Language is human-specific Human-specific---- different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries
Language is human-specific ◼ Human-specific---- different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries
The design/defining features of human language( Charles Hockett) Arbitrariness Productivity/ Creativity o duality Displacement Cultural transmission
The design/defining features of human language (Charles Hockett) • Arbitrariness • Productivity/Creativity • Duality • Displacement • Cultural transmission
Arbitrariness No logical(motivated or intrinsic) connection between sounds and meanings Onomatopoeic words(which imitate natural sounds)are somewhat motivated( English: rumble, crackle, bang Chinese: putong, shasha, dingdang .. Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e. g pe-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy
Arbitrariness ----No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection between sounds and meanings. ◼ Onomatopoeic words (which imitate natural sounds) are somewhat motivated ( English: rumble, crackle, bang, …. Chinese: putong, shasha, dingdang… ) ◼ Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy…
Productivity/creativity produce sentences they have never heard before, e.g. we Cap nd and Peculiar to human languages, users of language can understan understand sentence like A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed, though it does not describe a common happening in the world A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty Impossible The bee dance does have a limited productivity, as it is used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance bees do not talk about themselves the hives. or wind. let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires
Productivity/creativity ----Peculiar to human languages，users of language can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before, e.g. we can understand sentence like “ A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed”, though it does not describe a common happening in the world. ◼ A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible. ◼ The bee dance does have a limited productivity, as it is used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance; bees do not “talk” about themselves, the hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires
Duality (double articulation) Lower level----sounds(meaningless Higher level---meaning (larger units of meaning) A communication system with duality is considered more flexible than one without it, for a far greater number of messages can be sent A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning(words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot make a dictionary of sentences of that language
Duality (double articulation) ◼ Lower level----sounds (meaningless) ◼ Higher level----meaning (larger units of meaning) ◼ A communication system with duality is considered more flexible than one without it, for a far greater number of messages can be sent. A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot make a dictionary of sentences of that language