Aspects of linguistic competence AUG. 30, 2013 – DAY 3

1. Aspects of linguistic competenceAUG. 30, 2013 – DAY 3 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Harry Howard Tulane Universit

2. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Course organization • The syllabus, these slides and my recordings are available at http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/ • The NSCI students that were not registered should have been notified by NSCI that they are cleared to register. • The LING students that were not registered should have been cleared to register. You will not receive any notification, however. • Anyone else not registered should talk to me.

3. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Public service option Office of Public Service

4. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Review • processing • modularity • localization • aphasia • phrenology • linguistic sign, signifier & signified • symbol • representation, first- & higher-order • evolution & co-evolution • natural & sexual selection • falsifiability

5. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University What is co-evolution? • What examples of co-evolution can you think of? • So, how could the brain and language have co-evolved? • Will we ever know? – Don’t answer! See next slide.

6. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University What is falsifiability? • Are all swans white? • The classical view of the philosophy of science is that it is the goal of science to ‘prove’ observational data. • This hardly seems possible, since it would require us to infer a general rule from a number of individual cases, e.g. all swans are white. • However, if we find one single black swan, logic allows us to conclude that the statement that all swans are white is false. • Falsificationismthus strives for questioning, for falsification, of hypotheses instead of proving them.

7. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Falsifiability • Is it good or bad? • Is the theory of the co-evolution of the brain & language falsifiable?

8. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Aspects of linguistic competence Ingram §2 – Design features of language

9. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University What makes a language? • Charles Hockett (1966), "The Problem of Universals in Language" • The search for universals through comparison with animal systems: • "The design-features listed below are found in every language on which we have reliable information, and each seems to be lacking in at least one known animal communicative system. • They are not all logically independent, and do not necessarily all belong to our defining list for language--a point to be taken up separately..."

10. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Design features of language 1-5 • 1. Mode of communication: • vocal-auditory, tactile-visual, or chemical-olfactory • 2. Rapid Fading: • Message does not linger in time or space after production. • 3. Interchangeability: • individuals who use a language can both send and receive any permissible message within that communication system. • 4. Feedback: • users of a language can perceive what they are transmitting and can make corrections if they make errors. • 5. Specialization: • the direct-energetic consequences of linguistic signals are usually biologically trivial; only the triggering effects are important.

11. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Design features of language 6-9 • 6. Semanticity: • there are associative ties between signal elements and features in the world; in short, some linguistic forms have denotations. • 7. Arbitrariness: • there is no logical connection between the form of the signal and its meaning. • 8. Discreteness: • messages in the system are made up of smaller, repeatable parts; the sounds of language (or cheremes of a sign) are perceived categorically, not continuously. • 9. Displacement: • linguistic messages may refer to things remote in time and space, or both, from the site of the communication.

12. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Design features of language 10-12 • 10. Productivity: • users can create and understand completely novel messages. • 10.1. In a language, new messages are freely coined by blending, analogizing from, or transforming old ones. This says that every language has grammatical patterning. • 10.2. In a language, either new or old elements are freely assigned new semantic loads by circumstances and context. This says that in every language new idioms constantly come into existence. • 11. Cultural transmission: • the conventions of a language are learned by interacting with more experienced users. • 12. Duality (of Patterning): • a large number of meaningful elements are made up of a conveniently small number of meaningless but message-differentiating elements.

13. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Design features of language 13-15 • 13. Prevarication: • linguistic messages can be false, deceptive, or meaningless. • 14. Reflexiveness: • In a language, one can communicate about communication. • 15. Learnability: • A speaker of a language can learn another language.

14. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Summary image

15. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Which are the most important ones? • "There is...a sense in which [productivity], displacement, and duality...can be regarded as the crucial, or nuclear, or central properties of human language."

16. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University What about body language?

17. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Aspects of linguistic competence Ingram §2 – Phonetics

18. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University Phonetics • How do you pronounce this word? • “ghoti” • enough • women • solution • What can you conclude from this exercise? • the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) • [fIʃ]

19. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University NEXT TIME Continue with this chapter. Do exercises that I will send you.