1 / 76

What is language? Lesson 1

What is language? Lesson 1. Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. The puzzle. Where does language come from?. OTHER SPECIES. Vervets. Eagle. Leopard. Snake. Washoe. - Memorizing huge amounts of vocabulary. - Word order and syntax. 1). Jane. the. saw. child.

wray
Download Presentation

What is language? Lesson 1

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. What is language? Lesson 1 Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

  2. The puzzle Where does language come from?

  3. OTHER SPECIES

  4. Vervets Eagle Leopard Snake

  5. Washoe

  6. - Memorizing huge amounts of vocabulary

  7. - Word order and syntax 1) Jane the saw child . 2) . He ate the last piece of cake Jane saw the child who ate the last piece of cake

  8. - Lies, metaphors, hypotheses I love maths. The earth is an orange. If I were you I would buy that dress.

  9. Dexterity • (motor dexterity also found in musicians, jugglers…)

  10. - Shared attention and imitation

  11. Lesson 2 Characteristics of language Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

  12. Charles Hockett’s Set of design features of human languages

  13. Vocal-Auditory channel Except for writing and signing

  14. Human language signal sent out in all directions but perceived in a limited direction

  15. Does not persist over time But writing and recording are now possible…

  16. The speaker can receive and broadcast the same signal sticklefish = épinoche

  17. The speaker can hear himself speak and monitor his performance

  18. Organs used are adapted to the task

  19. Specific signals can be matched with specific meanings

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

  21. Iconicity Quantity principle Lengthening She is soooooooo nice He’s veryyyyyyy happy Reduplication He’s very very happy A long long time ago Onomatopoia Cuckoo, sizzle bow bow / oua oua

  22. 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.

  23. Not inborn acquired from other speakers

  24. /t/ /a/ /k/ cat act tack

  25. Lesson 3 What is meaning? Meaning of words - Meaning of utterances Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

  26. 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 ».

  27. Different languages English/ Pitianiatiara Aunt Uncle Mother Father Uncle Aunt Mama Kurntili Noannytiu Kamuru son Uncle= Kamuru (mother’sbrother) / Mama (father’sbrother) Aunt= Noannytiu (mother’ssister) / Kurntili (father’ssister)

  28. Literal and figurative meaning He kicked the bucket Literalmeaning: He hit the bucketwithhis foot Figurative meaning: He died

  29. Metaphor Belgium drivers are cowboys.

  30. Sentence and utterance meaning The car Broke down yesterday Past tense Actor Event Temporal location Jennifer: - What’s been happening while I was away? Gary: - The car broke down yesterday Jennifer: - Do youfeellikegoing out tonight? Gary: - The car broke down yesterday

  31. The meaning of utterances

  32. Speech acts Informing, promissing, requesting, commanding, warning, preaching, congratulating, laying bets, swearing, exclaiming…

  33. 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.

  34. Direct and indirect speech acts Can you pass me the salt? It’s noisy in here.

  35. Felicity conditions I pronounce you man and wife. Right speaker Right context Right environment

  36. 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

  37. 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.

  38. Lesson 4 Language in its social context Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

  39. Variations according to regions Australia United States A: Thank you B: No worries A: Thank you B: You’re welcome

  40. Variations according to uses Grab a chair Take a seat

  41. A speech community = a coherent group of people whoshare the samelanguage or language and more or less the samenorms of language use. Elastic term: different sizes Example: English speakers, British English, Cockney

  42. Variation according to social group Criteria: income, education, occupation…. Working class, middle class (upper, middle, lower)

  43. Language shift and endangerment Languages are put to new uses Examples: email, instant messaging, SMS, WWW Language shift: changes of habits of language use Language endangerment: a language replaces another in an entire community Language death: no speaker remains

  44. Causes of language shift Disruption of the speech community (fewer opportunities of interaction amon them) Attitudes to the langage

  45. Lesson 5 Language, the mind and the brain Aliyah Morgenstern Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

  46. Language and cognition 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

  47. Language and thought: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 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)

  48. Principle of relativity Lexical and grammatical differencesbetweenlanguagescorrelatewith non linguistic cognitive differences. Manywords for snow in Inuit. Hopi language: twodifferentwords for water drinking water in a container / natural body of water

  49. Linguistic determinism 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 / Hopi Linear in English / cyclic view of time in Hopi

  50. Testing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Empirical testing by linguists, anthropologists and psychologists. Color terms Heider (1972) Dani speakers (Papua)

More Related