Language: Form And Function

Question 1

What are some examples of animals engaging in communication?

Answer 1

Territorial markings of dogs
Caste pheromone signals in ants (olfactory)
Mating calls and displays of birds and frogs
Warning calls of monkeys

Question 2

How do bees communicate?

Answer 2

Communicate through a wagging dance- dancing to indicate the direction of their food. The angle of the dance shows the angle of the sun to go to the food, and the speed of waggles imply the distance to the food. This is done after a bee has found food already

Question 3

Provide a study that tests bee communication.

Answer 3

Experimenters take out a feeder and bees would go and then do their dance. Take some bees outside of the hive vs inside the hive, and they would go the same distance, implying that they understood the supposed distance between them and the supposed hive

Question 4

How do vervet monkeys communicate when they are in danger?

Answer 4

Different predators mean different alarm calls which thus signal different behavior. Three distinct calls for birds of prey (would go in bushes) leopards (hide in trees) and snakes (go on toes and look)

Question 5

What are the similarities between animal communication and human communication?

Answer 5

Capable of sharing specific information and usage of symbolic sounds and gestures

Question 6

How is human language different from animal communication?

Answer 6

We can make many more speech sounds and refer to more objects, animals are limited to survival and reproduction needs. Combination of symbols can be combined into grammar

Question 7

Describe the structure of human speech

Answer 7

Discourse
Sentences
Phrases
Words
Morphemes
Phoenemes

Question 8

Conversation with back and fourth turn taking

Answer 8

Discourse

Question 9

Unit of language that conveys meaning

Answer 9

Morphemes

Question 10

Provide an example of a morpheme

Answer 10

The “re” in redo is not a word, but we understand that it means to repeat again

Question 11

Speech sounds

Answer 11

Phonemes

Question 12

Provide an example of the three functional units of languages

Answer 12

Conceptual intentional interface (what is being attempted to be communicated)
Syntactic rules and representations (innate sense of how we put words together)
External sensory motor interface (what speech sounds can we physically make)

Question 13

Assumptions we make when conveying or interpreting the meaning of actual speech, as well as the interpretation of signs and gestures

Answer 13

Pragmatics

Question 14

Describe bottom-up processing in language

Answer 14

Words that are being spoken

Question 15

Provide an example of top-down communication in language

Answer 15

Expectation of what should be communicated

Question 16

Expectations of cooperative communication flow

Answer 16

Maxims

Question 17

What are the four maxims?

Answer 17

Quantity: quantity should match the amount of information
Quality: information should be true
Relation: statement should be relevant to the context
Manner: statement should be clear

Question 18

When is the quantity maxim violated”?

Answer 18

Joking- specifically where you give less information than what is necessary

Question 19

When are quality maxims violated?

Answer 19

Irony and sarcasm
Metaphors
Information is not technically true

Question 20

How can manner maxim be violated?

Answer 20

Being intentionally unclear in an indirect request: “do you know what time is it?” Expect to be answered with the current time

Question 21

Describe the speech act theory

Answer 21

We derive a literal meaning of an utterance , we assess the interpretability of that meaning against the context, then if it does not make sense we derive an alternative non-literal meaning

Question 22

What are the primary issues of speech act theory?

Answer 22

Metaphors can be literally true and still perceived with metaphorical meaning
Metaphorical meanings are derived automatically, it takes longer to get the literal meaning
Metaphoric meanings are as easily primed as literal meanings

Question 23

Provide an example of metaphors of literal truth

Answer 23

When you say “no man is an island”, it is factually true that no man is an island but the definition of the statement is typically that one is not alone. Metaphorical meaning is inferred

Question 24

Describe a study that talks about the process of automatically processing metaphors

Answer 24

Measured the speed of participants and how long it took for them to verify a statement as literally true or literally false. Discoverers that it took a longer time to verify that metaphors are literally false in comparison to literal falsehoods and scrambled metaphors, implying we automatically process the metaphor as true then move to its literal meaning

Question 25

Describe priming in metaphors in a study

Answer 25

Had participants read literal or metaphorical statements about a category, such as the large hammerhead is a shark and the defense lawyer is a shark. Participants were then asked to verify a literal or metaphoric property: such as sharks are good swimmers (literal) and sharks are tenacious (metaphoric). It was found that participants who read literal statements were faster at verifying literal statements and vice versa

Question 26

Discuss the modern theory of metaphors

Answer 26

Argues that metaphors are a special kind of class inclusion statement that could more easily represent a unique category. The label “jail” can be used for certain situations to convey different properties

Question 27

What is the question of Orvell et al? 1st

Answer 27

Is “you” used for normative statements?

Question 28

What are the alternatives for Orvell et al?

Answer 28

Yes, you statements often convey broad generalizations similar to generic noun phrases (such as dogs can bark) No, you is a context dependent pronoun typically used to identify an individual (are you free?)

Question 29

What is the logic of Orvell et al?

Answer 29

If “you” statements are truly normative, then people should use “you” rather than “I” to describe actions that apply broadly

Question 30

What was the method of ORvell et al?

Answer 30

People answered questions about everyday objects taht referred to either norms or preferences. experiment 1: what should you do with a hammer (norm) or what do you like to do with a hammer? (Preference) experiment 2: what do you do with a hammer (norm) + preference condition Experiment 3: How do use a hammer? Consider what should or not should be done what do you like/consider likes to dislikes

Question 31

What were the results of Orvell et al?

Answer 31

You is used more for norms while I is used more for preference statements

Question 32

What are the inferences of Orvell et al?

Answer 32

The generic you is used to express norms without much explicit prompting You is a context bound pronoun that has been co-opted to express context free ideas, perhaps because you is not I The use of you turns self relevant experiences into a shared universal experience