Non-Human Communication

 How do non-humans communicate?

Auditory
 Uses sound to express their feelings (Birds, Monkey, Bullfrog, Dolphin)
Visual
 Visible signals (gestures, posture, facial expressions, coloration, camouflaging, etc.)
Tactile
 Uses the sense of touch (most common animal communication)
Chemical
 Pheromones (releaser, prime, alarm, food trail, sex)

Projects/Experiments
The Lana Project
 First female chimpanzee to be used in language research using lexigram
 Trained to manipulate a keyboard

Washoe Project
 First non-human to use ASL (American Sign Language) to communicate
Koko Project
 First non-human to master ASL

Features of Human Language by Hockett

Charles F. Hockett (Jan 17, 1916 – Nov 3, 2000)

1. Vocal-Auditory Channel
 Vocal type of communication which can be perceived by hearing
2. Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception
 The farther you are the harder to hear someone
3. Rapid Fading (Transitoriness)
 Human language changes over time
 (Good morning – Morning) (Good afternoon – Afternoon)
4. Interchangeability
 The speaker can send and receive the same language
 (English – English)
5. Total Feedback
 Perception and Comprehension of the message
6. Specialization
 Humans have specialized body parts that has its own function
 (Lips, Tongue, Throat)
7. Semanticity
 Every signal has a corresponding meaning
8.Arbitrariness
 There is no connection to the meaning of the word
9. Discreteness
10. Displacement
 Speaking about things in the past or future
11. Productivity
 We can create never-before-heard utterances
12. Traditional Transmission
 Language is not inborn, it is learned
13. Duality of Patterning
 Words can be combined to form new words

Halliday's Language Functions

 was a British linguist who made significant contributions to the field of linguistics.

Instrumental: I want
 getting things done
 satisfying materials need
 “I want to drink milk.”
 “Excuse me Mrs. J, can you help me with this poster?”
Regulatory: Do as I tell you
 influencing the behavior, feeling, attitudes of others
 includes the language of rules and instructions
 “You must follow all my instructions.”
 “First, gather all the materials you will need.”
Interactional: Me and you
 getting along with others
 to include or to exclude
 “Can I please be next after you?”
 “Do you like pancakes too, Ethan?”

Personal: Here I come

 expressing individually and personal feelings
 making public his/her own individuality
 "I know that movie because I saw that when I was 5."
 "I've got a pet dog!"

Heuristic: Tell me why

 seeking and learning
 using language to explore his/her environment
 a way of learning about things
 “Why do you like that song?"
  "Why can't we live with grandma and grandpa?"

Imaginative: Let's pretend

 creating stories, games and new worlds
 linguistic play including poems, rhymes and riddles
 not necessarily 'about' anything at all
 "If we migrate to planet
 Mars, I will bring my phone and charger."
 "Alice, the camel, has one hump, one hump, one hump.”

Representational: I’ve got something to tell you

 communicating information
 conveying a message with specific reference to the processes, persons, objects,
abstractions, qualities, states and relations of the real world around him/her
 ""The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in a stunning display of warm
colors.’’
 "It is raining heavy all day."

Accounts on the Origin of Language

Mama Theory
 Language began with the easiest syllables attached to the most significant objects.
Ta-ta Theory
 Language began as an unconscious vocal imitation of movements.
 Language derived from gestures
Bow-Wow Theory
 Language began as imitations of natural sounds.
 Onomatopoeia or echoism
Pooh- Pooh Theory
 Language began with interjections.
Ding-dong Theory
 sound symbolism
You-he-ho Theory
 Language began as rhythmic chants, perhaps ultimately from the grunts of heavy work
(heave-ho!)
Sing - Song Theory
 Danish linguist Jesperson suggested that language comes out of play, laughter, cooing,
courtship, emotional mutterings and the like
Hey You! Theory
 A linguist by the name of Revesz suggested that we have always needed interpersonal
contact, and that language began as sounds to signal both identity
Hocus Pocus Theory
 Language may have had some roots in a sort of magical or religious aspect of our
ancestors' lives. Perhaps we began by calling out to game animals with magical sounds,
which became their names
The Eureka Theory
 Language was consciously invented.

 Perhaps some ancestor had the idea of assigning arbitrary sounds to mean certain things.

Tower of Babel Theory

 after the Biblical Story in which God confused human speech and scattered people in
different region which they develop their languages.
Noam Chomsky
 human possess an innate knowledge that is not learned from environmental sources.
Vocal Grooming of Dubar
 gossip
 practice of preparing or training someone for a particular purpose or activity
Putting the baby down hypothesis
 parent; infant
 when in times of the mother needs to put down their babies from their body, they need to
have some communication in order for the mother to entertain their child and not cry
Whitney's Origin of Language
 The basic (of the origin of Language) was the natural cries of human beings, expressive
of their feelings and capable of understood as such by their fellows.
 followed by onomatopoetic or imitative utterances. His idea is a mixture of some theories
of the origin of language.