J Scott Hill's List: linguistics

• It has long been known that successfully foraging Western honey bees perform a dance on their return to the hive, known as waggle dance, indicating that food is farther away, while the round dance is a short version of the waggle dance, indicating that food is nearby. The laden forager dances on the comb in a circular pattern, occasionally crossing the circle in a zig-zag or waggle pattern
• Karl von Frisch correlated the runs and turns of the dance to the distance and direction of the food source from the hive. The orientation of the dance correlates to the relative position of the sun to the food source, and the length of the waggle portion of the run is correlated to the distance from the hive. Also, the more vigorous the display is, the better the food.
• Each honey bee species has a characteristically different correlation of "waggling" to distance, as well.^[8] Such species-specific behavior suggests that this form of communication does not depend on learning but is rather determined genetically. It also suggests how the dance may have evolved.

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• When food is within 50–75 meters of the hive, the scouts dance the "round dance" on the surface of the comb (left). 

   But when the food is farther than 75 meters from the hive, the scouts dance the "waggle dance" (right). 

   The waggle dance has two components:  
  • a straight run — the direction of which conveys information about the direction of the food 
  • the speed at which the dance is repeated which indicates how far away the food is.

• uring the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language   than any other non-human. Koko has a working vocabulary of over 1000   signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English.   Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions   and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words.   Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where   100 is considered "normal." Michael, the   male silverback gorilla who grew up with Koko, had a working vocabulary   of over 600 signs.

• Stanley Coren, a psychologist who has performed a significant amount of research on the subject of dog intelligence, suggests that average trained dogs know about 160 words
• Since at least the 1970s, when researchers successfully trained chimpanzees to use and read words in sign language, we have known that language, in a loose sense of the term, is not unique to humans. Animals have the brain power to understand human language and use their own languages in surprisingly profound ways. We all know parrots can be trained to speak human words. And dogs will react to the word "walk" with a knowing, tail-wagging enthusiasm.

• Vervet monkeys are known to elicit predator-specific alarm calls. Three well-documented vervet monkey alarm calls are those for leopard, martial eagle and python. Leopard alarm calls are short tonal calls produced in a series of inhalations and exhalations. Eagle alarm calls are low pitched grunt while python alarm calls are high pitched “chutters”. Different alarm calls seem to evoke different responses to individuals that heard the alarm calls. However, the first reaction of a vervet monkey upon hearing an alarm call is to look at the direction of the caller. Looking at the direction of the caller gives them clues as to why the alarm calls were made and also where the caller is facing reveals the direction of the approaching predator. You can listen to these different alarm calls on this site.
• Leopard alarm calls would make the monkeys run up into the tree to avoid being ambushed by the leopard. Also, these monkeys would sit on the branches further away from the tree because, even though leopards can climb trees, the branches could not support the leopard’s weight.
• eagle alarm call is given, vervet monkeys would make them look up, run for the nearest bush or both to avoid an approaching aerial attack.
• Python alarm calls would the monkeys stand bipedally and look down on the ground.

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• semantics of alarm calls in vervet monkeys.
• ingenious experiment by Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney and Peter Marler (1980) to test whether vervet monkey alarm calls convey information or if these calls were just an uncontrollable auditory response to predators. 
• Their question was simple; would vervet monkey alarm calls alone elicit different responses?
• They used playbacks of recorded vervet monkey (subjects) alarm calls from concealed speakers. Equal amount of alarm calls for leopard, eagle and snake were used. These alarm calls were recorded from known adult male, adult female and juvenile vervet monkeys in the field. Trials were done when subjects were on the ground and also when they were in the trees. These trials were conducted in the absence of predators to eliminate visual cues from the caller.
• From the results, Seyfarth et al. (1980) posit that vervet monkey alarm calls alone do elicit different responses. It’s hard to tease out whether these alarm calls symbolize the predator ”leopard” or a command ”run up tree”. However, we can postulate that these alarm calls are rudimentary semantic signals used to warn other conspecific of impending danger.

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• Bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language, as they gain a better aptitude for languages, a new study from the University of Haifa reveals.
• For this study, two groups of 6th grade students in Israel were chosen to represent a sample of students studying English as a foreign language. The first group comprised 40 students
• After comparing and merging the results of these tests, the researchers were able to conclude that those students whose mother tongue was Russian demonstrated higher proficiency not only in the new language, English, but also in Hebrew
• Gaining command of a number of languages improves proficiency in native languages," Prof. Abu-Rabia explained. "This is because languages reinforce one another, and provide tools to strengthen phonologic, morphologic and syntactic skills. These skills provide the necessary basis for learning to read. Our study has also shown that applying language skills from one language to another is a critical cognitive function that makes it easier for an individual to go through the learning process successfully.
• Hence, it is clear that tri-lingual education would be most successful when started at a young age and when it is provided with highly structured and substantive practice," he concluded.

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• A smile and a frown mean the same thing everywhere—or so say many anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists, who for more than a century have  argued that all humans express basic emotions the same way. But a new study of people's perceptions of computer-generated faces suggests that facial  expressions may not be universal and that our culture strongly shapes the way we read and express emotions.
• The hypothesis that facial expressions convey the same meaning the world over goes all the way back to Charles Darwin. In his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, the famed naturalist identified six basic emotional states: happiness, surprise, fear,
    disgust, anger, and sadness. If facial expressions are just cultural traits, passed down through the generations by imitation, their meanings would
    have diverged by now, he argued. A smile would signal happiness for some and disgust for others.
• For each of 4800 faces, the subjects could choose one of Darwin's six basic emotional categories and rate the intensity of the expression on a
    five-point scale. If they did not perceive a clear expression on a face, the subjects reported, "Don't know."
• The researchers conclude that Western Caucasians use a distinct set of facial muscles to express basic emotions. Each culture may have fundamental
    expressions, but they are not necessarily shared by other cultures. For East Asians, Jack speculates that facial expressions are built from other
    fundamental emotions, such as "shame, pride, or guilt."
• The study is "a strong challenge to the widely held belief that certain emotional expressions are biologically basic," says Lisa Feldman-Barrett, a
    psychologist at Northeastern University in Boston. If wrong, that belief is doing harm, she says. For one thing, difficulty recognizing facial
    expressions is used to diagnose mental illness. For another, she says, "in the U.S. alone, millions of dollars each year are spent on law enforcement
    and security training to 'read' emotion in the face." But if those faces belong to people from different cultures, their emotions and intentions may be
    illegible.

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• 2)  Manner of production

   

   

   

  stops- air flow stopped completely ex: p, k, d

   

  fricatives: flow restricted but not stopped ex: f, v, s

   

  affricates: stop then fricative ex: ch, dj

   

  glides: w, j

   

  liquids: r, l

   

  nasals: n, m
• 3)  Place of articulation

   

   

   

  Bilabial: lips together: b, p, m

   

  Labiodental: lip to teeth: f, v

   

  Interdental: tongue between teeth: 'th' in that and 'th' in thin

   

  Alveolar: tip of tongue on alveolar ridge: z, t, d

   

  Palatal: tongue on palate: r, dj, gh

   

  Velar: roll tongue to back of throat: k, ng (sing), g

   

  Glottal: back bottom of throat: h

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• Clicks are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa.