Database results:
examBoard: AQA
examType: GCSE
lessonTitle: Human Communication Properties
Humans are social creatures and our ability to communicate is what sets us apart from other species. While animals can communicate in various ways, human language has unique properties that make it exceptionally powerful and flexible. Understanding these properties helps us appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of human communication.
Key Definitions:
Humans use over 7,000 languages worldwide, but they all share the same fundamental properties that make them uniquely human. Even sign languages used by deaf communities have all the same properties as spoken languages!
Linguists have identified five main properties that make human language unique compared to animal communication systems. These properties allow us to communicate about complex ideas, abstract concepts and things that aren't physically present.
Humans can talk about things that aren't physically present. We can discuss the past, future, imaginary scenarios, or distant places. For example, you can tell a friend about your holiday plans for next summer or describe a book you read last year.
Example: "I'll meet you at the cinema tomorrow at 6pm."
The relationship between words and their meanings is mostly arbitrary (random). There's no logical reason why a 'dog' is called a 'dog' - the word doesn't look, sound, or feel like the animal it represents. Different languages use completely different sounds to refer to the same things.
Example: A dog is "chien" in French, "perro" in Spanish and "inu" in Japanese.
Humans can create and understand an infinite number of new sentences. We can combine words in novel ways to express new ideas. This allows us to be creative with language and communicate about new situations.
Example: "The purple elephant danced gracefully across the digital keyboard while solving complex equations" - a sentence likely never said before!
Human language is learned rather than instinctive. We aren't born knowing how to speak English or any other language - we learn it from our community. This means language is passed down culturally rather than genetically.
Example: A child born to English-speaking parents but raised by French-speaking adoptive parents will naturally learn French, not English.
Human language works on two levels. We combine meaningless sounds (phonemes) to create meaningful units (words) and then combine those words to create sentences. This two-level structure allows us to create an enormous range of meanings from a small set of sounds.
Example: The sounds 'c', 'a' and 't' have no meaning individually, but combined they form "cat". We can then use "cat" in countless sentences.
While animals can communicate effectively, their systems lack some or all of the properties that make human language so powerful. Understanding these differences helps us appreciate the uniqueness of human communication.
Some great apes taught sign language show limited abilities with displacement and productivity, but still don't fully master all five properties of human language.
Displacement is perhaps the most powerful property of human language. It allows us to break free from the constraints of the immediate environment and discuss things that aren't physically present.
With displacement, we can:
Most animal communication is limited to the here and now. A bee's waggle dance can indicate the direction of food, but bees can't discuss yesterday's food source or plan next week's foraging strategy.
Koko was a gorilla who learned over 1,000 signs in American Sign Language and could understand about 2,000 words of spoken English. While impressive, researchers debate whether Koko truly demonstrated all properties of human language. She showed some ability with displacement (could discuss past events) and productivity (could combine signs in new ways), but her communication still lacked the full complexity of human language. This case highlights both the similarities and differences between human and animal communication.
The arbitrary relationship between words and their meanings allows language to be flexible and evolve over time. It also explains why different languages can use completely different sounds to refer to the same objects or concepts.
While most words are arbitrary, there are some exceptions:
The productivity of human language allows us to express new ideas and respond to new situations. We can create sentences that have never been said before and still be understood.
Our ability to create new sentences comes from our knowledge of grammar rules. These rules allow us to combine words in meaningful ways, even if we've never heard that particular combination before.
For example, if you know the rules of English grammar, you can understand the sentence "The purple elephant danced gracefully across the digital keyboard while solving complex equations" even though you've likely never heard it before.
Animal communication systems typically have a fixed set of signals with specific meanings. A vervet monkey's alarm call for "eagle" always means the same thing - it can't be combined with other calls to create new meanings.
Unlike many animal behaviours that are instinctive, human language must be learned through exposure to other language users. This is why children raised in different cultures learn different languages.
Research suggests there is a "critical period" for language acquisition, typically from birth to puberty. During this time, children can learn language naturally and effortlessly. After this period, learning a new language becomes more difficult.
This was tragically demonstrated in cases of extreme isolation, such as "Genie," a girl who was discovered at age 13 after being kept in isolation with minimal human interaction. Despite intensive therapy, she never fully acquired language, supporting the critical period hypothesis.
The two-level structure of human language allows us to create an enormous range of meanings from a small set of sounds.
English uses about 44 phonemes (sound units) that have no meaning on their own. These can be combined to form thousands of morphemes (meaningful units like words). Those words can then be combined using grammar rules to create an infinite number of sentences.
This two-level structure makes language incredibly efficient. If each meaning needed its own unique signal (as in many animal communication systems), we would need thousands of different sounds, which would be impossible to produce and distinguish.
Understanding the properties of human language has practical applications in fields like artificial intelligence, language teaching, speech therapy and translation services. For example, AI language models like chatbots are designed to mimic these properties of human language, particularly productivity and displacement, allowing them to generate new sentences and discuss topics not limited to the immediate context.
Log in to track your progress and mark lessons as complete!
Login NowDon't have an account? Sign up here.