Do animals have a language.pptx

Animal communication

1. Do animals have a language? Hockett`s design feature Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulungu Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

2. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

3. Do animals have a language? Charles Hockett , a linguist, offered a series of responses that have had a significant impact on the field. He refers to the characteristics shared by all languages as "design features of language in his description of these traits. The three phases of Hockett's reflection on the design features of the language are as follows: the initial statement, which explains a comparative and cumulative approach to defining language the best-known presentation from "The Origin of Speech“ the most extensive one from "Logical considerations in the study of animal communication", Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

4. Do animals have a language? In order to refute the claim that animals have a language, this presentation will argue that animals do not have a language, but they have a communication system. The claim that animals do not have a language is going to be discussed according to Hockett’s major design features of language. These are: Displacements Cultural transmission of language Arbitrariness Semanticity Productivity Language is a human ability Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

5. Animals have a communication mechanism Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

6. Displacement The concepts of antecedents (verbal messages) and consequences ( behaviours triggered by messages) underlie the explanation of displacement: A communication is said to be "displaced" when the essential elements of its causes and effects are separated from the moment and location of transmission ( Čadková , 2015, p.11). Humans might discuss events that occurred ten years ago. However, the animals are unable to convey this information to other animals. Hence, animal communication lacks displacement because it can not refer to things beyond the geographical and temporal environment in which they were produced and behaviour outside of this context Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

7. Cultural transmission of language Hockett and Hockett (1960) defines cultural transmission as learning and teaching, such as when a toddler learns a language. Language in humans is both taught and learnt. The first step in understanding cultural transmission is to distinguish between the two processes that contribute to the establishment of a communication system inside a specific organism: genetic inheritance and cultural transmission. Cultural transmission is a feature of language that animals lack. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

8. Arbitrariness Monaghan and Christiansen (2006) claim that language is arbitrary because of how these meaningful units are related to their meanings and instead of being rational or motivated The meanings exist because of convention. The fact that there are so many distinct languages in the world serves as an example of how we may refer to dogs as "cats" and cats as "dogs," or any other two words, as long as the sender and receiver are aware of the norm. Animal communication lacks arbitrariness for instance vervet monkey alarm signals without any issues, assuming that the receivers were aware of the "tradition" (i.e., were hard-wired appropriately). Yet in animals, what we would see as a non-linguistic trait is frequently the main message. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

9. Semanticity Burling, Armstrong, Blount, Callaghan, Foster, King and Wynn (1993) define semanticity as signals in a communication system bear some meaning, which is to say that they relate in some way to the world of the communicators. Every communication unit must stand for something else (in other words, its being is that of a sign). Vervet monkeys, have three distinct warning cries for three distinct groups of predators, including raptors, terrestrial animals, and snakes, which depend on surprise to catch the monkey. Whereas certain things are represented by animal signals, the number of items is often modest, limiting the semanticity of animal communication systems. Thus, animal communication lacks semanticity. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

10. Productivity Productivity, or the ability to mix the components of language in an unlimited number of ways, is another distinctive quality (Yang, 2005). Animals are not particularly skilled in productivity. Chimpanzees seldom ever start conversations, not even adult chimpanzees. If you are speaking and have a notion, you should express it. However, animals can not speak and express their notion. All languages are infinitely flexible, and all language speakers are capable of constructing an infinite number of phrases. But, animals are not able to construct an infinite number of phrases Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

11. Language is a human ability Matthews state that (2003) humans are the only species that can learn and acquire language because they can make sounds (Phonetics and phonology). The only other species with highly organised cognitive processes that can create speech is a human. In order to talk, humans also evolved vocal chords that are thinner and less fatty than those of our monkey cousins. For instance, we can use our lips to make the sounds /p/ and /m/, /t/ using our teeth and tongue, /g/ using our tongue and palate, etc. Animals have no place in human speech, and both their way of speaking and their sounds cannot be categorised . As a result, only humans have the ability to speak, while animals cannot. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

12. In conclusion Only humans are capable of using language, which not only enables them to speak with one another but also enables them to construct absurd but comprehensible sentences with an unlimited variety of words, and sentences. Although there are some animals which seem to exhibit some forms of human language, animals do not have a language. Thus, it can be concluded that animals do not have a language but a communication system Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

13. References Beecher, M. D. (2021). Why are no animal communication systems simple languages ?   Frontiers in Psychology , 701. Burling, R., Armstrong, D. F., Blount, B. G., Callaghan, C. A., Foster, M. L., King, B. J., ... & Wynn, T. (1993). Primate calls, human language, and nonverbal communication [and comments and reply].  Current Anthropology ,  34 (1), 25- 53. Čadková , L. (2015). Do they speak language?. Biosemiotics, 8(1), 9-27. Clutton -Brock, T. H., and Albon , S. D. (1979). The roaring of red deer and the evolution of onest advertisement . Behaviour 69 , 145–170. doi : 10.1163/156853979X00449 Hockett, C. F., & Hockett, C. D. (1960). The origin of speech.  Scientific American ,  203 (3), 88-97. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga

14. Janik , V. M. (2014). Cetacean vocal learning and communication. Curr . Opin . Neurobiol . 28 , 60–65. doi : 10.1016/j.conb.2014.06.010 Monaghan, P., & Christiansen, M. H. (2006). Why form-meaning mappings are not entirely arbitrary in language. In  Proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the cognitive s ci ence society  (pp. 1838-1843). Matthews, P. (2003). Linguistics: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wacewicz , S., & Żywiczyński , P. (2015). Language evolution: why Hockett’s design features are a non- starter.  Biosemiotics ,  8 , 29-46. Yang, C. (2005). On productivity.  Linguistic variation yearbook ,  5 (1), 265-302. Rachel Iileka Petrina Hamulunga