HOCKETT’S FEATURES

OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
WHO IS CHARLES F.
HOCKETT?
 • An American linguist and anthropologist

• Hockett made significant contributions to

structural linguistics, as well as the study
of Native American, Chinese, and Fijian
languages. His work focused mainly on
detailed linguistic analysis, particularly
morphology and phonology, and on the
concepts and tools that facilitated such
analysis.
CHARLES F. HOCKETT
(1916-2000)
 • Hockett was challenged in this belief by
Noam Chomsky, who argued that
language is biologically based and innate.
Chomsky believed that humans share a
universal grammar that ties all languages
together. Hockett staunchly opposed this
"Chomskyan" concept of the nature of
language.

• Hockett is most famous for defining what

he called the design features of language,
which demonstrated his beliefs about the
CHARLES F. HOCKETT commonalities among human languages.
(1916-2000)
WHAT IS HOCKETT’S DESIGN
FEATURES?
Hockett's Design Features are a set of features
that characterize human language and set it apart
from animal communication. They were defined
by linguist Charles F. Hockett in the 1960s. He
called these characteristics the design features of
language.
Design Features of
Language
1. VOCAL-AUDITORY CHANNEL
Refers to the idea that speaking/hearing is
the mode humans use for language. This feature has
since been modified to include other channels of
language, such as tactile-visual or chemical-
olfactory.
2. BROADCAST TRANSMISSION
AND DIRECTIONAL RECEPTION
When humans speak, sounds are transmitted
in all directions; however, listeners perceive the
direction from which the sounds are coming.
3. TRANSITORINESS
Also called rapid fading, transitoriness refers
to the temporary quality of language. Language
sounds exist for only a brief period of time, after
which they are no longer perceived.
4. INTERCHANGEABILITY
Refers to the idea that humans can give and receive identical
linguistic signals; humans are not limited in the types of
messages they can say/hear. The importance is that a speaker can
physically create any and all messages regardless of their truth or
relation to the speaker. In other words, anything that one can hear,
one can also say.
Not all species possess this feature. For example, in order to
communicate their status, queen ants produce chemical scents
that no other ants can produce.
5. TOTAL FEEDBACK
Speakers of a language can hear their own
speech and can control and modify what they are
saying as they say it. Similarly, signers see, feel,
and control their signing.
6. SPECIALIZATION
The purpose of linguistic signals is communication
and not some other biological function. When humans
speak or sign, it is generally intentional.
An example of non-specialized communication is dog
panting. When a dog pants, it often communicates to its
owner that it is hot or thirsty; however, the dog pants in
order to cool itself off. This is a biological function, and
the communication is a secondary matter.
7. SEMANTICITY
Specific sound signals are directly tied to
certain meanings.
8. ARBITRARINESS
Languages are generally made up of both arbitrary and
iconic symbols. Almost all names a human language attributes
an object are thus arbitrary: the word "car" is nothing like an
actual car. Spoken words are really nothing like the objects
they represent. This is further demonstrated by the fact that
different languages attribute very different names to the same
object. Signed languages are transmitted visually and this
allows for a certain degree of iconicity ("cup", "me,"
"up/down", etc. in ASL).
9. DISCRETENESS
Linguistic representations can be broken
down into small discrete units which combine
with each other in rule-governed ways. They are
perceived categorically, not continuously. For
example, English marks number with the plural
morpheme /s/, which can be added to the end of
any noun.
10. DISPLACEMENT
Refers to the idea that humans can talk about
things that are not physically present or that do not
even exist. Speakers can talk about the past and the
future, and can express hopes and dreams. A human's
speech is not limited to here and now. Displacement
is one of the features that separates human language
from other forms of primate communication.
11.PRODUCTIVITY
Refers to the idea that language-users can create
and understand novel utterances. Humans are able to
produce an unlimited amount of utterances. Also related
to productivity is the concept of grammatical patterning,
which facilitates the use and comprehension of language.
Language is not stagnant, but is constantly changing.
New idioms are created all the time and the meaning of
signals can vary depending on the context and situation.
12. TRADITIONAL TRANSMISSION
Also known as cultural transmission, traditional
transmission is the idea that, while humans are born with
innate language capabilities, language is learned after birth
in a social setting. It differs critically from Chomsky's idea
of Universal Grammar but rather purports that people
learn how to speak by interacting with experienced
language users. Significantly, language and culture are
woven together in this construct, functioning hand in hand
for language acquisition.
13. DUALITY OF PATTERNING
Meaningful messages are made up of distinct
smaller meaningful units (words and morphemes)
which themselves are made up of distinct smaller,
meaningless units (phonemes).
14. PREVARICATION
Prevarication is the ability to lie or deceive. When
using language, humans can make false or meaningless
statements. This is an important distinction made of human
communication, i.e. language as compared to animal
communication. While animal communication can display
a few other design features as proposed by Hockett, animal
communication is unable to lie or make up something that
does not exist or have referents.
15. REFLEXIVENESS
Humans can use language to talk about language.
Also a very defining feature of human language,
reflexiveness is a trait not shared by animal
communication. With reflexiveness, humans can
describe what language is, talk about the structure of
language, and discuss the idea of language with others
using language.
16. LEARNABILITY
Language is teachable and learnable. In the same
way, as a speaker learns their first language, the speaker is
able to learn other languages. It is worth noting that
young children learn language with competence and ease;
however, language acquisition is constrained by a critical
period such that it becomes more difficult once children
pass a certain age.
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