WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

DEFINITIONS

HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES

Different definitions for different purposes

Language

as a system as a universal human capacity as a means of communication as a social phenomenon

HUMAN AND ANIMAL LANGUAGES The issue of continuity

Are humans just a step further in practising an adapted behaviour?

What are the similarities and differences in human and animal communication?

Are they qualitative or quantitave?

- measurable?

- origin?

Animal communication

Through sounds, smells,

visual signals and touching:

- of birds, bees, ants,

bears and dogs

Mixed signals Species-specific (cats and dogs)

Why are vocal signals easier to use?

Work from a distance: sender and receiver do not have to be close

Work in the dark Receiver does not have to turn toward sender Can be used simultaneously with other

activities

What determines the nature of signals?

Higher position on the evolutionary scale?

- Of birds and chimpanzees

Social activity?

- Of cuckoos, bees and ancient hunters

Differences (Hocket)

Use of sound signals

- vocal auditory channel

Rapidly fading signal

- special types of memory

Total feedback- hearing our voice- talking to ourselves- difficult for the deaf

Interchangeabilty- male crickets chirp- working bees dance- male pheasants’ mating dance

Specialisation- only for communication

Openness, creativity

- animal communication:limited set of signs, triggered by a stimulus

- human language constantly changes, new items are added, is freely applied

Arbitrariness

- animals: often connection between signal

and meaning

- humans: no connection, interpretation is

based on consensus

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more not less.”

(Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland)

Discreteness

Duality

Patterning- bats, stabs but NOT sbat- boathouse vs. Houseboat- Jack kissed Mary. Vs. Mary kissed Jackbut NOT Kissed Jack Mary

“But I’m not so think as you drunk I am.” (Sir J.C. Squire, writer)

Functionality, intention

- cause, purpose consideration

- dolphins, Washoe and Sara

Displacement

“Bees are not as busy as we think they are. They just

can’t buzz any slower.” (F.M. Hubbard, American humorist)

NO

- past

- future

- questions

Prevarification- lies

Reflexiveness

- talking about language

Traditional transmission

- genetically imprinted behaviour vs.

socioculturally transmitted

What is language?

Systematic and generative A set of arbitrary symbols Primarily verbal signals but also visual Conventionalised meanings Used for communication only Operates in a speech community Essentially human Both language and language learning have

universal features