PSYCH 150 / LIN 155
syn
lab
UCI
COGNITIVE
SCIENCES
03.14.13:
Psychology of Language
Prof. Jon Sprouse
What does it mean to be a language?
1
What is the difference between two
languages?
2
The cognitive processes of language
are always the same
We’ve looked at a lot of different processes (and strategies) in this class:
semantic processing
morphosyntactic parsing
sentence processes
interactive parsing
selection
activation
word processes
morphological decomposition
categorical perception
locus equations
sound processes
F3 normalization
identification of F1 and F2
Fact 1: All languages have these processes (and strategies); so the difference
between languages is not in the processes (and strategies) that they have
3
The inventory of representations of
language are always the same
We’ve looked at a lot of different levels of representation in this class:
conceptual representation
syntactic representation
sentence representations
constituent/phrasal representation
lexical representation
lexemic representation
word representations
syllabic representation
phonemic representation
phonetic representation
sound representations
acoustic representation
sensory representation
Fact 2: All languages have these representations; so the difference between
languages is not in the types of representations that they have
4
The real difference between languages
is in the content of the representations
For each type of representation, we can ask about the details:
what are the transformations?
what are the phrase structure rules?
content of sentence
representations
what are the morphemes?
what are the lexemes?
which vowels?
(F1, F2)
which consonants?
(place, manner, voicing)
content of word
representations
content of sound
representations
Fact 3: The difference between languages is in which options they choose for
the content of each of their representations.
5
Differences in sound representations
6
Differences in sound representations
English
The human vocal tract can make about 300 different sounds. But most
languages only have 20-30 sounds:
The real sound difference between languages is
Mean: 22.7
in which 20-30 that they choose out of the 300!
Modal: 22
Median: 21
Smallest: 6, (p,t,k,b,d,g), Rotokas, Papua New Guinea
Largest: 122, !Xoo, Botswana
7
Differences in sound representations
English
Spanish
8
Differences in sound representations
English
Chinese
9
Differences in sound representations
Japanese
Chinese
10
Differences in sound representations
Japanese
Korean
11
Differences in sound representations
English
Zulu
(South
Africa)
12
Resources for differences in sound
representations
If you want to see Consonant and Vowel charts for various languages,
look here:
http://accent.gmu.edu/browse.php
(You can also hear speakers of various languages reading English...)
If you want to know more about a language, go here:
http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp
And if you want to hear various sounds in isolation, go here:
http://www.paulmeier.com/ipa/charts.html
13
Differences in word representations
14
Remember morphemes?
Some English words with morphemes affixed to the word:
Suffixes
Prefixes and Suffixes
jump
unbelievable
jumped
unknowable
jumping
denationalize
jumps
decriminalize
Prefixes
Infixes
unlock
hippofuckingpotamus
retry
missifuckingssippi
invisible
unfuckingbelievable
15
Languages differ with respect to the
inventory of morphemes that use
For example, on verbs you can add three types of morphemes that tell you
extra information about the action:
English example
Tense
When did the action take place?
John jumped
Aspect
Is the action completed, or is it ongoing?
I have eaten
Mood
Is the action real or hypothetical?
NONE!
English:
Tense
Aspect
Mood
Spanish:
Tense
Aspect
Mood
Chinese:
Tense
Aspect
Mood
16
Differences in sentence representations
17
Subject, Verb, and Object
One of the most basic ways to describe word order is to describe the order of
subject, verb, and object.
Order
SOV
SVO
VSO
VOS
OVS
OSV
count
497/1228
436/1228
85/1228
26/1228
9/1228
4/1228
%
40%
35%
7%
2%
<1%
<1%
Language
Japanese
Mandarin
Irish
Nias (Indonesia)
Hixkaryana (Brazil)
Nadeb (Brazil)
Example
John-ga tegami-o yonda
John
letter
read
John shoudau-le yi-feng xin
John received
one
letter
Leann na sagairt na leabhair
read
the priest
the letter
I-rino vakhe ina-gu
cook
rice
mother
Toto y-ahosi-ye kamara
man grabbed
Awad
jaguar
kalapéé hapuh
jaguar child
sees
18
Questions
Word order: English uses word-order to signify questions
What is John
__
buying
?
_____
This is rare: Only 12 languages in the world do this!
Question particles: Some languages use question particles rather than
word-order changes:
Japanese
Takeshi-ga
nani-o
katta-ka
Takeshi-NOM what-ACC bought-Q
‘What did Takeshi buy?’
Intonation: Some languages use wh-words and a change in intonation
Chinese
Ta
mai-le
shenme
he
sell-PFV
what
‘What did he sell?’
19
What is the difference between a
dialect and a language?
What is the difference between
two dialects?
20
What is a dialect?
The colloquial definition of this is tricky. It usually has something to do with
two speakers of the same language speaking in relatively different ways, but
still being able to understand each other.
From our perspective as cognitive scientists, there is no difference between a
“language” and a “dialect”.
A language is a set of mental representations and processes. The difference
between two languages is a difference in the content of the mental
representations.
A dialect is a set of mental representations and processes. The difference
between two dialects is a difference in the content of the mental
representations.
In other words, language and dialect refer to the same thing: a set of mental
representations and processes.
21
Language vs Dialect is a sociopolitical
distinction
“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy” - Max Weinreich
Mandarin
wo3 xian1 gei3 ta1 qian2
I
first give him money
‘I gave him money first’
Cantonese
ngo3 bei2 cin4
keoi5 sin1
I
give money him first
‘I gave him money first’
In other words, Mandarin and Cantonese do not
share many representations at all, and are not
mutually intelligible. Yet for political and cultural
reasons, they are considered “dialects” of the
“language” called “Chinese.
22
Language vs Dialect is a sociopolitical
distinction
“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy” - Max Weinreich
Pero, a pesar de esta variedad de
posibilidades que la voz posee, sería un muy
pobre instrumento de comunicación si no
contara más que con ella.
La capacidad de expresión del hombre no
dispondría de más medios que la de los
animales.
Porém, apesar desta variedade de
possibilidades que a voz possui, seria um
instrumento de comunicação muito pobre se
não se contasse com mais do que ela.
A capacidade de expressão do homem não
disporia de mais meios que a dos animais.
Portuguese and Spanish share
many representations and are
mutually intelligible, but are
considered different languages
(not dialects) because of national
boundaries.
23
Language vs Dialect is a sociopolitical
distinction
“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy” - Max Weinreich
Czech and Slovak are probably
more mutually intelligible than
Spanish and Portuguese.
Until the dissolution of
Czechoslovakia in 1993, many
people referred to a single
language called
“Czechoslovakian”, although the
people of that country considered
them different languages
(e.g., TV stations in
Czechoslovakia created
programming in both languages)
24
Language vs Dialect is a sociopolitical
distinction
“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy” - Max Weinreich
Urdu is one of the official languages of
Pakistan. It is written in an arabic script.
Hindi is one of the official languages of
India. It is written in the devanagari
script.
Except for a few vocabulary differences,
Hindi and Urdu are the same language.
Linguists will refer to it as Hindi-Urdu.
In fact, during the British colonization of
India and Pakistan, Hindi and Urdu were
called “Hindustani”.
25
A map of the major US dialects
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/dialectsofenglish.html
26
Harvard Dialect Survey:
Soda/Pop/Coke
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html
27
Harvard Dialect Survey:
roly poly or potato bug
28
Harvard Dialect Survey:
Freeway or Highway
29
Harvard Dialect Survey:
Sunshowers...
30
Harvard Dialect Survey:
standing in line
31
Harvard Dialect Survey:
easy courses
32
Harvard Dialect Survey:
Creeks
33
Harvard Dialect Survey:
Mary, merry, marry
34
African American English
(AAE)
35
What is African American English?
You may know it as Ebonics, Black Vernacular English, or simply the language
of hip-hop. It is the language of the socio-cultural group who identifies
themselves as or with the descendants of American slaves.
AAE is a language by our cognitive definition -- it is not slang, or lazy, or
derivative of Standard American English in any way.
AAE Sound Representations
1. θ,ð -> t,d or f,v
birfday (birthday), wit (with), baf (bath), bav (bathe), dem (them)
Note that θ,ð are rare in the world’s languages. Less than 7% of the world’s
languages have these sounds!
2. Clusters of consonants at the end of a syllable are reduced to one
consonant (CVCC -> CVC), again complex syllables are rare in the world’s
languages
lis(t), han(d), etc
36
What is African American English?
AAE has more Tense and Aspect markers than SAE. Just like Spanish has more
Tense and Aspect markers than English. In that sense, AAE is more complex!
AAE Word Representations: tense and aspect with BE
1. stressed BIN = remote past
She BIN had dat han-made dress
‘She’s had that hand-made dress for a long time’
2. be done = future result (a hypothetical past in the future)
Befo’ you know it, he be done aced de tesses
‘Before you know it, he will have already aced the tests’
3. be = habitual (on-going action, called the imperfective)
Homey be workin’
‘My friend is at his regular job right now’
Homey workin’
‘My friend is at work at the moment, but he doesn’t have a regular job’
37
What is African American English?
AAE sentences have complex word-order rules just like SAE. However, SAE
speakers can’t see the complexity, so they think it sounds “bad”.
AAE and Sentence Representations: the missing “is”
About 50% of the time the is/was/are/were is absent from AAE utterances:
She is my sister
She my sister
However, there are some places where “is” can’t be dropped:
Mary ain’t my sister, but Sarah is
*Mary ain’t my sister, but Sarah
Interestingly, this is perfectly parallel to the distribution of is-contraction in
SAE, which suggests this is just a stronger form of contraction:
She is my sister
She’s my sister
Mary isn’t my sister, but Sarah is
*Mary isn’t my sister, but Sarah’s
38
What is African American English?
In short, AAE is just like any other “language” or “dialect”. It is a set of mental
representations and cognitive processes that links the sensory and conceptual
representations.
Despite all of this, AAE speakers are often derided for
being “lazy” or speaking “broken English”
WHY?
Part of the blame lies with cognitive scientists -- we have done a poor job of
educating the public about what languages really are, and how languages
vary, so most people don’t know that the features of AAE are common among
the world’s languages (despite sounding strange to SAE speakers)
But the real problem is that bias toward a language/dialect often replaces bias
toward/against its speakers!
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/Courses/10slxaxioms.htm
39
The Oakland School Board
and the“Ebonics” Debate
In 1996, the Oakland Unified School District issued a resolution that sparked
national controversy.
The resolution argued:
•
One of the goals of public education is to teach Standard American English
(SAE)
•
•
Students that spoke AAE were not learning SAE well
•
Therefore, AAE speaking students may benefit from programs designed to
teach them SAE as if they were bilingual, as is already the case for students
who speak languages like Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (ESL English as Second Language)
•
Therefore, Oakland would develop a program for AAE speaking students to
better learn SAE, staffed with teachers that are trained in AAE and its
differences from SAE.
One of the causes of this problem is that AAE as a language diverges
significantly from SAE
original:
http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res1.html
amended: http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res2.html
40
The Oakland School Board
and the“Ebonics” Debate
The Oakland resolution sounded reasonable to all cognitive scientists and
linguists, and to many language educators as well... however:
Much of the press, and almost all of the public, misinterpreted the resolution as
arguing that AAE would be taught in Oakland schools instead of SAE.
Political cartoons, op-ed pieces, and even television programs were devoted to
criticizing AAE as “broken English” or “corrupt English. This was done by both
conservatives and liberals (e.g., The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
both joined in)
On Jan 23, 1997, the US Senate even held hearings about “Ebonics”, and heard
testimony from several linguists and educators about the status of AAE as a
separate “language”.
41
The Oakland School Board
and the“Ebonics” Debate
The good news:
The scientists made convincing arguments to law makers. Oakland was able to
keep its state funding, and was even given an extra $1 million dollars to research
SAE-learning by AAE children.
The bad news:
Scientists did not convince the general public. In 1998, CA voters passed
proposition 227 in response to the Ebonics debate. This proposition mandates
that English be the language of instruction for all public schools.
Prior to 227, individual school districts could create their own ESL programs, and
these programs could include significant amounts of instruction in the home
language to help children transition to English.
Under 227, no instruction can occur in languages other than English.
Instead, students are placed in “English immersion” programs where English is
spoken all or nearly all of the time.
42
How many languages are
there in the world?
43
How many languages are there?
According to the Linguistic Society of America (the largest professional
group for linguists in the US), there are about 6800 spoken languages in the
world today, and about 200 signed languages.
But using our cognitive science definition of language:
Language is the cognitive system of representations and
processes that links sensory and conceptual representations for
the purposes of communication in human primates.
We are forced to come to a different conclusion:
1.
The set of mental representations for each speaker is determined by the
language input they are exposed to during language acquisitions
2.
Language input is different for every person
Therefore it is possible that every speaker has a slightly different set of mental
representations from every other speaker. In other words, everyone speaks
a different language!
44
Its all about overlap in mental
representations
From a cognitive point of view, saying that “we speak the same language” just
means that my language and your language are similar enough to allow nearly
flawless communication:
my representations
We speak the same
language!
your representations
We speak dialects of the
same language!
We speak different
languages!
45
The end
46