Lecture 7• Animal communication and language origins• Aphasia• Language birth and death• Genetic classification of languages• Typological classification of languages
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Animal communicationpMostly egocentric messages(aggression/affection)
pSome messages about the outer world (source of food – bee dance; danger – vervetmonkey calls)
p Use of sound (cf. human language), but other means are also possible (bee dance)
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Animal communicationpAnimal communication vs. human language
pCompositionality (rare)pComplexity (low)pCreativity (none?)
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Language originsp Many living beings use communication systems, sound medium is wide-spread
pThe rise of complexity of human communication system was directly related to the growth of:pCognitive abilitiespIntensity and complexity of social life
pAnd vice versa: the development of communication increased cognitive abilities and social interaction
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AphasiapInjury of the brain may lead to impairment of language = aphasia
pTwo major types of aphasia:1.Non-fluent/Broca’s aphasia (Paul Broca, 1861)2.Fluent/Wernicke’s (Carl Wernicke, 1873)
6Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area
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Non-fluent/Broca’s aphasiapLanguage expression is impaired
p Syllables are simplified, the sentence lacks intonationp Agrammatism
p Grammatical affixes are omittedp Functional categories (articles, auxiliaries), adpositions are missingp Syntactic structure is heavily reduced
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Fluent/Wernicke’s aphasiapFluent production + no sense:
p Sentences have fluent intonationp Grammatical forms have correct affixes, articles, auxiliaries, and adpositions are not omittedp It is hard to make any sense of what the patient says
ExamplesBroca’s aphasia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPMWernicke’s aphasia:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-LD5jzXpLE
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Language birthLanguage split
As population of the speakers grows, geographical varieties of a given language emerge which first develop into dialects and may further become independent languages
The development of dialects/languages is supported by migration/isolation
Example: (Proto-)Slavic > East, West, South Slavic, East Slavic > Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, West Slavic > Czech, Polish, Slovak, etc.
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Language birthLanguage merge
When a group of speakers has no common language, they may develop a new form of communication based on several languages available to them
These languages are called pidgins (for example, Russenorsk: Russian + Norwegian, extinct; Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) < heavy English influence, see below)
When pidgins become more complex and are learned as first languages by children, they are qualified as creole languages
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Language birthTok Pisin, a pidgin which developed into a creole
language (Papua New Guinea, 4 million L2 speakers)
Some grammatical markers1. bin (< English been) = past tense, e.g.
Na praim minista i bin tok olsem –And the prime minister spoke thus
2. pinis (< English finish) = perfective aspect, e.g.:Em i lusim bot pinis –He had got out of the boat
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1st lines of Lord’s Prayer in Tok PisinPapa bilong mi-pelaFather from 1SG-PL = Our father
Yu stap long heven2SG be on heaven = You are in heaven
Nem bilong yuName from 2SG = Your name
i mas i stap holiCONThave CONT be holy= May your name be holy
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Language deathLanguage death = a critical decrease of language
competence
Passes through a stage of bilingualism, but is not a result of it
Due to certain sociolinguistic factors, the younger speakers develop only limited competence in one of their languages
As the population of fully competent speakers of a given language ages, it may face extinction
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Language death (examples)January 24, 2008, last
Alaska language (Eyak) speaker dies
A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7206411.stm)
Alaska Native Language Centerhttp://www.uaf.edu/anlc/
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Language death (examples)February 4, 2010, the last
speaker of an ancient language in India's Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8498534.stm
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Genetic classification of languages• As languages split into dialects which subsequently
mature into independent languages, large sets of genetically interrelated languages develop
• The largest unit of genetically related (= having common ancestor) is language family (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, etc.)
• A smaller unit within a language family is referred to as branch/genus (as Germanic, Romance, Baltic, Slavic, etc. lgs. of Indo-European family)
• If needed, language groups can be recognized within language branches (for example: East, West, and South Slavic languages, see below)
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Indo-European language familyBaltic (branch; or Balto-Slavic)
1. Eastern (group): Latvian, Lithuanian2. Western (group): Old Prussian
Slavic (branch)1. Eastern (group): Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian2. Western (group): Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc.3. South (group): Slovene, Bulgarian, Serbian,
Croatian, etc.
Germanic (…)1. Northern (…): Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian,
Swedish, Faroese2. Western (…): English, German, Dutch, etc.3. Eastern: †Gothic
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Indoeuropiečių kalbų šeima (neišsamiai)4. Italic (Latin à French, Italian, Spanish,
Portugese, Romanian)5. Celtic (Irish, Welsh, ...)6. Indo-Iranian (Indic: †Vedic à Sanskrit, hindi,
…; Iranian: †Avestan, Farsi, ...)7. †Anatolian (Hittite, Luwian, ...)8. †Tocharian9. Greek10.Armenian11.Albanian
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Genetic classification of languagesGenetic classification is based on comparison of
lexical and grammatical data (> similar = closer relatives)
Example: ‘brother’ in Indo-European languages
Lithuanian brólis Latvian brãlis, Old Prussian brote, brāti; Old Church Slavonic bratъ, bratrъ, Russian брат, Polish brat, Bulagrian. брат, sanskr. bhrā́tā, Avestan brātar-, Greek. φράτηρ ‘member of fraternity’ (‘brother’ = ἀδελφός), Latin frāter, Gothic broþar, Old Irish brāthir, Tocharian A pracar, Tocharian B procer (Proto-Indo-European form is *bhrāter- < *bhréh2ter-)
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Typological classification of languages• Languages may bear similarities which are
not related to their genetic history but are due to the areal features or tendencies of language development
• In this case we are dealing with typological classification of languages according to certain parameters, e.g.
• Word order (SOV, SVO, …)• Case systems (nominative-accusative,
ergative-absolutive)• Languages with tones• …
See: World Atlas of Language Structures, https://wals.info
Thank you!The last lecture will be held on
November 27, no class on November 20