Poohtanginang theories

• Pooh-Pooh theory


  The origin of language lies in spontaneous human exclamations and interjections caused by pain, surprise, or other strong emotions
• Henry Sweet


  He believed that language developed from exclamations of humans
• Max Muller supported the pooh-pooh theory for a while but later abandoned it
• Pooh-pooh theory


  • Language developed from involuntary vocalizations like cries, sighs, and groans
  • Early humans utilized vocalizations to express their emotions or intentions before evolving into sophisticated languages with words and syntactic structures
• Pooh-Pooh Theory


  • Emphasis on the role of interjections and vocalizations as the foundation of language development
  • Primacy of instinctive reactions
  • Level of acceptance
• Oversimplification: AS. Diamond argues against this theory, suggesting that language actually evolves beyond mere interjections
• Mama Theory


  Points out that an infant acquires language by pronouncing syllables that are far easier to pronounce
• According to the Mama Theory, babies may grasp words as early as six months of age, with "mama" and "dada" among the first words they acquire to understand
• Mama Theory


  A conjecture proposed by linguists and anthropologists, explored and contested in languages, anthropology, and evolutionary biology
• Babbling in infants


  • Canonical: repeated CV syllables such as "mamama"
  • Variegated: a variety of syllables that resemble words
• At first, babble patterns are universal, but after eight to ten months, language exposure shapes them
• Babies' babbling differs according to the language context in which they grow up, with a preference for language segments that are common in that language
• Babbling patterns mirror the ambient language's syllable structures
• Children as young as six months have been shown to associate sounds with specific meanings, which is the youngest age this has been demonstrated
• Yo-he-ho theory


  Language emerged from rhythmic grunts, groans, and curses used during coordinated physical labor, such as lifting and carrying heavy objects
• Yo-he-ho theory


  • Supports the social nature of early humans, who lived in groups requiring communication and organization for survival
  • Emphasizes the role of social cooperation and shared physical work in the development of language
• Ludwig Noiré


  • German philosopher, known for his studies involving the philosophy of language
  • Saw the ability to speak as a genuine human ability and developed the theory that working together was the origin of language
  • Believed that language is a precondition for thinking
• Yo-he-ho theory


  1. Language and speech started with rhythmic chants, grunts and groans made by earliest people during heavy physical actions/labor

  2. Emerged from the need to communicate during organized activities or collaborative tasks of people such as moving heavy objects, heaving rocks, and building monumental structures
• Bow-wow theory


  Theory that humans mimicked animal sounds to communicate with each other
• Peter Farb: '"All these speculations have serious flaws, and none can withstand the close scrutiny of present knowledge about the structure of language and about the evolution of our species."'
• Bow-wow theory


  • First proposed by German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder in the late 18th century
  • According to this theory, humans mimicked animal sounds to communicate with each other
  • Over time, these animal sounds evolved into more complex language structures
• Other examples of activities where the yo-he-ho theory could apply

  • Lifting heavy weights
  • Karate
• Onomatopoeic


  Marked by echoic words such as moo, meow, splash, cuckoo, and bang
• Many onomatopoeic words are of recent origin, and not all are derived from natural sounds
• The idea oversimplifies the factors that likely contributed to the development of language, which is a complex process
• Claims that the language was created to accompany and imitate physical gestures.


  Ta-Ta Theory
•   Who proposed the Ta-Ta Theory?

  Richard Paget
• According to him, body language precede language

  Darwin
• ____ originally started as an unconscious vocal imitation of physical movements

  Language
• This does not explain how children learn the meaning of words or how their skills develop


   Ta-Ta Theory
• It oversimplifies the process of language acquisition by focusing too much on innate abilities


  Ta-Ta Theory
• a Hopkins psychology professor and a pioneer/leader in researching how infants perceive speech and develop language: 'Children as young as six months have been shown to associate sounds with specific meanings, which is the youngest age this has been demonstrated'

  Jusczyk
• This theory does not account complexity and variability of language development across different individuals and linguistic contexts


  Ta-Ta Theory
•  People who proposed this theory speculated that primitive people were so in touch with nature that they could sense a thing's essential quality.

  Ding-Dong Theory
•  theory suggests there's

  a mystic correlation between

  sound and meaning

  Ding-Dong Theory
•  proposed the Ding-Dong theory by stating that meaning comes from sounds

  Max Muller
•  He suggests that language evolved as a response to the resonant qualities of the natural environment.

  Max Muller
• Ding-Dong theory was proposed by Dutch linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay in 1913. 


  Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
•  He theorized suggests that early human languages developed from onomatopoeia and were used to describe events or objects

  Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
• This theory suggests that early human languages developed from onomatopoeia - words that imitate or suggest natural sounds and were used to describe events or objects.

  Ding-Dong Theory