ACCTG 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Glossolalia, Animal Communication, Arbitrariness
Document Summary
A lot of stories about animals that can talk. Is real communication really possible: communicative signals = humans: talking informative signals= e. g. appearence (unintentionally) Humans can use displacement to talk about things present not in the immediate environment. Is the relation between words and objects. No "natural" connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. Just a rare amount of words that echo a noise etc. Animals often have a finite amount of signals to use (sometimes there is a clear connection when they use them, sometimes not) Language is not inherited = humans (e. g. a kitten will always meow) We are all able to speak, but no explicit language. Animals produce their signals instinctively; humans don"t. Animals have a set of signals and are not able to invent new ones (e. g. bees: no word for up) => fixed reference. Limited set of sounds, but large number of sound combinations.
