Lesson 3

LANGUAGE AND
HUMANS
Features of Human Language by Hockett

Hockett isolated 13 features that characterize

human language and which distinguish it from other
communication systems. The following diagram
graphically represents each of the thirteen features.
Each feature is numbered and listed below the
diagram, along with a more developed discussion of
the feature.
1. Vocal-auditory channel -- This means that the
standard human language occurs as a vocal (making
sounds with the mouth) type of communication
which is perceived by hearing it. There are obvious
exceptions: writing and sign language are examples
of communication in the manual-visual channel.
However, the vast majority of human languages
occur in the vocal-auditory channel as their basic
mode of expression. Writing is a secondary, and
somewhat marginal form of language, while sign
languages are in limited use, mostly among deaf
people who are limited in their ability to use the
auditory part of the vocal-auditory channel.
2. Broadcast transmission and directional reception --
This means that the human language signal is sent out in
all directions, while it is perceived in a limited direction.
For spoken language, the sound perpetuates as a waveform
that expands from the point of origin (the mouth) in all
directions. This is why a person can stand in the middle of
a room and be heard by everyone (assuming they are
speaking loudly enough). However, the listener hears the
sound as coming from a particular direction and is notably
better at hearing sounds that are coming from in front of
the them than from behind them.
3. Rapid fading (Transitoriness) -- This means that the human
language signal does not persist over time. Speech waveforms
fade rapidly and cannot be heard after they fade. This is why it is
not possible to simply say "hello" and have someone hear it hours
later. Writing and audio-recordings can be used to record human
language so that it can be recreated at a later time, either by
reading the written form, or by playing the audio-record.
4. Interchangeability -- This means that the speaker can both
receive and broadcast the same signal. This is distinctive from
some animal communications such as that of the stickle fish.
The stickle fish make auditory signals based on gender (basically,
the males say "I'm a boy" and the females say "I'm a girl").
However, male fish cannot say "I'm a girl," although they can
perceive it. Thus, stickle fish signals are not interchangeable.
5. Total feedback -- this means that the speaker can hear
themselves speak and can monitor their language performance
as they go. This differs from some other simple communication
systems, such as traffic signals. Traffic signs are not normally
capable of monitor their own functions (a red light can't tell
when the bulb is burned out, i.e.).

6. Specialization -- This means that the organs used for

producing speech are specially adapted to that task. The human
lips, tongue, throat, etc. have been specialized into speech
apparatuses instead of being merely the eating apparatuses they
are in many other animals. Dogs, for example, are not physically
capable of all of the speech sounds that humans produce,
because they lack the necessary specialized organs.
7. Semanticity -- This means that specific
signals can be matched with specific
meanings. This is a fundamental aspect of all
communication systems. For example, in
French, the word sel means a white,
crystalline substance consisting of sodium
and chlorine atoms. The same substance is
matched with the English word salt. Anyone
speaker of these languages will recognize that
the signal sel or salt refers to the substance
sodium chloride.
8. Arbitrariness -- This means that there is no necessary
connection between the form of the signal and the thing
being referred to. For example, something as large as a whale
can be referred to by a very short word. Similarly, there is no
reason that a four-legged domestic canine should be called
a dog and not a chien or a perro or an anjing (all words for
'dog' in other languages). Onomatopoeic words such as
"meow" or "bark" are often cited as counter-examples, based
on the argument that they are pronounced like the sound they
refer to. However, the similarity if very loose (a dog that
actually said "bark" would be very surprising) and does not
always hold up across languages (Spanish dogs, for example,
say "guau"). So, even onomatopoeic words are, to some extent,
arbitrary.
9. Discreteness -- This means that the basic units of speech (such as
sounds) can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories. There
is no gradual, continuous shading from one sound to another in the
linguistics system, although there may be a continuum in the real
physical world. Thus speakers will perceive a sound as either a
[p] or a [b], but not as blend, even if physically it falls somewhere
between the two sounds.
10. Displacement -- This means that the speaker can talk about
things which are not present, either spatially or temporally. For
example, human language allows speakers to talk about the past and
the future, as well as the present. Speakers can also talk about things
that are physically distant (such as other countries, the moon, etc.).
They can even refer to things and events that do not actually exist
(they are not present in reality) such as the Easter Bunny, the Earth
having an emperor, or the destruction of Tara in Gone with the Wind.
11. Productivity -- This means that human languages allow speakers
to create novel, never-before-heard utterances that others can
understand. For example, the sentence "The little men who live in my
socks-drawer told me that Evis will come back from Mars on the 10th
and will set all the politicians of India right." is a novel and never-
heard-before sentence (at least, I hope it is!), but any fluent speaker of
English would be able to understand it (and realize that the speaker
was not completely sane, at least for his noble wish).

12. Traditional Transmission -- This means that human language is

not something inborn. Although humans are probably born with an
ability to do language, they must learn, or acquire, their native
language from other speakers. This is different from many animal
communication systems where the animal is born knowing their entire
system, e.g. bees are born knowing how to dance and some birds are
born knowing their species of bird-songs (this is not true of all birds).
13. Duality of patterning -- This means that the
discrete parts of a language can be recombined in a
systematic way to create new forms. This idea is similar
to Productivity (Feature 11). However, Productivity refers
to the ability to generate novel meanings, while Duality
of patterning refers to the ability to recombine small
units in different orders.
Halliday’s Language Functions
Halliday (1978) proposed that there are 7 stages or
functions of a child's speech. These are as follows.
1. Instrumental function - language that is used to fulfil
a need, such as to obtain food, drink or comfort. This
typically includes concrete nouns.
2. Regulatory function - language that is used to
influence the behaviour of others including persuading,
commanding or requesting. 
3. Interactional function - language that is used to
develop relationships and ease interaction. This could
include phrases like "I love you mummy" or "Thank
you". 
4. Personal function - language that expresses
personal opinions, attitudes and feelings including a
speaker's identity. 
5. Representational/Informative function- languag
e that is used to relay or request information.
6. Heuristic function - language that is used
to explore, learn and discover. This could include
questions or a running commentary of a child's
actions. 
7. Imaginative function - the use of language to tell
stories and create imaginary constructs. This
typically accompanies play or leisure activities. 
Animal Language
Animals can convey various message
to each other, such as:
feelings (anger, fear)
warnings
desire/willingness to mate
location of food sources
Honeybee Dance
Dance to communicate
Dance communicates direction and distance to food
source
Not entirely arbitrary
Birdcalls and Bird Songs
Birdcalls (one note)
messages about surroundings
Bird songs (patterns of notes)
territorial purposes
mating purposes
Birds and Human Language
Some birds can imitate human speech. Is this
language?
cannot learn structure
cannot create novel utterances
imitate sounds regardless of source
Animal Communication
Animal communication is "the
transmission of a signal from one animal
to another such that the sender benefits,
on average, from the response of the
recipient".
Natural Animal Communication
Chemical signals (used by some very simple creatures, including
protozoa), smell (related to chemical signals, eg. pheromones
attract, skunk secretions repel), touch, movement, posture (eg.
dogs, geese), facial gestures (eg. dogs snarling), visual signals (eg.
feathers), sound (eg. many vertebrate and invertebrate calls).
Such signals are designed to:
Attract (especially mates)
Repel (especially competitors or enemies)
Signal aggression or submission
Advertise species
Warn of predators
Communicate about the environment or the availability of food.
How Animals Communicate
Examples:

Most animals (including people) use body language as well as sound and smell in order
to communicate with one another. Here are some ways animals express themselves.

They release pheromones (airborne chemicals) to send messages to others.

Pheromones play an important part in reproduction and other social behavior.

Bees dance when they have found nectar. The scout bee will dance in the hive, and the
dance directs other bees to the location of the nectar.

Chimpanzees greet each other by shaking hands.

Male fiddler crabs wave their giant claw to attract female fiddler crabs.

White-tailed deer show alarm by flicking up their tails.

Dogs stretch their front legs out in front of them and lower their bodies when they want to
play.
Consciousness in Animals
Some levels of consciousness in animals have already been
acknowledged, notably by considering sleep/awakeness as a modulator of
the level of consciousness. There are however strong scientific arguments in
favour of extending such statement to the contents of consciousness,
including perceptual, emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive capacities.
There are at least three issues that make this task a challenging one:
1. The absence of narrative language in animals can be overcome by
developing appropriate behavioural tests and comparative analysis of
brain responses ;
2. The term ‘animals’ includes a large diversity of species, vertebrate and
invertebrate, living in different environments. In that context, one might
anticipate that consciousness may take different forms among species ;
3. Most of the reported studies have not been originally designed to analyse
consciousness in animals. Nevertheless, they can be discussed in relation
to it.
The Properties of Animal Consciousness
They have been analysed along five main domains:
1. Emotions are defined as modulators of cognitive capacities
involving changes in attention, judgement learning, or memory.
The empirical proof that emotional responses occur in animals
does not imply that they are systematically associated with
consciousness. However, many animals, including fish, are capable
of the same evaluation processes as those thought to trigger
conscious emotions in humans. For instance, studies on
expectations of reward in sheep and pig clearly show that animals
not only respond to the intrinsic value of a reward but also
according to their previous experience with the reward. Moreover,
some animals such as cow and sheep, do experience and share with
others a wide range of emotions that might be consciously
experienced.
2. Metacognition is defined as “cognition about cognition”. That is
the ability to monitor and control one’s own cognitive processes. It
is thought to be a crucial component of self-awareness. Two kinds
of paradigms are widely used in animals to study metacognition:
those that evaluate metacognitive monitoring (the ability to judge
one’s own state of knowledge: the animal could in pushing buttons
express a positive or negative answer, or that it does not know the
answer, as tested with primates, poultry or corvidae, see box 1) and
those that are designed to measure metacognitive control (the
ability to seek information when lack of knowledge has been
detected: ask for more information before answering). Those
experiments are suggesting that some animal performances meet
the criteria for metacognitive responses that appear homologous to
conscious responses in humans in functionally similar conditions.
This was for instance observed in pigeons and hens.
3. Processing of past and future. Episodic memory is
defined in humans as memory of autobiographical events.
It has been demonstrated by assessing whether various
animal species, especially primates, corvids and rodents,
can characterize what, where and when, or in which
context, they experience specific events. The
characteristics of episodic-like memory studied in animals
have many similarities to episodic memory in humans, in
both behavioural and neurobiological aspects. Moreover,
recent studies of primates, corvidae and weasels indicate
that they can plan future actions independently of their
current motivational state and their innate tendency to
express certain behaviours, such as migratory behaviour.
4. Social behaviour. Many animals live in groups of variable
composition and size. Their group structure depends on social
cognitive abilities. Individuals, particularly among sheep and cattle,
need to perceive and recognise each other to build a reliable and
protracted relationship. Several examples of social behaviour were
analysed. They address issues related to the theory of mind, which is
the ability to infer the knowledge, intentions and emotions of other
animals and underlying behaviours such as deception or empathy.
Due to a wide variety of experimental protocols and species studied,
there is an agreement that many animals, are not only automatically
reacting to the behaviour of conspecifics, but also use their past
social experience and ongoing relationships to adjust their
behaviour to reach immediate goals. This capacity requires mastery
of sophisticated means of perception, integration, planning, and
communication, all of which are probably linked to consciousness.
5. Human-animal relationships. With the recent
intensification of studies on domestication and animal welfare,
human-animal relations have become a topic of scientific
enquiry. Several studies developed in animals such as primates,
dogs or sheep suggest that they are able to mobilize cognitive
and emotional abilities when interacting with humans to build a
mental and functional representation of their human partners.
Studies involving human-animal relations highlight the
potential role of an animal’s subjective experience of humans.
Moreover, these studies show that distinct human individuals are
differentially perceived by animals. The outcome is adapted,
predictable and consistent emotional and behavioural responses
ranging from avoidance to bonding. This indicates that
conscious, rather than strictly predetermined and automatic
processes, may emerge in the development of human-animal
relationships.