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| aristotle - 'sound with meaning' |
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language units - are inter-subjective
mediate transfer of information |
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Faculty of language in the broad sense
faculty of language in the narrow sense |
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sensory-motor system
conceptual-intentional system
FLN - internal computation system |
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| sound production and perception |
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'meaning' - language related thinking
conceptualisation
theory of mind
signal learning |
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faculty of language, narrow sense
computational system (narrow syntax) that generates internal representations and maps them into the sensory-motor interface by the phonological system, and into the conceptual-intentional interface by the (formal) semantic system |
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| HCF - language is computation |
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Definition
not communication
language is more sophisticated than required for language
"a system for expressing thought", not communication
simpler ways to communicate
language as communication is limited in practice (working memory, lungs, lifespan...) |
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| HCF - because of FLN, human language is: |
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Definition
hierarchical
generative
unlimited
recursive - which explains all other features |
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Definition
language is structured; there are rules relating parts to whole
syntactic - word classes - function of part defined by the whole
semantic - meaning of parts depends on the whole
beyond the one-to-one mapping of sounds to meaning - establishing a hierarchical structure of symbols |
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chomsky - poverty of stimulus
children are so good at generalising rules ('I looked', 'I drinked')
- need to be corrected to conform to irregularities |
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| natural language grammar is unlearnable given the relatively limited data available to children learning a language |
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individual lexicons are finite (~35,000-50,000); grammatical rules too
but the number of possible sentences in language is a 'discrete infinity' |
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| 'use of finite means to express an unlimited array of thoughts' |
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both information systems
both characterised by modularity, hierarchy and discrete infinity |
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the use of linguistic units or sentences as parts of other sentences according to a similar rule
HCF - recursion is the central mechanism of FLN and language |
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Term
| three hypotheses for language evolution |
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Definition
FLB is like other forms of animal communication (agreed as wrong)
FLB as a whole is a unique adaptation for language - FLN/SM/CI systems were so transformed by selection that they became unique to humans and to language
only FLN is unique to humans (HCF) - aspects of FLB are shared with other animals and are not unique; language uniqueness due to FLN (recursion) soley |
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| HCF's choice of hypthosis |
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Definition
if any aspect of FLB is present in other animals, it is proof it doesn't require language to evolve
(may not have even evolved for language in humans) |
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| For HCF - sensory-motor system is not unique |
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Definition
other animals can discriminate between language - Kuhl and Padden (1982) studied macaques who exhibit phenome boundary effect
red and fallow deer also exhibit descended larynx which elongates vocal tract/exaggerates size (Fitch and Reby 2001) |
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| For/against HCF - conceptual-intentional system |
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Definition
| it is clear that primates know a lot about their peers (social brain) but they just rarely vocalise such knowledge fabre-thorpe (2003) - rhesus monkeys are able to sort novel photographs into 'animal' and 'food' no displacement |
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is unique to humans
HCF - evolved to solve other computational problems such as navigation, number quantification, or social relationships
became domain-general by breaking a barrier |
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| language as an evolutionary accident |
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Definition
| reducing language to a single feature means it could have evolved by accident |
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| Pinker and Jackendoff - Language is an adaptation |
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Definition
support hypothesis 2 - FLB as a whole is a unique adaptation to human language
reject that the components of FLB are not adaptations for language and that the FLN is just recursion |
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Definition
| a conceptual world doesn't require language to exist however many concepts exist only because of language; a 'week' |
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| PJ - sensory-motor system |
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Definition
human vocal production was clearly adapted for speech
- vocalisations in other apes are comparatively limited
- capacity for vocal imitation not inherited from apes
vocal imitation is not uniquely human but that is irrelevant to whether vocal imitation evolved for language
other species with comparably talents are not ancestral to humans
descended larynx to exaggerate body size in humans is a wrong explanation
- women and children also have it (Lieberman 1984) |
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| PJ - FLN: syntax is more than just recursion |
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syntax also requires: ordering, agreement, case-marking
recursion may not be universal (Piraha) |
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| PJ - language is for communication |
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Definition
| if language was inner speech, it would not need mapping of sound to meaning/phonological and auditory systems would not have evolved can one possibly argue that humans do not use language for communication? |
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| PJ - what is innate about grammar? |
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without exception, linguistic isolates do not develop speech or a new language
we seem to have the innate ability to learn or copy grammar, not to create it |
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Definition
| 'principles by which words and morphemes are concatenated into sentences' |
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Definition
FLB as a whole is a unique adaptation
reject that FLN is just recursion
reject that FLB is not an adaptation
agree that FLN/recursion are unique to humans, and to language |
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| what is wrong with PJ/HCF |
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Definition
| never relate language to culture - creation and diversification of linguistic rules serve important purposes in social life (to establish group membership, cultural identity etc.) |
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| 'the descended larynx is part of a suit of vocal tract modifications" that evolved at the cost of other biological functions (eating/swallowing) |
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| individual units of sound (/r/ is 'red' is replaced by /b/ in 'bed') |
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| PJ - phonological structure of language is discretely infinite... |
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Definition
| ... but not technically recursive |
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Definition
| allocate the grammatical role of the phrase with respect to a verb "convery who did what to whom, what is where, and other semantic relations" |
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| macaques exhibit phoneme boundary effect |
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| red and fallow deer also exhibit extended larynx elongates vocal tract and exaggerates size |
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| rhesus monkeys were able to sort novel photographs into 'animal' and 'food |
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