Language and Speech

1. Language and Speech Jaap Murre

2. Introduction • Language: A symbolic means of communication that is shared by several individuals

3. Introduction • Language: A symbolic means of communication that is shared by several individuals • Symbolic: words symbolise or represent ideas and concepts • (is or is music not a language?) • Communication: thoughts -> public message • (can a language-of-thought exist?) • Shared: known to more than 1 user • (is this necessary?)

4. Introduction • Universals of language • Semanticity • speech sounds convey meaning (compare snoring, coughing, etc.)

5. Introduction • Universals of language • Arbitrariness • Symbols of language (letters & sounds -> words) have no direct relationship with the meaning they convey

6. De Saussure’s principle of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs (symbols) • Ferdinand de Sausssure (1857-1913), Swiss Founder of Modern Linguistics

7. From de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1916), on the nature of the Linguistic Sign • “The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not a material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression it makes on our senses.” (p.66)

8. Generalization of the sign beyond the verbal domain • I propose to retain the word sign [signe] to designate the whole and to replace concept and sound-image respectively by signified [signifié] and signifier [signifiant]; … (p.67)

9. Principle: The Arbitrary Nature of the Sign • “The bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary” (p.67) • “… the individual does not have the power to change a sign in any way once it has become established in the linguistic community…” (p.69)

10. Potential problems for psychology • Categories in the brain are also determined by regularities in the perceived world and by the brain’s architecture: • They are not arbitrary (symbols/signs are) • Language (in the Saussurian sense) thus puts arbitrary labels (i.e., words) on non-arbitrary categories

11. Introduction • Universals of language • Flexibility • Connection between a word and its meaning is not fixed. • Novel words (neologisms) • Other word for the same concept

12. Introduction • Universals of language • Name giving • With language you can name anything • Objects • Feelings • Ideas

13. Introduction • Universals of language • Displacement • Language allows communication about events that are not currently taking place • It also allows communication in the absence of the speaker (long afterwards)

14. Introduction • Universals of language • Productivity • Language is generative • With a small number of words and grammatical rules, one can generate an infinite number of utterances

15. Phonology (part of linguistics) and phonetics: the science of speaking and hearing

16. What is speech? • Speech are modulated wave forms that are produced by a source (lungs and glottis) and filtered by the vocal tract and lips and cheeks

17. Phoneme: • Basic unit from which spoken language is composed • Phoneme is determined by: • Place of articulation • Manner of articulation • Voicing

18. Speech production

19. Speech perception is very difficult

20. Phonology • Studies how speech sounds are structured, and the rules are with which they can be combined

21. Phonology • Speech production • Speech is not just a string of phonemes • Pronounced phonemes vary considerably, depending on the proceeding and following sounds • Coarticulation • Problem of invariance

22. Phonology • Phonemic competence (knowledge of phonotactics) • Language users know which orders of phonemes are allowed and which are not • ‘rops’ vs ‘rpos’ • This knowledge typically remains implicit

23. Phonology • Speech production • Slips of the tongue (Spoonerisms) • The Lord is a shoving leopard • Can I sew you to another sheet? Substitution (usually an anticipation) 1. een drup op de knop (druk) 2. iemand feliciferen (feliciteren) Exchange 3. ik weer niet meeg (weeg/meer) 4. hij speelt holosoorn (solohoorn) Addition 5. vier vlazen bloemen (vazen) 6. die lepel bloven je bord (boven)

24. Phonology • Speech perception: two problems • Problem of invariance • Coarticulation • Speaker differences • Words are not neatly segmented (e.g., by pauses)

25. Phonology • Categorical perception: • Despite many gradual differences between phonemes, they tend to be perceived as absolutely different (in apparently very different categories) • All-or-nothing principle: a speech sound is either a /b/ or a /d/ or a /g/

26. Phonology • Categorical perception

27. Phonology • Speech perception is partially a bottom-up process • Within a word • Phonemic restoration effect (see http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/asamuel-/frame/framehome.html for demo) • Also within a sentence

28. Syntax Chomky’s generative linguistics

29. What is language? • De Saussure distinguished ‘langue’ from ‘parole’ • Chomsky distinguished ‘competence’ from ‘performance’ • Chomsky strongly defended the idea of the innateness of language Noam Chomsky, 1928-

30. Syntax (sentence structure) is hierarchical

31. Syntax • Chomsky’s Phrase structure grammar • (derived from semi-Thue systemen) • Generative grammar • A complete grammar must generate all possible sentences and no non-grammatical sentences • Starting point: syntax (niet meaning!) Axel Thue (1863-1922)

32. Syntax • Syntax: sentence structure • A set of rules for constructing language utterances • Relationship between words in a sentence • Word order • Phrase order

33. Syntax • Chomsky’s Phrase structure grammar • S: sentence • D: determiner (lidwoord) • V: verb (werkwoord) • N: noun (zelfstandig naamwoord) • P: proposition (voorzetsel) • VP: verb phrase • NP: noun phrase • PP: propositional phrase

34. Syntax • Phrase structure rules De docent pakte het boek uit de kast (The teacher took the book from the shelves) s VP NP D N V NP PP de docent pakte D N P NP het boek uit D N de kast

35. Syntax • Lexical insertion rules: • Which words go where? De docent geeft het boek aan de student De docent slaapt het boek aan de student

36. Syntax Phrase structure rules Lexical insertion rules Lexicon

37. Syntax Phrase structure rules Lexical insertion rules Lexicon Semantic component Deep structure Transformational component Semantic representation Surface structure

38. Syntax • Surface structure • {De docent pakte het boek uit de kast} • Deep structure • {(docent pakt boek uit kast)} • Het boek werd door de docent uit de kast gepakt • Pakte de docent het boek uit de kast?

39. The essence of grammar is recursion It allows an infinite number of sentences to be generated by just a few rules Simple grammar G = {N,V,S,P} S aSa S bSb S c E.g., c, aca, bcb, aacaa, aabacabaa S Þ aSa Þ aaSaa Þ aabSbaa Þ aabaSabaa Þ aabacabaa The man lit his awful cigar The man that you thought was old lit his awful cigar The man that you thought that your mother had seen lit his awful cigar et cetera

40. Where does language come from? • Certain aspects of the development of language and thought appear to be universal in that they • (i) preceed any learning by the individual • (ii) are found in all individuals in the same way • These universalia are often of a deep and abstract nature • It is not known at present how they are respresented in the brain, or how they emerge from brain organization

41. More general: universal constraints in thought development • Spelke shows that from a very early age, infants know about the continuity and solidity of objects • These constraints lie at the core of the developmental learning system • It is not clear how these are represented in the brain or how they emerge

42. Semantics

43. Near-misses in meaning • Bangkok dry-cleaning: “Drop your pants here for best results” • Oslo bar: “Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar” • Paris hotel: “Please, leave your values at the desk” • Copenhagen airline office: “We take your bags and send them in all directions”

44. Van concept naar spraak

45. Very complicated transformation take place during speaking • A conceptual representation is a network of neurons that fire with a complex associative correlational pattern • This conceptual-semantic pattern is transformed into a hierarchical syntactic pattern • This pattern is transformed into a serial speech pattern

46. Meaning in Chomsky’s model Colorless green ideas sleep furiously De kachel geeft de beslissing een droom • Both sentences are grammatically correct but meaningless • or are they?

47. Willem Levelt’s model of speech production and perception

48. Semantics • Meaning • Step 1: meaning of individual words • Step 2: meaning of a sentence

49. Semantiek • Meaning of individual words • Must be retrieved from memory • Mental Lexicon: a mental dictionary -> long-term memory • Morphemes: smalles unit that still carries a meaning • Onjuist {on}-{juist} • disproportionate {dis}{proportion}{ate}

50. Language in the brain