{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A new picture of language","description":"  If you've taken Linguistics 101, you know what language is. It's a system for conveying meaning through speech. We build words out of sounds, and then complex ideas out of those words. Remarkably, the relationship between the sounds and the meanings they convey is purely arbitrary. Human language consists, in other words, of abstract symbols. Now, of course, there are also sign languages, but these operate in the same way, just in a different medium. This, anyway, is the view of language that has dominated and defined linguistics for many decades. But some think it gets some pretty fundamental things pretty wrong. Some think we need a new picture of language altogether.  My guest today is Dr. Neil Cohn. Neil is Associate Professor at the Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication, in the Netherlands; he is also the director of the Visual Language Lab at Tilburg. For about two decades, Neil has been studying the rich properties of graphic systems\u2014especially comics\u2014and has built an argument that some constitute full-blown languages. His latest book, co-authored with, Joost Schilperoord, is titled A Multimodal Language Faculty. It challenges that longstanding, deeply held view of what language is. Instead, the book argues that the human language capacity combines three different modalities\u2014the vocal modality (as in speech), the bodily modality (as in gesture), and the graphic modality (as in comics and other visual narratives). And each of these modalities is naturally able to support full-blown languages. Here, Neil and I talk about the basic assumptions of modern linguistics and where those assumptions come from. We discuss the idea that there are three expressive modalities that come naturally to humans, with each modality optimized for certain kinds of meaning. We talk about Neil's career, not only as an academic, but as an illustrator. We discuss cross-cultural differences and similarities in comics, and how comics have changed over the last century. And, finally, we consider how Neil's framework challenges current theorizing about the evolution of language. Along the way, Neil and I touch on sign languages and homesign systems, visual style vs visual language, Peircean semiotics, animal tracks, cave art, emoji, upfixes, sand drawing, Manga, the refrain "I can't draw," and the idea that the graphic modality is the only one that's truly unique to our species.  After this episode we'll be taking a bit of a summer break, but we'll be posting some old favorites to tide you over. Alright friends, hope you enjoy this one. On to my conversation with Neil Cohn. Enjoy!    A transcript of this episode is available here.    Notes and links 3:30 \u2013 An earlier paper by Dr. Cohn on the well-worn refrain \u201cI can\u2019t draw.\u201d His more recent Twitter thread covering the topic.  9:00 \u2013 An overview of research on homesign systems. For a broader discussion of differences between gesture, homesign systems, and established sign languages, see here.  15:00 \u2013 A comic, \u2018Chinese Room,\u2019 commissioned by the philosopher Dan Dennett and drawn by Dr. Cohn. 19:30 \u2013 The webpage of Dr. Cohn\u2019s graduate mentor, Ray Jackendoff. 25:00 \u2013 A brief overview paper by Dr. Cohn and Dr. Schilperoord on the need to \u201creimagine language.\u201d 25:30 \u2013 The classic book, based on lecture notes, by Ferdinand de Saussure, \u2018Course in General Linguistics.'  44:00 \u2013 For an overview of \u201cbimodal bilingualism,\u201d see here.  50:00 \u2013 A study by Dr. Cohn and colleagues on the processing of emoji substituted for words. 56:00 \u2013 A recent study by Dr. Cohn and colleagues on anaphora in visual narratives.  58:30 \u2013 For our previous audio essay on animal (and human) tracks, see here.  1:01:30 \u2013 For examples of scholarship on non-Western methods of visual storytelling, including Aboriginal Australian sand drawing, see Dr. Cohn\u2019s earlier edited volume here. For a deeper dive into sand drawing, see the monograph by Jenny Green here.  1:03:00 \u2013 Dr. Cohn also recently published a book on cross-cultural aspects of comics, The Patterns of Comics. The book is the fruit of his lab\u2019s TINTIN project.  1:11:00 \u2013 For a video of Aboriginal Australian sand drawing, see here. 1:13:00 \u2013 See Dr. Cohn\u2019s earlier book, Who Understands Comics? 1:15:00 \u2013 A study on \u201cupfixes\u201d by Dr. Cohn and a colleague. 1:22:00 \u2013 A popular article by Dr. Cohn on the linguistic status of emoji. 1:31:00 \u2013 For a deep dive into Peircean semiotics, see here. 1:36:00 \u2013 For my own general-audience treatment of \u201cgesture first\u201d theories of language evolution and the \u201cmodality transition\u201d problem, see here. 1:37:00 \u2013 A paper by Dr. Jackendoff and Eva Wittenberg outlining their \u201ccomplexity hierarchy.\u201d  \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad1:50:00 \u2013 For the Getty museum exhibit associated with Dr. Cohn\u2019s lecture, see here.   Recommendations The Texture of the Lexicon, by Jenny Audring and Ray Jackendoff Battle in the Mind Fields, by John Goldsmith and Bernard Laks History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences podcast, hosted by James McElvenny   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to UCLA. It is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala.  Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com.  For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Twitter: @ManyMindsPod. ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"