Konuşmanın Sırları Çözülüyor
-
Unlocking the Mysteries of Speech
02/01/2010 16:37:55
Unlocking the mysteries of speech - Konuşmanın sırrını çözmek
Animals may use sounds to communicate but talking is uniquely human. Yet despitedecades of research scientists still haven't unlocked the secrets of speech. So why do we talk?
Talking is something most people do with such ease.
Webarelynotice we are doing it, let alone stop to think how the brain processes the 370 million words an average person says in their lifetime.
Yet a complex sequence of thoughts, movements and actions lie behind each and every word we utter.
And as adults, we speak 15,000 words every day.
So where does language come from, how did this abilityevolveand is it something we are born with or something we learn?
One scientist trying to unlock the secret of speech is Professor Simon Kirby, chair of language evolution at the University of Edinburgh.
He thinks the origin of language is the result of a "cultural evolutionary process".
"What's interesting about this process for language is just like in biological evolution, the thing that evolves shows thisappearanceof design," says Prof Kirby.
"But just like we know in nature, there isn't a designer, it's just this process of evolution.
"Each speaker produces sentences that influence other speakers of the language, and that influences their children and so on over the generations.
Somehow, out of this complicatedsoupof interactions between people, language emerges."
To explore how language develops and evolves over hundreds of years, Prof Kirby has created analienlanguage experiment that can beconductedin one afternoon.
The experiment consists of a series of made-up words used to describe alien fruits.
Humanguniea pigshave tofamiliarizethemselves with new words which describe pictures of the fruits.
They are then tested to see what they remember.
Unique
"In the beginning the alien words are completely random, with no common factors between them," says Prof Kirby.
"We start the experiment with this garbage language.
In fact calling it a language isin some sensemisleading, it's not even a language."
Early participants do very badly in the test because the language is completely random and unstructured.
But there is atwist.
When they are tested, the experiment introduces somebrand newfruits, so volunteers cannot possibly recall their names.
Most people do not notice and invent words for the unfamiliar fruits.
Then for the next phase in the experiment, all the words produced by the first candidate are used to create the language for the next person.
"Each of these learners thinks they're giving us back the same thing that we trained them on as best they can, but in fact each of themunconsciouslyis changing that language, changing it piece by piece over time," says Prof Kirby.
As the alien language is passed through generations of users, it slowly turns from a random,consciousone, to one of structure with combinations that can be easily remembered.
Fascinating
By the ninth generation, the words have been divided into parts and each of these has a different meaning.
"What we get at the end looks like a real language, not one we see in world today but it looks like a language in that it's got thoseessentialdefining characteristics.
In other words, these languages thatemergearemade upof parts that can berecombined," says Prof Kirby.
So the letters N, L and R describe different colours, the middle of the word different numbers and the end of the word like "plo" or "pilu" or "ki" describe the type of fruit.
"This happens gradually, it happens without anyone knowing and yet it is the exact feature of language that makes it unique, makes language different from everything else in nature," says Prof Kirby.
"No one designed English, no one sat down and said it would be useful if it had relative clauses or grammar, it just happens, happens by this blind unconscious process oftransmission.
For the first time we're able to see that happening in the laboratory."
Because of our ability to combine sounds to make new meanings, how we talk will continue to change from generation to generation.
And it's the fact language is a livingentitythat makes it so fascinating, but soevasive, for scientists.
Prof Kirby, and other scientists know, while they have come a long way, such discoveries are just the beginning ofunravelingthe mysteries of why we talk - and aglimpseof just how complicated the process is.
Konuşmanın Sırları Çözülüyor - Unlocking the Mysteries of Speech
Unlocking the mysteries of speech - Konuşmanın sırrını çözmek
Animals may use sounds to communicate but talking is uniquely human. Yet despitedecades of research scientists still haven't unlocked the secrets of speech. So why do we talk?
Talking is something most people do with such ease.
Webarelynotice we are doing it, let alone stop to think how the brain processes the 370 million words an average person says in their lifetime.
Yet a complex sequence of thoughts, movements and actions lie behind each and every word we utter.
And as adults, we speak 15,000 words every day.
So where does language come from, how did this abilityevolveand is it something we are born with or something we learn?
One scientist trying to unlock the secret of speech is Professor Simon Kirby, chair of language evolution at the University of Edinburgh.
He thinks the origin of language is the result of a "cultural evolutionary process".
"What's interesting about this process for language is just like in biological evolution, the thing that evolves shows thisappearanceof design," says Prof Kirby.
"But just like we know in nature, there isn't a designer, it's just this process of evolution.
"Each speaker produces sentences that influence other speakers of the language, and that influences their children and so on over the generations.
Somehow, out of this complicatedsoupof interactions between people, language emerges."
To explore how language develops and evolves over hundreds of years, Prof Kirby has created analienlanguage experiment that can beconductedin one afternoon.
The experiment consists of a series of made-up words used to describe alien fruits.
Humanguniea pigshave tofamiliarizethemselves with new words which describe pictures of the fruits.
They are then tested to see what they remember.
Unique
"In the beginning the alien words are completely random, with no common factors between them," says Prof Kirby.
"We start the experiment with this garbage language.
In fact calling it a language isin some sensemisleading, it's not even a language."
Early participants do very badly in the test because the language is completely random and unstructured.
But there is atwist.
When they are tested, the experiment introduces somebrand newfruits, so volunteers cannot possibly recall their names.
Most people do not notice and invent words for the unfamiliar fruits.
Then for the next phase in the experiment, all the words produced by the first candidate are used to create the language for the next person.
"Each of these learners thinks they're giving us back the same thing that we trained them on as best they can, but in fact each of themunconsciouslyis changing that language, changing it piece by piece over time," says Prof Kirby.
As the alien language is passed through generations of users, it slowly turns from a random,consciousone, to one of structure with combinations that can be easily remembered.
Fascinating
By the ninth generation, the words have been divided into parts and each of these has a different meaning.
"What we get at the end looks like a real language, not one we see in world today but it looks like a language in that it's got thoseessentialdefining characteristics.
In other words, these languages thatemergearemade upof parts that can berecombined," says Prof Kirby.
So the letters N, L and R describe different colours, the middle of the word different numbers and the end of the word like "plo" or "pilu" or "ki" describe the type of fruit.
"This happens gradually, it happens without anyone knowing and yet it is the exact feature of language that makes it unique, makes language different from everything else in nature," says Prof Kirby.
"No one designed English, no one sat down and said it would be useful if it had relative clauses or grammar, it just happens, happens by this blind unconscious process oftransmission.
For the first time we're able to see that happening in the laboratory."
Because of our ability to combine sounds to make new meanings, how we talk will continue to change from generation to generation.
And it's the fact language is a livingentitythat makes it so fascinating, but soevasive, for scientists.
Prof Kirby, and other scientists know, while they have come a long way, such discoveries are just the beginning ofunravelingthe mysteries of why we talk - and aglimpseof just how complicated the process is.
To see the experiment on record, go to "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8352525.stm"