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Introduction to Language

The Features of Human Language(adapted from Hockett, Charles. 1960. The Origin of Speech; and 1966 The Problem of

Universals in Language and Kenneth Hyde: 1998)

Hockett isolated 13 features that characterize human language and whichdistinguish it from other communication systems. The following diagramgraphically represents each of the thirteen features. Each feature is numberedand listed below the diagram, along with a more developed discussion of thefeature.

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"The design-features listed below are found in every language on which we

have reliable information, and each seems to be lacking in at least one known

animal communicative system. They are not all logically independent, and do

not necessarily all belong to our defining list for language--a point to be taken

up separately..." (Hockett: 1966)

1. Vocal-auditory channel -- This means that the standard human languageoccurs as a vocal (making sounds with the mouth) type of communication

which is perceived by hearing it. There are obvious exceptions: writing andsign language are examples of communication in the manual-visual channel.However, the vast majority of human languages occur in the vocal-auditorychannel as their basic mode of expression. Writing is a secondary, andsomewhat marginal form of language, while sign languages are in limited use,mostly among deaf people who are limited in their ability to use the auditorypart 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 ina limited direction. For spoken language, the sound perpetuates as awaveform 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 byeveryone (assuming they are speaking loudly enough). However, the listenerhears the sound as coming from a particular direction and is notably better athearing sounds that are coming from in front of the them than from behindthem.

3. Rapid fading (transitoriness) -- This means that the human languagesignal does not persist over time. Speech waveforms fade rapidly and cannotbe 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 beused 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.

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4. Interchangeability -- This means that the speaker can both receive andbroadcast the same signal. This is distinctive from some animal

communications such as that of the sticklefish. The sticklefish make auditorysignals based on gender (basically, the males say "I'm a boy" and the femalessay "I'm a girl"). However, male fish cannot say "I'm a girl," although they canperceive it. Thus, sticklefish signals are not interchangeable.

5. Total feedback -- this means that the speaker can hear themself speakand can monitor their language performance as they go. This differs fromsome other simple communication systems, such as traffic signals. Trafficsigns 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 speechare specially adapted to that task. The human lips, tongue, throat, etc. havebeen specialized into speech apparati instead of being merely the eatingapparati they are in many other animals. Dogs, for example, are not physicallycapable of all of the speech sounds that humans produce, because they lackthe necessary specialized organs.

7. Semanticity -- This means that specific signals can be matched withspecific meanings. This is a fundamental aspect of all communicationsystems. For example, in French, the word selmeans a white, crystallinesubstance consisting of sodium and chlorine atoms. The same substance ismatched with the English word salt. Anyone speaker of these languages willrecognize that the signal selor salt refers to the substance sodium chloride.

8. Arbitrariness -- This means that there is no necessary connectionbetween 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 becalled a dogand not a chien or aperro or an anjing(all words for 'dog' in otherlanguages). Onomatopoeic words such as "meow" or "bark" are often cited ascounter-examples, based on the argument that they are pronounced like thesound they refer to. However, the similarity if very loose (a dog that actuallysaid "bark" would be very surprising) and does not always hold up acrosslanguages (Spanish dogs, for example, say "guau"). So, even onomatopoeic

words are, to some extent, arbitrary.

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9. Discreteness -- This means that the basic units of speech (such assounds) can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories. There is no

gradual, continuous shading from one sound to another in the linguisticssystem, although there may be a continuum in the real physical world. Thusspeakers will perceive a sound as eithera [p] ora [b], but not as blend, evenif physically it falls somewhere between the two sounds.

10. Displacement -- This means that the speaker can talk about things whichare not present, either spatially or temporally. For example, human languageallows 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 donot 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 theWind.

11. Productivity -- This means that human languages allow speakers tocreate novel, never-before-heard utterances that others can understand. Forexample, the sentence "The little lavender men who live in my socks drawer

told me that Elvis will come back from Mars on the 10th to do a benefitconcert for unemployed Pekingese dogs" is a novel and never-before-heardsentence (at least, I hope it is!), but any fluent speaker of English would beable to understand it (and realize that the speaker was not completely sane, inall probability).

In the Cartesian search for the single characteristic that sets man apart from animals, it

is often suggested that it is only man who has a mind or spirit. Lacking direct

evidence that animals lack a soul, Cartesians latched on to the one obvious external

trait that seems to separate men from beasts -- human language. By then treating

language as a unique indicator of the presence of soul, reason, or "mind", Cartesians

were able to erect a seemingly impenetrable barrier between the physical world ofbeasts and the spiritual world of man. By linking man directly to God in this way,

Descartes provided a solid philosophical foundation for the Catholic church, which

was under attack from all sides during the Reformation and Enlightenment.

Studies in the past century, stimulated by the work of Charles Darwin, have called

into question the Cartesian separation of man from beast. Ethologists have shown that

many animals, even insects, have a highly developed social system and sense of

reason combined with the capacity for different forms of communication. But can

these forms of communication be considered language?

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Charles Hockett helped clarify our discussions of the unique properties of human

language by listing thirteen design features that describe essential characteristics of

human language. Many of these design features represent characteristics of humanlanguage that fail to separate it out from animal communication. For example, the

design feature which involves use of the "vocal-auditory channel" does not

distinguish human language from the bird call. Birds also possess "total feedback"

and some song birds have "traditional transmission" in the form of local dialects.

However, to the delight of the Cartesians, there is at least one design feature,

displacement, which seems to serve as a clear separator between animal

communication and human language. ("Human Language and Animal

Communication" pg. 6,7 )

Displacement is the ability to refer objects, places, and events that are "not here" and

"not now". Because human language is capable of displacement, man is able to

transmit thoughts about things that cannot be directly perceived. It is true that bees

can refer to the presence of pollen at a distance and sometimes even around barriers

such as mountains. However, the dance of the honey bee tells the onlooker bees

exactly how to travel to reach the pollen source. We can call this procedural

displacement, but not referential displacement. Human language uses referential

displacement. First, we are able to refer to objects that are not physically present. We

can talk about "the camp stove" even when that camp stove is in a camp that is on the

other side of the hill. Second, we can locate objects in positions that we cannot see.

We can talk about "the pot on top of the camp stove" which then locates the pot by

referring to a position that is determined with reference to an object that we cannot

see. Third, we can refer to events that are not currently happening. So we can say that

"The water in the pot on top of the camp stove boiled over" and just be referring to

something we saw several hours ago. Or we can refer to events that might happen in

some possible world of the future when we say "The water in the pot on top of the

camp stove might boil over, if we turn up the gas too high." The honeybee, however,

cannot speak about where the best source of pollen was a week ago or where it might

be tomorrow.

There is virtually no limit to the freedom we can give to our imagination. Once weallow ourselves to refer to make-believe objects in make-believe locations in make-

believe worlds, the sky is the limit. We can talk about the marriage of coyote girl and

the moon or the combined forces of He-Man and the Care Bears in an attempt to save

the world. We can make up great and heroic stories about the adventures of the

Starship Enterprise and its interactions with Klingon warriors. Going still further, we

can get into stream of consciousness in movies like "Total Recall" or novels such as

"Ulysses" and produce strange references so bizarre that even the smartest English

professors can no longer figure out what is going on. Yes, human language may be

the distinguishing feature of the human mind and we owe it all to , you guessed it,

displacement.

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12. Traditional Transmission -- This means that human language is notsomething inborn. Although humans are probably born with an ability to do

language, they must learn, or acquire, their native language from otherspeakers. This is different from many animal communication systems wherethe animal is born knowing their entire system, e.g. bees are born knowinghow 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 languagecan be recombined in a systematic way to create new forms. This idea issimilar to Productivity (Feature 11). However, Productivity refers to the ability

to generate novel meanings, while Duality of patterning refers to the ability torecombine small units in different orders.

Hockett thinks this is the crucial feature. Duality of patterning involves the ability of

humans to combine patterns on two different levels. On the first level, they put

together different sounds or phonemes in a specified order to make a single

identifiable unit known as a word or morpheme. If one does not maintain the correct

order of sounds in a word, the meaning may be completely different as is the case

with the words cat, tack, and act. . On the second level, the words are combined into

sentences. If we did not have duality of patterning, the number of expressions we

could produce would be quite limited. Each word would have to be a single sound

unit. We might be able to produce perhaps 100 such units, but then the capacity of our

vocal apparatus to create new items would be used up. Duality allows us to continue

to create new words as needed. Because we can produce so many words, duality

provides a springboard for the other design feature of productivity and displacement.

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Homework

Your homework is in two parts, A & B. You must attempt both.

PART A:

Read: Hockett, C. (1968) The Origin of Speech IN. Scientific American, 203:88--

96.

Either by accessing this page

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/psychology/rmk/Readings/Hockett.pdf

which is the best way. You can save a copy onto a pen-drive or c:drive ( if you

are at home).

OR you can make a very poor photocopy from my very poor photocopy in the

office in the Victoria Building.

EXTRA BROWNIE POINTS (optional)

Read:Primate Calls,Human Language, and Nonverbal Communication [and

Comments and Reply] Robbins Burling; et al. IN Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No.

1. (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53.

Go to the University library page

Go to Electronic Resources, The Library online

Type in your e-proxy or Athens username/password (found in your university

e-mail in box, if this is a problem contact the library)

Click on core journal

Choose J-STORE
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/psychology/rmk/Readings/Hockett.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/itc/psychology/rmk/Readings/Hockett.pdf

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Cut and paste the titlePrimate Calls, Human Language, and Nonverbal

Communication [and Comments and Reply]

Download as High Quality PDF onto your pen-drives or c:drive (if from

home).

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Part B

Analysis and Academic Writing exercise:

1. Define and/or describe each of Hockett's 13 design features

and for each design feature, give an example of:-

2. one language or communication system that does exhibit the feature

3. one language or communication system that does not exhibit the feature

Extra (optional)

The values of some the 13 design features are dependent (linked) to others for either

practical or logical reasons.

For each design feature, list all other features whose values depend on the value of the

first feature.

Explain why you think the design features are linked.

When you have completed this e-mail the answers to me at [email protected]

by Monday night 10p.m.

I will reply by Tuesday.

Keep a copy on your pen-drive and computer.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

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Design Feature Definition/Description

Systemwithfeature

Systemwithoutfeature

Vocal/auditory

Tactile/visual

Chemical-olfactory

Link

Broadcast/Reception

Link

Rapidly Fading

Link

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Systemwithfeature


Interchangeability

Link

Total Feedback

Link

Specialization

Link

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Systemwithfeature


Semanticity

Link

Arbitrariness

Link

Discreetness

Link

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Systemwithfeature


Displacement

Link

Productivity

Link

TraditionalTransmission

Link

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Systemwithfeature


Duality of Patterning

Link

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