readings content

What is the linguistic property described as the "nesting" of related clauses or linguistic units within each other, allowing for the production of an infinite array of meanings?

Recursion - rules that allow recursion allow users to produce an infinite array of meanings

According to some researchers, which property of language appears to be beyond the cognitive reach of apes, suggesting it's part of a uniquely human set of skills?

The property of recursion appears to be beyond the cognitive reach of apes

What term did Noam Chomsky apply to any situation where there is an apparent gap between experience and knowledge, suggesting language is such a case?

Chomsky applied the term "Plato's problem" to any situation in which there's an apparent gap between experience and knowledge. He suggested language was such a case, where children seem to know things they were never taught

According to Chomsky's nativist view, what are humans pre-packaged with knowledge of, rather than being born wired for specific languages?

Humans are pre-packaged with knowledge of the kinds of structures that make up human languages

What is defined as an innately understood system of combining linguistic units that constrains the structural patterns of all human languages?

Universal grammar

What property requires that meaningful linguistic units (like words) are formed by combining a number of inherently meaningless units (like sounds)?

Duality of patterning - John Wilkins’ proposed language dispensed with this feature.

What did the experiment by Keith and Cathy Hayes (1951) raising a chimpanzee named Viki demonstrate about primate ability for spoken language?

Despite extensive effort, Viki was only able to utter four indistinct words (mama, papa, up, cup), demonstrating that great apes seem to be unique among primates in controlling the capacity for speech

Describe a key difference in vocal anatomy between humans and chimpanzees that affects sound production.

The human larynx rests much lower in the vocal tract than chimpanzees', creating a roomier mouth and a broad tongue that curves downward, allowing humans to make a wider variety of acoustically distinct sounds

What is a significant cost associated with the distinct shape of the human vocal tract?

The lowered larynx means humans cannot breathe and swallow at the same time, leading to a risk of choking on food or drink

Aside from vocal anatomy, what other ability appears to be surprisingly lacking in non-human primates compared to humans, particularly concerning language acquisition?

Non-human primates appear to have almost no ability to learn to make new vocal sounds, which is a key component of acquiring spoken language. Their vocalizations are largely innate and fixed

What did Michael Owren's cross-fostering experiment with rhesus and Japanese macaques demonstrate about primate vocalizations?

It showed that the adopted animals sounded much more like their biological parents than their adoptive ones, revealing that their vocal repertoire is relatively fixed and only slightly affected by the environment, unlike human infants

Name some non-primate species mentioned as having sophisticated vocal learning and imitation skills.

Songbirds, seals, dolphins, whales, Asian elephants, and bats

What is the highly technical term used by language scientists to describe the stage in human infancy (starting around 5-7 months) where babies experiment with their vocal instrument, repeating sounds?

Babbling

What appears to be the primary purpose of babbling in human infants?

To practice the complicated motions needed to make speech sounds and to match these motions with the sounds babies hear in the language around them

What is the "affective pathway" for vocalization?

Sound production arising from states of arousal, emotion, and motivation. These sounds are innate, don't require learning, and are generally inflexible (e.g., crying, laughter, exclamations)

What is the "cognitive pathway" for vocalization?

Controlled, highly malleable sound production that requires extensive auditory learning and practice. Human language sounds and some birdsong fall into this category

The sources state that Hockett was wrong about one of his universal design features. Which feature was it, and what is the corrected understanding?

Hockett believed human language was inherently dependent on the vocal-auditory tract. The sources state that human languages aren't universally spoken; signed languages exist and have all the characteristics of fully fledged languages

what modality might the earliest forms of human language have taken, and why?

Some researchers hypothesize that the earliest forms were gestural, because apes (our closest relatives) are much better at learning to communicate through signed languages than spoken ones, and they use gestures spontaneously in the wild in flexible ways

What similarity exists between the "babbling" stage in human infants and the development of song in some species of songbirds?

Baby birds also go through a "babbling" stage where they need to hear adult songs and practice, showing that mastery of vocal sounds requires learning and progresses through similar stages to humans

Despite similarities in structure and learning, what is a key difference between the elements of birdsong and the words in human language?

There is no evidence that any of the elements birds consistently combine... have any meaning whatsoever. Language words, conversely, have meaning

What is "homesign"?

A personal communication system initiated by a deaf person to communicate through gestures with others who do not know sign language. It comes about at the initiative of the child who lacks linguistic input

How do children's homesign gestures differ fundamentally from the gestures typically used by hearing people accompanying speech?

Homesign gestures have a referential function – they stand in as symbols for concepts and are reused across situations. Gestures accompanying speech usually show emphasis or perceptual aspects but don't have a referential value

What does the existence of homesign suggest about children's capacity beyond simply learning a language?

It suggests that in addition to being born with the capacity to learn language, children are born with (at least to some degree) the capacity to invent language

What historical event provided researchers with a "natural experiment" on how a new sign language can emerge and develop complexity within a community?

The founding of a school for the deaf in Managua, Nicaragua, in 1977, which brought together many deaf children who previously had little contact or shared language. This led to the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL)

In the development of NSL, how did the signing of younger learners compare to that of older learners?

Younger signers altered the system for greater communicative power. They used gestures more efficiently (compact, fluent), individual signs carried more information, they were more consistent, and they showed a stronger shift towards sequential signing over holistic gestures and a specific use of spatial location for grammatical purposes

What is the "sensitive period" for language learning?

A window of time during which a specific type of learning (such as learning language) takes place more easily than at any other time. This is typically in early childhood

How has the study of sign languages like ASL impacted the perception of signed communication?

Research, starting with William Stokoe, showed that sign languages have grammatical elements and structures, proving they are true languages comparable to spoken languages, capable of expressing abstract thought. This changed views from seeing them as mere pantomime or a disability

How do the sources describe the relationship between biology and culture in the emergence and form of human language?

Language is described as the result of an intricate collaboration between biology and culture. It's unlikely features are all genetically determined or all cultural inventions

How might studying genetic disorders like Williams Syndrome (WMS) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI) help researchers understand language evolution?

These disorders, showing distinctive patterns of impairment, may hint at whether there is a separate, dedicated language system evolved in humans (module view) or if language emerged as a by-product of general human intelligence (by-product/domain-general view)

What is a key characteristic of Williams Syndrome (WMS) that has attracted language researchers' attention?

Language function appears to be relatively preserved despite more serious impairments in other areas of cognitive function, particularly numerical and visual-spatial skills

What is Specific Language Impairment (SLI)?

A disorder in which children fail to develop language normally even though there are no apparent obvious reasons like neurological damage, general cognitive impairment, hearing loss, or abnormal home environment

What is the "domain-specific perspective" on SLI?

The view that the linguistic deficit strikes at mechanisms that are particular to language, rather than mechanisms shared with other cognitive abilities

What is the "domain-general perspective" on SLI?

The view that the linguistic deficit is only one effect of more general cognitive problems that also affect non-linguistic processes

What gene was the first to be decisively identified as important for language, based on studies of a specific family (KE family) with severe language problems?

The FOXP2 gene, located on chromosome 7

What are the 2 main theoretical perspectives regarding the evolution of language itself?

The biological perspective (language capacity adaptive, human brain changed over time) and the cultural transmission view (languages themselves change over time to adapt to the human mind)

According to the cultural transmission view, what role do new learners play in shaping languages over time?

New learners may play a crucial filtering role, influencing which linguistic innovations survive and become systematic in the language

How might the rate of second-language learners in a population affect the structure of the language?

Languages with a high rate of second-language learners tend to rely more on word order to signal grammatical relationships (like subject/object) rather than using word endings (case markers). They may also load less information into single word

What is the field of study called that investigates how the physical brain relates to language behaviour?

Neurolinguistics

What is one key finding from lab-based language games (like the drawing study or syllable sequence learning) that involves multiple "generations" of learners?

Systems tend to become more streamlined, efficient, and potentially more arbitrary or systematic over generations as they are learned and re-transmitted

What trade-off was observed in the Kirby et al. (2008) language game experiment when communicative demands were varied?

A trade-off between learnability (simpler systems easier to learn) and expressiveness (more complex/combinatorial systems can differentiate more concepts)

What does the term "linguistic code" refer to?

The system of symbols and combinatory rules conventionally agreed upon by a community of language users as conveying specific meanings. It may not fully convey meaning without context

What did William Stokoe conclude about the sign language used by deaf students at Gallaudet University in 1960?

He concluded it was a language in its own right (American Sign Language - ASL), with grammatical elements and structures different from English, not just pantomime

What is the difference between using "deaf" (lowercase) and "Deaf" (capitalized)?

"deaf" refers to the audiological condition (the state of being unable to hear), while "Deaf" refers to the population of people with various levels of hearing impairment and their associated culture

How does the development of Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) differ from NSL in terms of community structure and initial language exposure?

ABSL speakers come from a single, tight-knit community, and new learners are exposed to the language from birth within their families. NSL speakers came from a large region with less prior connection, and children typically started learning NSL at school age

What does the change in terminology from "Specific Language Disorder" to "Language Disorder" in the DSM-5 reflect about the current understanding of this condition?

It reflects the understanding that it's a catchphrase for a cluster of cognitive vulnerabilities disproportionately affecting language function, with no single specific genetic anomaly identified, indicating a lack of specificity in its underlying cause

How does the linguistic performance of individuals with Williams Syndrome compare to those with Down Syndrome when matched for overall IQ, according to Bellugi's research?

Language was clearly more sophisticated among the Williams group, with more fluent and complex sentences and a stronger understanding of how syntactic structure contributes to meaning

What kind of non-linguistic difficulties are commonly observed in individuals with SLI?

Difficulties can include impaired basic speech perception, shorter memory spans (for both speech and non-speech), trouble with articulatory control or general motor coordination, problems with analogical reasoning, and difficulty with visual imagery tasks (like mentally rotating objects)

In the context of language evolution, what is "directional selection"?

Adaptive traits that enhance an individual's prospects of passing their genes on to lots of offspring spread throughout a population because they outcompete those without the advantage

The cultural transmission view suggests that languages adapt to the human mind. What aspects of the human mind might languages be adapting to?

The capabilities and limitations of the human brain (including constraints on learning and processing)