Communicative and informative signals

Linguistic signals:

• communicative - intentional, used to communicate (express) something directly.

• informative - unintentional, carrying some kind of indirect information (eg sneezing animals do having a cold, yawning = being bored, animals do not communicate anything by

their appearance; they send only communicative signals using sounds.

Unique poperties of language

- Displacement

- ability to relate to events far from here and now (past or future, somewhere else); animals cannot refer to things not present hi the immediate environment

- also, we can talk about things and places whose existence we cannot be sure of-mythical creatures, demons, angels, Santa Claus, etc. - animals cannot relate to fiction

- however, to some degree bees possess this ability - when a worker bee finds a source of nectar, it comes back to the hive and performs complex dance routine to communicate to its friends the location of the nectar.

Arbitrariness . :

-No natural connection between sound and its meaning; the writing form has no iconic f! relationship with the real concept (seeing the word 'dog' we cannot determine from its

shape that it means the four-legged barking animal)

- however, some words 'echo' sounds of objects and activities - eg. cuckoo, crash,

splash, squelch (onomatopoeic words).

Productivity

• (open-endedness, creativity) - one can produce unlimited number of utterances using the limited number of elements in the language

- animals cannot produce new signals to communicate new experiences or events

- fixed reference - each animal signal relates to only one particular object or occasion.

Cultural transmission

• we don't inherit the language from our parents, we acquire it in the culture of other speakers of it; language is passed from one generation to the next

- people do not have specific predispositions for speaking a particular language, such as English or Polish

- animals learn their signals instinctively.

Duality

two levels of language (sound and meaning):

distinct sounds - they carry no meaning when put individually

distinct meanings - we can combine sounds to express different meanings (messages)

we can produce a large number of sound combinations which are distinct (different) in

meaning using limited number of distinct sounds.

Discretness

Each sound in the language is treated as discrete, i.e. change in pronunciation of one sound leads to a change in meaning of the word, eg pack vs back.

Other features of language

Below there are six other properties which are often discussed when human language is compared to other communication systems.

I Vocal auditory channel

Language is typically generated via the vocal organs and perceived via the ears; however, we can transmit the language without sound, eg. in writing or sign language.

II. Specialization

Linguistic signals serve only linguistic purpose, they cannot be used for feeding or breathing.

III. Non-directionality

Language signals have no inherent direction and can be picked up by anyone within hearing, even unseen.

IV. Rapid fade

Language signals are produced and disappear quickly.

V. Prevarication

Language signals can be false or used to lie or deceive.

VI. Reciprocity

Any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/receiver.