Born to Talk An Introduction to Speech and Language Development - Solutions, summaries, and outlines. 2022 updated

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BORN TO TALK

An Introduction to Speech and Language
Development
Fifth Edition




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, CHAPTER ONE
A CONNECTION OF BRAINS
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter is designed to pique the reader’s interest in speech and language as
processes within the broader context of communication. Communication, speech, and
language are defined and their inter-relationships are discussed. We also consider how
a speaker’s thoughts are conveyed to a listener’s brain through a series of
communication transformations known collectively as the speech chain.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
 Define communication, language, and speech.
 Describe speech and language as separate but related processes.
 Identify and discuss design features of human communication.
 Describe and discuss the speech chain that connects the speaker’s thoughts to the
listener’s understanding of those thoughts.

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
 Communication
 Language
 Speech
 Vocal-auditory channel
 Broadcast transmission
 Directional reception
 Rapid fading
 Interchangeability
 Total feedback
 Specialization
 Semanticity
 Indexicality
 Arbitrariness
 Discreteness
 Displacement
 Recursion
 Productivity
 Duality of Patterning
 Traditional Transmission
 Prevarication
 Reflexiveness
 Learnability
 The Speech Chain




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,POINTS OF EMPHASIS
1. Speech and language are separate but related processes within the larger process
known as communication.
2. Communication is the sending and receiving of information, ideas, feelings, or
messages.
3. Language is a system of abstract symbols and rule-governed structures, the specific
conventions of which are learned.
4. Speech is the oral expression of language.
5. Speech and language are integrated parts of the same process in the same way that
pictures and sounds are integrated parts of television.
6. No matter how much we discover about the abilities of other animals to
communicate, we remain convinced that no animal has a communication system as
powerful as human language.
7. The design features of human communication, as originally described by Hockett, do
not have equal importance in describing human language or in separating human
from animal communication. Nine of these features might be described as most
important and/or differentiating: productivity, displacement, semanticity,
indexicality, duality of patterning, recursion, prevarication, reflexiveness, and
learnability.
8. The speech chain allows the brains of a speaker and a listener to connect in a
communicative sense.

SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READINGS
 Anderson, S. R. (2004). Doctor Doolittle’s delusion: Animals and the uniqueness of
human language. New Have, CT: Yale University Press.
 Clayton, N. S, Bussey, T. J., & Dickinson, A. (2003). Can animals recall the past and
plan for the future? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, 685-691.
 Corballis, M. C. (2007). The uniqueness of human recursive thinking: The ability to
think about thinking may be the critical attribute that distinguishes us from all other
species. American Scientist, 95(3), 240-249.
 Curtis, S. (1977). Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modern day “wild” child. New
York: Academic Press.
 Denes, P. & Pinson, E. (1993). The speech chain (2nd ed.). New York: W. H.
Freeman and Co.
 Gentner, T. Q., Fenn, K. M., Margoliash, D., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2006). Recursive
syntactic pattern learning by songbirds. Nature, 440, 1204-1207.
 Hauser, m. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is
it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579.
 Hockett, C. (1960). The origin of speech. Scientific American, 203, 89-97.
 Jackendoff, R., & Pinker, C. (2005). The nature of language faculty and its
implications for evolution of language. (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, and Chomsky),
Cognition, 97(2), 211-225.
 Janik, V. (2000). Whistle matching in bottlenose dolphins. Science, 289, 1355-1357.
 Tyack, P. (2000). Dolphins whistle a signature tune. Science, 289, 1310-1311.




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, WEBSITES TO EXPLORE
 http://www.dolphincommunicationproject.org
 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/research/animal-communication-research
 http://www.whalesong.net

DISCUSSION TOPICS
 Identify as many different methods of human communication as possible.
 Why is speech a more convenient and efficient form of communication than other
forms?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of speech in comparison to written
language?
 Which of Hockett’s design features most effectively separate human communication
from animal communication, and why?
 How does social development affect the functioning of the speech chain?

SUGGESTED PROJECTS
 In small groups, create unique definitions of communication, language, and speech
and discuss the major differences and similarities between these terms.
 Observe a variety of animals and describe the communication systems they appear to
use. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of these communication systems in
comparison to human speech and language.
 Watch people in a public place (e.g., a mall, restaurant, park) and note the range of
verbal and nonverbal communications they use.
 In a group of about 10 people, tell a story to one person who tells it to the next person
until the story has passed through all 10 people. Discuss how the story has changed
as it has passed from one person to the next and identify the link or links in the
speech chain that might account for the changes.




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