Properties of Human Language in Contrast with Animal Communication

1. Reflexivity: It is one of the distinguishing features of human language. It simply means that we can use language to carefully think and talk about language itself. Other creatures can not reflect on the way they create their communicative message. Indeed, without this general ability, we wouldn’t be able to reflect on or identify any of the other properties of human language. Properties of human language:

This property allows language users to talk about things and events that are not present in the immediate environment. In other words, it can effectively be used to relate events that are far removed in time and place. Human language users are normally capable of producing messages that refer to past and future time. 2. Displacement:

Moreover, displacement allows us to talk about things and places that we can not even be sure of their existence (e.g., fairies, angles, Superman, Spiderman, and other imaginative characters). Animal communication generally lacks this property. It is designed for this moment communication, here and now. Continue

It simply means that for human communication there is no logical or natural connection between the linguistic form and its meaning. The connection is completely arbitrary. For example, there is no natural relation between the linguistic form dog and this hairy four- legged barking animal. This aspect of the relationship between linguistic signs and objects in human communication is described as arbitrariness. 3. Arbitrariness:

This property of arbitrariness that is specific in human communication can be explained by the fact that the linguistic signals of humans are infinite or unlimited. However, in animal communication, there does appear to be a clear connection between the conveyed message and the signal used to convey it. This non-arbitrariness of animal signaling may be explained by the fact that the set of signals used in animal communication is finite and fixed. Continue

This unique property means that the number of utterances in any human language is infinite. Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic forms to describe new objects, events, and situations. This property is also called creativity or open- endedness. 4. Productivity:

The communication systems of other creatures lack this property. Different creatures have fixed and limited signals, and they are not able to produce new signals to communicate novel experiences or events. This limiting feature of animal communication system is due to the fact that each signal in the system is fixed as relating to a particular object or occasion. Each signal refers to only one object or situation and can not be manipulated. Continue

Humans do not inherit language from parental genes. They acquire language in a culture with other speakers. Humans are born with a natural tendency to acquire language in a general sense. However, they do not have the ability to attain a particular language such as Arabic unless they are brought up in an Arabian socio- cultural environment. 5. Cultural transmission:

The process of passing a language from one generation to the next is called cultural transmission. It is a specific (distinctive) feature in the human language acquisition process. Only humans are capable of acquiring, developing, and transmitting language across generations within the frame of culture. Continue

The general pattern in animal communication is that creatures are born with a set of specific signals that are produced (not acquired) by instinct. Animals are able to produce these signals alone regardless of the cultural environment they live in. In contrast, human infants who are growing up in isolation, can not produce any ‘instinctive’ language. Continue

It is a distinctive feature in human language system. It simply means that human language works at two levels at the same time. The first level is the physical one which produces individual sounds like /b/, /n/, and /i/ which have no meaning by themselves. But in a particular combination such as bin, we have the second level which produces meaning that is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. 6. Duality:

As for other creatures, their communicative system does not operate with the double level. Each communicative signal appears to be a single fixed form that can not be broken down into separate parts which have, in turn, different meanings. Continue