LINGUISTIC / 3

SEMESTER C1

TEAM #
1

WHICH ANIMALS TALK?

Communication
to utter words
language in a
way

to use
meaningful

Parrots: simple phrases good morning

(show a movie)
Do animals talk in the second sense of this
word?

COMMUNICATION IS
The process by which information is exchanged
between individuals, departments, or organizations
The lifeline of the
Core Team
Effective when it
permeates every
aspect of an
organization
Assumptions
Fatigue
Distractions
HIPAA

Are we the only species

which
possesses language?
Let us compare animal
communication
systems with human
language

If we want to find out

whether animals use a
language in a meaningful
way,
we
have
to
understand
what
a
language is.
What is language?

Charles Hockett (1960)

Characterize language, distinguish it
from other communication systems
If a system lacks even one feature, it is
communication, not language

ASSESSING THE DESIGN

FEATURES
D u a l i t y o f p a t t e r n i n g
C r e a t i v i t y
D i s p l a c e m e n t
I n t e r c h a n g e a b i l i t y
C u l t u r a l Tr a n s m i s s i o n
A r b i t r a r i n e s s
B i o l o g y
A m b i g u i t y
Va r i e t y
9

DUALITY OF PATTERNING
It is the ability to recombine small units. (sounds/ words)Similar to
productivity (new sentences)

DISPLACEMENT
The ability
to talk about
things that
are not
physically
present.

CULTURAL
TRANSMISSION
The learning of language occurs in social groups.

CREATIVITY
The ability to create new messages by combining alreadyexisting signs.

New words can be invented easily.

Animals have to evolve in

order for their signs to
change

INTERCHANGEABILITY
A user can both receive and broadcast the same signal

Any gender of human can use the

same languages.

Certain animal communications

in the animal world can only be
used by one gender of that
animal.

ARBITRARINESS

There is no (necessary) connection between the

form of signal and its meaning
Animal communication
is not symbolic, so it
cannot preserve ideas
of the past.

Human language is symbolic,

using a set number of sounds
(phonemes) and characters
(alphabet), which allows
ideas to be recorded and
preserved.

OTHERS
Biology

On a purely biological
level, the human voice
box and tongue are
very unique, and are
required to make the
sounds we recognize
as language.

Other animals have

different biological
structures, which
impact they way they
make sounds.

Ambiguity

A word, or sign, can

have several
meanings.

Every sign has only

one meaning.

Variety

Human language can

arrange words into an Animals only have a
infinite number of
limited number of
ideas, sometimes
combinations they can
referred to as discrete use to communicate.
infinity.