animals and human language, Apuntes de Lingüística

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INTRODUCCIÓN A LAS

CIENCIAS LINGÜÍSTICAS

PARA ANGLISTAS

Dr. Juan Ramírez Arlandi

Animals and human language

Communicative vs. informative

• Communicative signals
• Informative signals

Communicative vs. informative

• Communicative signals ▫ Intention (new information) ▫ Sender’s choice ▫ Meaningful to the sender and (receiver) ▫ Lack of alternative

Communicative vs. informative

• Uninformative signals ▫ No new information

Unique properties (=design features)

• Charles Hockett

Unique properties (=design features)

• Sophistication is not enough
• Enormous difference

Unique properties (=design features)

• Displacement Feature of an utterance that allows it to refer to entities or events that are 'remote in time or space, or both, from the site of the communication.' ▫ Behaviourist conception of language and meaning

Unique properties (=design features) ▫ Behaviourist conception of language and meaning For behaviourists the correlation of linguistic expressions with events and objects outside the situation-of-utterance is a matter of secondary development.

Unique properties (=design features) ▫ Displacement

• Animal communication Þ humans (fairy creatures, Santa Claus ... - but
• bees Þ displacement?
• limited Þ the most recent food source

Unique properties (=design features)

• Arbitrariness

▫ Saussure established the relationship

between

signifier signified

Unique properties (=design features)

signifier signified

Unique properties (=design features)

• Arbitrariness

▫ Hockett contrasts arbitrariness with

iconicity which is defined as that

quality whereby any signal is

geometrically similar to what it means

or stands for.

Unique properties (=design features)

• Arbitrariness ▫ For the majority of animal signals, there does appear to be a clear connection between the conveyed message and the signal used to convey it. ▫ This impression we have of the non-arbitrariness of animal signaling may be closely connected to the fact that, for any animal, the set of signals used in communication is finite.