Chapter 4: Key to Being Human

Key to Being Human

 

Self Portrait?

The job of the linguist, like that of the biologist or the botanist, is not to tell us how nature should behave, or what its creations should look like, but to describe those creations in all their messy glory and try to figure out what they can teach us about life, the world, and, especially in the case of linguistics, the workings of the human mind.

~Arika Okrent

Introduction

 

So far what has been analyzed is the evolution of language, but the various functions have yet to be explored. We know the niche construction theory explains how humans obtained language, and from this it is now necessary to explore how humans use language to form social relationships. In this section, a better understanding of the various design features of language will be explained. The design features of language distinguish human communication from that of animals, which therein identifies how language experiences are embedded in a rich and intricate social context. Through an understanding of these complex design features, one can see how the growth of human consciousness comes from an interaction with nature.

Hockett’s Design Features of Language

Charles F. Hockett outlines sixteen features that characterize human language and which distinguish human language from other animal communication systems. Even the most basic human languages contain all these features. It was Hockett’s belief that the first nine features are characteristics of communication held by all primates, and the last seven features are what set human language apart from all other forms of communication.

Vocal-Auditory Channel

This design feature refers to how spoken language is produced in the vocal tract and is transmitted and heard as sound. This is in contrast to sign language, which is produced with the hands, and transmitted by light. Also, writing is excluded, which is optical. Not all species produce sounds vocally, for example, crickets chirp by running their wings together. Also, not all species receive sounds auditorily, such as bees, which have no ears. The majority of human languages occur in the vocal-auditory channel as their basic mode of expression.[1] This is beneficial to the species because it leaves the rest of the body free to carry out other important activities.

Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception

This refers to the fact that the human language signal is sent out in all directions, while it is perceived in a limited direction (Hyde).To better understand this feature of language visualize a person standing in the middle of a room and people standing against the wall, forming a circle around him. As the person standing in the middle of the room speaks, his voice carries in all directions around the room, and everyone can hear him, assuming he speaks loud enough. However, the people standing in front of him will have an easier time understanding what he is saying in comparison to the people standing behind him. This has to do with binaural reception, which makes it possible to determine the location of the source of sounds (Salzmann, 33).

Rapid Fading

This language feature means the human language signal does not persist over time. The speech waveforms fade rapidly and cannot be heard after they have faded. This is why it is not possible to say “hello” and have someone hear it at a later point in time. Sounds can only be recreated at a later time through writing and audio-recording (Hyde).

Interchangeability

Interchangeability refers to the speaker’s ability to both receive and broadcast the same signal.

Total Feedback

Total feedback refers to an individual’s ability to hear and internalize a message he has sent.

Semanticity

Semanticitiy refers to the idea that speech sounds can be linked to specific meanings, a fundamental aspect of all communication systems.

Arbitrariness

This means there is not necessarily a connection between the form of the singnal and the thing being referred to.

 

Discreteness

This means the basic units of speech can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories.

 

Specialization

Speech is produced for communication, not for some other function.

 

Displacement

Once humans developed structural language, humans were able to think conceptually and abstractly; humans were no longer trapped in the here and now. One unique and positive design feature of language is displacement; “humans can talk about something that is far removed in time or space from the setting in which the communication occurs” (Salzmann, 35). For example, one can describe in great detail what happened on the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, even though this occurred more than 200 years ago. Humans also have the ability to talk about what they want to be doing twenty years from now, including where they wish to live or what job they want to have.

This powerful function of displacement allows for creativity and productivity. With the ability to think beyond the here and now, humans are able to create art. Art is an expression of a feeling or experience (abstract concepts) in such a way that the audience to whom the art is directed can share that feeling or experience.[2] Tolstoy gives the example of an encounter between a boy and a wolf: A boy experiences fear when he encounters a wolf. The boy then tells the story of his experience, infecting his hearers with details about “himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the wood, his own lightheartedness, and then the wolf’s appearance, the distance between himself and the wolf, and so forth” (Tolstoy, 122). This is a work of art because it allows one to imagine oneself in the same situation; the audience feels what the artist felt, even though ‘fear’ is an abstract concept. The work of art is intelligible and comprehensible; the art is communicated in a way in which anyone can understand its meaning. Through this communication, art fosters feelings of universality. Humanity depends on social harmony and understanding to function and live well, and art has the ability to unite people with one another.

 

Productivity

Productivity refers to the human ability to create new messages through the combination of already-existing signs.

 

Traditional Transmission

This feature identifies the fact that all languages are learned in social groups. Although, as previously understood from the discussion of Chomsky’s language theory, humans are probably born with an ability to create language, language is something that must be learned from others.

This is different from many animal communications where the animal is born knowing their entire system. For example, bees are born knowing how to dance, and some birds are born knowing their species particular bird-songs.

 

Duality of Patterning

Duality of patterning means that the discrete parts of a language can be recombined in a systematic way to create new forms. For example, the English word “cat” is composed of the sounds [k], [æ], and [t], which are meaningless when they stand alone. However, they can be combined to form different words, such as “act” and “tacit,” which have distinct meanings. These individual sounds we learned earlier are called phonemes, and represent the lowest level in the hierarchy of speech organization. We also have learned about the higher levels of organization, including morphology, syntax, and semantics, which all work to govern the combination of individual phonemes. The various patterning of these speech sounds allow for the expression of a potentially infinite number of meaningful language sequences.[3]

 

Prevarication

While the unique design features of language have their effectiveness, language also makes human communication and social relationships problematic. Another unique feature of language is prevarication; a person has the ability to say things that are completely false, a deception that is not common among other animals (Salzmann, 36). By the time children turn three-years-old, about 70% of them are capable of lying.[4] Then, by age four, their rate of lying will peak when they are told not to lie. Young children lie about their actions, but not about their feelings. At age ten, their lying is more sophisticated, and cheating becomes more common (Lying).

People lie mainly to dodge trouble, to make themselves look good, or to avoid discomfort to others; it is a means of preserving social relations. Think about the role of ‘white’ lies: people compliment friends or family members on their inedible cooking, praise colleagues’ weak and disorganized first drafts, and a doctor may tell a depressed patient he has a 50-50 chance of a long-term recovery when she is confident he will only live another eight months. While at times these lies may seem harmless, these situations are where one can see how language can change one’s life. Lying is morally wrong, and while perfect honesty may seem second best next to compassion, respect, and justice in certain situations, it must be remembered that, as Immanuel Kant states, all people are born with an “intrinsic worth.” Lying corrupts a human beings ability to make free, rational choices and lies rob others of their freedom to choose rationally; it robs people of their human dignity and autonomy. [5]

 

Reflexiveness

Reflexiveness refers to humanity’s ability to communicate about communication.

Learnability

Learnability refers to the ability for native speakers of one language to go out and learn how to speak another language.

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[1]Hyde, Kenneth. “The Features of Human Language.” N.p., 1998. Web. 22 July 2012. <http://people.exeter.ac.uk/bosthaus/Lecture/hockett1.htm&gt;. Further reference to this source in parenthesis (Hyde).

[2]  Tolstoy, L. What is Art. London: Penguin Books, 1995. Further reference to this text in parentheses (Tolstoy, p.#).

[3] Trask, Robert Lawrence. Language: The Basics. London: Routledge, 1999. Print. Further reference to this source in parentheses (Trask, pg.#)

[4] “Lying and Deception.” Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/OB/lying.html&gt;. Further reference to this source in parentheses (Lying).

[5] Mazur, Tim C. “Lying and Ethics.” Lying. Santa Clara University, 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2012. <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/lying.html&gt;. Further reference to this source in parentheses (Mazur).