Human and Nonhuman Communication: A Comparative Analysis
Posted on May 6, 2024 in Greek
Common Features of Language and Nonhuman Communication
- Arbitrariness
- Productivity
- Interchangeability
- Displacement
- Specialization
- Cultural Transmission
Arbitrariness
- Definition: Absence of intrinsic relation between communication element (speech sound) and thing or event to which it refers (referent)
- Iconic Relationship: Existence of such a relationship between element (e.g. gesture) and its referent
- Importance: Utterance is not “married” to meaning, such as this gibbon’s warning call
Arbitrariness (Examples)
- Example [k], [æ], and [t] are not meaningful in and of themselves
- Meaning emerges when sounds are combined:
- [kæt] “cat” has one meaning (feline, the one who caught a mouse)
- [tæk] “tack” has another (small nail)
- [ækt] “act” has a third (dog and pony show)
- Even then, this string is language specific (English), not intrinsic
Arbitrariness (Across Languages)
- Evidence of Arbitrariness: Diverse Languages
- “ Cat” has different pronunciations in different languages
- Similarities are the product of common roots and/or diffusion from one language to another
Productivity (Definition)
- Productivity is the capacity for elements of communication system to be combined to form new meanings which the speaker and listener may never have learned before, yet understands perfectly
- Try this exercise: the top figure is a wug
- Now here are two of them
- There are two ____
- If your response was [w əgz] you produced an entirely new—and correct–utterance
Productivity: Jabberwocky Riddle
- From Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (see illustration}
- ‘ Twas brillig and the sllthy toves
- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
- Identify:
- The nouns
- The verbs
- The adjectives
Productivity: The Answers
- The nouns: surely the article the is a dead giveaway for toves and wabe
- The verbs: ‘ twas is poetic English for “ it was,” and the helping verb did uncovers gyre and gimble
- The adjectives: Doesn’t the –y ending of slithy suggest an adjective, similar to slimy ? And ’twas suggests brillig to be another one.
Productivity: Language Learning
- Language drills use the principle of productivity
- English: I am, you are. . .
- Spanish: Yo soy, tu eres. .
- Productivity simply involves taking a few elements (phonemes, morphemes, even syntax) and generate unlimited combinations of expressions
Productivity Among Other Species: Bee Dance
- When a scout bee has discovered a flower or other nectar source, she returns and tell the other bees where it is with a dance
- Their figure-eight tell the other bees the direction and distance of the pollen source
- The waggle of the tail also indicates the direction
- Amount of pollen brought back indicates pollen available there
- Productivity involves variations of speed of the dance, the amount brought back, and the waggle.
Interchangeability
- Definition: Use of same communication system to send and receive messages
- Illustrative Counterexample : Three-spined stickleback fish courtship (see diagram)
- Female elicits male response by presenting distended belly
- Male performs zigzag dance around female
- She follow him to nest
- Male point to nest on arrival
- Female enters nest, male rubs abdomen,
- She discharges eggs, and male fertilizes them with sperm
Displacement (Definition)
- Ability to refer to things and events not present, nonvisible, intangible, or nonexistent
- Not present: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
- Not visible: Termites in sealed mound
- Intangible: math equations, square roots
- Nonexistent: dragons, unicorns
Displacement (Importance)
- Ability to represent unseen parts of world
- Part of toolmaking ability : to conceive a design (above)
- Bee Dance
- Scouting bee gives information on non-present blossoms
- Direction of dance relative to sun: indicates direction of source
- Length of tail waggle: distance of source
- Other bees act on this information even though they cannot see the flower or blossom
Cultural Transmission
- Learning of an element of communication (speech sound, gestures)
- Bees and stickleback acquire behavior genetically
- Dogs learn by conditioning, do not pass learning on
- Chimpanzees do learn by imitation and pass it on: e.g., termite fishing.
Specialization
- Definition: Ability to transmit message with minimal physical effort
- Language is the most specialized of all communication systems
- Examples of unspecialized communication
- Chimpanzee displays
- Bee dance
- Stickleback courtship
Conclusion
- Language is the basis of culture
- Knowledge of linguistics is prerequisite to knowing how cultures function
- We have looked at the following:
- Descriptive Linguistics
- Language, Culture, and Society
- Comparative Human-nonhuman Communication
- One question remains: does culture condition language, or does language condition culture: the old chicken-egg question.
- There are many similarities between human and animal communication
