Penguin chick syllable patterns v cv vc v answers

The Study of Language This best-selling textbook provides an engaging and user-friendly introduction to

the study of language. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, Yule presents

information in bite-sized sections, clearly explaining the major concepts in linguistics –

from how children learn language to why men and women speak differently, through

all the key elements of language. This fifth edition has been revised and updated

with new figures and tables, additional topics, and numerous new examples using

languages from across the world. To increase student engagement, and to foster

problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, the book includes thirty new tasks. An

expanded and revised online study guide provides students with further resources,

including answers and tutorials for all tasks, while encouraging lively and proactive

learning. This is the most fundamental and easy-to-use introduction to the study

of language.

George Yule has taught Linguistics at the universities of Edinburgh, Hawai‘i,

Louisiana State and Minnesota.

The Study of Language FIFTH EDITION

George Yule

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of

education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107658172

First and second editions © Cambridge University Press 1985, 1996 Third, fourth and fifth editions © George Yule 2006, 2010, 2014

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1985

Second edition 1996

Third edition 2006

Fourth edition 2010

Fifth edition 2014

Printed in the United Kingdom by MPG Printgroup Ltd, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yule, George, 1947–

The study of language / George Yule. – 5th ed.

pages cm

Previous ed.: 2010.

ISBN 978-1-107-04419-7 (Hardback) – ISBN 978-1-107-65817-2 (Paperback)

1. Language and languages. 2. Linguistics. I. Title.

P107.Y85 2014

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Contents

Preface xi

l1 The origins of language The divine source 2 The natural sound source 2

The “bow-wow” theory 3 The “pooh-pooh” theory 3

The social interaction source 3 The physical adaptation source 4

Teeth and lips 4 Mouth and tongue 5 Larynx and pharynx 5

The tool-making source 5 The human brain 6

The genetic source 6 Study questions 8 Tasks 8 Discussion topics/projects 9 Further reading 9

l2 Animals and human language Communication 12 Properties of human language 12

Displacement 13 Arbitrariness 13 Productivity 14 Cultural transmission 15 Duality 16

Talking to animals 16 Chimpanzees and language 17

Washoe 17 Sarah 18 Lana 19 The controversy 19 Kanzi 20

Using language 20 Study questions 22 Tasks 22 Discussion topics/projects 23 Further reading 24

l3 The sounds of language Phonetics 27 Voiced and voiceless sounds 27 Place of articulation 27 Consonants 28

Familiar symbols 28 Unfamiliar symbols 29

Consonants: manner of articulation 29

Stops 29 Fricatives 30 Affricates 30 Nasals 31 Liquids 31 Glides 31

A consonant chart 31 Glottal stops and flaps 31

Vowels 32 Diphthongs 33 Subtle individual variation 34 Study questions 35 Tasks 35 Discussion topics/projects 37 Further reading 37

l4 The sound patterns of language Phonology 40 Phonemes 40

Natural classes 41 Phones and allophones 41 Minimal pairs and sets 42 Phonotactics 43 Syllables 43

Consonant clusters 44 Coarticulation effects 44

Assimilation 45 Nasalization 45 Elision 46 Normal speech 46

Study questions 47 Tasks 47 Discussion topics/projects 48 Bob Belviso translated 49 Further reading 49

l5 Word formation Neologisms 51 Etymology 51 Borrowing 52

Loan-translation 52 Compounding 53

Blending 53 Clipping 54

Hypocorisms 54 Backformation 54

Conversion 55 Coinage 56

Acronyms 56 Derivation 57

Prefixes and suffixes 57 Infixes 57

Multiple processes 58 Study questions 59 Tasks 60 Discussion topics/projects 62 Further reading 63

l6 Morphology Morphology 66 Morphemes 66 Free and bound morphemes 66

Lexical and functional morphemes 67 Derivational morphemes 67 Inflectional morphemes 68

Morphological description 68 Problems in morphological description 69

Morphs and allomorphs 69 Other languages 70

Kanuri 70 Ganda 71 Ilocano 71 Tagalog 71

Study questions 73 Tasks 73 Discussion topics/projects 76 Further reading 78

l7 Grammar English grammar 80 Traditional grammar 80

The parts of speech 80 Agreement 81 Grammatical gender 82 Traditional analysis 83

The prescriptive approach 83 Captain Kirk’s infinitive 84

The descriptive approach 84 Structural analysis 85 Constituent analysis 85 Labeled and bracketed sentences 86 Hierarchical organization 87 A Gaelic sentence 87 Why study grammar? 88

Study questions 89 Tasks 89 Discussion topics/projects 92 Further reading 93

l8 Syntax Syntactic rules 95

A generative grammar 95 Deep and surface structure 96

Structural ambiguity 96 Tree diagrams 97

Tree diagram of an English sentence 97

Symbols used in syntactic analysis 98 Phrase structure rules 99 Lexical rules 100 Movement rules 101 Study questions 103 Tasks 104 Discussion topics/projects 106 Further reading 108

vi Contents

l9 Semantics Meaning 110 Semantic features 110

Words as containers of meaning 111

Semantic roles 112 Agent and theme 112 Instrument and experiencer 112 Location, source and goal 113

Lexical relations 113 Synonymy 113 Antonymy 114 Hyponymy 115 Prototypes 116 Homophones and homonyms 116 Polysemy 117 Word play 117 Metonymy 118

Collocation 118 Study questions 120 Tasks 120 Discussion topics/projects 123 Further reading 123

l10 Pragmatics Pragmatics 126 Context 127

Deixis 128 Reference 128

Inference 129 Anaphora 129 Presupposition 130

Speech acts 131 Direct and indirect speech acts 131

Politeness 132 Negative and positive face 133

Study questions 134 Tasks 134 Discussion topics/projects 136 Further reading 138

l11 Discourse analysis Discourse 140

Interpreting discourse 140 Cohesion 141 Coherence 142 Speech events 142

Conversation analysis 143 Turn-taking 143

The co-operative principle 144 Hedges 145 Implicatures 146

Background knowledge 146 Schemas and scripts 147

Study questions 149 Tasks 149 Discussion topics/projects 151 Further reading 152

l12 Language and the brain Neurolinguistics 155 Language areas in the brain 155

Broca’s area 156 Wernicke’s area 156 The motor cortex and the arcuate fasciculus 157 The localization view 157

Tongue tips and slips 158 The tip of the tongue phenomenon 158 Slips of the tongue 158 Slips of the brain 159 Slips of the ear 159

Aphasia 160 Broca’s aphasia 160 Wernicke’s aphasia 160 Conduction aphasia 161

Dichotic listening 161 Left brain, right brain 162

The critical period 163 Genie 163

Study questions 165 Tasks 165 Discussion topics/projects 166 Further reading 167

Contents vii

l13 First language acquisition Acquisition 170

Input 170 Caregiver speech 171

The acquisition schedule 171 Cooing 172 Babbling 172 The one-word stage 173 The two-word stage 173 Telegraphic speech 174

The acquisition process 174 Learning through imitation? 175 Learning through correction? 175

Developing morphology 176 Developing syntax 177

Forming questions 177 Forming negatives 178

Developing semantics 178 Later developments 179

Study questions 181 Tasks 181 Discussion topics/projects 183 Further reading 184

l14 Second language acquisition/learning Second language learning 187

Acquisition and learning 187 Acquisition barriers 187 The age factor 188 Affective factors 188

Focus on teaching method 189 The grammar–translation method 189 The audiolingual method 190 Communicative approaches 190

Focus on the learner 190 Transfer 191 Interlanguage 191 Motivation 192 Input and output 192 Task-based learning 193

Communicative competence 194 Applied linguistics 194 Study questions 196 Tasks 196 Discussion topics/projects 198 Further reading 198

l15 Gestures and sign languages Gestures 201

Iconics 201 Deictics 201 Beats 202

Types of sign languages 202 Oralism 203 Signed English 203 Origins of ASL 204 The structure of signs 204

Shape and orientation 205 Location 205 Movement 205 Primes 205 Facial expressions and finger-spelling 206

The meaning of signs 206 Representing signs 207 ASL as a natural language 208 Study questions 209 Tasks 209 Discussion topics/projects 210 Further reading 210

l16 Written language Writing 213

Pictograms 213 Ideograms 213 Logograms 214

Phonographic writing 215 The rebus principle 216

Syllabic writing 216 Alphabetic writing 217 Written English 218

English orthography 219 Study questions 221 Tasks 221 Discussion topics/projects 223 Further reading 224

viii Contents

l17 Language history and change Family trees 227 Indo-European 227

Cognates 228 Comparative reconstruction 228

General principles 229 Sound reconstruction 229 Word reconstruction 230

The history of English 230 Old English 231 Middle English 231

Sound changes 232 Metathesis 233 Epenthesis 233 Prothesis 234

Syntactic changes 234 Loss of inflections 234

Semantic changes 235 Broadening of meaning 235 Narrowing of meaning 235

Diachronic and synchronic variation 236 Study questions 237 Tasks 237 Discussion topics/projects 239 Further reading 240

l18 Regional variation in language The standard language 243 Accent and dialect 243

Variation in grammar 244 Dialectology 244

Regional dialects 244 Isoglosses and dialect boundaries 245 The dialect continuum 246

Bilingualism 247 Diglossia 248

Language planning 249 Pidgins 250 Creoles 251

The post-creole continuum 251

Study questions 252 Tasks 252

Discussion topics/projects 254 Further reading 254

l19 Social variation in language Sociolinguistics 257

Social dialects 257 Education and occupation 257 Social markers 259

Speech style and style-shifting 259 Prestige 260

Speech accommodation 261 Convergence 261 Divergence 261

Register 261 Jargon 262

Slang 262 Taboo terms 263

African American English 263 Vernacular language 263 The sounds of a vernacular 264 The grammar of a vernacular 264

Study questions 266 Tasks 266 Discussion topics/projects 268 Further reading 268

l20 Language and culture Culture 271 Categories 271

Kinship terms 272 Time concepts 272

Linguistic relativity 273 The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis 273 Against the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis 274 Snow 274 Non-lexicalized categories 275

Cognitive categories 275 Classifiers 276

Social categories 276 Address terms 277

Gender 278 Gendered words 278

Contents ix

Gendered structures 279 Gendered speech 279 Same-gender talk 280 Gendered interaction 280

Study questions 281 Tasks 281

Discussion topics/projects 284 Further reading 284

Glossary 286 References 300 Index 312

x Contents

Preface

In this new edition

For all their advice and suggestions for improvements to the fifth edition of this book,

I’d like to thank the reviewers, instructors, students and researchers who have

commented on earlier versions. I have made a number of revisions in the internal

organization of all the chapters, with a clearer division into major topics and subsec-

tions. Additional section headings have been included to make the material more

accessible and a number of extra examples from everyday language use are offered

to make some of the points clearer. There are also more substantial revisions in

Chapters 3 (Phonetics), 4 (Phonology), 5 (Word formation) and 8 (Syntax) that

should make these units more manageable. I hope these revisions will make the book

more informative, easier to read, and overall more user-friendly.

In addition, there are thirty new tasks. The majority of these are data-based and

designed to foster problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. New examples from

languages as diverse as German, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Lakhota, Proto-Polynesian,

Quechua, Spanish and Tamasheq provide an opportunity to explore further aspects of

languages other than English. Additional topics explored in the study of the English

language include adjective order, adverb position in sentences, American and British

differences, compounds, general extenders, the presuppositions of jokes, recasts,

stylistics, synecdoche and vague language. An expanded and revised Study Guide

providing answers and tutorials for all the tasks can be found on the book’s website:

www.cambridge.org/yule.

To the student

In The Study of Language, I have tried to present a comprehensive survey of what is

known about language and also of the methods used by linguists in arriving at that

knowledge. There have been many interesting developments in the study of language

over the past two decades, but it is still a fact that any individual speaker of a language

has a more comprehensive “unconscious” knowledge of how language works than any

linguist has yet been able to describe. Consequently, as you read each of the following

chapters, take a critical view of the effectiveness of the descriptions, the analyses, and

the generalizations by measuring them against your own intuitions about how your

language works. By the end of the book, you should feel that you do know quite a lot

http://www.cambridge.org/yule
about both the internal structure of language (its form) and the varied uses of language

in human life (its function), and also that you are ready to ask more of the kinds of

questions that professional linguists ask when they conduct their research.

At the end of each chapter, there is a section where you can test and apply what

you have learned. This section contains:

� Study questions that you can use to check if you have understood some of the main points and important terms introduced during that chapter

� Tasks that extend the topics covered in the book, mostly through data analysis, with examples from English and a wide range of other languages

� Discussion topics/projects that offer opportunities to consider some of the more general, sometimes controversial, language-related topics and to develop your own

opinions on issues involving language

� Further reading suggestions provided to help you find more detailed treatments of all the topics covered in that chapter

The origins of this book can be traced to introductory courses on language taught at

the University of Edinburgh, the University of Minnesota and Louisiana State Univer-

sity, and to the suggestions and criticisms of hundreds of students who forced me to

present what I had to say in a way they could understand. An early version of the

written material was developed for Independent Study students at the University of

Minnesota. Later versions have had the benefit of expert advice from a lot of teachers

working with diverse groups in different situations. I am particularly indebted to

Professor Hugh Buckingham, Louisiana State University, for sharing his expertise

and enthusiasm over many years as a colleague and friend.

For feedback and advice in the preparation of recent editions of the book, I would

like to thank Jean Aitchison (University of Oxford), Linda Blanton (University of New

Orleans), Karen Currie (Federal University of Espı́ritu Santo), Mary Anna Dimitrako-

poulos (Indiana University, South Bend), Thomas Field (University of Maryland,

Baltimore), Anthony Fox (University of Leeds), Agustinus Gianto (Pontifical Biblical

Institute), Gordon Gibson (University of Paisley), Katinka Hammerich (University of

Hawai‘i), Raymond Hickey (University of Duisburg–Essen), Daniel Hieber (Rosetta

Stone), Richard Hirsch (Linköping University), Fiona Joseph (University of Wolver-

hampton), Eliza Kitis (Aristotle University), Terrie Mathis (California State University,

Northridge), Stephen Matthews (University of Hong Kong), Robyn Najar (Flinders

University), Eric Nelson (University of Minnesota), Jens Reinke (Christian Albrecht

University Kiel), Philip Riley (University of Nancy 2), Rick Santos (Fresno City

College), Joanne Scheibman (Old Dominion University), Royal Skousen (Brigham

Young University), Michael Stubbs (University of Trier), Mary Talbot (University of

Sunderland) and Sherman Wilcox (University of New Mexico).

For my own introductory course, I remain indebted to Willie and Annie Yule, and,

for my continuing enlightenment, to Maryann Overstreet.

xii Preface

CHAPTER 1

The origins of language

The suspicion does not appear improbable that the progenitors of man, either the males

or females, or both sexes, before they had acquired the power of expressing their mutual love

in articulate language, endeavoured to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm.

Darwin (1871)

In Charles Darwin’s vision of the origins of language, early humans had already

developed musical ability prior to language and were using it “to charm each other.”

This may not match the typical image that most of us have of our early ancestors as

rather rough characters wearing animal skins and not very charming, but it is an

interesting speculation about how language may have originated. It remains,

however, a speculation.

We simply don’t know how language originated. We do know that the ability

to produce sound and simple vocal patterning (a hum versus a grunt, for example)

appears to be in an ancient part of the brain that we share with all vertebrates,

including fish, frogs, birds and other mammals. But that isn’t human language. We

suspect that some type of spoken languagemust have developed between 100,000 and

50,000 years ago, well before written language (about 5,000 years ago). Yet, among

the traces of earlier periods of life on earth, we never find any direct evidence or

artifacts relating to the speech of our distant ancestors that might tell us how language

was back in the early stages. Perhaps because of this absence of direct physical evidence,

there has been no shortage of speculation about the origins of human speech.

The divine source

In the biblical tradition, as described in the book of Genesis, God created Adam and

“whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”Alternatively,

following a Hindu tradition, language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of the

universe. In most religions, there appears to be a divine source who provides humans

with language. In an attempt to rediscover this original divine language, a fewexperiments

have been carried out, with rather conflicting results. The basic hypothesis seems to have

been that, if human infantswere allowed to growupwithout hearing any language around

them, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God-given language.

The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh named

Psammetichus (or Psamtik) who tried the experiment with two newborn babies more

than 2,500 years ago. After two years of isolation except for the company of goats and a

mute shepherd, the children were reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an

Egyptian word, but something that was identified as the Phrygian word bekos, meaning

“bread.” The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian, an older language spoken in part ofwhat

is modern Turkey, must be the original language. That seems very unlikely. The children

may not have picked up this “word” from any human source, but as several commen-

tators have pointed out, they must have heard what the goats were saying. (First remove

the -kos ending,whichwas added in theGreek version of the story, then pronounce be- as

you would the English word bed without -d at the end. Can you hear a goat?)

King James the Fourth of Scotland carried out a similar experiment around the

year 1500 and the children were reported to have spontaneously started speaking

Hebrew, confirming the king’s belief that Hebrew had indeed been the language of the

Garden of Eden. It is unfortunate that all other cases of children who have been

discovered living in isolation, without coming into contact with human speech, tend

not to confirm the results of these types of divine-source experiments. Very young

children living without access to human language in their early years grow up with no

language at all. This was true of Victor, the wild boy of Aveyron in France, discovered

near the end of the eighteenth century, and also of Genie, an American child whose

special life circumstances came to light in the 1970s (see Chapter 12). From this type

of evidence, there is no “spontaneous” language. If human language did emanate

from a divine source, we have no way of reconstructing that original language,

especially given the events in a place called Babel, “because the Lord did there

confound the language of all the earth,” as described in Genesis (11: 9).

The natural sound source

A quite different view of the beginnings of language is based on the concept of natural

sounds. The human auditory system is already functioning before birth (at around

2 The Study of Language

seven months). That early processing capacity develops into an ability to identify

sounds in the environment, allowing humans to make a connection between a sound

and the thing producing that sound. This leads to the idea that primitive words derive

from imitations of the natural sounds that early men and women heard around them.

Among several nicknames that he invented to talk about the origins of speech,

Jespersen (1922) called this idea the “bow-wow” theory.

The “bow-wow” theory

In this scenario, when different objects flew by, making a Caw-Caw or Coo-Coo

sound, the early human tried to imitate the sounds and then used them to refer to

those objects even when they weren’t present. The fact that all modern languages

have some words with pronunciations that seem to echo naturally occurring sounds

could be used to support this theory. In English, in addition to cuckoo, we have splash,

bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech, and of course bow-wow.

Words that sound similar to the noises they describe are examples of

onomatopeia. While it is true that a number of words in any language are onomato-

poeic, it is hard to see how most of the soundless things (e.g. “low branch”) as well as

abstract concepts (e.g. “truth”) could have been referred to in a language that simply

echoed natural sounds. We might also be rather skeptical about a view that seems to

assume that a language is only a set of words used as “names” for things.

The “pooh-pooh” theory

Another of Jespersen’s nicknames was the “pooh-pooh” theory, which proposed that

speech developed from the instinctive sounds people make in emotional circum-

stances. That is, the original sounds of language may have come from natural cries

of emotion such as pain, anger and joy. By this route, presumably, Ouch! came to have

its painful connotations. But Ouch! and other interjections such as Ah!, Ooh!, Phew!,

Wow! or Yuck! are usually produced with sudden intakes of breath, which is the

opposite of ordinary talk. We normally produce spoken language as we breath out, so

we speak while we exhale, not inhale. In other words, the expressive noises people

make in emotional reactions contain sounds that are not otherwise used in speech

production and consequently would seem to be rather unlikely candidates as source

sounds for language.

The social interaction source

Another proposal involving natural sounds was nicknamed the “yo-he-ho” theory.

The idea is that the sounds of a person involved in physical effort could be the source

of our language, especially when that physical effort involved several people and the

The origins of language 3

interaction had to be coordinated. So, a group of early humans might develop a set of

hums, grunts, groans and curses that were used when they were lifting and carrying

large bits of trees or lifeless hairy mammoths.

The appeal of this proposal is that it places the development of human language in

a social context. Early people must have lived in groups, if only because larger groups

offered better protection from attack. Groups are necessarily social organizations and,

to maintain those organizations, some form of communication is required, even if it is

just grunts and curses. So, human sounds, however they were produced, must have

had some principled use within the life and social interaction of early human groups.

This is an important idea that may relate to the uses of humanly produced sounds. It

does not, however, answer our question regarding the origins of the sounds produced.

Apes and other primates live in social groups and use grunts and social calls, but they

do not seem to have developed the capacity for speech.

The physical adaptation source

Instead of looking at types of sounds as the source of human speech, we can look at

the types of physical features humans possess, especially those that are distinct from

other creatures, which may have been able to support speech production. We can start

with the observation that, at some early stage, our ancestors made a very significant

transition to an upright posture, with bi-pedal (on two feet) locomotion, and a revised

role for the front limbs.

Some effects of this type of change can be seen in physical differences between the

skull of a gorilla and that of a Neanderthal man from around 60,000 years ago. The

reconstructed vocal tract of a Neanderthal suggests that some consonant-like sound

distinctions would have been possible. We have to wait until about 35,000 years ago

for features in reconstructions of fossilized skeletal structures that begin to resemble

those of modern humans. In the study of evolutionary development, there are certain

physical features, best thought of as partial adaptations, which appear to be relevant

for speech. They are streamlined versions of features found in other primates. By

themselves, such features wouldn’t guarantee speech, but they are good clues that a

creature with such features probably has the capacity for speech.

Teeth and lips

Human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards like those of apes, and they are

roughly even in height. Such characteristics are not very useful for ripping or tearing

food and seem better adapted for grinding and chewing. They are also very helpful in

making sounds such as f or v. Human lips have much more intricate muscle inter-

lacing than is found in other primates and their resulting flexibility certainly helps in

making sounds like p, b and m. In fact, the b and m sounds are the most widely

4 The Study of Language

attested in the vocalizations made by human infants during their first year, no matter

which language their parents are using.

Mouth and tongue

The human mouth is relatively small compared to other primates and can be opened

and closed rapidly. It is also part of an extended vocal tract that has much more of an

L-shape than the fairly straight path from front to back in other mammals. In contrast

to the fairly thin flat tongue of other large primates, humans have a shorter, thicker

and more muscular tongue that can be used to shape a wide variety of sounds inside

the oral cavity. In addition, unlike other primates, humans can close off the airway

through the nose to create more air pressure in the mouth. The overall effect of these

small differences taken together is a face with more intricate muscle interlacing in the

lips and mouth, capable of a wider range of shapes and a more rapid and powerful

delivery of sounds produced through these different shapes.

Larynx and pharynx

The human larynx or “voice box” (containing the vocal folds or vocal cords) differs

significantly in position from the larynx of other primates such as monkeys. In the

course of human physical development, the assumption of an upright posture moved

the head more directly above the spinal column and the larynx dropped to a lower

position. This created a longer cavity called the pharynx, above the vocal folds,

which acts as a resonator for increased range and clarity of the sounds produced via

the larynx and the vocal tract. Other primates have almost no pharynx. One unfortu-

nate consequence of this development is that the lower position of the human larynx

makes it much more possible for the human to choke on pieces of food. Monkeys

may not be able to use their larynx to produce speech sounds, but they do not suffer

from the problem of getting food stuck in their windpipe. In evolutionary terms, there

must have been a big advantage in getting this extra vocal power (i.e. a larger range

of sounds) to outweigh the potential disadvantage from an increased risk of choking

to death.

The tool-making source

In the physical adaptation view, one function (producing speech sounds) must have

been superimposed on existing anatomical features (teeth, lips) previously used for

other purposes (chewing, sucking). A similar development is believed to have taken

place with human hands and some believe that manual gestures may have been a

precursor of language. By about two million years ago, there is evidence that humans

had developed preferential right-handedness and had become capable of making

The origins of language 5

stone tools. Wood tools and composite tools eventually followed. Tool-making, or the

outcome of manipulating objects and changing them using both hands, is evidence of

a brain at work.

The human brain

The human brain is not only large relative to human body size, it is also lateralized,

that is, it has specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres. (More details are

presented in Chapter 12.) Those functions that control the motor movements involved

in complex vocalization (speaking) and object manipulation (making or using tools)

are very close to each other in the left hemisphere of the brain. That is, the area of the

motor cortex that controls the muscles of the arms and hands is next to the articulatory

muscles of the face, jaw and tongue. It may be that there was an evolutionary connec-

tion between the language-using and tool-using abilities of humans and that both were

involved in the development of the speaking brain. Most of the other speculative

proposals concerning the origins of speech seem to be based on a picture of humans

producing single noises to indicate objects in their environment. This activity may

indeed have been a crucial stage in the development of language, but what it lacks is

any structural organization. All languages, including sign language, require the organ-

izing and combining of sounds or signs in specific arrangements. We seem to have

developed a part of our brain that specializes in making these arrangements.

If we think in terms of the most basic process involved in primitive tool-making, it

is not enough to be able to grasp one rock (make one sound); the human must also be

able to bring another rock (other sounds) into proper contact with the first in order to

develop a tool. In terms of language structure, the human may have first developed a

naming ability by producing a specific and consistent noise (e.g. beer) for a specific

object. The crucial additional step was to bring another specific noise (e.g. good) into

combination with the first to build a complex message (beer good). Several thousand

years of development later, humans have honed this message-building capacity to a

point where, on Saturdays, watching a football game, they can drink a sustaining

beverage and proclaim This beer is good. As far as we know, other primates are not

doing this.

The genetic source

We can think of the human baby in its first few years as a living example of some of

these physical changes taking place. At birth, the baby’s brain is only a quarter of its

eventual weight and the larynx is much higher in the throat, allowing babies, like

chimpanzees, to breathe and drink at the same time. In a relatively short period of

time, the larynx descends, the brain develops, the child assumes an upright posture

and starts walking and talking.

6 The Study of Language

This almost automatic set of developments and the complexity of the young

child’s language have led some scholars to look for something more powerful than

small physical adaptations of the species over time as the source of language. Even

children who are born deaf (and do not develop speech) become fluent sign language

users, given appropriate circumstances, very early in life. This seems to indicate that

human offspring are born with a special capacity for language. It is innate, no other

creature seems to have it, and it isn’t tied to a specific variety of language. Is it

possible that this language capacity is genetically hard-wired in the newborn human?

As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this innateness hypothesis

would seem to point to something in human genetics, possibly a crucial mutation, as

the source. This would not have been a gradual change, but something that happened

rather quickly. We are not sure when this proposed genetic change might have taken

place or how it might relate to the physical adaptations described earlier. However, as

we consider this hypothesis, we find our speculations about the origins of language

moving away from fossil evidence or the physical source of basic human sounds

toward analogies with how computers work (e.g. being pre-programmed or hard-

wired) and concepts taken from the study of genetics. The investigation of the origins

of language then turns into a search for the special “language gene” that only humans

possess.

If we are indeed the only creatures with this special capacity for language, then

will it be completely impossible for any other creature to produce or understand

language? We’ll try to answer that question in Chapter 2.