A day in the life of Erin

This is your (average) day in the life of Erin:

Wake up, eat breakfast, walk up hill, lectures/tutorials, lunch, lectures/tutorials, walk down hill, watch friends, dinner, study, shower, sleep.

I usually do all of these things each and every day.

Thrilling, huh?

I bet you wish you were me.

Then you'd have strong strong legs but also a million things to do concerning studying.

I got my first assignment back on Monday. It was pretty much just a referencing assignment. We had to write a passage but that was only worth 4/20 marks. But the whole thing was 20% of our total grade! Insane!! I got 18/20 :) Next linguistics assignment is due tomorrow and I just finished. It was the hardest essay I've ever written. We had to discuss whether or not this dog (Rico) was able to use language. There was just so much to write and we were restricted to 1000 words (no going over!). So I wrestled with that a lot. But I've got it finished and at 999 words (after cutting out about 150). I'm going to post it here actually. So if you're a) Really really bored. b) interested in what we learn in linguistics. c) Interested in the language learning abilities of dogs. Or d) all of the above feel free to read it :) I don't really mind either way.

Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping"

Language and Rico the Border Collie

In 2004, a dog was discovered to have the skills to learn a new concept based on single exposure, a process called ‘fast mapping.’ Rico the Border Collie was shown to be able to distinguish between over 200 items with a high accuracy; but does skill give Rico the ability to use ‘language’? Human language is often defined by a number of ‘design features’ and it is through five of these features – semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability – that I will assess this statement and prove that while Rico’s capabilities may show elements of language, he is far from possessing the ability to use language.

Many animals possess rich communication systems, but they are thought to be limited to sending and understanding approximately 35 different messages (Bauer, Holmes and Warren, 2006:49). Recent research has shown that surprisingly, dogs (as opposed to apes) possess social-cognitive skills similar to those of young children (Tomasello and Kaminiski, 2009:1212-1214). One example of this, is Rico the border collie who was revealed to have the skill to fast-map. Rico has been continuously introduced to new items since he was only 10 months of age. His familiarity with items is achieved by a game of fetch – the owners show him the item, repeating the name and subsequently place it somewhere around the house where Rico fetches the item on command. Upon completing this task, he is rewarded with food or play. By the time he was 10, Rico could differentiate between around 200 different items. Although this number is incomparable to human children of the same age, his vocabulary size is akin to other language trained animals, including apes (Kaminski, Call and Fischer, 2004:1682-183).

In order to assess Rico’s ability to use language, ‘language’ must first be defined. For the purpose of this essay, ‘language’ will be used with reference to the 13 (now 16) ‘design features’, first conceptualised by Charles Hockett in 1960(88-96), which aim to identify the characteristics that illustrate the uniqueness of human language. All systems of animal communication possess some of these features but only human language has them all (Trask and Stockwell, 2007:22). Thus, we can assess Rico’s ability to use language by discussing whether or not his use of language possesses five of the design features: Semanticity, displacement, productivity, cultural transmission and interchangeability.

The primary function of language is to enable efficient communication of meaning. Semantics is the study of meaning, and semanticity accordingly refers to the link between words and their meanings (Allen, 1975:18-19). On the surface, this would seem to be the case with Rico. The article by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) suggests that Rico is able to differentiate between items in relation to their names, and was able to retrieve hidden items 37 out of 40 times. Yet language is far more than the mere association of a name to an object. Rico’s understanding seems to be limited to this association, while humans are able to understand the meaning of the word itself, including the ways words are conceptually linked to one another (Harley,2001:57-58).

Displacement is the ability to discuss things in a remote time or place, for example the past or the future, or outside of here and now (Trask, 1995:5). Rico was shown to be able to retrieve an item from a remote place (another room) upon being asked (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). This kind of ability is reported by Bauer et al., (2006:51) to be “arguably displacement.” While Rico seems to understand such a statement, he is unable to produce one himself, in order to tell us something like “I got the sock yesterday.”

Productivity is the ability to both construct and understand sentences that have never been heard before; such sentences might concern things which have not occurred or situations that have no possibility of ever happening (Lyons, 1970:12-13). Because of the means of the experiments, it remains uncertain as to whether or not Rico is able to comprehend things he has never heard before. As most of his word-learning is done in a fetching context, this is unlikely, but Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683) note that there is anecdotal evidence that he is able to understand other sentences, a claim that would have to be tested by further experimental means.

Humans learn language through a process of teaching and learning from their surrounding community from a very young age, a process called cultural transmission (Allen, 1975:19). This contrasts with the ability to acquire a language, which is thought to be inbuilt into our genes (Hockett, 1960:88-96). Rico shows some evidence of cultural transmission through his process of learning. In the tests done by Kaminski et al. (2004:1682-1683), Rico was shown to be able infer the names of objects through a process of elimination. In addition, he was shown to retain this knowledge four weeks later. Children on the other hand learn words much more naturally, by hearing and imitating in a completely immersed environment (Allen, 1975:18-19). Rico’s ability to learn is limited to a fetching game. Furthermore, there is no evidence to show that he is able to infer anything more than simply the names of objects.

‘Interchangeability’ is perhaps the design feature which best exemplifies that Rico is unable to use language. Interchangeablity is the ability to both send and receive messages – to reproduce the messages that have been heard (Hockett, 1960). While Rico has been shown to comprehend the things said to him, his language ability is limited to understanding – he is not able to use language to communicate himself (Kaminski et al., 2004:1682-1683). The design features are frequently talked about in terms of one’s ability to produce said feature, rather than just understand. They require the subject to take on an active role, rather than a passive one. Rico does not tell others to get socks for him – he is limited to being the receiver of such orders and as such, ultimately cannot be seen as using language.

In conclusion, Rico’s abilities certainly display a great deal of understanding, including connecting names and objects, and understanding commands referring to something outside his immediate environment. But because design features rely on the active input of language, Rico’s inability to directly communicate renders him overall unable to use ‘language’ as defined by the design features.

References:

Allen, J.P.B. 1975. Some Basic Concepts in Linguistics. In J.P.B. Allen (ed.) The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics. London: Oxford University Press. 16-44.

Bauer, Laurie, Janet Holmes and Paul Warren 2006. Language Matters. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Harley, Trevor 2001. The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Hockett, Charles 1960. The Origin of Speech. Scientific American 203: 88-96.

Kaminski, J., Josep Call and Julia Fischer 2004. Word Learning in a Domestic Dog: Evidence for "Fast Mapping". Science 304(5677): 1682-1683.

Lyons, John 1970. Introduction. In John Lyons (ed.) New Horizons in Linguistics. Middlesex, England: Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd. 7-28.

Tomasello, Michael and Juliane Kaminski 2009. Behaviour: Like Infant, Like Dog. Science 325(5945): 1212-1214.

Trask, Robert and Peter Stockwell 2007. Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts (2^nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.

Trask, R.L. 1995. Language; The Basics. London: Routledge.

My brain is officially overloaded.

And now I have a Japanese essay to write.

Wish me luck!

Love Erin.

PS. I don't know if I said this, but i'll be coming home NEXT FRIDAY. That's a week away people. I hope you're excited!! :)