Zurück zur ersten Seite The strangeness of English In a way English is pretty straightforward,...

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The strangeness of English

In a way English is pretty straightforward, but ...Irregular verbs: can - could, go - went, dive - dove, ..

Weird plurals: cacti, indices, brethren, deer, ...

Spelling: knight, nite, night, boatswain, Worcester, ghoti, ...

Of course, one might say that English is simply as it is and leave it at that. But if one starts to think about it, it does have really strange properties. And when I saystrange, then I’m referring to such features as ‘irregular’ (isn’t that a synonym of ‘strange’) verbs, weird nouns with irregular plurals, or the downright nasty spellingconventions. Why should the past tenses of go and be be went and was, if they might just as well, and much more regularly, be goed and beed? Why are somebrothers brethren, why are not all cacti catusses, and why is <gh> sometimes pronounced /f/ as in laugh, and at other times not pronounced at all? Why is <orce> pronounced // in <Worcester>?

Like all natural languages, English abounds with quirks of this kind. What this course will attempt to do is ‘explain them historically’. That is to say, it will arguethat they are descendants of properties of prior stages of English, which have been passed down into Modern English even though they may have lost much or all of the functionality which their ancestors may have possessed.


Why is any L like it is?

Because of:

The whims of fashion Social Conventions The language module in the brain

Universal Grammar The efficiency and effectiveness with which it fulfils its

Functions Prior languages of which it is an (imperfect) copy

Cultural Evolution

This is our central question,remember?


Explanations:

Causal Functional Historical

Explanans Why ... Y

Because...

LawCondition

If X then YX

Explanandum

Therefore Y

Types: Structure:That’s how good explanations

are structured


Manifestations of Language Texts (patterns, graphic or acoustic ...) Behaviour (moving mind and body parts) Competence (patterns in human minds) Social institution (many patterns in many minds) Some abstract essence that one

can know about (where is that supposed to exist????)

Elements in an explanation (including the question)

need to be‘empirically interpretable’


‘of’

TEXTS

INSTANCES OF LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOUR

(productive and/or receptive)

INDIVIDUAL

LINGUISTIC

COMPETENCE

resultin

trigger

informsconstrains

informsshapes

POOL/NETWORK of

COMPETENCES within a

COMMUNITY

Theories,ideas,

abstract knowledge B

C

D

E

A

consists of /emerges from

Spot the oddmanifestation ... !


changes into

TBC1 informs

C2produces informs altersBchanges into

BTB1 produces

B2informs alters informsCchanges into

CBT1 informs

T2alters informs producesB

The Competence-Behaviour-Text Cycle

Manifestations of language all seem to cause one another.

But is anyone of thembasic?


CBT1informs T2

alters informs producesB

X1

X3

X2

X5

X4

X1

X3

X2

X5

X4

X1

X3

X2

X5

X4

X1

X3

X2

X5

X4

Competence is.

Remember why?


Constituents of a Darwinian System

Replicators: elements of whatever nature, which given the appropriateconditions can make copies of themselves

Imperfect Copying Fidelity giving rise to Variation

Differential replication: some replicators/copies may for whateverreason turn out to be better at replicating atothers.

Established criteria are: LongevityFecundity

Copying Fidelity

External limits on the number of sustainable replicators/copies‘Limited Resources’

All these elements amount to ‚automatic selection‘ of better replicators andyield

EVOLUTION

This is what definesDARWINIAN SYSTEMS.

Might language be one?


Language (competence) as a Darwinian System

Replicators: NEURAL CELL ASSEMBLIES that acquire their identities fromthe way in which they are linked up with one another. They‘represent’ linguistic elements from phonemes over words tosyntactic constituents or concepts. They govern linguisticBEHAVIOUR and produce cultural artefacts, i.e. TEXTS.BRAINS come equipped with a propensity to make sense oftheir environment, including (crucially) texts. When they do sothe neural networks of which they consist SELF-ORGANISEINTO structures that contain COPIES of the Cell Assemblieswhich originally produced the texts. Thereby the former havereplicated.

Imperfect Copying Fidelity inherent in the special type of replication.

Differential Replication: Ease of production, ease of perception, learnability,usefulness ... legions of well established factors make somecompetence properties better at replicating than others.

External Limits on Sustainability: obvious limits on memory.

YES.Here’s why.


Family trees:Pan/Homo

Homo/Paniscus

Bonobo Common ChimpHomo

West-Germanic

German

Low-German High-germanEnglishBiological

Linguistic

There are linguistic family treesthat look just likebiological ones.


Cultural Evolution is

different from

Biological EvolutionBiological Information is gene-based and transmitted via thegerm line.

Cultural Information is mind-based and transmitted via behaviour, learning and imitation.

But there are differences aswell, of course.


Why and how may language have evolved?

How does language help an organism survive and reproduce?

How may it have evolved gradually from non-language?

Was there ever one proto-language and what may it have been like?

What is the relation between universal characteristics of human language and its evolutionary origin?

This is a truly BIOLOGICALquestion?

‘language’ here meansthe human ‘language

capacity’


How does language increase thefitness of an organism?

or rather: that of the genes in the organism?

• models realityallows safe thought experiments

• communicates information about the world allows individuals to profit

from experiences made by others• conveys information about the speakers allows quick recognition of friends and foes • manipulates others

allows one to make others serve one’s own interests • makes information tradable

allows one to give without losing


Vervet alarm calls

Our relatives can alsocommunicate vocally.


1: hardwired primate comunication (examples invented!!)

„aaargh“ Threat: I‘m ready to attack

„ugh ugh ugh“ Submissiveness: I‘m your servant

„wih wih“ Alarm - snake: go for a tree!

„wuh wuh“ Alarm - eagle: leave treetops!

„wah wah“ Alarm - leopard: assemble in group!

„iuuuu“ Contact call: I‘m here, where are you?

Does this sound likeProto-human to you??


Did Early Homo Sapiens livein groups of ~150?

What may the role of groupsize have been for the

emergence of language?


In large groups it is necessary to keep track of who-is-who. As grooming became increasingly vocal, acoustic/articulatory

cues became increasingly important for identifying and recognizing individuals.

2: Sensitivity for differences among individual styles of vocalisation evolves

„iuuuu“ I (John) am here, where are you?

„ioooo“ I (Jim) am here, where are you?

SIGNS MUST BECOME LEARNABLE COMPOSITIONALITY MAY HAVE EVOLVED

i = [am here], uuuu = [John], oooo = [Jim]


Once signs (i.e. form-meaning realtionships) cease to be fully hardwired and children have to learn them through observation instead, it is conceivable that they might attribute new meanings also to signs which had been hitherto been comparatively meaningless or to acquire novel meaning distinctions.

3: The learnability of signs makes the number of signs explode

„myam myam food

„uooa“ I’m tired

Once you know how to interpretsigns, you won’t be

able to stop


Physiological adaptations to the word

chimp human

Language may haveundesired side effects ...


The human vocal tract acquires its present shape, which is otherwise non-adaptive.

Sign-compositionality yields syntax(AB = A + B)

Duality yields phonology(AB = C)

4: The need for ever more signs leads to physiological adaptations as well as to the emergence of syntax and phonology

The number of possible signs and combinations of such ‚soon‘ becomes practically infinite

??????(see next page)


[wa] [la]

{man}{nice}

[wala]

{friend}

[wal]

{friend}[wa] [la][le][li]

[wa][ta][fa]

[li]

Adj‘wordsafterwordslike[wa]’

‘wordsbeforewords

like[la]’

N

SYNTAX

PHONOLOGY

Remember?


While vocal signs might once have been genetically determined and neurally hardwired, they have now become partly liberated from genetic and bodily control:They are free to take a huge number of shapes and form a huge number of patterns.

These patterns vary freely, and replicate independently of their bodily substrates.

As systems of replicating and variable patterns, languages become capable of having histories of their own.

5: Linguistic signs become cultural replicators

Being passed on through imitation, languagesare free from the tyranny of genes. They can

have histories of their own.


Step 0: vocal signs hardwiredsocialisation through grooming

Step 1: socialisation through vocal groomingvariable aspects of vocal signs become learnable

Step 2: vocal signs increasingly learnableprinciple of signification generalisedinfo trade, thought experiments become possible

Step 3: language complexifies, acquires its modern shapeenormous number of possible signs and patterns

Step 3‘:possible signs compete for actualisationlanguage internal evolution begins

6: SummaryOnce again, then.


The scenario outlines predicts that: language should be variable in order to fulfil its social functions

(compatible with Chomsky but not in his spirit) communicatively efficient and effective

(to minimise speaking costs and maximise speaking effects;compatible with functionalist approaches)

able to represent information about the world

What is the relation between universal characteristics of human language and its evolutionary origin?

Does the story we have toldmake these properties ofhuman languages easy

to understand?

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