![]() ![]() The three design features below are found in all animal communication systems: Linguist Charles Hockett ( 1960) created a hierarchical list of characteristics, or design features, listing what aspects are found among all animal communication systems, as well as those unique to humans (the 14 below). Since language is so important to humans, linguists, those who study language, have long been interested in finding out what aspects of human language distinguish it from the communication systems of other animals. These specialized regions were crucial to language development as producing, processing, storing, and interpreting language requires a great deal of brain power ( Light, 2018 Rauschecker, 2019). Further, specialized regions in the brain, including Broca’s area in the left frontal lobe (near your left temple) that controls turning ideas into speech, and Wernicke’s area, in the left temporal lobe (behind your left ear), which controls auditory processing (understanding speech), enabled language. Additionally, humans have a rounder tongue and soft palate these changes would have allowed human ancestors to make more sounds than apes. Humans’ larynx (voice box) is lower in the throat than other animals. In addition to these two steps, the capacity for language also required changes in biology to be physically able to speak and having the auditory connections to process spoken language. ![]() The second change would require changes in the brain to produce these discrete forms of speech by controlling the ability to produce sounds. It’s thought that our ancestors began to produce new calls by blending old calls. ![]() It is generally agreed upon that there were two steps in the evolution of human language. Making tools was such an important aspect of our culture and survival that we needed to be able to pass down how to make those tools to our children and to other people ( James, 2018). The most recent research has put forth a hypothesis that we use language as a means to pass down information about how to make tools and that sort of hijacked our brain to specialize in processing information connected to language. Where did language come from? Estimates are that we acquired the ability to speak from about 200,000 to 50,000 years ago. When I see a large plant with branches, leaves, and a trunk, even if I have never seen that particular type of large plant before, my brain recognizes that as a “tree.” Origins and Acquisition of Human Language It’s how we express ourselves and how we organize the world. We say that language encodes our experience of the world because language is how we think. This means they are composed of words like “tree,” but also other forms of communication like body movements, emojis, and hand gestures, like those in American Sign Language used by American Deaf cultural communities. Languages are composed of verbal and verbal speech. The word “tree” does not resemble the object to which it refers, thus there is no reason why the letters T R E E communicate the concept of a large plant with a trunk. Using our tree example, there’s really no reason why the word “tree” represents a plant that grows from the ground that has branches and leaves and a large trunk. These symbols are arbitrary, meaning there is no obvious relationship between the symbol and what it represents. We use symbols to communicate our ideas and observations. For example, the word “tree” is a symbol that refers to the large plants with bark that grow from the ground with branches and leaves. A symbolis something that refers to something else. Language: arbitrary symbolic communication systems composed of both verbal and non-verbal speech used to encode one’s experience of the world that is shared with others.Īll language is symbolic. So, what is this aspect of humanity that makes us human? What is language? Language is so important to humans that our ears best hear the frequency of the human voice. The two concepts of language and culture are intwined in that we could not have culture without language and culture is passed down to the next generation through language. All humans have language or the capacity for language-along with culture, it’s what makes us different from all other animals. An impressive number when you consider there are only 143 countries. Recognize the influence of region, class, gender, and ethnicity on language.Īcross the world, there are approximately 6,000-7,000 languages.Understand the concept of linguistic relativity and the Boas-Jakobsen principle.Know how language influences perception and cognition.Describe the structural elements of language (phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics).Understand the evolution of the capacity for language in humans.Know about communication systems in animals as well as differences in human communication.By the end of this lesson, the student will:
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