Human Language vs animal

communication system
Week Three
Human language vs Animal
communication
⚫ In the linguistics books, language is used to mean the
specialized sound-signalling systems genetically
programmed to develop in humans.
⚫ A useful approach by the American linguist
Charles Hockett, has made a list of design features
for human language and to see how it is shared by
other animals .
1. The use of sound signals
⚫ Animals communicate with one another by a variety of
means :
⚫ A. crabs by waving their claws at one another.
⚫ B. bees have a complicated series of dances.
⚫ C. humans, birds, grasshoppers, dolphins, cows,
monkeys and many other species use sound signals.
⚫ so the use of sound signals is not a unique way for
humans.
1. The use of sound signals
⚫ All the organs used in speech have some more basic
function, such as eating or breathing. Humans may
have acquired language at a later stage in their
evolution.

⚫ Q/ Is the use of speech sounds a designing feature of

human language?
2. Arbitrariness
⚫ Arbitrariness in human language refers to the fact that the
meaning of linguistic signs is not predictable from its word
form, nor is the word form dictated by its
meaning/function. It is not possible to deduce the
underlying meaning from its word form.
⚫ For animals:
⚫ there is recognizable link between the signal and the
message an animal wishes to convey.
⚫ An animal when wishes to warn off an opponent may
stimulate an attacking attitude.
⚫ In human language:
⚫ The reverse is true. There is no link between the signal and
the message ( meaning ).the symbols are arbitrary.
2. Arbitrariness
⚫ There is no intrinsic connection between the word ‘
lion’ and the meaning of lion.
⚫ Except for onomatopoeic words such as:
⚫ quack- quack beep
⚫ Bang giggle
⚫ Buzz oink
⚫ Boom neigh
⚫ Etc..(though they are few)
⚫ Q/ Is arbitrariness a design feature for human
language?
3. The need for learning
⚫ Animals automatically know how to communicate
without learning. The system is genetically built. They
don’t need anyone to teach them. They learn by
themselves.

⚫ For humans, a long learning process to acquire

human language is needed which is culturally
transmitted.
⚫ A human being brought up in isolation does nor
acquire any language, as shown by rare cases.
3. The need for learning
⚫ Human language is conditioned by the environment,
there is some type of innate predisposition in new born
child. This talent is activated by careful learning.

⚫ Q/Is the need for learning a design feature of human

language?
4. Duality
⚫ The organization of language into two layers: a layer
of sound (physical) and the layer of units is known as
duality or double articulation.

⚫ Animals which use vocal signals have a stock of basic

sounds which vary according to species.
⚫ A cow has under 10
⚫ A chicken has 20
⚫ A fox has over 30
⚫ Dolphins have between 20 and 30, so do gorillas and
chimpanzees.
4. Duality
⚫ The number of messages an animal can send is
restricted to the number of basic sounds.
⚫ Human language works differently. Each language
has a stock of sound units or phonemes similar to the
sounds possessed by animals, the average is 30 and 40.
the phonemes are meaningless in isolation but becomes
meaningful when it is combined with other phonemes.
⚫ For example: f, g, d, o.
⚫ Fog, dog, god
4. Duality
⚫ It was thought that duality is a characteristic unique to
human language. But it exists in birdsongs as well, the
combination of sounds to make a melody. (this is
limited and only few melodies they can produce).

⚫ Q/ Is duality a design feature to human language?

5. Displacement
⚫ In linguistics, displacement is the capability
of language to communicate about things that are not
immediately present (spatially or temporally); i.e., things
that are either not here or are not here now. That means we
can talk about past and future just like the present.

⚫ Animals communicate about things in the immediate

environment only. A bird utters its danger cry only when
danger is present. This type of spontaneous utterance is
nearer to a human baby’s emotional cries of pain, or
hunger.

⚫ But unlike animal’s language. Human beings can

communicate about things that absent as easily as about
things that are present.
5. Displacement
⚫ This is known as displacement., which does occur
rarely in animal’s world. For example in the
communication of honey bees. If a worker bee finds a
new source of nectar, it returns to the hive and
performs a complex dance in order to inform the other
bees of the exact location of the nectar, which maybe
several miles away. (bees have limited ability here).
⚫ They can inform each other only about nectar.
5. Displacement
⚫ Human language can cope with any subject whatever,
does not matter how far away the topic of conversation
is in time and space.

⚫ Q/ Is displacement a design feature of human

language?
6. Creativity (Productivity)
⚫ Linguistic creativity is primarily the activity of making new
meaning by a speaker (in the. broadest sense of the user of
language in all forms and in all mediums), and the re- creation
and re-interpretation of meaning(s) by a receiver.

⚫ Most animals have limited number of messages they can send

or receive. The male of a grasshopper has a choice of six, which
may be translated as follows:
⚫ 1. I am happy, life is good.
⚫ 2. I would like to make love.
⚫ 3. you are trespassing on my territory.
⚫ 4. she’s mine.
⚫ 5. let’s make love.
⚫ 6. oh how nice to have made love.
 6. Creativity (Productivity)
⚫ Not only the number of messages, but there are
circumstances under which each can be
communicated.
⚫ Animals are limited in a similar way.
⚫ Bees can communicate only about nectar.
⚫ Dolphins about the same things again and again.
⚫ Vervet monkey makes 36 different vocal sounds, is
obliged to repeat again and again.
 6. Creativity (Productivity)
⚫ Animals are limited what to communicate while
human beings can talk about anything and be
understood.
⚫ This is found in human language which is called
creativity( productivity).
⚫ A person can utter a sentence that is not said or heard
before.

⚫ Q/ Is creativity a design feature of human language?

7. Patterning
⚫ Language can be regarded as an intricate network of
interlinked elements in which every item is held in its
place and given its identity by all the other items.

Many animal communication systems consist of a

simple list of elements. There is no internal organization
within the system.

But in human language, it is not a haphazard heap of

individual items. They don’t link the sounds randomly,
but they ring the changes on a few well-defined patterns.
7. Patterning
⚫ Consider these sounds:
⚫ a, b, s, t
⚫ Possible ways:
⚫ Bats, tabs, stab, or bast.
⚫ But not :
⚫ * sbat
⚫ *abts
⚫ *stba
⚫ because the rules subconsciously followed by people
who know English do not allow these combinations.
7. Patterning
⚫ Similarly for words:
⚫ Consider the words burglar, loudly, sneezed , the :
⚫ The three combinations are possible:
⚫ 1. The burglar sneezed loudly.
⚫ 2. Loudly, the burglar sneezed.
⚫ 3. Loudly sneezed the burglar.
⚫ 4. The burglar loudly sneezed.
⚫ The impossible ones :
⚫ * The loudly burglar sneezed.
⚫ * Sneezed burglar loudly the .
7. Patterning
⚫ English places firm restrictions on which items can
occur together and the order in which they come.

⚫ There is also a fixed set of possibilities for the

substitution of the items .
⚫ For example:
⚫ The - burglar - sneezed - loudly.
⚫ A - robber - coughed - softly.
⚫ That - cat - hissed - noisly.
7. Patterning
⚫ So language can be regarded as an intricate network of
interrelated elements in which every item is in its
place and given its identity by all the other items. No
word has an independent validity or existence outside
this pattern.

⚫ Q/ Is patterning a design feature of human language?

8. Structure- dependency
⚫ Language operations are structure- dependent- they
depend on an understanding of the internal structure of
a sentence rather than on the number of the elements
involved.
⚫ for example:
⚫ The penguin
squawked
⚫ It
squawked
⚫ The penguin which slipped on the ice squawked
8. Structure- dependency
If you want to add –ed to the verb to make the past tense,
it is not to add –ED to the second word in the sentence
always , just in:
-I open the door. ( I opened the door)
what if the sentence is:
*The woman open the door . ( the womaned open the
door)
Or
- The student next door open the door. * The studented
next door open the door.
8. Structure- dependency

⚫ The presence of this structure-dependency is not

apparent in animal communication system.(though
birdsong may turn out to be structure –dependent,
according to some researchers)

Q/ Is structure –dependency a design feature of

human language?