Tarzan and Language

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                In the Disney movie Tarzan, Jane Porter and her father go on an expedition to Africa in order to find gorillas; they find more than they expected.  Tarzan’s parents died when he was a baby, and he was raised by apes.  So, he had no concept of human behavior or language; however, he was able to speak “gorilla” (Arnold, Buck, & Lima, 1999).  When Jane Porter met Tarzan, she decided to take up the task of teaching him to speak and understand English, so he could communicate with them.  She and her father wanted to learn as much as possible about how he came to live in the jungle, and how he had survived for so long with the gorillas.  He would be a great contribution to the scientific community of which Jane’s father, Professor Porter, was a part.  Although Tarzan had never heard English, he was able to learn how to read and speak proper English under Jane’s tutelage.  Then, Jane wished to learn to speak "gorilla" as well so she could speak to Tarzan’s adoptive gorilla mother; so Tarzan taught her the phrase “Jane stays with Tarzan” (Arnold et al., 1999).  The way Tarzan and Jane speak gorilla is based upon phonemes, each sound having a different meaning.  Even though animal communication is not very comparable to English, in the movie they are similar enough for Jane and Tarzan to be able to communicate both in English and “gorilla."

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            The language Tarzan speaks is based upon phonemes, which is defined as “the shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of a word” (Goldstein, 2011, p. 297).  These are the sounds that are produced when people speak to each other.  In English, these phonemes are combined into morphemes, which are “the smallest units of language that have a definable meaning or a grammatical function” (Goldstein, 2011, p. 297).  These are the syllables that make up each word that is used.  Then, the morphemes combine to words, words combine to be sentences, and sentences combine to be paragraphs (Goldstein, 2011).  However, with “gorilla” that Tarzan speaks, it is simply phonemes.  The meaning is based upon the sounds that are made, and those sounds are given meaning by the culture in which the language is based; in this case, the gorillas.  With the Chinese language, the tone/sound is used to give meaning.  Two people could say the exact same character/word, but with different pitch, and it could mean two entirely different things.  “Unlike English, Chinese is a tone language. This means that it uses the pitch (highness or lowness) of a phoneme sound to distinguish word meaning” (Shoebottom, 1996, para. 3).  Phonemes are the basic sounds of a language; the base of spoken language (Goldstein, 2011). 

            Tarzan learns English, and all the intricacies of the English language, from Jane Porter.  Granted, he had a good reason to do so since he wanted to be able to speak to her, but he was still able to learn English, which is based upon phonemes (Arnold et al., 1999).  His “native language,” gorilla, was based upon phonemes, so he could understand the sounds of words being used for meaning.  I do not think this is an entirely accurate example, because after a certain age, it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, for one who has never learned a language to completely master a new language (Goldstein, 2011).  However, simply looking at phonemes, this is a relatively good example.  Both languages are based on phonemes; one is centered on phonemes and sounds, and the other is based upon them.  While this is a fictional story, the basic unit of language, the phoneme, is portrayed through Tarzan learning English, and in his speaking “gorilla.”

References

Arnold, B. (Producer), Buck, C. (Director), & Lima, K. (Director). (1999).  Tarzan [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures.

Goldstein, E. B. (2011).  Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3^rd ed.). Canada: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Shoebottom, P. (1996).  The differences between English and Chinese.  Retrieved from http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/chinese.htm