Human Language

• Human Language


  A system of communication uniquely associated with humans and distinguished by its capacity to express complex ideas
• Features of Human Language by Hockett


  • Vocal-Auditory Channel
  • Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception
  • Transitoriness
  • Interchangeability
  • Total Feedback
  • Specialization
  • Semanticity
  • Arbitrariness
  • Discreteness
  • Displacement
  • Productivity
  • Cultural Transmission
  • Duality of Patterning
• Vocal-Auditory Channel


  Natural language is vocally transmitted by speakers as speech sounds and auditorily received by listeners as speech waves
• Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception


  Language signals (i.e. speech sounds) are emitted as waveforms, which are projected in all directions ('broadcasted into auditory space'), but are perceived by receiving listeners as emanating from a particular direction and point of origin (the vocalizing speaker)
• Transitoriness


  Language signals are considered temporal as sound waves rapidly fade after they are uttered; this characteristic is also known as rapid fading
• Interchangeability


  Humans can transmit and receive identical linguistic signals, and so are able to reproduce any linguistic message they understand
• Total Feedback


  Humans have an ability to perceive the linguistic signals they transmit i.e. they have understanding of what they are communicating to others
• Specialization


  Language signals are emitted for the sole purpose of communication, and not any other biological functions such as eating
• Semanticity


  Specific language signals represent specific meanings; the associations are 'relatively fixed'
• Arbitrariness


  There is no intrinsic or logical connection between the form of specific language signals and the nature of the specific meanings they represent
• Discreteness


  Language signals are composed of basic units and are perceived as distinct and individuated
• Displacement


  Language signals may be used to convey ideas about things not physically or temporally present at the time of the communicative event
• Productivity


  Humans can use language to understand and produce an indefinite number of novel utterances
• Cultural Transmission


  Humans learn a particular linguistic system(s) as their native language(s) from elders in their community
• Duality of Patterning


  The discrete speech sounds of a language combine to form discrete morphological units, which do not have meaning in itself. These morphemes have to be further combine to form meaningful words and sentences
• Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)


  A functional approach to language proposed by linguist Michael Halliday, which describes the 'seven functions of language'
• Halliday's seven functions of language


  • Instrumental
  • Personal
  • Regulatory
  • Interactional
  • Imaginative
  • Representational
  • Heuristic
• Non-human communication


  The various forms of communication used by animals, plants, and other non-human organisms to convey information
• Forms of non-human communication


  • Vocalizations
  • Chemical signals
  • Visual displays
  • Tactile communication
  • Electrical signals
  • Olfactory communication
  • Visual or auditory cues in plants
• Animal consciousness


  The experiences or conscious sensation during states of wakeful processing of sensory perception, imagery or dreaming in non-human subjects
• Evidence of animal consciousness


  • Complex behavior
  • Emotional responses
  • Self-awareness
  • Neurobiological similarities
  • Pain perception
• Gardner and Gardner's Project Washoe involved raising a chimpanzee named Washoe in a human-like environment and teaching her American Sign Language (ASL)
• Project Nim aimed to teach a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky ASL in a similar manner to Project Washoe
• Koko, a female western lowland gorilla, was involved in a long-term language study conducted by Francine Patterson, where she learned over 1,000 signs and demonstrated the ability to understand spoken English
• Irene Pepperberg conducted groundbreaking research with an African grey parrot named Alex, demonstrating that he could learn to use and understand human language
• The Gua experiment aimed to investigate the language acquisition and developmental capabilities of a chimpanzee named Gua when raised alongside a human child in a home environment
• The Viki experiment involved raising a chimpanzee named Viki in a human home environment and attempting to teach her to speak
• The Kanzi experiment involved a bonobo chimpanzee named Kanzi and aimed to investigate his linguistic abilities and cognitive skills, including the use of lexigram symbols and problem-solving