AlphabetSlide 82Slide 83Slide 84Slide 85Slide 86Preliterate was once usBrahmi scriptLogographic scriptsThe Korean caseThe Japanese caseSyllabaries and logographsPhonographic and idiographic scriptsThe Vietnamese caseSlide 95Slide 96Slide 97Indigenous scriptsLanguage and LinguisticsThis section of the course is about language ... the vehicle for holding and transmitting cultureWe will cover the origins of human language; the structure of language; historical linguistics; sociolinguistics; and the history of writing.Language origins Evidence for the evolution of language comes from anatomy – comparative anatomy of modern humans and chimps and comparative anatomy of hominids through time – and from primate sign language, experiments in tool making, and comparative linguistics.The capacity for language, like the capacity for culture, was part of biological evolution.Evidence for the evolution of language comes from anatomy – comparative anatomy of modern humans and chimps and comparative anatomy of hominids through time – and from primate sign language, experiments in tool making, and comparative linguistics.We do not know much about the details of language evolution but we do know that the capacity for language, like the capacity for culture, was part of biological evolution. There have not been any hominids on Earth except for H. sapiens for 40,000 years. That is probably how long it has been since the currently observable human capacity for language has been part of our repertoire.There are technologically primitive people on Earth – hunters and gatherers who never took part in the Neolithic revolution, much less the preindustrial state revolution or the industrial revolution or the post-industrial revolution now underway. But there are no primitive people on Earth. All humans have the same capacity for acquiring a language and all human languages ever known are capable of transmitting any culture, even the most technologically complex.The evolution of language and the development of the human hand and the ability to make tools are probably all related. The voice box and neurological complexity have all evolved. We know from endocranial casts that the area of the brain devoted to speech began developing as early as H. habilis.Speech and handednessThe speech area of the brain is adjacent to the area devoted to the control of the human hand. The makers of Oldowan tools were mostly right handed. Chimps can make stone tools – they don’t do that in the wild – but when they do in experiments in captivity, they do not show any preference for right- or left handedness (Stanley Ambrose, Science 2001). William Haviland points out that handedness is associated with lateralization of the brain, as is language.Hypoglossal canalBy half a million years ago, in H. erectus, we see a major increase in the size of the hypoglossal canal – which could accommodate larger nerves for controlling the tongue. By the time we get to Neandertals, the hypoglossal canal is the same size as it is in fully modern humans (though this is controversial)Hyoid boneThe hyoid bone: U-shaped bone at the base of the tongue that supports the tongue musclesIn Neanderthals, the hyoid shows that the larynx was as developed as that in modern humansAnd the thorax had expanded to the same size as that of modern humans: breath control required for continual speech.Washoe and other chimpsExperiments with chimps and other apes show they are capable of much more than we thought, in terms of language. Chimps do not have the physical apparatus for human speech, but Beatrice and Allan Gardner taught Washoe, a female chimp, 160 signs in Ameslan.Generalizing signsWashoe moved beyond the signs and generalized them – and combined them. She learned “open” for one door, and then used it to ask for other doors to be openedShe asked for refrigerators to be opened and pointed to open drawers and briefcases.Washoe and Lucy (who was trained by Roger Fouts) learned the sign for feces and generalized it to mean dirty. Lucy used the term as an expletive when she got mad at Fouts for not giving her something. Lucy invented “cry hurt food” – three signs in Ameslan – to talk about radishes and “candy fruit” to talk about watermelons. Chimps and other great apes achieve the linguistic capacity of a 2–3 year old human.Comparative linguistics and language originsBrent Berlin and Paul Kay studied 110 languages and found seven stages in the development of color terms. All languages have at least two terms, white and black, or color and lack of color. When languages acquire a third term, it is always red. When languages acquire a fourth term, it is either green or yellow.Berlin and Kay’s studyAt five terms, green or yellow enters, depending on which one entered at stage IV. At 6 terms, blue enters, and at 7 terms, brown enters. At the final stage of 8 or more terms, purple, pink, orange, grey or combinations of these terms enter the lexicon. Moreover, color