Human and Non-Human Language & Comminication

 AI, Extraterrestrials, Terrestrial Animals -- I seem to have widened my linguistic scope, recently.

Last spring I adopted a new dog.  We enrolled in an obedience class this fall.  The teacher suggested a book, "On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals", by Turid Rugaas.  Animals commnicate a great deal with body signals which humans can learn to understand and even use, themselves.  Turid illustrates her book with many photos illustrating these signals.

I immediately recognized one that Oliver, my Jack Russell (now deceased) made great use of -- looking away.  I would call him to come in the house.  He would immediately look in the other direction.  "I don't hear you and I don't understand you and since I'm not looking at you I don't see you waving your hands in my direction.  So I'm not really disobeying you by continuing to run around the yard."  

Just like a little kid!

Two polite dog strangers will carefully ingnore each other and pretend they don't really notice one another until they've had the chance, little-by-little, to check each other out.

When I offer my corgi-mix, Daisy, a treat with a pill hidden in the middle, she turns her head away from it.  "No, I know what it is and I won't eat it."  I offer from another angle having added a dab of peanut butter.  She turns her head away again. "No! The answer is still No!"

In an earlier blog post I mentioned the fact that all humans have the point gesture, whether done with a finger or other body part, as a universal symbol meaning "Look at that," or "It's that."  As for dogs, not just a "Pointer" will "point" but they all do whether by pawing at the door to ask to go out or by nosing their empty kibble dish to say "feed me".  

This makes me wonder about humans shaking the head side-to-side to say "No". It is not universal among all cultures.  In a few places, nodding means "No", while shaking means "Yes", plus there are various other head wobbles used to impart feelings.  Still....

I am finally in the process of reading "The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker, or at least parts of it.  Pinker and Chomsky are no longer considered revolutionary but the book is still interesting.

As for cats, as far as I can see, they sometimes point with just their eyes.  You really have to pay attention!  And when it comes to saying good morning to my cat, I'm still trying to perfect my slow blink.

My September Entry...

 was a review of the movie "Arrival" which ended up posted on imdb.com rather than here on Blogger.com.

Better late than never.  Here's that review, below, title and all.

A genuine sci-fi movie...

......that dealt with ideas rather than bug-eyed monsters, terrifying plot twists and acrobatic physical action. For that reason I gave it a 6 even though some of the dialog was cheesy and scenes cliched.

I was a bit disappointed in the linguistic analysis effort. The linguist did determine, relatively quickly, that the aliens communicated with visual (lightwave-based) symbols rather than verbal/aural (sound-wave based) symbols. (I didn't see any effort to determine if the aliens had the same visual spectrum that we do but let's assume they were simply able to use our visual spectrum.) Having done that you would think she might have tried a graphic of a hydrogen atom as a starting point for mutual understanding. Or perhaps a depiction of our solar system and galaxy -- especially as one, essential question was "Where do you come from?" How hard would it have been for us to point to us, then to earth, and the aliens to add to the drawing their own far-away home?

One member of the science team indicated that they were able to repeat back to us a series of prime numbers even though they "couldn't understand our algebra". What number symbols was he using? And what numbering system? -- base 7 (since they had 7 legs and 7 fingers)? Or binary (which might have made the most sense)? As I said, some of the dialog was cheesy.

Also -- we, meaning not only the Americans but the Chinese and other countries, managed to mis-interpret their word "gift" for "weapon" -- a rather grave mistake, and one not believable given the team's ingenuity in determining the meaning of other, more ambiguous words.

But that misinterpretation was necessary to add at least a little bit of action and suspense.

And then, the "gift" turned out to be tlhe language, itself, which, if you mastered it, gave you the ability to see all your life at once, past-present-and-future. Yes, learning a different language or even increased vocabulary in your native tongue, can enhance your ability to perceive and analyze the world. But seeing the future is a bit much to ask of linguistics, alone!

All in all, this movie was a good effort, even though flawed. I was glad I watched it.

ESL and AI

 It's here! You can now practice SPEAKING a second language using AI.  FREE.  This is the my first blog entry on the subject but not the last.

Go to Gliglish.com to converse with a native language "speaker". However, you get only 10 minutes per day.  I tested it out using French and Spanish, since my mother tongue is English.  I used up my minutes pretty fast just figuring out how the site works.  I chose French from a big list of languages. Gliglish (who appears as a young lady) greeted me, then, to reply, I needed to click a microphone icon to start my response.  Then I needed to click a red square to stop.  Just stopping talking was not enough.  I steered the "Hello, how are you" type of conversation onto the subject of pets.  I said I had a dog and a cat.  Gliglish said she had a cat.  It often took the AI a long time to respond but I think that resulted from my own ineptness in "turning off" the "microphone" promptly after I'd given her a statement.  Sometimes I would not realize I hadn't turned the mike on, at which point the screen would pop up some helpful examples of things I might say.

Next I tried Spanish.  This time I got a list of suggested subjects.  Unfortunately, upon choosing one, the screen said that I was now out of minutes.  I logged back in using the DuckDuckGo browser (rather than Google) and was able to go forward with a conversation on the subject of prices -- for the moment, anyway.  I asked how much a Spanish dictionary cost and got a price. Gliglish asked what country I was in.  I answered "Los Estados Unidos" and said a Spanish dictionary was expensive here.  (Actually, I don't think that's true if I get a used one.)

Overall, this ai app has great potential.  I'll go back to become more adept at using it, then evaluate how sophisticated a conversation it might be capable of.

Another ai app offering free usage with limited features is TalkPal.  Upon creating an account it says that the free trial lasts 14 days.  A 24 month premium subscription costs only $4.69 a month. (For now, anyway.)  That's really cheap.  But I can't start the free trial without entering a credit card to be billed after the trial.  So I didn't go forward.  I may try another day to see if I can get a limited-feature trial without entering a credit card.

Last but not least for today, people have simply been using the free versions of search chatbots to practice English.  Here's a YouTube video by Shivangi Gupta explaining how to do this. And here's another video comparing ChatGPT to ai apps with free freatures by Cloud English.

Synesthesia and Chromesthesia

In case you haven't met these, two words, here's an AI generated definition from Google: Synesthesia is a condition where stimulating one sense triggers experiences in another, and chromesthesia is the specific type where sounds evoke the perception of colors. 

I have the free version of a subscription at from academia.edu which gives you a summary every day of academic papers and shows people who share your interests.  Recently there seem to be more and more papers being published on the subject of chromesthesia which is, of course interesting to anyone who uses the Color Vowel® system.

For example, they recently suggested I read "Color Vision: Color Categories Vary With Language After All" by Debi Roberson.  The AI-generated abstract says: This research challenges the long-held belief that color categorization is universal and unaffected by language. It provides evidence from studies on Russian and English speakers, demonstrating that language significantly influences perceptual color categorization and shows that the cognitive organization of color categories varies across cultures. The findings highlight that distinct linguistic color categories can lead to measurable differences in color perception, suggesting the cognitive representation of color is shaped by linguistic frameworks.

If her research proves to be valid, that must be discouraging to the people who have been trying to develop a universal chart, similar to the Color Vowel® chart but applicable to all vowels in all languages and those who have been working on something similar in the field of music.

An example: Chromoacoustics: The Science of Sound and Color Chromoacoustique : La Science du son et de la couleur By Rose+Croix Journal.  Summary: The purpose of this presentation is to share findings from a decades-long search to develop the optimal method, with some basis in natural law, for translating music―and perhaps all auditory manifestations―into chromatic visual displays, a process this paper names Chromoacoustics, (" CAS ") or " color and sound. " The outcome could provide insights into the operation of well-concealed natural laws. It is clear that this research could furnish beneficial results through instructional and therapeutic applications, among which are means to provide enhanced tools for teaching the hearing-impaired.

If you want to get the same, free, subscrition I have, go to https://www.academia.edu.  I should warn you -- it will deluge you with emails. If possible, you might want to create an inbox "Rule" that puts all their messages into a special folder.

Party, party!

While thinking of dance styles I couldn't help thinking about the various types of balls, fiestas, fesitvals and so on where they take place.  How many types of party can you think of and which ones are common in your country of birth?

In the US, what would you wear to a:

• cocktail party
• birthday party
• reception
• fund-raising gala
• tea party
• picnic
• retirement paty
• backyard barbecue
• dance party
• ball
• graduation party
• wedding party
• Halloween party
• New Year's Eve party

Party vocabulary would be a good follow-on to, or a combintation with, a lesson about clothes.

Today, preparing for a camping trip with my dog, I kept thinking about all the pet products, health, care and training vocabulary necessary if you live in an English-speaking country.

I really must get back to giving ESL classes so I can put some ot these ideas into practice.

Dancing Into Summer

 I can't believe I totally missed posting in May.  

Having clobbered my toe in April, I may have been a bit off balance when I slipped and wrenched my left arm, shoulder and back getting the dog buckled into the car in May.  So I did not return to ballet classes even though the foot healed up.  Instead I'm doing tap dance this summer.  It does not require specific arm movements.

I had forgotten that the terminology is so colorful: 

• Tap, flap, slap.  
• Spank, stomp, step.  
• Brush, scuff.  Scuffle, shuffle. 
• Ball-change, dig.

I could do an entire ESL class on how to tap dance, teaching the practical meaning of these words at the same time.

And then there are all the different types of dance.  That vocabulary could be useful for a group discussion about the types of dance done in their country of birth: ballet, folk, modern, hip-hop, jazz,  bollywood, ballroom, waltz, salsa, rhumba, swing and so much more.

What A Month!

My son got dental surgery, then false teeth upper and lower.

I got a brief stomach bug.

My website's links to VOA's great ESL lessons went dead (of course).

We adopted a wonderful, new dog!

I stubbed (probably broke) my toe.

My grandson's new puppy broke his leg. (He is healing OK.)

My granddaughter made plans to move to California.

I "cut the cord" on my cable TV subscription and now do everything over the Internet.

With all this I've made only a little progress on starting up online classes again! This time around I will try not just one-on-one classes but small groups. With a more complicated schedule, I must utilize more sophisticated software to not just present material but keep me organized and enable students to sign up for classes independently.  Google Classroom paired with Google Meet looks very promising but trying to link in a free student signup is proving to be more complicated.