Summary: Language

Read the summary and the most important questions on Language

• College 1: Intro

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• What makes a language?

  
  1. Semanticity
  2. Arbitrariness
  3. Discreteness
  4. Generativity
  5. Displacement
  6. Grammar

• How did the research on Meerkats in the desert suggets that the way they communicate can be called a language? How could they measure this?

  
  - Their language has meaning (Semanticity): Specific utterances refer to specific concepts.
  
  
  - Different tones led to different behavior (leopard alarm --> tree, eagle alarm --> bush etc)

• How did the research on Babblers (birds) suggest that the way they communicate can be callad a language? How could they measure this?

  
  - The birds language seems to be built up of small, distinct, recombinable components (Discreteness).
  - This caused different behaviors, so different meanings (Semanticity?)?

• Do these Babblers (birds) have Generativity in their language?

  Moet ik nog even opzoeken

• Which featurs of Language are presenet in the BEE Dance?

  
  - Generativity
  - Displacement
  
  - (Not Semanticity and Discreteness???)

• What are the two theories of how human language was created?

  
  - Continuity = Human language is quantitatively different from animal communication, but not qualitatively.
  - Discontinuity = Human Language has specific features that are not present in any form of animal cognition.

• Give an argument why Chimp Nim was suggested to understand sign language?

  He could produce simple sentences as : 'Me hug cat'.

• Give an argument why researchers were against the idea that Chimp Nim did understand sign language?

  - They believed that the monkey just learned through operant conditioning but didnt really 'speak' the sign language. (Not to communicate)

• Give an argument why the ape Kanzi was suggested to understand spoken language by the carekeepers?

  - Kanzi could follow simple spoken commands such as: 'put soap in water'.

• Give an argument why researchers were agianst the idea that the ape Kanzi could understand spoken language?

  
  - They believed that the ape just learned though immersion learning
  
  - They also accused the carekeepers of Clever Hans effect & Observer effects.