Module: Introduction to Language

Course Professor: Professor Hafida CHEKEIRI

Document Composer: TAYAA Jallal-eddine [21009290]

The Origins of language

Sources Theories Arguments/Experiments Counter-

arguments
The Human language is a 1. Psamtik’s experiment 1. The Mogul
God given gift. with 2 newborn babies, emperor Akbar
divine where he isolated both the Great carried
source of them for two years out similar
with goats and a mute experiments
shepherd, and he where he
concluded that arranged
Phrygian must be the newborn babies
original language to be raised in
because they uttered silence, and they
the Phrygian word produced no
“bekos” speeh at all.
2. King Charles IV carried
out a similar
experiment where he
claimed the children 2. Psamtik’s
spoke Hebrew, experiment is
concluding that Hebrew falsified because
is the original the children were
language. imitating the
sound of goats.

The 1. The Bow-wow

theory: human
 1. Bow-wow
counter
natural language originated  argument: the
from the imitation of number of
sound sounds in nature.  onomatopoeic
source (onomatopoeic  words in human
words) language is very
2. The Pooh-pooh  limited
theory: human
language originated
 2. Interjection such
as Ah! Ouch! are
from emotional  usually produced
exclamations of pain, with sudden
pleasure, etc intakes of breath,
 which is the
opposite of
ordinary talk.
The social  The yo-he-ho   Apes, primates,
interaction theory: the sounds and other
of a person involved  animals live in
source in physical effort may
be the source of
 social groups,
but they do not
human language,  have a language
especially when that nor the
physical effort  developed
involved several capacity for
people and the speeh.
interaction ha to be
coordinated.
The  The theory states  Features found in  Those physical
that there is a link fossils that have been features by
physical discovered 35000 themselves
between the
adaptation human’s physical years ago resemble would not
source features and the those of modern guarantee
produced sounds. humans. speech.

The tool-  Manual gestures  Humans may have first

making may be the origins of developed a naming
human language ability by combining
source noises and using them
to convey a message.
 The areas of the brain
responsible for
complex vocalization
and object
manipulation are very
close to each other in
the left hemisphere of
the brain.
The  Humans may be  The innateness
genetic born with a special, hypothesis states that
innate capacity for human offspring are
source language. born with an innate
capacity for learning
language.

Animals and human language

Communicative signals: signals that are used intentionally to tell something.

(Gestures, facial expressions, body postures, etc.)
Informative signals: signals that are not used intentionally. (Sneezing signals
sickness, crying signals sadness, etc.)

Some properties of human language:

Properties Explanation
Reflexivity We can use language to talk about language.
Displacement We can use language to talk about things and places that are
not present in the immediate environment or whose existence
we cannot even be sure of.
Arbitrariness There is no natural connection between a word and what it
represents. Onomatopoeic words are and exception but their
number in human languages is very limited.
Cultural Language is acquired in a culture with other speakers and not
transmission from parental genes.
Productivity We can create an infinite amount of words
Duality It essentially refers to the property of human language that
enables the combination of meaningless sounds into
morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) and words, which themselves
could be combined further.

Some functions language:

Functions Explanation
Referential/ When the addresser uses the language to convey an information
Informative to the receiver(s).

Conative/ When the addresser uses the language to get the attention of or a
Persuasive reaction from the receiver(s).

Emotive/ When the addresser uses the language to interpret emotions,

Expressive feelings, desires, and moods of the subject to the receiver(s).

Phatic When the addresser uses the language to establish social

connection with the receiver(s) or check the current status of the
relationship, without communicating any meaningful information.

Poetic When the addresser uses the language to convey an information

in an artistic way to the receiver(s).

Metalingual When the addresser uses the language to talk about language
itself to the receiver(s).
Chimpanzees and language:
 Gua: Gua was reported to be able to understand 100 words but did not say
any of them.
 Viki: Catherine and Keith Hayes tried to get a their chimpanzee Viki to say
English words by trying to shape her mouth as she produced sounds, she
eventually manage to say 3 words, Papa, Mama, and Cup.
 Washoe: Washoe came to learn to use signs for about 100 words, and was
even capable of combining them to produce sentences.
 Sarah: Sarah learned to use plastic shapes to communicate with her foster
parents, she eventually learned to produce sentences using those plastic
shapes.
 Lana: Lana learnt to convey messages using Yerkish, which consisted of a
set of symbols on a large keyboard linked to a computer.
 Nim: Nim learnt to use sign language, his longest sentence was 16 words
long.
 Kanzi: Kanzi learnt by being exposed to and observing language rather than
being taught, by the age of eight he was reported to be able to demonstrate
understanding of spoken English at a level comparable to a two and a half
year old human child.

Romans, Greeks, & Indians interest in

language.
Civilization Pioneers Interests Purpose
Greeks Conventionalist Written Origins of
school, language. language. Study
naturalist school Fields of of language.
(Stoics), Plato, grammar and Preservation of
Socrates… etymology… language.

Romans Varro, Julius Etymology, Study of

Caesar… Morphology, language.
Syntax,
Grammar and
rhetoric, Style,
Usage and
public speaking,
 Grammatical
regularity…
Indians Panini… Phonetics, Preservation of
Etymology, language for
Grammar, religious
Metrics, purposes to
Production of avoid
an authoritative profanation.
text…

Prominent linguists.

A-Leonard Bloomfield:
The main tenets:
1) Linguistics is a descriptive science
2) The primary form of language is the spoken one
3) Every language is a system on its own right
4) Language is a system in which smaller units arrange
systematically to form larger ones
5) Meaning should not be part of linguistic analysis
6) The procedures to determines the units in language should be
objective and rigorous
7) Language is observable speech, not knowledge.

B-Fernand De Saussure:
The idea of language as a system of signs.
He was devoted to finding out the prototype of languages.
This devotion was based on the premise that some languages
evolved from the same language.
-Diachronic: the study of language evolution throughout a
period of time.
-Synchronic: the study of language at the current time.
-Signifier: The words referring to the object. (Sound)
-Signified: The object. (Concept)

Signifier Signified
(Sound) (Concept)

-Langue: the abstract system.

-Parole: The way we use the abstract system.
-Syntagmatic: according to their positions in a given sentence
or utterance. (Horizontal)
-Paradigmatic: according to the membership in particular types
or classes of signs. (Vertical)
deceased
paradigmatic relationship

man passed

The boy died

Syntagmatic relationship

C-Noam Chomsky:
Main assets of his theory:
-Universal grammar
-Competence vs. Performance
-LAD (Language Acquisition Device)
-Transformational Generative Grammar

“Chomsky states that all languages have something in

common, even the primitive languages, so there are similarities
between languages. He also stated that we are born with
Language Acquisition Devices.’’

-Competence: idealized knowledge of language. (The Knowledge)

-Performance: application and use of language. (The use)

‘’Competence is not always reflected by performance in a

perfect way, seeing as some non-linguistic factors such as
boredom may hinder the performance of a speaker, but not
their competence’’

-Generative grammar: we can produce an infinite amount of

sentences.
-Transformational generative grammar: we may change the
structure of the sentence without changing the meaning.
-Universal grammar: Chomsky argues that language is an
innate faculty- that is to say that we are born with a set of rules
about language in our mind.
-Language acquisition device: a tool located in the brain, it
helps children learn and understand language quickly. It is a
theoretical concept, it isn’t a section of the brain. Rather, it’s
used to explain that there are most likely hundreds or
thousands of underlying development in the brain.
-The deep structure of grammar: refers to the abstract structure
that allows the speaker of a language to know what the
produced structure means.
-The surface structure of grammar: refers to the actual
produced structure as is it pronounced or written.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~28/03~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Standard language: a variety of language that has undergone

substantial codification. It is associated with administrative,
commercial and educational centers, regardless of region.
-Dialect: a regional variety of language that differs from the
standard language.
-Accent: a distinctive way of pronouncing a language.
-NORM: Non-mobile, Older, Rural, Male speaker.
-Isogloss: a boundary line between two distinct linguistic
regions.
-Sociolinguistics: a term that refers to the study of the
relationship between language and society, and how language
is used in speech communities. It is interested in explaining
why people speak differently in different social contexts.
-Bilingualism: is commonly defined as the use of two languages
by an individual. Bilingualism is the native-like control of two
languages (Bloomfield). A bilingual is anyone who possesses a
minimal competence in at least one of the four language skills,
listening, speaking, reading and writing, in a language other
than his mother tongue (Macnamara).
-Simultaneous bilingualism: when a child has had significant
and meaningful exposure to two languages from birth.
-Sequential bilingualism: when an individual has had significant
and meaningful exposure to a second language, usually after
the age of three and after the first languages is well
established.
-Passive bilingualism: when a bilingual understands more than
one language but speaks only one of them.
-Causes of bilingualism: *-Education
*-Immigration
*-Religion
*-Economy
*-Politics
*-Child’s parents have different
mother tongue
*-Minority vs. Dominant linguistic
community
-Diglossia: refers to a situation in which two varieties of the
same language are used under different conditions within a
community.
A relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to
primary dialects of the language, there is a very divergent,
highly codified superposed variety, or a large and respected
body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in
another speech community, which Is learned largely by formal
education and is used for most written and formal spoken
purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for
ordinary conversation.
-Function of Diglossia:
 Low variety
 Not formally learnt
 Speakers don’t learn
grammar or writing
 It is more flexible and it
is more likely to change
over time
High variety
 It’s learned at school
 Its speakers learn
grammar rules
 It is often considered the
“correct” variety and
does not change a lot.

*Diglossia is used in a speech community where two languages

or dialects are in complementary distribution. (You will only find
one variant of a language/dialect in a specific context, while the
other variants will be found in other non-intersecting contexts)
[I.E.: using formal language in formal situations, using familiar language
with friends and family {you can’t use formal language with your parents
and you can’t use familiar language with your boss}]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Language Acquisition

-First language acquisition: how a child develops its ability to speak

and use the language of its environment.
-Language Acquisition: Somehow absorbing a target language’s
sound system and structure without ever thinking explicitly about the
language’s actual structure. (Gaining language knowledge naturally)
-Language Learning: Actively learning about a language, its sound
system, and its structure. (Formally taught)
-Input: Language samples provided to language learners by other more
experienced speakers around them.
-Output: Language samples provided by language learners to other
more experienced speakers around them.
-Caregiver speech: Conversations between an adult and an infant
before they even develop speaking capabilities.
-Cooing: earliest use of speech-like sounds that involves single-vowel
sounds such as “ooh” and “aah”.
-Babbling: an early use of speech-like sounds that involves producing a
number of vowels and consonants as well as combinations such as
“muh-muh” and “bah-bah”.
-The one-word stage: the stage when the child begins to produce
recognizable single-unit utterances.
-The two-word stage: the stage when the child begins to produce
recognizable double-unit utterances like “cat bad” / “mommy car”.
-Telegraphic speech: during and after the two-word stage, the chil has
clearly developed a sentence-building capacity, but the majority of those
sentences are grammatically incorrect such as “daddy go choo choo”,
“cat drink milk”

The acquisition process

-Learning through imitation: when the child tries to imitate the words it
hears.
-Learning through correction: when the child makes a mistake and the
adult corrects it for them.

Second Language
Acquisition/Learning

-Second language acquisition/learning: Learning a second language

after a first language is already established.
-Acquisition barriers: factors that hinder a person’s process of learning
a second language such as the age factor and the affective factors.
-Age factor: after the critical period for language acquisition (the ideal
period –from 2 years of age until puberty- for the brain to acquire its first
language in a linguistically rich environment) has passed, it becomes
very difficult for the person to acquire another language fully.
-Affective factors: factors such as the speaker’s fear of
embarrassment, dull textbooks, unpleasant classroom surroundings,
exhausting schedules at school/work, can create a barrier to second
language acquisition.

Second language teaching methods:

-The grammar-translation method: a method of learning any foreign

language by the practice of translating or converting the sentences of
the native language into the target language or vice versa.
-The Audio-lingual method: a method of learning any foreign language
by the practice of listening and speaking before writing and reading.
-Communicative approaches: approaches of teaching foreign
language through emphasis on the function of language rather than the
forms of the language.
-Task-based learning: an approach to language where learners are
given different interactive tasks and activities to complete.
-Transfer: using sounds, expressions, or structures from the L1 when
performing the L2. Positive transfer refers to when L1 and L2 are similar
in certain characteristics like marking the plural on the ends of nouns.
Negative transfer refers to when L1 and L2 are not similar in said
characteristics.
-Interlanguage: a language or form of language having features of two
others, typically a version produced by a foreign learner.
-Motivation: it refers to the goal of learning a second language.
Instrumental motivation is when you learn another language for goals
such as completing a graduation requirement or being able to read
scientific publications. Integral motivation is when you learn another
language for social purposes.
-Communicative competence: the general ability to use language
accurately, appropriately and flexibly.
-Grammatical competence: the accurate use of words and structures.
-Sociolinguistic competence: the accurate use of words, phrases and
sentences in their appropriate context.
-Strategic competence: the ability to organize a message effectively
and to compensate for any difficulties.
-Communication strategy: when a foreign speaker substitutes words
they don’t know for much more simpler words, for example saying “what
horses wear under their feet” as a substitute for “horseshoes”.