There are several properties to human language that effectively combine to form human communication. While there are many properties, there are six main elements, including: displacement, productivity, discreteness, arbitrariness, duality, and cultural transmission (Fromkin et al., 2011). The combination of these properties separates how we communicate as humans, compared to other species; who unlike us lack the ability to perform certain properties. While other species are able to demonstrate a few of these characteristics, there is a barrier from the use of all of the properties. For some of these reasons, properties demonstrate that humans are the furthest progressed species, regarding how we communicate.

Displacement:

Displacement is the ability to describe past, present and future events that are not always being directly experienced (Yule, 2005). This means that anything not immediately present can also be expressed through language. For example, we are able to talk about what we learned in previous classes. We are also able to refer to future events; For example, upcoming Christmas plans. Being able to use displacement to describe past, present and future events requires a species to retain and encode information, to retrieve it at another time.

Although Displacement is commonly used in human language, it’s rare and harder to acknowledge in other species. In an example used by Yule (2005), he compared how animals make grunts and noises to express only the present. He explained that a dog “GRR’s” specifically represent the present, rather than past or future thoughts. In comparison, Cuccio et al. (2015) argued that displacement gestures predict expression in complex forms of negation. The results of this study support this hypothesis, and also found that displacement gestures, even in preverbal infants, are symbolic to human language (Cuccio et al., 2015). In conclusion, this study further found that displacement is foundational to negation, and signal displacement shows the manifestation of negative structures (Cuccio et al., 2015).

Productivity:

Productivity or creativeness is the formation and use of new terms, sentences and vocabulary (Aitchison, 2007). While this property is frequently used in human language, it is rare in most other species. For example, during a PBS documentary, there was an instance that a gorilla named KoKo was able to create a new term, “finger bracelet”, to describe a ring. She was able to sign the two words previously learned words (finger and bracelet) to create a new name for a foreign object. This information shows that primates may have potentially have the ability to use some creativeness of language.

From a different view, Yule (2005) argued that the reason primates are limited to productivity, is due to fixed reference: a property in which signals are fixed to relate to a certain object or association (Yule, 2005). For example, certain primate calls are used when a predator is nearby. Depending on the threat, a specific verbal call is used to warn nearby primates. Yule (2005), explains how the CHUTTER call that is used to inform other primates that a snake it nearby and suggests they move, typically upward. While this also proves, cultural transmission (a property later addressed), it also shows some use of productivity. Yule (2005) argues that the reason productivity is expressed but limited, is because regardless of where the snake is the call remains the same. In this situation, no new calls are created to differentiate between a snake in the air and a snake on the ground, which ultimately lacks productivity. A human in this situation would have the language ability to use a new sentence or term to warn another, for example saying “Protect yourself from that snake on the ground!”

Based on this information, although primates may exhibit the use of productivity, compared to humans they lack their own an advanced language. This information is especially interesting because based on the research on Koko, the use of human sign language may allow primates to further posses this property.

Discreteness:

Discreteness is being able to differentiate between similar categories. Discreetness means that language is made of discrete units that can be exchanged, to create change in a signals meaning. An example of this is being able to understand certain letters or sounds although they are pronounced and spoken differently. Factors of Discreetness can include the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters, speech pitches, and loudness (Hockett, 1960).

Primates for example, show some discreteness during warning calls. These calls can be extremely similar, and have their own meaning. This property may be common in birds and limited animal species, however it is harder to find, as it is mostly common in human communication.

Arbitrariness:

Arbitrariness is the lack of relation between the form and the meaning of something (Aitchison, 2007). For example, the English word bag is used to describe a physical object that can store other objects while being carried. In other languages, Spanish for example, the word bag is replaced by the word bolso. While both bolso and bag mean the same thing, these words and its meaning have no relation. These terms are just simply used to represent an object, so humans can share a common meaning to address the object. Arbitrariness is helpful in language because it expands the flexibility of vocabulary (Aitchison, 2007). With this flexibility, new words are easy to create because there is no need to match the meaning and the form of a word. As a result, arbitrariness allows for endless options of new words.

Although most human language uses arbitrariness, there are a few exceptions. Considering that sign language uses gestures that represents and relates to the meaning of certain words, arbitrariness can apply less during this form of communication. Another exception of arbitrariness in human language is the use of onomatopoeia: which is the use of a word used to intimidate the sound associated with it’s meaning (Yule, 2005). An example of this would be using the word hiss to describe a snake.

To further examine arbitrariness, Monaghan et al. (2011) conducted a study to understand the advantages of this property and systematic mapping of word forms and meaning. The results of this study show, that arbitrariness and systematic mapping both create significant structure in vocabulary and other essential language learning functions (individual and categorization) (Monaghan et al., 2011).

Duality:

Duality is being able to use smaller units and elements to build meaning (Aitchison, 2007). This property can also be described as coding. There are two levels to this property of language, which includes units and elements. Elements are several distinct sounds at the second level, used to create distinct meanings or units, at the primary level (Yule, 2005). This duality process includes, combining certain elements/ letters to create meaningful units/ words (Yule, 2005). For example, the word mug has three sounds: the consonant ‘m’, the vowel ‘u’, and the consonant ‘g’. These elements together then forms the word or unit, mug. In this case, the combination of distinct sounds creates meaning while if they were not combined, these individual sounds would remain meaningless.

  Cultural transmission:

Cultural transmission is learning how to communicate and use language depending on the surrounding people and culture (Aitchison, 2007). This property allows humans to teach our languages to future generations. Although a specific language can be passed down, certain aspects of the language can vary depending on the social norms of the environment. As a result, the language in a certain community varies depending on its culture. This property shows that although human anatomy makes this possible, we do not inherit language similar to how we inherit genes: Instead we acquire it within culture (Yule, 2005). For example, an infant who was born in India but immediately adopted into an Untied States family, will speak the language of the adopted family rather than it’s birth mother. Essentially, how and what humans learn threw language depends on the environment.

While humans exhibit this property of language, most animals lack cultural transmission (Yule, 2005). Similar to their genetics, some animals inherit their language. For example, a dog will instinctively bark regardless of prior culture. Based on the dog’s anatomy, their form of verbal communication will not change.

Also in comparison to human cultural transmission, primates demonstrate some of this principle. Primates are not capable of using cultural transmission to the same extent as humans, however they are more equip than other animal species. For example, older primates have successfully learned some human sign language, representing the use of limited cultural transmission. Yang (2013) explained how Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee taught human sign language, was able to sign 125 ASL signs and thousands of ASL combinations. While Nim was able to learn a new form of language from another species/ culture, similar to human children’s speech, he lacked grammar (Yang, 2013). This study also noticed that young children are able to acquire new rules in a short time span, compared to primates who need long and extensive instruction. This primate and sign language research is particularly interesting because these primates also show similar language limitations as feral human children: who demonstrate that there is a critical period for humans in language acquisition. This further raises the question; like humans, are primates affected by a critical period resulting in less capability to exhibit cultural transmission of human language?

In a study conducted by Tomasello (2001), he studied cultural transmission in applicability to chimpanzees and human infants. The idea that human culture formed based on the evolution of primate social society is explained, to further validate the extent of primate social organization. However between different primate groups of the same species, Tomasello (2001) found that the flexibility of cultural transmission varies based on social terms. These results differentiate from the human infant outcomes; which suggest that unlike any other species humans have social-cognitive skills accumulated from cultural knowledge (Tomasello, 2001).

It is clear that cultural transmission is significant to human language, however it is also credible to infer that this property can be either influenced or restricted to some degree by genetic and cultural factors in other species.

References:

Aitchison, J. (2007). The Articulate Mammal: An introduction to Psycholinguistics (5) London: Routledge.

Cuccio, V., & Carapezza, M. (2015). Is displacement possible without language?   Evidence from preverbal infants and chimpanzees. Philosophical Psychology, 28(3), 369-386. doi:10.1080/09515089.2013.829648

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language (9), Boston: Massachusetts

Hockett, C. F. (1960). The origin of speech. Scientific American 203:89-96

Monaghan, P., Christiansen, M. H., & Fitneva, S. A. (2011). The arbitrariness of the sign: Learning advantages from the structure of the vocabulary. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: General, 140(3), 325-347. doi:10.1037/a0022924

Tomasello, M. (2001). Cultural transmission: A view from chimpanzees and human infants. Journal Of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 32(2), 135-146. doi:10.1177/0022022101032002002

Yang, C. (2013). Ontogeny and phylogeny of language. PNAS Proceeding Of The   National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America.110(16), 6324-6327. doi:10.1073/pnas.1216803110

Yule, G. (2005). The Study of Language (3), Cambridge: Cambridge University