Lecture 7• Animal communication and language origins• Aphasia• Language birth and death• Genetic classification of languages• Typological classification of languages

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Animal communicationpMostly egocentric messages(aggression/affection)

pSome messages about the outer world (source of food – bee dance; danger – vervet monkey calls)

p Use of sound (cf. human language), but other means are also possible (bee dance)

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Animal communicationpAnimal communication vs. human language

pCompositionality (rare)pComplexity (low)pCreativity (none?)

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Language originsp Many living beings use communication systems, sound medium is wide-spread

pThe rise of complexity of human communication system was directly related to the growth of:pCognitive abilitiespIntensity and complexity of social life

pAnd vice versa: the development of communication increased cognitive abilities and social interaction

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AphasiapInjury of the brain may lead to impairment of language = aphasia

pTwo major types of aphasia:1.Non-fluent/Broca’s aphasia (Paul Broca, 1861)2.Fluent/Wernicke’s (Carl Wernicke, 1873)

6Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area

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Non-fluent/Broca’s aphasiapLanguage expression is impaired

p Syllables are simplified, the sentence lacks intonationp Agrammatism

p Grammatical affixes are omittedp Functional categories (articles, auxiliaries), adpositions are missingp Syntactic structure is heavily reduced

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Fluent/Wernicke’s aphasiapFluent production + no sense:

p Sentences have fluent intonationp Grammatical forms have correct affixes, articles, auxiliaries, and adpositions are not omittedp It is hard to make any sense of what the patient says

ExamplesBroca’s aphasia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPMWernicke’s aphasia:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-LD5jzXpLE

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Language birthLanguage split

As population of the speakers grows, geographical varieties of a given language emerge which first develop into dialects and may further become independent languages

The development of dialects/languages is supported by migration/isolation

Example: (Proto-)Slavic > East, West, South Slavic, East Slavic > Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, West Slavic > Czech, Polish, Slovak, etc.

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Language birthLanguage merge

When a group of speakers has no common language, they may develop a new form of communication based on several languages available to them

These languages are called pidgins (for example, Russenorsk: Russian + Norwegian, extinct; Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) < heavy English influence, see below)

When pidgins become more complex and are learned as first languages by children, they are qualified as creole languages

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Language birthTok Pisin, a pidgin which developed into a creole

language (Papua New Guinea, 4 million L2 speakers)

Some grammatical markers1. bin (< English been) = past tense, e.g.

Na praim minista i bin tok olsem –And the prime minister spoke thus

2. pinis (< English finish) = perfective aspect, e.g.:Em i lusim bot pinis –He had got out of the boat

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1st lines of Lord’s Prayer in Tok PisinPapa bilong mi-pelaFather from 1SG-PL = Our father

Yu stap long heven2SG be on heaven = You are in heaven

Nem bilong yu Name from 2SG = Your name

i mas i stap holiCONThave CONT be holy= May your name be holy

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Language deathLanguage death = a critical decrease of language

competence

Passes through a stage of bilingualism, but is not a result of it

Due to certain sociolinguistic factors, the younger speakers develop only limited competence in one of their languages

As the population of fully competent speakers of a given language ages, it may face extinction

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Language death (examples)January 24, 2008, last

Alaska language (Eyak) speaker dies

A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7206411.stm)

Alaska Native Language Centerhttp://www.uaf.edu/anlc/

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Language death (examples)February 4, 2010, the last

speaker of an ancient language in India's Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8498534.stm

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Genetic classification of languages• As languages split into dialects which subsequently

mature into independent languages, large sets of genetically interrelated languages develop

• The largest unit of genetically related (= having common ancestor) is language family (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, etc.)

• A smaller unit within a language family is referred to as branch/genus (as Germanic, Romance, Baltic, Slavic, etc. lgs. of Indo-European family)

• If needed, language groups can be recognized within language branches (for example: East, West, and South Slavic languages, see below)

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Indo-European language familyBaltic (branch; or Balto-Slavic)

1. Eastern (group): Latvian, Lithuanian2. Western (group): Old Prussian

Slavic (branch)1. Eastern (group): Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian2. Western (group): Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc.3. South (group): Slovene, Bulgarian, Serbian,

Croatian, etc.

Germanic (…)1. Northern (…): Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian,

Swedish, Faroese2. Western (…): English, German, Dutch, etc.3. Eastern: †Gothic

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Indo-European language family4. Italic (Latin à French, Italian, Spanish,

Portugese, Romanian)5. Celtic (Irish, Welsh, ...)6. Indo-Iranian (Indic: †Vedic à Sanskrit, hindi,

…; Iranian: †Avestan, Farsi, ...)7. †Anatolian (Hittite, Luwian, ...)8. †Tocharian9. Greek10.Armenian11.Albanian

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Genetic classification of languagesGenetic classification is based on comparison of

lexical and grammatical data (> similar = closer relatives)

Example: ‘brother’ in Indo-European languages

Lithuanian brólis Latvian brãlis, Old Prussian brote, brāti; Old Church Slavonic bratъ, bratrъ, Russian брат, Polish brat, Bulagrian. брат, sanskr. bhrā́tā, Avestan brātar-, Greek. φράτηρ ‘member of fraternity’ (‘brother’ = ἀδελφός), Latin frāter, Gothic broþar, Old Irish brāthir, Tocharian A pracar, Tocharian B procer (Proto-Indo-European form is *bhrāter- < *bhréh2ter-)

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Typological classification of languages• Languages may bear similarities which are

not related to their genetic history but are due to the areal features or tendencies of language development

• In this case we are dealing with typological classification of languages according to certain parameters, e.g.

• Word order (SOV, SVO, …)• Case systems (nominative-accusative,

ergative-absolutive)• Languages with tones• …

See: World Atlas of Language Structures, https://wals.info

Thank you!The last lecture will be held on

November 27, no class on November 20