PSYC 358 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Animal Communication, Noam Chomsky, Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
7 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Primates can"t speak using human language but does that mean they don"t have at least some of the criteria of language (so defined): depends on definitions! Is language is species specific or unique to humans: sort out definitions of language. It is interesting to observe how other species cooperate, coordinate their efforts, convey information: contributes to our understanding of the evolution of language. What needs to be in place to be on the same road" as human language: chomsky"s nativist perspective: language is unique to humans because linguistic structure maps onto the way the human brain works. The idea that animals might learn and use language if taught makes no biological sense. Hocket"s (1960) design features of language: creative/novel, open, productive. We can generate combinations of words we have never used before. Every language has a system of grammar: arbitrary. The words themselves don"t really matter since we could call a hat a shovel.
