EDC

INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTICS (ENGL236)
Chapter 2 brief
Ibrahim Shahwan
9/10/2018

Disclaimer: This document is made to ease up the studying process, however

it might contain errors or lack some info so do not rely on it entirely.
Ibrahim Shahwan

-Communication:
o Informative Signals: Unintentional Signals that informs others about
your personality. For example: When you wear a pair of socks that differ in
color, people will get informed that you are unorganized.
o Communicative signals: Sounds produced by you to communicate a
certain message to another person and get the same reaction in return,.

-Properties of human language

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Duality is one of the most Economical features of human language since we are
capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations which are
distinct in meanings.
Animals can’t have duality. For example: A dog can say Woof, But it can’t say
Fwoo.
Talking To Animals

o Animals give a particular behavior in response to a particular sound, noise,

or a stimulus. That doesn’t necessarily mean that animals understand us.

o a new baby and a puppy may arrive at the same time. Baby and puppy grow
up in the same environment, hearing mostly the same things, but about
two years later, the baby is making lots of human speech sounds and the
puppy is not.

Chimpanzees and language.

 Gua, Understood 100 words but couldn’t utter them
 Viki, was treated as a human child> tried to shape her mouth in order to
speak. Managed to say some words but in poorer version

<Non-human primates do not actually have a physically structured vocal tract

which is suitable for articulating the sounds used in speech>

o Washoe: Raised as same as the former chimps. But sign language was
being used all the time.
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o Sarah and Lana:

Sarah: She used plastic shapes (that are the equivalent of words to us) to
communicate with humans.
And These plastic shapes must be arranged in sequence to build sentences.
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-The controversy:
1. These animals respond on demand.
2. They repeat their responds consistently.
3. They do things to get rewarded.
o Kanzi: His mother “Matata” was learning the Yerkish language at his
presence. He observed his mother over the years and became better at her
at using this language. This chimp learned by just observation.