scholarly journals Smooth Signals and Syntactic Change

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Joel C. Wallenberg ◽  
Rachael Bailes ◽  
Christine Cuskley ◽  
Anton Karl Ingason
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Target Level ◽  
Object Type ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Complex Constant ◽  
Information Density ◽  
Constant Rate

A large body of recent work argues that considerations of information density predict various phenomena in linguistic planning and production. However, the usefulness of an information theoretic account for explaining diachronic phenomena has remained under-explored. Here, we test the idea that speakers prefer informationally uniform utterances on diachronic data from historical English and Icelandic. Our results show that: (i) the information density approach allows us to predict that Subject and Object type will affect the frequencies of OV and VO in specific ways, creating a complex Constant Rate Effect, (ii) the bias towards information uniformity explains this CRE and may help to explain others, and (iii) communities of speakers are constant in their average target level of information uniformity over long periods of historical time. This finding is consistent with an understanding of this bias which places it deep in the human language faculty and the human faculty for communication.

scholarly journals Introducing the Special Issue: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Draško Kašćelan ◽  
Margaret Deuchar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Human Language Faculty

Research on code-switching was the province of specialists in linguistics alone in the latter part of the twentieth century and is still a valuable source of insights into the human language faculty [...]

The Siege of Paris

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Berwick ◽  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Specific Property ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Human Language Faculty

In a response to Cedric Boeckx, Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky defend and update their argument that the human language faculty is a species-specific property, with no known group differences and little variation.

What is the human language faculty?: Two views

Language ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 586-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Jackendoff
Keyword(s):  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Human Language Faculty

Was ist das Spielerische am Sprachspiel?

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Julius Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Human Language Faculty

AbstractDid Wittgenstein in coining the term ‘Sprachspiel’ mean to convey the connotation of an open playfulness, as the German terms ‘Spiel’ and ‘spielerisch’ suggest? The paper tries to show that although this was not his original motive for choosing the term, the characterization of natural language offered in the Philosophical Investigations includes and indeed highlights its open, not rule-governed (and in this sense playful) sides. In this respect language is unlike a calculus and unlike a game like chess.Wittgenstein compares language to both, but, so the paper argues, he does so in order to make visible what is special in language and is different from a calculus as well as a strictly regulated game like chess.When he applies the word ‘calculus’ in an affirmative sense for describing a feature of what he describes as language games, the context is the principle of compositionality, interpreted, however, in such a way that the difference between the workings of a calculus and the workings of language is preserved.The paper comes to the conclusion that, in using a natural language, speakers have some freedom to decide whether they cling to or depart from conventional usage. This freedom is a central ingredient of the human language faculty.

scholarly journals Bilinguals have a single computational system but two compartmentalized phonological grammars: Evidence from code-switching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Gosselin
Keyword(s):  
Code Switching ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Computational System ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Context Of Use ◽  
Syntactic Dependencies ◽  
Linguistic Models

Classic linguistic models, such as Chomsky’s minimalist schematization of the human language faculty, were typically based on a ‘monolingual ideal’. More recently, models have been extended to bilingual cognition. For instance, MacSwan (2000) posited that bilinguals possess a single syntactic computational system and, crucially, two (or more) phonological grammars. The current paper examines this possible architecture of the bilingual language faculty by using code-switching data, since this type of speech is unique to bilingual and multilingual individuals. Specifically, the natural speech Maria, a habitual Spanish-English code-switcher from the Bangor Miami Corpus, was examined. For the interface of phonology, an analysis was completed on the frequency of syllabic structures used by Maria. Phonotactics were examined as Spanish and English impose differential restrictions on complex onsets and codas. The results indicated that Maria’s language of use impacted the phonotactics of her speech, but that the context of use (unilingual or code-switched) did not. This suggests that Maria was alternating between two independent phonological grammars when she was code-switching. For the interface of morphosyntax, syntactic dependencies within Maria’s code-switched speech and past literature were consulted. The evidence illustrates that syntactic dependencies are indeed established within code-switched sentences, indicating that such constructions are derived from a single syntactic subset. Thus, the quantitative and qualitative results from this paper wholly support MacSwan’s original conjectures regarding the bilingual language faculty: bilingual cognition appears to be composed of a single computational system which builds multi-language syntactic structures, and more than one phonological grammar.

scholarly journals How well do Humans Capture the Sounds of Speech in Writing?

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-44
Author(s):  
Nora Turoman ◽  
Suzy J. Styles
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Visual Properties ◽  
Interactive Experience ◽  
Geographical Space

A large body of research on connections between sensory modalities has shown that deep connections exist between sound and vision, such that people have a tendency to associate certain sounds with certain visual properties, including line-drawn shapes. While recognising the role of written language in audio-visual associations, previous research has largely considered written language a potential source of bias rather than a means of gaining deeper in sights into underlying audio-visual associations. We looked to ancient and unfamiliar writing systems spanning recorded human history, to explore whether humans have tried to encode certain characteristics of speech sounds in the letters they created to represent them. Our findings have revealed that modern humans can correctly identify unfamiliar letters at levels higher than would be obtained by chance, and that scripts which encode a particular sound with a particular set of visual characteristics tend to have more correct guesses. This suggests that humans share certain correspondences between sound and sight, which transcend both geographical space and historical time. The present multisensory demonstration aims to provide an interactive experience of the powerful connection between sounds and written letters through a series of activities integrating vision, audition, touch and imagination.

The Neural Basis of Language

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela D. Friederici ◽  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Brain Structures ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Arcuate Fasciculus ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
The Core ◽  
Integrative View ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Human Language Faculty

The findings discussed in this book lead to a first integrative view on the neurobiology of language, which proposes that BA 44 and the arcuate fasciculus are those brain structures that have evolved to subserve the human capacity to process syntax, which is at the core of the human language faculty. The chapter concludes with a brief statement of why syntax is important for the human being.

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