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WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

WHAT IS LANGUAGE?. DEFINITIONS HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES. Different definitions for different purposes. Language as a system as a universal human capacity as a means of communication as a social phenomenon. HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES The issue of continuity.

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WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

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  1. WHAT IS LANGUAGE? DEFINITIONS HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES

  2. Different definitions for different purposes Language • as a system • as a universal human capacity • as a means of communication • as a social phenomenon

  3. HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES The issue of continuity • Are humans just a step further in practising an adapted behaviour? • What are the similarities and differences in human and animal communication? • Are they qualitative or quantitave? - measurable? - origin?

  4. Animal communication • Through sounds, smells, visual signals and touching: - of birds, bees, ants, bears and dogs

  5. Mixed signals • Species-specific (cats and dogs)

  6. Why are vocal signals easier to use? • Work from a distance: sender and receiver do not have to be close • Work in the dark • Receiver does not have to turn toward sender • Can be used simultaneously with other activities

  7. What determines the nature of signals? • Higher position on the evolutionary scale? - Of birds and chimpanzees • Social activity? - Of cuckoos, bees and ancient hunters

  8. Differences (Hocket) • Use of sound signals - vocal auditory channel • Rapidly fading signal - special types of memory

  9. Total feedback - hearing our voice - talking to ourselves - difficult for the deaf • Interchangeabilty - male crickets chirp - working bees dance - male pheasants’ mating dance • Specialisation - only for communication

  10. Openness, creativity - animal communication:limited set of signs, triggered by a stimulus - human language constantly changes, new items are added, is freely applied

  11. Arbitrariness -animals: often connection between signal and meaning - humans: no connection, interpretation is based on consensus “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty saidin a rather scornful tone, “it means just whatI choose it to mean – neither more notless.” (Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland)

  12. Discreteness • Duality • Patterning - bats, stabs but NOT sbat - boathouse vs. Houseboat - Jack kissed Mary. Vs. Mary kissed Jack but NOT Kissed Jack Mary “But I’m not so think as you drunk I am.” (Sir J.C. Squire, writer)

  13. Functionality, intention - cause, purpose consideration - dolphins, Washoe and Sara

  14. Displacement “Bees are not as busy as we think they are.They just can’t buzz any slower.” (F.M. Hubbard, American humorist) NO - past - future - questions • Prevarification - lies

  15. Reflexiveness - talking about language • Traditional transmission - genetically imprinted behaviour vs. socioculturally transmitted

  16. What is language? • Systematic and generative • A set of arbitrary symbols • Primarily verbal signals but also visual • Conventionalised meanings • Used for communication only • Operates in a speech community • Essentially human • Both language and language learning have universal features

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