THE UNIQUENESS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
Block 01 Unit 01
- Language is a unique feature of humans.
- It is a language that distinguishes human beings from animals.
- The nature and scope of this communication are influenced by various factors – physiological, environmental, social, and needs.
- Besides the spoken and written form, humans also use gestures as another form of communication.
| Human Language | Animal Language. |
|---|---|
| Human language is unlimited and infinite- Humans can communicate different messages based on the context, place, needs, etc. | Animal language is limited. Most animals have a minimal number of messages that they can convey and receive. |
| Extendable and modifiable- Humans can modify and extend language based on the context | Animal language is unextentable and unmodifiable- they use a limited number of sounds, and signals that is cannot be changed based on the context |
| Human Language is conditioned by Geography- the place where we live. | Not conditioned by geography |
| Full of novelty and creativity | Repetition of a limited number of sounds and signals |
| Human language is non instinctive and acquired from surroundings. | Instinctive and inborn |
| Based on grammar- set of rules | Not based on grammar |
Instinctive-Intuitive vs. Formal Communication
Mainly there are two levels of communication: the instinctive- intuitive communication that is found in all animals, and the formal, conventional or arbitrary one found only in the human species.
| Instinctive-Intuitive | Formal Communication |
|---|---|
| Instinctive and intuitive communication usually takes place in the case of Animals | It takes place in the case of human beings |
| it is an inborn tendency (instinctive) language tendency by experience (intuitive) | An intentional and planned activity |
Features of Human Communication
- Human language is entirely different from other creatures, including birds and animals.
- Different scholars and writers suggest a different list of features of human communication.
- There are six core features of human language that are different from other creatures.
Now let us have a look at each unique feature one by one.
Arbitrariness:
- Arbitrariness is one of the important unique features of human language.
- It means without order or reason.
- In the case of human language, there is no ‘natural’ link between a linguistic form and its meaning.
- In other words, there is no direct relation between a word and its meaning.
- That is, the relationship between the signifier (sound) and signified (meaning) is arbitrary.
- For example. There is no connection between the word DOG and the four-legged animal it symbolizes.
- Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, gave this idea of a ‘signifier’ and its arbitrary relationship with ‘signified’.
The need for learning:
- This is another feature of human language.
- Human language can be gained through interacting with the environment.
- Human language is something that is learned from the environment.
- This does not mean that human language is totally conditioned by the environment.
- According to Chomsky, human beings are born with an inborn ‘language acquisition device’ (LAD) which helps us to learn a language.
- But environment plays an important role in sharpening this innate ability.
It appears that the role played by ‘learning’ in animal communication is very little.
Displacement:
- Human languages can communicate about things that happened in the past and present.
- Apart from that, human beings also can talk about the past and present, and future alike.
- This property of human language is called displacement.
For example, we can talk about our childhood experiences and also predict future possibilities. We can talk about things that may not be present in our immediate surroundings.
Duality of Structure:
- Duality is another unique feature of human communication.
- Human language works differently.
- Human language is organized into two levels or layers, i.e., a layer of individual sounds which combine with each other to form the second layer of bigger units like words.
- Every language has a set of thirty to forty basic sounds, which are called phonemes.
- These phonemes are generally meaningless in isolation. These basic sounds or phonemes become meaningful only when they combine with each other in accordance with the rules of a language.
- This kind of organization into two layers is called duality of structure or double articulation.
Patterning:
- Human language has well-defined internal patterns or structures.
- We cannot put together different sounds and words together.
- There are certain words and sounds that cannot combine together.
- At the same time, there are some words and sounds that go together.
For example, take the sounds ‘o’, ‘p’, ‘t’, and ‘s’ in English.
These sounds can be arranged in the following seven ways only: ‘spot’, ‘stop’, ‘opts’, ‘pot’, ‘pots’, ‘top’ and ‘tops’.
Other possibilities like ‘tsop’, ‘ptos’, ‘opst’, are not possible because the rules of English do not allow these.
Similar kinds of patterns are followed when words are combined to form sentences.
For example, She gave me flowers. (correct pattern)
Me flowers gave she (incorrect pattern)
Creativity
- Creativity is the most important unique feature of human communication.
- Human language is essentially a creative process.
- A human can produce different sentences based on the context.
- Animals have a limited number of messages that they can send or receive.
For example, bees can communicate only about nectar.
We do not find this type of restriction in human language. Here, creativity refers to the ability to utter an infinite number of novel utterances each time a person wishes to speak.
These are the unique features of human communication.