What is language? Lesson 1

What is language?

Lesson 1

Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

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The puzzle

Where does language come from?

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OTHER SPECIES

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Vervets

Eagle Leopard Snake

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Washoe

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- Memorizing huge amounts of vocabulary

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- Word order and syntax

Jane

theateHe

the childsaw

last piece of cake .

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Jane saw the child who ate the last piece of cake

1)

2)

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- Lies, metaphors, hypotheses

I love maths.The earth is an orange.If I were you I would buy that dress.

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-Dexterity (motor dexterity also found in musicians, jugglers…)

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- Shared attention and imitation

Lesson 2Characteristics of language


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Charles Hockett’sSet of design features of human languages

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Vocal-Auditory channel

Except for writing and signing

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Human language signal sent out in all directionsbut perceived in a limited direction

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Does not persist over timeBut writing and recording are now possible…

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The speaker can receive and broadcast the same signal

sticklefish = épinoche

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The speaker can hear himself speak and monitor his performance

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Organs used are adapted to the task

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Specific signals can be matched with specific meanings

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No necessary connection between the form of the signal and the thing being referred to

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Iconicity

Quantity principle

LengtheningShe is soooooooo niceHe’s veryyyyyyy happy

ReduplicationHe’s very very happyA long long time ago

Onomatopoia

Cuckoo, sizzlebow bow / oua oua

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Creation of novel utterances that others can understand

The little lavender men who live in my socks drawer told me that Elvis will come back from Mars on the 10th to do a benefit concert for unemployed Pekingese dogs.

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Not inbornacquired from other speakers

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/t/ /a/ /k/

Lesson 3What is meaning?

Meaning of words - Meaning of utterances


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Sense and reference

Sense = meaning of a word within a language.

Reference = what a word refers to in the world outside language – « the real world ».

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Different languagesEnglish/ Pitianiatiara

Mother Father

son

Uncle UncleAunt Aunt

Noannytiu Kamuru Mama Kurntili

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Literal and figurative meaning

He kicked the bucket

Literal meaning:He hit the bucket with his foot

Figurative meaning:He died

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Metaphor

Belgium drivers are cowboys.

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Sentence and utterance meaning

Actor Event Temporal location

The carThe car Broke downBroke down yesterdayyesterday

Past tense

Jennifer: - What’s been happening while I was away?Gary: - The car broke down yesterday

Jennifer: - Do you feel like going out tonight?Gary: - The car broke down yesterday

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The meaning of utterances

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Speech acts

Informing, promissing, requesting, commanding, warning, preaching, congratulating, laying bets, swearing, exclaiming…

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Performatives

I bet you he won’t come.I resign.I apologize.I pronounce you man and wife.I order you to leave the premises.

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Direct and indirect speech acts

Can you pass me the salt?

It’s noisy in here.

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Felicity conditions

I pronounce you man and wife.

Right speakerRight contextRight environment

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The cooperative principle

Make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

Grice 1989: 26

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The four maxims

Maxim of quantity: Make your contribution as informative as required, but not more (or less) informative as required

Maxim of quality: Try to make your contribution true; do not say that which you believe false of for which you lack adequate evidence.

Maxim of Relevance: be relevant

Maxim of Manner: Be perspicuous – avoid ambiguity, prolixity, disorderliness and obscurity.

Lesson 4

Language in its social context


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Variations according to regions

Australia

A: Thank youB: No worries

United States

A: Thank youB: You’re welcome

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Variations according to uses

Grab a chair

Take a seat

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A speech community

= a coherent group of people who share the same language or language and more or less the same norms of language use.

Elastic term: different sizes

Example: English speakers, British English, Cockney

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Variation according to social group

Criteria: income, education, occupation….

Working class, middle class(upper, middle, lower)

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Language shift and endangerment

Languages are put to new uses

Examples: email, instant messaging, SMS, WWW

Language shift: changes of habits of language useLanguage endangerment: a language replaces another

in an entire communityLanguage death: no speaker remains

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Causes of language shift

Disruption of the speech community (fewer opportunities of interaction amon them)

Attitudes to the langage

Lesson 5

Language, the mind and the brain


View one: language forms a distinct module separate form other cognitive processes.Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, Stephen Pinker

View two: no distinction between the cognitive processes employed in language and those employed in other domains of thought.Ronald Langacker, Georges Lakoff, Talmy Givon

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Language and cognition

Is there a relationship between the language one speaks and the way one thinks about and conceptualizes the world?

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835)Franz Boas (1858-1942)Edward Sapir (1884-1939)Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)

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Language and thought:

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Lexical and grammatical differences between languages correlate with non linguistic cognitive differences.

Many words for snow in Inuit.

Hopi language: two different words for water drinking water in a container / natural body of water

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Principle of relativity

Differences in cognitive styles between cultures (in thir way of thinking) are due to differences in the grammatical and semantic system of languages

Example: tenses in English / HopiLinear in English / cyclic view of time in Hopi

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Linguistic determinism

Empirical testing by linguists, anthropologists and psychologists.

Color termsHeider (1972)Dani speakers (Papua)

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Testing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Lesson 7

The history of the English language and

Language change


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Old English (450-1100)

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Features of Old English

3 genders5 cases

7 classes of strong verbs3 classes of weak verbs

Two main tenses. No progressive nor continuous No future tense.

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Evolution of Old English

2 terms side by side:wish / wantcraft / skillraise / rearSometimes they acquire different meanings:skirt / shirtstick / stichbreak / breachGrammatical formsThey, them, their

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Evolution of Old English

Norman conquest of 1066.

French speaking aristocracy

Court, government, fashion, high living

Mason, painter, tailor

Beef, mutton, veal, bacon

French speaking aristocracy

Court, government, fashion, high living

Mason, painter, tailor

Beef, mutton, veal, bacon

English speaking peasantry

Eat, drink, work, sleep, play

baker, miller, shoemaker

Sheep, cow, ox

English speaking peasantry

Eat, drink, work, sleep, play

baker, miller, shoemaker

Sheep, cow, ox

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Middle English (1100-1500)

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Middle English (1100-1500)

Less inflected language(apart from was/were)Disappearance of gender

Disappearance of French?In the 14th century, Oxford University ordered

that students be partly taught in French

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« The English tongue is of small account, streching no further than this island of ours, nay not there over all. »

Richard Mulcaster, 1582

More words

1) Industrial Revolution and technology

2) Adoption of foreign words from many countires

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Late Modern English (1800-Present)

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Some losses

This / that / yon (yonder)

Thee / thou

« English has thus attained the only manner of address worthy of a nation that respects the elementary rights of each individual. »

Jespersen

1% of the words in the Oxford English dictionary= 4500 words

But basic words: man, wife, child, brother, sister, live, fight, love, drink, sleep, eat, house…

Function words: for, but, in, and, at, on

Everyone of the most common 100 words are Anglo-saxon

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Remains of Old English?

Lesson 8

Languages of the world


7000 languages (100 sign languages).

Most lack detailed grammatical decriptions and dictionaries.

But to count languages, you need to know what a language is.

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1) Orally transmitted2) Passes through primary social bonds3) State policies not usually relevant4) Encapsulated in the wider system of economic life

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How does a language develop?

« Globalization is causing loss of identity »(McDonaldization or cocacolanization)« the internet is imposing a uniformity in our self-

expression »« text messaging is reducing the expressiveness of

languages »

Is diversity really disappearing or significantly reducing?

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Loss of language diversity?

New pidgins and creoles are continually evolving.

Singlish TaglishMalenglish

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Emergence of new languages

= the normal human condition.

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Multilingualism

Paraguagy: most of the population is bilingualSpanish = official languageGuarani= national language

ScotlandA minority speak Gaelic

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Very diverse situations

Native proficiency in each language?

The exception, not the rule.

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Being bilingual

The choice of language depends on the type of person addressed:

- Member of the family- Schoolmate- Colleague- Superior- Friend- Shopkeeper…

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In a multilingual society…

1)Problem of expression in L1 (upset, tired, distracted or lack of a term in a specific semantic domain)

2)To express solidarity with a group or exclude other people

3)To convey a different attitude, a special effect…

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Language switching

http://amorgenstern.free.fr/Introduction/

[email protected]

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Where to find the pdfs

http://amorgenstern.free.fr/Introduction/

What is language? Lesson 1

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