Unit 1
The Study of Language and the Nature
and Origins of Human Languages

Overview

Unit 1 examines the differences between human and animal languages, the anthropological context of the study of language, and the biological origins of language.

Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to

1. define the following terms
   • universal features
   • cortex
   • cranial capacity
   • hominid
   • hominoid
2. identify the 16 universal features of language.
3. explain the duality of language.
4. describe the place of linguistic anthropology within the discipline of anthropology.
5. identify the aspects of language studied by medical science, palaeontology, and primatology, descriptive or structural linguistics, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and ethnolinguistics.
6. outline the bow-wow, ouch, and ding-dong theories of the origin of languages.
7. discuss the experimental and field studies done with primates and the light they shed on the origins of human language.
8. identify Franz Boas and describe his views on using linguistics for the purposes of cultural study.
9. identify Noam Chomsky and outline the three types of field data he delineated.
10. discuss the universal design features and language universals, and describe their relationship to the concept that language is a uniquely human ability.