Origins and properties of language

Human versus animal

communication
Based on George Yule – The Study of Language
and selected supplementary materials

Jana Chamonikolasová
Study materials:

Compulsory materials (source of final exam questions):

George Yule 2006. The Study of Language:
The Origins of Language (Chapter 1)
Animals and Human Language (Chapter 2)

Supplementary materials:
Mangum Wyatt A. (2010). Animal communication. The “Language” of
Honey Bees. In Susan J. Behrens, Judith A. Parker (eds.) Language in the
Real World (Chapter 13)
Videos presenting different views of the origin and properties of language
and the distinction between human and animal communication (see links
in slides 9–12)
Origins of language - When? How?
Written language: 5,500 – 5,000 years ago
Sumerian language 3,500 BC; pictographic
writing: Kish Tablet – Mesopotamia, Iraq

Spoken language: 100,000 – 50,000 years ago?

No direct evidence or artefacts relating to the speech of
our distant ancestors

Numerous speculations and hypotheses about the origins
of human speech
Sources giving rise to language
The divine source
The natural sound source
The physical adaptation source
The genetic source
The divine source
Biblical tradition: God created Adam and "whatsoever
Adam called every living creature, that was the name
thereof“.
Hindu tradition: Language came from Sarasvati, wife of
Brahma, creator of the universe.
Experiments with children:
Children brouht up without hearing human language were
expected to start speaking the original God-given language.
Experiments - spurious records of the results
Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus 2,500 years ago:
Two newborn babies after two years in the company of a mute
shepard and goats were reported to say the Phrygian word bekos,
'bread’. (-kos Greek ending)
King James the Fourth of Scotland around 1 500 AD:
Children brought up without contact with human language were
reported to start speaking Hebrew.
------------------------------------------------------

Most cases of young children living without access to human

language in their early years demonstrated that children in such
circumstances do not start speaking any language at all.
The natural sound source
- assumption that primitive words could have been imitations of
natural sounds
Bow-wow theory (sounds made by creatures, objects, actions,
e.g. cuckoo, splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, bow-wow
Pooh-pooh theory (cries of pain, anger, joy – Ouch!, Ah!, Wow!)
Yo-he-ho theory (coordinated physical effort – lifting/carrying
objects – rhythmical chants and grunts)
Onomatopoeic words, interjections – a very limited number of
words imitating natural sounds
No explanation for soundless and abstract things
Apes have grunts and social calls but no capacity for speech
The physical adaptation source
- set of features facilitating speech production

Physical features of humans that are distinct from the features

of most animals:
- upright posture
- bi-pedal locomotion
- front limbs revised role
Features distinguishing humans from primates
- teeth (upright, not slanting outwards; useful for making
sounds)
- lips (more intricate muscle interlacing)
- mouth and tongue (production of variety of sounds)
- larynx (‘voice box’ - dropped down due to upright posture)
- pharynx (larger resonator for sounds produced in the larynx)
- brain (unusually large relative to body size; lateralized -
specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres)
The genetic source – the innateness hypothesis
- crucial quick gene mutation (not a gradual change)
- the emergence of a special ‘language gene’

No such gene has been discovered.

Origins of language - Questions
- What is the basic idea behind the 'bow-wow' theory of
language origin?
- Why are interjections such as Ouch! considered to be unlikely
sources of human speech sounds?
- What special features of human teeth make them useful in
the production of speech sounds?
- Where is the pharynx and how did it become an important
part of human sound production?
Properties of language
- Unitentional informative signals (e.g. sneezing – cold; signs
of embarrasment)
- Intentional communiccative signals (intentional utterrances)
Human and animal communication
Displacement
Arbitrariness
Productivity
Cultural transmission
Duality (double articulation)
Displacement
Humans are able to talk about things and events not present in
the immediate environment. Displacement allows humans to
refer to past and future time, to talk about hypothatical things
and places.
Animal communication is considered to lack this property.
Animals are not able to communicate about events that are far
removed in time and place.
- dog’ barking – here and now
- bee (waggle) dance – limited communication of direction and
distance (*that delicious rose bush on the other side of town that we
visited last weekend)
Arbitrariness
Human communicaiton: an arbitrary connection between a
linguistic form and its meaning (except in onomatopoeic
words).
Animal communication: a clear connection between the
conveyed message and the signal used to convey it.
The set of signals used in communication is finite.
Productivity ('creativity' or 'open-endedness')
Humans create new expressions and utterances; they are
able to exploit their linguistic resources to describe new
objects and situations. The potential number of
utterances in any human language is infinite.
Animals are not able to produce new signals to
communicate new experiences or events. Fixed reference
- each signal in the animal system relates to a particular
object or situation.
Cultural transmission
Humans acquire language in a culture with other speakers
and not from parental genes. Children brought up in a
foreign country speak a ‘foreign’ language as a native
language.

Animal communication is not culturally transmitted.

Animals are born with a set of specific signals that are
produced instinctively irrespective of the environment in
which the animal lives.
Duality (double articulation)
Human language is organized at two levels:
- level of individual sounds
- level of meanings produced by the combination of sounds
(bin, pin, sin)

Animals communicate with a fixed set of specific signals and

do not combine signals into new messages.
Properties of language - questions
- What is the property which relates to the fact that
a language must be acquired or learned by each new
generation?
- What does the term arbitrariness mean in the
context of the properties of human language?
- Which term is used to describe the ability of
human language-users to discuss topics which are
remote in space and time?
Animal communication
(George Yule – The Study of Language)
Talking to animals
Chimpanzees and language
Washoe
Sarah and Lana
The controversy
Kanzi
Tha barest rudiments of language
Michael Charles Corballis (born 1936)
- New Zealand psychologist
- Emeritus professor at the Department of Psychology at the University
of Auckland.
- Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
(the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honours system, created "to recognise outstanding
service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity")

Fields of research:
- cognitive neuroscience
- evolution of language

Michael Corballis - The Origins and Evolution of Language (TEDxAuckland)

https://www.vexplode.com/en/tedx/the-origins-and-evolution-of-language-michael-corballis-tedxauckland/
Avram Noam Chomsky (born 1928)
An American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic,
and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics".
Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders
of the field of cognitive science. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT); and is the author of more than 150 books on
topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns
with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.
Noam Chomsky: Language and The Mind – The Biolinguistic Turn (UC Berkeley, 2008)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJp1-Od67-U
1:12:19 (1)
1:14:52 (2)
Noam Chomsky: What is Language and Why Does It Matter (Michigan University, 2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-72JNZZBoVw
1.
Do you still believe that the human evolved all of a sudden in a sudden
evolution leap? Doesn’t this conflict with the general finding that
evolution is gradual?

2.
Do you still view language as a self- contained module that is independent
of other cognitive systems? Wouldn’t it be simpler to assume that
language ability is grounded in the same cognitive mechanisms as other
forms of human cognition?
Daniel Leonard Everett (born 1951)
- American linguistic anthropologist
- best known for his study of the language of the Amazon Basin's
Pirahã people
- influenced by Noam Chomsky’s ideas; later opponent of Noam
Chomsky’s view of the origin of language

Dan Everett - How language began (TEDxSanFrancisco)

https://www.tedxsanfrancisco.com/talk-dan-everett
1:00-2:18
14:45-end
(7:21)
Homo Erectus
2 mil years ago, 60 000 generations ago
(village 750 000 years ago)
Animal Communication
Bee Dance (Waggle Dance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg

The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDGPgXtK-U

Honey bee waggle dancing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MX2WN-7Xzc