Social Analysis 34 - Chpt. 17 Reading Notes

Front 1

What are the two parts of a "sign?"

Back 1

The signifier, (a word, scent, gesture, or electrical frequency), and the thing being commited, (the signified)

Front 2

What are individual instances of signs called?

Back 2

Tokens

Ex: For the sentence, "The baby threw the rattle," there are five word tokens, but only four signs, because "the" is repeated twice

Front 3

What is the study of signs called?

Back 3

Semiotics

Front 4

What are the three types of signs?

Back 4

1. Iconic signs: resemble ithe referent
2. Indexical signs/Symptomatic signs: respectively points out referent by partial represents/involuntarily shows inner state of sender, such as a cry of pain
3. Symbolic sign: bears arbitrary relationship to referent

Front 5

What are the two different kinds of sign structures?

Back 5

1. graded: signs can convey meanin by changes in degree, (ex: movement of hands on an analog clock)
2. Discrete: signs are clearly distinguished from each other with no gradual transition from one to the other (ex: digital time display)

Front 6

How is animal communication often described?

Back 6

Stimulus-bound; used to describe animal communication, since it is often claimed that aimla communication only occurs when it is triggered by exposure to a certain stimulus or for certain specific ends. Animals do not communicate anything, but the here and now.

Front 7

What are the 3 different ways distance is indicated by the bee dance?

Back 7

1. Round dance: food is within 5 m
2. Sickle dance: food source is from five to twenty meters from teh hive
3. Tail-wagging dance: food source is greater than twenty meters

Front 8

Does the round dance communicate direction?

Back 8

No, because the food is so close to the hive

Front 9

How is the quality of the food sources represented by the bee dance?

Back 9

Quality of the food source is indicated by teh intensity of the dancing and the number of repetitions of the circling movements.

Front 10

What does redundancy assure?

Back 10

Assures that communication will succeed in the event that one or another modality fails or is imperfectly transmitted

Front 11

Can bees communicate the notions of up or down?

Back 11

No

Front 12

How does this text book say that bees gauge distance?

Back 12

By time, because they can be tricked into giving hte wrong information about distance if they are forced to walk or stop eseveral times during their trip

Front 13

Is bee communication innate?

Back 13

Yes

Front 14

Do parrots speak simply, because they are repetitively conditioned to do so?

Back 14

No; can identify colors, numbers up to six, and shapes

Front 15

What is an acoustic recording calle dtha tshows pitcha nd intesntiy fo sound along a time axis?

Back 15

Spectrogram

Front 16

What are the two groups within the primate family?

Back 16

Prosimians, such as lemusr and tasiers; and anthropoids, which includes everything else

Front 17

What are the two main types of vocalizations made by lemurs?

Back 17

Noises, such as clicks and purs, and calls, such as spats and barks

Front 18

What type of signs are lemur vocalizations?

Back 18

Symptomatic signs, (spontaeous expressions of an inner state)

Front 19

Does the correct use of calls in primates require learning?

Back 19

Yes; adults can distinguish between the relative threat of different animals

Front 20

What form of communication is unique to gibbons within the primate family?

Back 20

Duetting

Front 21

Who was the first chimpanzee to be taught sign langauge?

Back 21

Washoe

Front 22

What there any sign of the chimpanzee, Nim, engagin in creative combining of signs?

Back 22

No; more than 50% of her signs were a small number of all-purpose signs

Front 23

Did the horse, Clever Hans, really know how to communicate?

Back 23

No; he was a careful observer thatn received cues that indicated that he had performed correctly; when observers did not know that answer to a question, or when Clever Hans was blindfolded, he failed to perform his miracles

Front 24

What is dressage?

Back 24

A type of interaction between trainer and animal that depends on teh animals' interpreting subtle cues given by the trainer; the Clever Hans phenomenon is an excellent example of dressage

Front 25

What is the closest to a syntax that has been demonstrated in primates?

Back 25

The pygmy chimp, Kanzi, produces significant, (though not holy consistent), differences in the placement of animate agents in sign combinations. WHen another chimpanzee, Matata was grabbed, for example, Kanzi produced "grab matata" whereas when Matata performed an action such as biting, Kanzi produced "Matata biting."

Front 26

What does the computational system allow humans to do?

Back 26

Generate and comprehend novel sentences with a hierarchical phrase structure

Front 27

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, interchangeability.

Back 27

All members of hte species can both send and receive messages

Front 28

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, feedback.

Back 28

Humans monitor their linguistic output and correct it. It is debatable if bees do and likely that birds do

Front 29

What is the closest to a syntax that has been demonstrated in primates?

Back 29

The pygmy chimp, Kanzi, produces significant, (though not holy consistent), differences in the placement of animate agents in sign combinations. WHen another chimpanzee, Matata was grabbed, for example, Kanzi produced "grab matata" whereas when Matata performed an action such as biting, Kanzi produced "Matata biting."

Front 30

What does the computational system allow humans to do?

Back 30

Generate and comprehend novel sentences with a hierarchical phrase structure

Front 31

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, interchangeability.

Back 31

All members of hte species can both send and receive messages

Front 32

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, feedback.

Back 32

Humans monitor their linguistic output and correct it. It is debatable if bees do and likely that birds do

Front 33

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, interchangeability.

Back 33

Bees: no; only foragers
Birds: no; only males
Primates: yes
Humans: yes

Front 34

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, feedback.

Back 34

Bees: unknown
Birds: unknown
Primates: probably
Humans: yes

Front 35

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, specialization.

Back 35

The communication system serves no other function but to communicate

Bees: yes
Birds: yes
Primates: in part
Humans: yes

Front 36

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, semanticity.

Back 36

The system conveys meaning through a set of fixed relationships among signifiers, referents, and meanings

Bees: yes, very limited
Birds: yes, limited
Primates; yes
Humans: yes

Front 37

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, arbitrariness.

Back 37

There is no natural or inherent connection between a token and its referent.

Bees: yes, for expressing distance
Birds: yes, though highly adaptive
primates: limited confirmation; selectively adaptive
Humans: yes

Front 38

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, discreteness.

Back 38

The communication system consists of isolatable, repeatable units

Bees: In a limited way
Birds; yes, in song
Primates: in call systems
Humans: yes

Front 39

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, displacement.

Back 39

Users of the system are able to refer to events remote in space and time

Bees: yes
Birds: no
Primates: no
Humans: yes

Front 40

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, productivity.

Back 40

New messages on any topic can be produced at any time

Bees: yes, very limited
Birds: possibly
Primates: possibly
Humans: yes

Front 41

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, duality of patterning.

Back 41

Meaningless units (phonemes) are combined to form arbitrary signs. These signs in turn can be recombined to form new, meaningful larger units.

Bees: no
Birds: no
Primates: no
Humans: yes

Front 42

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, tradition.

Back 42

At least certain aspects of the system must be transmitted from an experienced user to a learner

Bee: possibly, but highly limited
Birds: yes, limited
Primates: possibly
Humans: yes

Front 43

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, prevarication.

Back 43

The system enables the users to talk nonsense or to lie.

Bee: no
Birds: possibly
Primates: possibly
Humans: yes

Front 44

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, learnability.

Back 44

A user of the system can learn other variants.

Bees: no
Birds: possibly
Primates: no
Humans: yes

Front 45

Describe the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the design feature, reflexiveness.

Back 45

The ability to use the communication system to discuss the system itself.

Bees: no
Birds: no
Primates: no
Humans: yes