Preserving Language Diversity: Lessons

from Amazonia

Preserving Language Diversity: Lessons

from AmazoniaSimon D. Levy

Computer Science DepartmentWashington & Lee University

Lexington, VA 24450http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy

Simon D. LevyComputer Science DepartmentWashington & Lee University

Lexington, VA 24450http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy

First W&L/Petrobras Conference on the Environment, Economy, and

Sustainable Development22 June 2007

First W&L/Petrobras Conference on the Environment, Economy, and

Sustainable Development22 June 2007

Outline

I. Biodiversity

II. Language Diversity

III. The case of Pirahã

IV. Conclusions

I. Biodiversity

Rainforest Biodiversity

• Greatest plant biodiversity is in rainforests: 170,000 of the world's 250,000 known plant species.

• “We are trying to do biology knowing perhaps only a tenth, or one hundredth, of our species” – Terry Gosliner, National Geographic

Biodiversity and Pharmacology

II. Language Diversity:

Sound and Sense

Language: A Window on the Mind

• Reflects / affects how we think about the world

• Amazing variety of ways of saying the “same thing”

• Counter-intuitive constraints not derivable (?) from more

general principles

Fallacies & Pitfalls

• “Eskimo has over 100

words for snow.”

•“Primitive” languages

Sound

Sound

Sound

Sound

Sound

Sense: Gender• English:

(1) Masculine

(2) Feminine

• Dyirbal (Dixon 1979):

(1) Animate objects, men

(2) Women, water, fire, violence

(3) Edible fruit and vegetables

(4) Miscellaneous

Sense: Counting

Quantity !Kung Warlmanpa

1

r|e'e jinta

2

tsã jirrama

3

n!eni

4

Counting

Quantity !Kung Warlmanpa Portuguese English French

1

r|e'e jinta um / pimeiro one / first un / premier

2

tsã jirrama dois / segundo two / second deux / deuxième

3

n!eni três / terceiro three / third trois / troisième

4

quatro / quarto four / fourth

quatre / quatrième

Sense: Activity (Fillmore 1968)

Agent

Object

Agent Object

He ran away.

She hit him.

He felt sick.

Activity

A

O

A O

English

himhe

Activity

A

O

OA

Chinook

Activity

A

O

OA

(c.f. Spanish Me gusta, English Methinks)

Dakota

Activity

A

O

OA

Takelma

So What Is Universal?(Human vs. Animal

Language)• Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch, (2002): Recursion

- the ability to combine words without limit:

I enjoyed the Piatam conference.I told Jim that I enjoyed the Piatam conference.Laurence knew that I told Jim that I enjoyed the Piatam conference.etc.

• I.e., every human language is infinite.

III. The Case of Pirahã

South American Languages

South American Languages

300 languages: 20 families, 12 isolates

Pirahã

The Pirahã People• Remnant of Mura tribe (late 1700’s)

• 150-200 hunter-gatherers living along the Maici River

• Trade and reproduce • w/outsiders, but no interest in outsider language or culture

Pirahã Language & Culture (Everett 1979 … 2005)

Sound System

But rich “suprasegmental” inventory (sung speech: )

Lexicon & Grammar

• No color terms

• No counting words

• No recursion: I enjoyed the Piatam conference. I told

Jim. Laurence knew it.

• Huge controversy– A finite human language?– Culture influencing (determining?)

language: “Immediacy of Experience Principle”

IV. Conclusions

Threats to Glossodiversity

• “Of the more than 6,000 languages currently being spoken, fewer than half are likely to survive the [21st] century” – Douglas Whalen, Endangered Language Fund

• Appears to correlate with biodiversity (Manne 2003)

• The languages most likely to give us new insights are the ones that are most endangered.

Each language in this sense, while sharing cognitive and communicative principles in common with all other languages spoken by Homo sapiens, is unique. This is why it is such a tragedy when a language dies — we don't just lose a grammar. We lose an entire way of thinking and talking about the world; we lose a set of solutions to the problems that beset us all as humans.

- D. L. Everett

Links• RECURSION AND HUMAN THOUGHT: WHY

THE PIRAHÃ DON'T HAVE NUMBERS: A Talk With Daniel L. Everett

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge213.html#everett

• Endangered Language Fund: http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org