What is duality of patterning, anyway?

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Robert Ladd
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Duality Of Patterning

AbstractThe notion of duality of patterning (henceforth DoP), at least for readers of this special issue, is probably most closely associated with Charles F. Hockett's project of identifying the ‘design features’ of language in order to characterise the ways in which human language is unique among biological communication systems (Hockett 1958: chapter 64; Hockett 1960; Hockett and Ascher 1964). Roughly speaking, DoP refers to the fact that the meaningful units of language – words or morphemes – are made up of meaningless units – phonemes or features – whose only function is to distinguish the meaningful units from one another. Stated this way, the idea seems quite straightforward, and to have it explicitly stated as a property of language seems a useful insight. In fact, though, of all the design features discussed by Hockett, DoP seems to have engendered the most confusion. The idea that meaningful units are composed of meaningless ones seems simple enough, but many complications arise when we look more closely. The goal of this short paper is to document some of the complications and perhaps alleviate some of the confusion.

scholarly journals The origins of duality of patterning in artificial whistled languages

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessa Verhoef
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Combinatorial Structure ◽  
Basic Design ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Finite Set ◽  
Iterated Learning ◽  
Duality Of Patterning

AbstractIn human speech, a finite set of basic sounds is combined into a (potentially) unlimited set of well-formed morphemes. Hockett (1960) placed this phenomenon under the term ‘duality of patterning’ and included it as one of the basic design features of human language. Of the thirteen basic design features Hockett proposed, duality of patterning is the least studied and it is still unclear how it evolved in language. Recent work shedding light on this is summarized in this paper and experimental data is presented. This data shows that combinatorial structure can emerge in an artificial whistled language through cultural transmission as an adaptation to human cognitive biases and learning. In this work the method of experimental iterated learning (Kirby et al. 2008) is used, in which a participant is trained on the reproductions of the utterances the previous participant learned. Participants learn and recall a system of sounds that are produced with a slide whistle. Transmission from participant to participant causes the whistle systems to change and become more learnable and more structured. These findings follow from qualitative observations, quantitative measures and a follow-up experiment that tests how well participants can learn the emerged whistled languages by generalizing from a few examples.

scholarly journals Why Are No Animal Communication Systems Simple Languages?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Bird Song ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Simple Language ◽  
High Level

Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language. How is it, then, that some animals can master a version of language, yet none of them deploy this capacity in their own communication system? I first examine the key design features that are often used to evaluate language-like properties of natural animal communication systems. I then consider one candidate animal system, bird song, because it has several of the key design features or their precursors, including social learning and cultural transmission of their vocal signals. I conclude that although bird song communication is nuanced and complex, and has the acoustic potential for productivity, it is not productive – it cannot be used to say many different things. Finally, I discuss the debate over whether animal communication should be viewed as a cooperative information transmission process, as we typically view human language, or as a competitive process where signaler and receiver vie for control. The debate points to a necessary condition for the evolution of a simple language that has generally been overlooked: the degree of to which the interests of the signaler and receiver align. While strong cognitive and signal production mechanisms are necessary pre-adaptations for a simple language, they are not sufficient. Also necessary is the existence of identical or near-identical interests of signaler and receiver and a socio-ecology that requires high-level cooperation across a range of contexts. In the case of our hominid ancestors, these contexts included hunting, gathering, child care and, perhaps, warfare. I argue that the key condition for the evolution of human language was the extreme interdependency that existed among unrelated individuals in the hunter-gatherer societies of our hominid ancestors. This extreme interdependency produced multiple prosocial adaptations for effective intragroup cooperation, which in partnership with advanced cognitive abilities, set the stage for the evolution of language.

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 [...]

Predictability and phonology: past, present and future

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Shaw ◽  
Shigeto Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Sound Patterns

AbstractMany papers in this special issue grew out of the talks given at the Symposium “The role of predictability in shaping human language sound patterns,” held at Western Sydney University (Dec. 10–11, 2016). Some papers were submitted in response to an open call; others were invited contributions. This introduction aims to contextualize the papers in the special issue within a broader theoretical context, focusing on what it means for phonological theory to incorporate gradient predictability, what questions arise as a consequence, and how the papers in this issue address these questions.

Special Issue on Ubiquitous Computing and Future Communication Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Dubi ◽  
Shoukat Ali ◽  
Lei Liu ◽  
Dakai Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Ubiquitous Computing ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Special Issue

scholarly journals Chestnut-crowned babbler calls are composed of meaningless shared building blocks

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (39) ◽  
pp. 19579-19584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Engesser ◽  
Jennifer L. Holub ◽  
Louis G. O’Neill ◽  
Andrew F. Russell ◽  
Simon W. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Core Component ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Combinatorial System ◽  
Constituent Elements ◽  
Combinatorial Strategy ◽  
Recent Idea ◽  
The Way

A core component of human language is its combinatorial sound system: meaningful signals are built from different combinations of meaningless sounds. Investigating whether nonhuman communication systems are also combinatorial is hampered by difficulties in identifying the extent to which vocalizations are constructed from shared, meaningless building blocks. Here we present an approach to circumvent this difficulty and show that a pair of functionally distinct chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps) vocalizations can be decomposed into perceptibly distinct, meaningless entities that are shared across the 2 calls. Specifically, by focusing on the acoustic distinctiveness of sound elements using a habituation-discrimination paradigm on wild-caught babblers under standardized aviary conditions, we show that 2 multielement calls are composed of perceptibly distinct sounds that are reused in different arrangements across the 2 calls. Furthermore, and critically, we show that none of the 5 constituent elements elicits functionally relevant responses in receivers, indicating that the constituent sounds do not carry the meaning of the call and so are contextually meaningless. Our work, which allows combinatorial systems in animals to be more easily identified, suggests that animals can produce functionally distinct calls that are built in a way superficially reminiscent of the way that humans produce morphemes and words. The results reported lend credence to the recent idea that language’s combinatorial system may have been preceded by a superficial stage where signalers neither needed to be cognitively aware of the combinatorial strategy in place, nor of its building blocks.

scholarly journals Special Issue: Technological Advancements in Wireless and Optical Communication Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 1669-1676
Author(s):  
Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry ◽  
Javier Poncela ◽  
Muhammad Aamir ◽  
Pablo Otero ◽  
Thomas Newe
Keyword(s):  
Optical Communication ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Optical Communication Systems
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