Human Language, Characteristics, difference

Human Language

1. Human Language, Characteristics & Differences from Animals Language

2. Objectives of the Chapter The chapter will provide answers to following questions: Is it possible that a creature could learn to communicate with humans using language ? does human language have properties that make it so unique that it is quite unlike any other communication system and hence unlearnable by any other creature?

3. Can Animals talk?? There are a lot of stories about creatures that can talk They are fantasy or fiction characters Animals simply imitate something they have heard humans say creatures are capable of communicating, certainly with other members of their own species.

4. Communication Human communication as well as language differs from animals in many ways. Communicative signals: ( behavior used intentionally to provide information ) Informative signals ( behavior that provides information, usually unintentionally) Human beings communicate using both signals whereas animals use only former

5. Properties of Human Language Reflexivity: using language to think and talk about language itself All creatures communicate in some way as human beings. But other creatures do not reflect on the way they create their communicative messages One barking dog does not advice the other barking dog saying: “Hey, you should lower your bark to make it sound more alarming” Humans are clearly able to reflect on language and its uses.

6. Displacement Understanding the message beyond time & place Animal communication seems to be designed for current time & place (Cat Meows ) Animal can not talk about events from past When your dog says GRRR, it means GRRR, right now Humans can refer to past and future time . Displacement allows us to talk about things & places whose existence cannot be sure (angels, superman) Only honey bees do have this property (dance to locate a place)

7. Arbitrariness The relation between a linguistic form & its meanings is arbitrary & there is no natural connection Word “ K alab ” & “dog” do not have inherent relationship with “hairy four-legged barking object” Change in the relationship between linguistic sign & objet is called arbitrariness Onomatopoeic words are less arbitrary Animals lack arbitrariness as the set of signals used in communication is finite.

8. Productivity creativity: open-endedness Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations . Number of utterances in any language is infinite Animals have limited vocal signals: monkey: 36 Animals cannot create new signals: even honey bee would fail to communicate the location if it is new Animal communication is described in terms of fixed reference

9. Cultural transmission We acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes . A Korean born child brought up in UK would speak English not Korean The process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next is described as cultural transmission . We are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language but acquire our first language as children in a culture . Animals are born with signals patterns that are instinctive

10. Duality Human language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously We have distinct sounds at one level and distinct meanings at other level Level 1: /n/, /b/ and / i /: no intrinsic meaning Level 2: In words bin & nib , sounds combine in different pattern & give different meanings With a limited set of discrete sounds, we can produce infinite no of words. In animal language, duality does not exist.