BEGRIPPENLIJST SV PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE CHRONOLOGISCHE VOLGORDE + LECTURES –
NIENKE V
Innate: aangeboren
HOOFDSTUK 2
NATIST VIEW The view that not only humans are genetically programmed to have a
general capacity for language, particular aspects of language are also
genetically specified.
ANTI-NATIVIST The view that the ability of humans to learn language is not the result
VIEW of a genetically programmed “language template” but is an aspect (or
by-product) of our extensive cognitive abilities, including general
abilities of learning and memory
HOCKETT’S A set of characteritics proposed by linguist Charles Hockett to be
DESIGN universally shared by all human languages. Some but not all of the
FEATURES features are also found in various animal communication systems.
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PRODUCTIVITY The ability to use known symbols or linguistic units in new
combinations to communicate ideas.
EVOLUTIONARY A genetically transmitted trait that gives its bearers an advantage-
ADAPTION specifically, It helps those with the trait to stay alive long enough to
reproduce and/or to have many offspring.
JOINT ATTENTION The awareness between two or more individuals that they are paying
attention to the same thing.
SYNTAX In given language, the set of “rules” that specify how meaningful
linguistic elements are put together so that their meaning can be
clearly understood.
UNIVERSAL An innately understood system of combining linguistic units that
GRAMMAR constrains (beperken) the structural patterns of all human languages.
AFFECTIVE Sound production (vocalizations) arising from states of arousal,
PATHWAY emotion, and motivation. Affective sound production is innate,
doesn’t require learning and is generally inflexible.
COGNITIVE Controlled, highly malleable sound production that requires extensive
PATHWAY auditory learning and practice. Includes human language sounds and
some birdsong.
HOMESIGN A personal communication system initiated by a deaf person to
communicate through gestures with others who, like the deaf person,
do not know sign language.
LINGUISTIC CODE The system of symbols and combinatory rules that are conventionally
agreed upon by a community of language users as conveying
(overbrengen) specific meaning, so that hearers must augment the
linguistic code with inferences based on the context.
SENSITIVE A window of time during which a specific type of learning (such as
PERIOD learning language) takes place more easily than at any other time.
WILLIAMS A genetic syndrome of particular interest to language researchers, in
SYNDROME which language function appears to be relatively preserved despite
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, (WMS) more serious impairments in other areas of cognitive function.
MENTAL AGE A person’s overall level of cognitive functioning, related to the
chronological age of a person with typical development.
SPECIFIC A disorder in which children fail to develop language normally even
LANGUAGE though there are no apparent neurological damage or disorders, no
INPAIRMENT (SLI) general cognitive impairment or delay, no hearing loss, and no
abnormal home environment that would explain this failure.
DOMAIN- In regard to specific language impairment, the view that the linguistic
SPECIFIC deficit (te kort) strikes at mechanisms that are particular to language,
PERSPECTIVE rather than mechanisms that are shared with other cognitive abilities.
DOMAIN- In regard to SPI, the view that the linguistic deficit is only one effect of
GENERAL more general cognitive problems that also affect non-linguistic
PERSPECTIVE processes.
CULTURAL The notion that languages change over time to adapt the human
TRANSMISSION mind, with all the constraints, limitations and abilities that human
VIEW OF minds bring to the task of learning or using language. This view stands
LANGUAGE in contrast to the natist view, which holds that the human mind has
CHANGE changed over time because it has become adapted for the
requirements of language.
LECTURES H2
Yes yes = natist view
Is language uniquely human?
- Depends on what you define as language
- Lots of studies looking at animals, from birds and bees to dolphins and primates.
Studies of Primates
Diana monkeys
- Separate ‘eagle’ and ‘jaguar’ warning calls
- Evidence of semanticity?
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,Bonobos
- Kanzi: makes different vocalizations in the context of different objects (e.g. juice vs.
bananas vs. grapes)
- Evidence of arbitrariness?
Chimpanzees
- Nim Chimpsky: never learned to talk; did learn to make signs
- Evidence of traditional transmission?
Differences between apes and humans:
- What linguistic ability we attribute to primates is often in the eye of the beholder
- Universal acquisition in children; variable acquisition in apes
- Children experiment and innovate; apes copy
- Children babble; apes don’t
- As utterences grow longer:
o In children: grammar becomes more complex
o In apes: signs are repeated (eat Nim, eat Nim)
- Humans apply grammatical rules consistently; apes apply grammatical rules
inconsistently
- Humans use words to comment and express intentions; apes use signs as tools to get
things (up to 96% of sings are requests)
- Apes interrupt far more than humans
Can apes learn human language?
YES if you limit it to… NO if you mean language to include…
There here and now A timeline
Little or no syntax Syntax
Explicitly taught material Unsupervised learning and acquisition
Exclude the ability to reject bad sentences The ability to reject bad sentences
The use of questions
Behavior ≠ knowledge
Absence of behavior ≠ absence of knowledge
More and more evidence of human-like non-language behavior in animals, so humans may
not be so special after all
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, Sign languages have no vocal-auditory channel yet
- Symbolic, fixed relations between form and meaning (arbitrariness, semanticity)
- Structure in hand shape, movement, location and meaning of combining units
(duality of patterning)
- Sign languages possible predate spoken language (sound production may habe
initially only been used through the affective pathway, and only later via the
cognitive pathway
Language use in the digital age
- The printing press made it possible to store language
- Radio and recording made it possible to store speech
- How do current technological developments affect language use?
o WhatsApp (informal writing)
o Text-to-speech and speech-to-text: modalities blur?
o Deepfakes, chatbots: how and when to trust language use?
We do not know
- How old language is exactly
- For sure whether there is one forefather language, common ancestor
We do know
- Languages change, in a not completely random manner
o Semantic transparency decreases
o Complexity increases and decreases
o Economy push and pull factors for speakers and listeners
o Cultural factors are elected in language change
- Humans will develop a shared linguistic code, if there isn’t one to begin with
o Pidgings and creoles
o Homesign (sign languages)
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