Page 48 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

(b) The communicative coding system
The symbolic communicative codes (Givón 2002b:8) of a language may be

distinctly divided into the following two types:
i) The peripheral sensory-motor codes
The peripheral sensory-motor codes of human language comprise of the

domain of phonetics, phonology and neurology (Givón 2001a:11). This coding system
of human language serves "primarily to map lexical-conceptual meaning onto

phonological words" (Givón 2002b:8). This presumably involves both coding (speech
production) and decoding (speech perception) operations and is adjusted to pertinent

perceptual and motor modalities.
ii) The grammatical codes

Givón (2007:4) notes that "grammar is probably the latest evolutionary
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addition to the mechanisms that drive human communication." Although the
evolutionary argument regarding grammar remains basically speculative, it is

supported by a body of supportive evidence. Ontogenetically, both through hearing
and signing children acquire the lexicon and the pre-grammatical pidgin much earlier

than grammar.
Similarly, natural second language acquisition follows the same route. Furthermore,

many non-human species like birds, dogs, horses and primates are easily taught auditory or
visual lexical code labels for nouns, verbs and adjectives. This supports the proposition that

the neuro-cognitive structures which underlie semantic memory are old pre-human, pre-
linguistic structures (Givón 2002a:146). In contrast, "the communicative natural use of
grammar (i.e., morphology and syntax) in non-human species has neither been attested, nor

has any success in teaching grammar to nonhuman species been reported. Therefore,
grammar is uniquely a human capacity" (Givón 2007:5).

In addition, the grammar is a much more abstract and complex code than the
sensory motor codes of the lexicon. Most tangibly, the primary grammatical signal
involves four major coding devices: morphology, intonation, rhythmics and sequential

order of words or morphemes. Among these, some coding devices like morphology
and intonation are more concrete. They involve the very same physical signals

(sounds, gestures and letters) that code lexical meaning. The most concrete element of

5. "Two distinct cycles of symbolization – or code-development – must have taken place in the
evolution of human language. The first involves the rise of a well-coded lexicon and its coding
instrument, phonology. The second involves the rise of grammar and its coding instrument,
morphosyntactic structure (Givón 2002b:4)."
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