LING 100 mod 3 pt 2

summary comparison btwn Human Language vs Animal Communication

Feature	Human Language	Natural Animal Communication
Primary Sign Type	Abstract symbolic signs	Symptomatic and iconic signs
Flexibility	Open-ended and infinitely productive	Closed system with limited messages
Structure	Duality of patterning & syntax	Holistic signals without syntax
Acquisition	Cultural transmission / exposure	Predominantly genetic / inborn
Temporal Scope	Displacement (past, future, abstract)	Stimulus-bound (the immediate "here and now")

who outlined the Design Features of Language?

Linguist: Charles Hockett in 1960s

list each design feature of language (14)

1. Interchangeability

2. Feedback

3. Specialization

4. Semanticity

5. Arbitrariness/Symbolism

6. Discreteness

7. Displacement

8. Productivity/Creativity

9. Duality of patterning

10. Recursion

11. Tradition/Cultural transmission

12. Prevarication

13. Learnability

14. Reflexiveness

interchangeability

• all members of species can both send & receive msgs

• this is true for human language

• this is NOT the case for birdsong (performed only by males) or bee dancing (performed only by forager bees)

• however, this appears to be true for most non-human primate vocalizations

Feedback

• user of the system are aware of what they are transmitting

• humans monitor their linguistic output and correct it

• not sure about other animals

Specialization

• communication system is only used for communication and nothing else (rather than a side-effect of a biological or physiological process)

• human language serves uniquely as a communication system

• debate over symptomatic system if it could be considered to be a specialized communication system

  • Ex: human speech is specialized to externalize explicit thought → coughing or emotional crying is unspecialized

  • Ex: honeybee dancing, birdsong, predator alarm calls are specialized communicative acts

Semanticity

• elements of a message/specific signals (words, sounds, signs) are tied/fixed directly to specific meanings + real-world situations

• language conveys meaning through a set of fixed relationships among signifiers, referents, and meanings

  • ex: human language conveys meaning through arbitrary symbols → words like car, sandwich, or cousin stand for distinct objects/concepts

  • ex: bee dancing, bird calls/songs convey specific meaning

  • ex: East African vervet monkeys use distinct alarm calls specifically associated w/ eagles, leopards, or snakes

Arbitrariness

• there is no natural, physical, or iconic resemblance btwn the form of the signifier & the meaning (signified) it represents

• arbitrary relationship btwn speech sounds & meaning: there is no natural or inherent connection btwn a sign and its referent

  • ex: Humans → English word dog or French Chien resembles no physical similarity to the actual animal

  • ex: Animals → highly limited in nature → honeybees display arbitrariness when mapping dance angles on a vertical comb to flight paths relative the sun

Exceptions to COMPLETE arbitrariness

Onomatopoeia

• sounds of words “imitate” sounds of nature

  • ex: cuckoo (English), cuco (Spanish), kakukk (Hungarian), kuckuck (German), etc

Discreteness

• the communication system consists of isolated, repeatable units

• signals are built from distinct, categorical, step-by-step contrasts rather than a continuous spectrum

• discreteness = a property of sounds & words that makes them contrastive from one another

  • ex: in English, /p/ and /b/ are different sounds that contrast with one another

• discrete elements can be combined to yield meaningful units

• discreteness, along with Duality of Patterning allows for production of an infinite # of new sentences, using limited set of discrete contrastive elements

Displacement

• human languages have ability to communicate abt smth that is distant in time and/or space or is entirely imaginary (hypothetical)

• the ability to communicate abt things/events/concept stat are remote in space/time (not present in immediate “here and now”)

  • ex: Humans → talking abt what happened last yr, plans for tmr, or fictional worlds

  • ex: Animals → absent in birds + primates, but present in honeybees (who perform dances to report food sources located far away in space)

• animal communication systems do not generally show displacement → can only communicate abt here and now

Productivity/Creativity

• the capacity to produce and interpret an infinite # of new messages on any topic at any time

• we can produce infinite # of new msgs from a limited set of elements (sounds, words, syntactic constructions)

  • ex: Humans → generating brand-new sentences by recombining words & grammatical structures

  • ex: Animals → not documented in any animal communication so far

Duality of Patterning

• Meaningless discrete units at a lower level (phonemes) combine to form meaningful units at a higher level (morphemes/words), which recombine to form complex structures (sentences).

  • ex: Humans → Phonemes /s/, /p/, /o/, /t/ combine into words like spot, tops, opts, and pots, which recombine into a spot on the tops of the pots.

  • ex: Animals → no evidence of this in animal communication systems

What is recursion (self-embedding) and why is it important?

• Grammatical structure embedded inside another structure of the same type

• Like Russian nesting dolls

• Can repeat indefinitely

• Allows potentially infinite sentence length and creativity

• Example: “Terry knows [that Chris knows [that linguistics is fun]]”

• Defining feature of human syntax

• Not demonstrated in animal communication

Tradition/Cultural Transmission

• Exposure to a mature system is necessary for acquisition

• the conventions & rules of the system must be passed down from experienced users to learners through social exposure rather than being purely genetic

  • ex: Humans → children acquire their native language & regional dialects from their speech community (surrounding cultural group)

  • ex: Animals → present in birdsong (young birds must hear mature models during a critical period to develop their species song)

    • not true for most animal communication systems → when raised in isolation, animals as diverse as fox, elephant, seal, cat, and certain monkeys develop the full range of vocalizations typical of their species (except bees/birdsong)

Prevarication

• enables the users to talk nonsense or to lie

• ability to convey false or misleading information, lie, or express nonsense

  • ex: Humans → deliberately making false statements or telling fictional stories

  • ex: Animals → some animal might be capable (birds learning/impersonating others’ birdsongs to maintain territorial advantage)

    • but question is whether this behaviour in animals is intentional or purely genetically determined

Learnability

• a speaker/user of one system variant can learn other variants of language or dialect

  • ex: Humans → can learn diff languages → English speaker learning French, Japanese, or ASL

  • ex: Animals → generally limited to their own genetically specified/determined communication/dialect

Reflexiveness

• the ability to use the communication system to discuss the system itself

• the mentalinguistic ability to use the communication system to analyze & discuss the system itself

  • ex: human language can be used to discuss human language itself

  • ex: Using English to explain grammar rules, define terms, or write linguistics textbooks

  • ex: Animals → no evidence that any other species writes grammar or linguistics in textbooks! - no other non-human species uses its communication system to reflect upon or describe its own signals

which design features of language are common in non-human animals?

Features found in some animals:

• Semanticity: Signals have specific meanings/referents

  • Example: vervet alarm calls → specific predators

  • Bee dances → food locations

• Specialization: Main purpose of signal is communication

  • Examples: bee dancing, birdsong, predator alarms

• Discreteness: Communication has separate, identifiable units

  • Examples: birdsong syllables, primate calls

• Interchangeability: Individuals can be both sender and receiver

  • Present in primates

  • Limited/absent in bee dances and male birdsong

• Arbitrariness (limited): Signal has no natural connection to meaning

  • Examples: vervet alarm calls, bee dance distance mapping

• Tradition/cultural transmission (limited): Communication learned from experienced members

  • Example: young songbirds learn species songs during a critical period

• Displacement (rare exception):

  • Honeybees communicate about food located away from the hive

  • Absent in birds and non-human primates

which design feature of language have not been attested in non-human animals?

Features NOT found in animal communication:

• Duality of patterning:

  • Meaningless units → meaningful units → complex sentences

  • No evidence in natural animal communication

• Reflexiveness:

  • Ability to use language to discuss/analyze language itself

  • No evidence in non-human species

• Full productivity/openness/creativity:

  • Ability to create infinite novel messages about any topic

  • Animal systems are generally closed

• Learnability:

  • Ability to learn another language/communication system

  • Animals are generally restricted to genetically specified repertoires and dialects

explain Redundancy in Bees

• bees communicate the same info in several ways

  • ex: bee dance, pheromone trace at site of food source, carry back traces of food source odours

• this redundancy helps guarantee that communication will succeed in the event a modality is imperfectly transmitted

explain Redundancy in Human Language

• human language also has redundancy → certain parts of a text may be redundant/unnecessary bc they are predictable

  • ex: we don’t need to see all of a word in order to reco***ze it

what are the 2 clues in redundancy

ex:

1. He loves her

2. She loves him

clues that tell us “he” is the subject in sentence 1

• Clue 1: Place (order) - “he” comes first

• Clue 2: Morphology

explain how language has structure

redundancy is made possible bc language is structured on many levels

• ex in English:

  • word order gives us info abt the relationship btwn noun phrase + verb (noun phrase comes before the verb is the subject)

  • case in pronouns also gives us info abt this → English has subject pronouns (I, he, she, we, they) and object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them)

  • “he loves her” → the fact that “he” is the subject marked by both the position of the pronoun in the sentence (word order) and by the form of the pronoun (case)

whats the conclusion of human language?

• human language is an open-ended system of symbolic signs that can be manipulated in various ways to express novel output

• Animal communication appears to be built out of rather closed systems that depend very little on symbolic signs but rather emphasize the interpretation of symptomatic signs